Analyzing the Impact of Organizational Entrepreneurship on Transformational Leadership Style with Regard to the Mediating Role of Organizational Learning

Abstract
The current research was conducted to investigate the effect of transformational leadership style on organizational entrepreneurship by considering the mediating role of organizational learning. This research is of an applied type based on the purpose and is a descriptive survey in terms of nature and method. The statistical population included all the employees of the social security organization branches of Kermanshah province (n=436) people, of whom 205 people were selected using the random sampling method and Cochran formula. Data were collected by three standard questionnaires: transformational leadership by Bass and Avolio (2000), organizational entrepreneurship by Hill (1996), and organizational learning by Neefe (2001), whose validity was confirmed using the content validity method and whose reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. The structural equation modeling and SMART-PLS software were used to examine and test the research hypotheses. The findings indicated that transformational leadership has a positive and significant effect on organizational entrepreneurship and organizational learning at an error level of 0.05. Also, organizational learning had a positive and significant effect on organizational entrepreneurship. In addition, at the error level of 0.05, organizational learning had a mediating role in the effect of transformational leadership on organizational entrepreneurship. Therefore, the studied organization can provide suitable conditions for the emergence of creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial behaviors by using the transformational leadership style and organizational learning strategy.
Introduction
Organizations, as complex social systems, are an integral part of modern societies that operate with a set of interconnected units to achieve a goal. Meanwhile, the role of organizational leaders is very important in implementing organizational changes, i.e. influencing employees to do something new or behave differently. In this regard, one of the leadership styles that have been the subject of many studies during the last three decades is the transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership is an active leader who acts as an agent of change, raises the awareness of followers, and helps them achieve their goals. On the other hand, organizations rely on the innovative behaviors of employees to adapt to the changing environment to help them survive and maintain competitive advantages. In this regard, organizational learning is one of the main pillars for promoting innovation and sustainable organizational development. Organizational learning has been emphasized as a factor to improve the ability of organizations to face the effects of environmental changes. On the other hand, a new wave of change in societies, new technologies, and innovation has resulted in responsibility, survival, value, and organizational performance to adapt to new requirements. In order to fulfill their missions and goals, organizations must be innovative, active, and in other words, put organizational entrepreneurship on the agenda. Organizations need entrepreneurs and organizational entrepreneurship to adopt appropriate measures to overcome environmental challenges. Therefore, given the importance of the subject, the current research sought to find out whether the transformational leadership style could affect organizational entrepreneurship in the social security organization of Kermanshah province, considering the mediating role of organizational learning. Therefore, two main goals were pursued in this research, including determining the effect of four dimensions of transformational leadership style on organizational entrepreneurship and organizational learning and investigating the mediating role of organizational learning in transformational leadership and organizational learning.
Case study
The statistical population of this research included all employees of the insurance department of the social security organization branches of Kermanshah province, numbering 436 people in 2022. The samples were selected by stratified random sampling and calculated to be 205 people by Cochran's formula.
Materials and Methods
Data collection tools were three standard questionnaires of transformational leadership by Bass and Avolio (2000), organizational entrepreneurship by Hill (1996), and organizational learning by Neefe (2001). The validity and reliability of these questionnaires have been confirmed in previous researches. In this research, to ensure the validity of the questionnaire, the opinions and guidance of 5 management experts and professors were used and their views were included in the final questionnaires. Further, the reliability values of all questionnaires in this research were calculated to be 0.937, 0.893, and 0.918, respectively. The structural equation modeling method and Smart PLS³ software were used to investigate and test the research hypotheses.
Discussion and Results
The findings of the present research indicated that the transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on organizational entrepreneurship and can lead to the emergence of organizational entrepreneurial activities by the employees of the studied organization. Therefore, the transformational leadership style is a requirement for the survival and durability of today's organizations through the improvement of organizational entrepreneurial activities. Another finding of the current research was that transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on organizational learning. The confirmation of the third research hypothesis also indicated that organizational learning has a positive and significant effect on organizational entrepreneurship. Regarding the confirmation of the mediating role of organizational learning in the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational entrepreneurship, it can also be argued that transformational leaders can create an environment that causes organizational learning and thus institutionalize organizational entrepreneurship as a way for the organization to respond to the environmental requirements in their organization.
Conclusion
Given the confirmation of all the hypotheses formulated in this research, suggestions are presented based on these hypotheses for the studied organization and other similar organizations to use the results obtained. These suggestions include designing training programs to strengthen the creativity of employees and stimulate the intellectual abilities of employees in order to increase their innovative, creative, and ultimately entrepreneurial behaviors. Organizational managers are suggested to involve employees in expressing collective strategic views in order to motivate them to start innovative projects. The leader of the organization should talk to the employees about the basic beliefs and values of the organization and encourage the employees to learn in line with these goals.