Abstract
There are many types of leadership styles which can affect innovation. However, this study focused on servant leadership, where the purpose of this study was to examine the role of servant leadership on innovation through the mediating role of knowledge sharing in small and medium enterprises in Gamsah and New Dameitta in Egypt. Servant leaders are the leaders who aim mainly to serve their followers and their organisations. Knowledge sharing is essential to any organisation and it has two constructs; knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. Knowledge sharing is vital for leaders to achieve their organisations’ goals. Innovation is important for organisations to compete and gain stability in the markets. The study focused on examining the role of servant leadership on innovation and its two dimensions which are product innovation and process innovation. The study adopted the positivism philosophy and deductive approach and quantitative methods were used: a questionnaire was used to collect data from managers and leaders in small and medium enterprises in the region of the study. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) by Analysis of moment structures (AMOS 25) was used to examine the research hypotheses. The study examined the effect of servant leadership and its dimensions which are: character orientation, people orientation and task orientation on product innovation and process innovation. It also examined the relationship between servant leadership and its dimensions with knowledge sharing and its dimensions knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. The results of the study indicate that SL and KS are associated with innovation (INN) in SMEs. It is found that servant leadership and knowledge sharing have direct and positive impacts on both product innovation and process innovation. The study has contributed a model that conceptualises the relationship between servant leadership, knowledge sharing and innovation. The study also introduced many recommendations for the owners, managers and leaders of small and medium enterprises in Egypt about the servant leadership style, knowledge sharing and innovation. The study also highlighted some recommendations for future research.
Keywords
Innovation, Egypt, Knowledge sharing, Servant leadership
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Date
2021
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Elgenidi, A. (2021) The impact of servant leadership on innovation in small and medium enterprises in Egypt: the mediating role of knowledge sharing. Thesis. University of Plymouth. Retrieved from https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/pbs-theses/135
