Authors : Hussain K. Hussain, Noraini Abu talib and Ishak Mad Shah
Abstract: Leadership plays important role in the stimulation of creativity among employees and in the establishment of an innovative organizational environment. This is especially true in the context of higher education. The higher education sector of any country acts as a backbone for that country as it provides a skilled human resource. In Iraq, higher education faces many challenges including brain drain in the sector. In the academic context, leadership plays a critical role in the achievement of success. The academic leadership of a higher education institution more specifically, the transformational leadership is responsible for enhancing job satisfaction of employees by adopting policies and creating a culture that fosters employee satisfaction and innovation. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of transformational leadership on organizational innovation in Iraq universities when job satisfaction is the mediator. The population for this study consisted of academic staff from 10 public universities distributed throughout Iraq. The sample consisted of 280 academic staff members selected through the random sampling technique. SPSS was used to analyze the data. The results show, there are significant impacts of the transformational leadership on both organizational innovation and job satisfaction. In addition, transformational leadership plays an important role in determining job satisfaction and innovation within the organization. The results suggest that leaders should consider matching both leadership behaviors based on the individual situation of the employee. Thus, the study contributes to the existing pool of knowledge on the impact of transformation leadership on job satisfaction and organizational innovation. Different aspects of these variables were tested, so as to provide a wider and more comprehensive understanding of the factors that affect public universities in the Iraqi higher education sector.
Hussain K. Hussain, Noraini Abu talib and Ishak Mad Shah, 2015. The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Innovation in Iraqi Higher Education. International Business Management, 9: 1274-1280.