Leadership as intellectual capital in expert communities of practice:
Stereotypes, archetypes and changing organisational demands

Dr Jillian de Araugo
Principal
Mentone Girls' Grammar School
and
Dr Neil E. Béchervaise
Adjunct Professor
Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship
Swinburne University of Technology

Key Words: Intellectual capital, Reputation capital, Leadership, Change Management, Governance, Not for profit, Communities of practice.

Abstract

The announcement of the new Chief Executive is almost inevitably a major pointer towards imminent organisational change and, the identity of the appointed CEO is invariably a significant indicator of the desired direction of the change. In a position of essential instability, the market value of the organisation is normally adjusted to meet public perceptions of the match between the incoming leader, the organisation's ability to meet the challenges of the proposed change and the value of the change to the principal stakeholders.

This paper explores the role of the CEO as a key component in assessing the intellectual capital of a not-for profit organisation operating within an aggressively competitive marketplace. It observes that governing boards select leaders on the basis of immediately perceived needs and that, having done so, they are seldom prepared for the successful implementation of the change they are seeking.

More importantly, it is argued, the success of a leader in initiating and then consolidating change depends more on their ability to change leadership style than to meet the immediate demands and expectations of either principal stakeholders or appointing boards.

This paper provides the compound lens of four archetypal leadership styles through which it examines the impact of change on the value of the organisation as it is perceived by the governing boards and the principal stakeholders of several not-for-profit SMEs in Australia.

In conclusion, the paper suggests a range of means for supporting the publicly perceived value of the organisation across leadership change and of supporting the leader as change implementation changes the demands on their leadership style.