Leadership in Knowledge Intensive Organizations
Chapter from the book:
Durmuş,
G.
(ed.)
2024.
Research on Leadership Dynamics II.
Synopsis
Today's societies have much easier and faster access to knowledge than those of the past. Moreover, this access is independent of time and space. Knowledge is also the basis of development. Mankind has achieved progress by making new discoveries on the basis of existing knowledge. With the new knowledge produced or obtained, social life becomes easier, new technologies are developed, health systems improve, and prosperity increases. Today's developed and leading societies, which are aware of the importance of knowledge, are called knowledge societies. The main mechanism that such societies use to produce new knowledge is organisations that focus on the creation of new knowledge. These organisations, known as knowledge-intensive organisations, are the most basic mechanism that drives the production of new knowledge in many sectors such as health, agriculture, energy, education, technology, finance and transport. But how is new knowledge generated in these organisations? The answer lies in the bright minds of knowledge intensive organisations. These individuals, known as knowledge workers, contribute to the production of new knowledge by solving complex problems in interaction with other knowledge workers. They do this especially by using the tacit knowledge that they possess as a result of their knowledge, skills and experience. This study focuses on knowledge intensive organisations, the exclusive organisations of today's knowledge societies, and aims to explore in depth the dynamics of leadership in these post-bureaucracies that have left modernity behind. It also identifies the leadership skills expected of managers in knowledge-intensive contexts and provides a theoretical framework by discussing the evolution of leadership in the favoured institutions of the postmodern era.