The Impact of Leadership Style and Knowledge Sharing on Innovation in Iraqi Higher Education Institutions

Knowledge is an essential source for competitive advantage. The existence of knowledge and the encouragement of knowledge sharing (KS) cultures within learning environments will increase the quality of education and create opportunities for innovation. As universities are environments for creating knowledge, KS and leadership styles are important vehicles to enhance or impair Innovation through this knowledge environment. Higher education in Iraq, as many countries, is facing major challenges that require certain types of leadership styles. Education provision needs to maintain international standards in curricula, approaches, methods, and systems. Although there are many styles have been studied in the leadership area, the most important style that is effective in terms of knowledge sharing and innovation is transformational leadership. This paper aims to develop a conceptual model of the effect of transformational leadership (TL) on innovation through knowledge sharing (KS) in Iraqi higher education institutions. Interpretvisim approach was used through conducting interviews with 26 senior management and members of staff, in faculty of Economic and Administration in Iraq. The results show the need for KS within the faculty and the importance of TL on process innovation more than product innovation. This research consider an initial attempt to explore the impact of TL on innovation through mediating effect of KS within domain of higher education in the developing countries particularly in Arabic world.