Enhancing Knowledge Sharing Through Transactional Leadership in an Emerging Economy: The Strategic Role of Human Capital

Sharing is an important part of an organization’s culture, consisting of learning, innovation, and performance through the promotion of expertise, ideas, and best practices among employees. This study aimed to analyze the relationships between transactional leadership, human capital, and knowledge sharing. This study used a quantitative approach by using 355 responses from employees who work at customs offices throughout Sulaymaniyah Governorate, located in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. PLS (SEM) was used as a method of estimation in the study to test the hypotheses. The findings show that although transactional leadership greatly improves the development of human capital, it does not directly affect knowledge sharing. Moreover, knowledge and experience engaging in activities involving knowledge sharing and participating in human capital are quite important. The findings also show that the increase in human capital corresponds to the degree of effectiveness of leadership in knowledge management. Therefore, the findings provide practical implications for companies to increase employee capacities by improving transactional leadership within organizations.