Managing Intellectual Capital Through Strategic Leadership: A Complementary Approach

Since organizations are facing a turbulent, dynamic and competitive business environment, a novel kind of leadership style i.e. strategic leadership is needed. In the twenty-first century, the required leadership for organizations is concerned with establishing organizations’ capabilities and resources with a focus on intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is defined as the organization’s intangible assets (employees’ expertise and organization’s processes) which play significant role to enhance the organization’s performance. Intellectual capital is a major contributor to achieve a competitive benefit for any organization. Leaders should ‘strategically’ manage these vital assets for organizations such that these augment and expedite the organization’s efforts to achieve overall strategic-fit and sustained competitive advantage. The strategic development and management of these assets include assessing available assets and bringing shifts like acquiring/building and removing intellectual assets that expedite firm strategy implementation and obtain strategic advantages. To establish value, the assets should be designed to build aptitudes that are perhaps leveraged for competitive benefits. Keeping this backdrop in view, the element of strategic leadership which will be defined in this chapter is novel. This novel kind of approach to leadership has vital implications for management practitioners and researchers. Moreover, this chapter also sheds light on current advancements in the subject domain and proposes a strategic management-intellectual capital grid to discuss the complementary role of leadership on how strategic leaders exploit intellectual capital to maximize value.Please check and confirm if the author names and initials are correct.Names and initials are OK.