Leadership style and organizational learning: the mediate effect of school vision

Purpose Fundamentally, the success of schools depends on first‐rate school leadership, on leaders reinforcing the teachers' willingness to adhere to the school's vision, creating a sense of purpose, binding them together and encouraging them to engage in continuous learning. Leadership, vision and organizational learning are considered to be the key to school improvement. However, systematic empirical evidence of a direct relationship between leadership, vision and organizational learning is limited. The present study aims to explore the influence of principals' leadership style on school organizational learning, using school vision as a mediator. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 1,474 teachers at 104 elementary schools in northern Israel, and aggregated to the school level. Findings Mediating regression analysis demonstrated that the school vision was a significant predictor of school organizational learning and functioned as a partial mediator only between principals' transformational leadership style and school organizational learning. Moreover, the principals' transformational leadership style predicted school organizational vision and school organizational learning processes. In other words, school vision, as shaped by the principal and the staff, is a powerful motivator of the process of organizational learning in school. Research implications/limitations The research results have implications for the guidance of leadership practice, training, appraisal and professional development. Originality/value The paper explores the centrality of school vision and its effects on the achievement of the school's aims by means of organizational learning processes.