Abstract:

Creating, applying and sharing knowledge, constitute great importance for organizations in today’s global business environment. In a business environment, in which competition is penetrated, managing and sharing knowledge properly within the organization is one of the requisiteness of making effective and sustainable innovations in order not to fall behind in the market. Thus, it can be assured that employees’ sense of belonging to the organization is not destroyed and their organizational commitment is accrued. Correspondingly, in the event of employee turnover it can be assured that they will not trespass on the knowledge that they have previously acquired from the organization. Furthermore, in the event of necessary changes within the organization, employees’ possible resistance can also be overcame. In this sense, knowledge management appears to be one of the most important qualifications of a leader and it can easily be observed that the leadership style a leader holds has divergent effects on organizational performance along with knowledge management. There are a number of studies about leadership decision-making styles and knowledge sharing within the organization, in both Turkish and international literature (Vroom, 1988; Davenport, 1996; Grogh, 1996; Gurteen, 1999; Öztürk, 2005). The purpose of this study is to reveal which of the three different decision-making styles, defined as  “autocratic”, “democratic” and  “sharing”, are adopted and applied by the leaders, employees’ attitude towards knowledge sharing in accordance with the leader’s leadership style and the effects of the mentioned styles on organizational performance. In this sense, Fiedler’s Contingency Theory and Vroom Jago Decision-Making Model of Leadership are used as baseline. The research is conducted in organizations that are active in textile sector, in city of Bursa. According to the results, there is a statistically significant relationship between leadership decision making models and employees’ knowledge sharing within the organization.

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