Cognitively Complex Leaders: How Principals Influence Organizational Learning Through Climate for Innovation

Using an information-processing approach, the current innovative study examines a model for the prediction of organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs), linking school principals’ cognitive complexity and OLMs through the mediating effect of an innovative climate. The model was examined for three levels of principals’ cognitive complexity (high, intermediate, and low). Study participants were 131 principals and 1,279 teachers from 131 elementary schools in Israel. Results indicated that principals’ cognitive complexity promotes organizational learning mechanisms through a climate for innovation. The model with a high level of cognitive complexity showed a better fit to the data than those with intermediate (average) and low levels of cognitive complexity.