Examination of the relationships among leadership styles, organizational culture and knowledge management practices

Abstract

Recently, the relationships between leadership behaviors and knowledge management have been the focus of much attention and as such have become a 'foundation stone' of endeavors to improve organizational performance. However, there is the lack of attention to the impact of organizational culture on such relationships. Addressing this research gap, this paper utilizes an exploratory research designed to examine how leadership behavior relates to knowledge management practices, and to determine whether organizational culture moderates the relationship between leadership style and knowledge management in Australian small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Surveys were distributed to 1,000 SMEs, and a total of 157 valid responses were received. Statistical analysis reveals that only transformational leadership behaviors are positively related to knowledge management practices; and the moderating effect of organizational culture was found to be statistically insignificant.