European Business & Management 2015; 1(1): 1-6 Published online May 8, 2015 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ebm) doi: 10.11648/j.ebm.20150101.11 Does the Tail Wag the Dog, or Brilliance and Stagnation of a Knowledge Intensive Organization (Case Study) Habil Andrea Bencsik 1 , Sarka Zapletalova 2 1 J. Selyeho University, Department of Management, Komarno, Slovakia; Budapest Business School Zalaegerszeg, Faculty of Economics, Department of Management, Hungary 2 Moravian University College, Department of Management and Marketing, Olomouc, Czech Republic Email address: bencsik.andrea@yahoo.com (A. Bencsik), szapletalova@hotmail.com (Š. Zapletalova) To cite this article: Habil Andrea Bencsik, Sarka Zapletalova. Does the Tail Wag the Dog, or Brilliance and Stagnation of a Knowledge Intensive Organization (Case Study). European Business & Management. Vol. 1, No. 1, 2015, pp. 1-6. doi: 10.11648/j.ebm.20150101.11 Abstract: The undermentioned case study shows processes in connection with a leader change in a higher educational institute, in a Middle- East – European country. The study highlights the consequences and the probably pitiable outcomes of these processes. The lifelike conditions of this case study confirm the well-known establishments which are continuously communicated by the management theory to practice. Namely, what damages are caused by an incorrect leader election process which is not looked over enough, an incompetent leadership and its methods, the inappropriately handled change and knowledge management processes or their deficiencies. In connection with the case study the leaders of companies and institutes can recognize pitfalls which can be put down to the account of their own unpreparedness and of their employees’ misinterpreted behaviour. Leaders sometimes interpret their employees’ collective behaviour badly and as a result of this community formation can be a ’mass effect’ where key persons influence other colleagues’ opinion. The case study is a wholesome story from some additional perspectives as well. For example, the cultural effects which are deeply rooted in the historical past of a community or in a country. The effects mentioned do not allow a rational change management and the misinterpreted managerial functions and roles mislead the destiny of an institute. Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Intensive Organization, Case Study, Organizational Culture, Change Management 1. Introduction Preliminaries and the background of this case This higher educational institute had prospered in the most developing region of an East - Middle – European country, as a college, with more decennial experience in engineer students’ teaching. About 10 years ago the influences of the economic policy forced the institute to become a university. In the background of the economic force a relatively influential factor must be mentioned which is the settlement of a famous multinational company. The company needed to employ young people who were educated in domestic institutes, especially on technical areas. The connection between this company and the university could be featured as careful and mutual first experiences with each other. In the process of becoming a university, new faculties, courses and teaching areas appeared. Those new sciences were important from the point of view of the institute, but the company was not interested in those new areas. The dynamic development was characterised by a bit temperate, but balanced connection where engineering science was preferred and the company formed its own departments and its own special teaching programs which made the education system more colourful. New demands and ideas formed the students’ way of thinking and the educational profile became more and more specialized, though got closer and closer to the requirements of the company. The process of becoming a university, the new educational areas showed a picture of a prospering and developing institute to the outside world. The university was able to attract a lot of well-educated research workers, professors, who supported and led the university to success. The past 10 years have brought successes, strengthening assistance of the company, at the same time increasing intervention into economic policy for the leaders of the university. The balance was upset, the elderly CEO lost its bargain position, and the company gained more and more emphatic role in the life of the university. The lost balance meant not only the expansion of the demands of the company, but parallel with them the decreasing level of the pecuniary assistance as well. (The readers should know about the culture