Do Leaders Really Matter in Knowledge Management Practices? Case of Serbian Companies

The purpose of this study is to explore whether the leadership change consequently imposes further changes in knowledge management (KM) practices, as well as to reveal which KM practices are affected by this strategic change. Namely, a theorized ten-fold conceptualization of KM practices has been tested on a sample of 101 Serbian companies employing more than 100 employees each. The main findings demonstrate that leadership changes affect some elements of KM leadership, HRM practices in recruitment, training and development, and compensation. Furthermore, findings depict that leadership changes have a profound influence on knowledge-friendly organizational culture and knowledge sharing between mid-level management and employees. Finally, the results show that the leadership change in Serbian companies affects sales growth rate. The companies that experienced this change had negative sales growth rate contrary to the companies without this strategic change.