The mutual impact of university president’s leadership and organizational justice on knowledge sharing: the mediating effect of communication

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the mediating effect of organizational communication in the relationships among transformational leadership, organizational justice and knowledge sharing within the higher education setting in South Korea. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 321 university employees, including 151 faculty members and 170 administrative staff members, from a representative private university, participated in the survey as part of a consulting project for university innovation. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was mainly used for data analysis to identify the structural relationship among the research variables. Findings The results of this study confirmed that transformational leadership positively influences organizational justice and knowledge sharing. However, the influence of organizational justice on knowledge sharing was not statistically significant. The mediating effect of organizational communication among those relationships to increase the members’ knowledge sharing behavior was statistically significant. Originality/value In this study, holistic aspects of the organization, including leadership, organizational culture and organizational strategy, were examined for encouraging employees’ knowledge sharing behavior while an organization undergoes innovational changes. More practically, this study suggested that organizational communication could be used as one of the critical strategies in the process of university innovation.