Learning culture, trust culture and knowledge application: the mediating effect of transformational leadership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of learning culture, culture of trust and transformational leadership in the application of knowledge in a school context. Mediation analysis is used to quantify the effects that the learning culture and trust culture have on the application of leadership, mediated by transformational leadership. Design/methodology/approach The method involves two samples of subjects - school managers and teaching staff - of 17 educational organizations. This study used the method of partial least square or PLS with SmartPLS v. 3.2.6. Findings The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of leadership in the application of knowledge as one phase of knowledge management. The results of this study explain that: there is a significant and direct role of learning culture in the application of knowledge, there is a significant direct role of culture of trust in the application of knowledge and there is a significant mediating effect of leadership among learning cultures and application of knowledge. Practical implications This study has proven that leadership behaves as a mediating instrument. This situation is critical in organizations because it makes it possible to obtain synergies in human capital and the development of knowledge. Bernard Bass believes that there are four main factors of transformational leadership, namely, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized considerations and intellectual stimulation. Originality/value This study deepens the authors' understanding of enablers that affect the application of knowledge in schools, specifically about leadership.