Abstract:
The changing nature of the psychological contract between employer and employee has brought new challenges
to leaders of organizations in the knowledge era. A major challenge for leadership now is what form of
psychological contract will motivate people to share the knowledge held in the heads of knowledge workers,
which is mostly tacit? Related to this is the setting up of an environment in an organization to facilitate
knowledge transfer. It has been mentioned that in an age where organizations have become flat, networked and
amorphous, leadership is actually distributed according to the circumstances. So setting up effective practices to
develop many leaders is also an issue for organizations.
Long before industries caught up with the idea of knowledge as a resource, Universities had been in the business
of managing knowledge. They provided an appropriate environment to facilitate creation, sharing and
dissemination of knowledge based on collaboration and trust, and public recognition as a currency of exchange
for using other people’s knowledge. This may lead us to believe that the academic model of leadership is
applicable to industry. The general management of academics and staff at the University seems to be catching
up with the commercial world these days. Therefore it is futile to look for a new leadership model for the
knowledge age in the University governance area. Could mentoring, coaching and the use of reflective practice,
used successfully in the supervision of research in the University, provide clues to a model for leadership and
leadership development that can be applied in industry in the knowledge age?
