From Vision to Knowledge Flow: How Transformational Leadership Fosters Knowledge Sharing in the Polish Film Industry

Abstract

This study examines how transformational leadership fosters knowledge sharing in the Polish film industry, focusing on the mechanisms through which trust-based relationships, mentoring practices, and adaptive responses to disruption shape knowledge flows in film production teams. The research is grounded in the transformational leadership framework of Bass and Riggio (2006) and integrates Nonaka’s (1994) distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge with project-based organization research and developmental network theory. The methodology comprises eleven semi-structured interviews with film producers selected through purposive sampling from the membership directory of the Krajowa Izba Producentów Audiowizualnych (KIPA), and analysed through three-stage grounded coding, yielding 221 first-order codes and 18 second-order categories. The findings show that transformational leadership in film production is enacted primarily through relational mechanisms — role modelling, reputational sanctioning, vision-based partner selection, and leader presence — which form the foundation for knowledge sharing in long-cycle creative projects. Mentoring operates predominantly outside formal pathways and relies on distributed developmental networks and situated learning, while leadership behaviours adapt to technological disruption and project-based uncertainty. The study contributes to transformational leadership theory by extending its application to project-based creative industries and to the knowledge sharing literature by clarifying the conditions under which trust and adaptive leadership facilitate knowledge exchange.