Knowledge leadership: Mobilizing management research by becoming the knowledge object

Abstract

This article explores contrasting forms of 'knowledge leadership' in mobilising management research into organizational practice. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective on powerknowledge, we introduce three axes of power-knowledge relations, through which we analyse knowledge leadership practices. We present empirical case study data focused on 'polar cases' of managers engaged in mobilising management research in six research-intensive organizations in the UK healthcare sector. We find that knowledge leadership involves agentic practices through which managers strive to actively become the knowledge object -personally transposing, appropriating or contending management research. This article contributes to the literature by advancing the concept of knowledge leadership in the work of mobilising management research into organizational practice.

Leadership development in Higher Education: A literature review and implications for programme redesign

“…To increase the theoretical and practical connectedness of the literature, we suggest an alternative theoretical perspective that views HEIs as knowledge organisations and academics as knowledge workers. This perspective relates to literature in organisational studies on the knowledge‐based sector, involving management consulting firms, law firms, think tanks, universities, governments and other knowledge‐intensive settings (Fischer et al, ). HEIs are here a talent management business whose knowledge workers are mobile and hard to control: the nature of their work is hard to specify and monitor; they operate with broad autonomy and discretion (including leaving organisations if they are unhappy); and they dislike being directly led (Alvesson, ; Goffee & Jones, ).…”

Managing Modern Healthcare

“…However, despite a good deal of research that looks in depth at healthcare managers, it is only comparatively recently that we have begun to explore how managers access management knowledge, how they interpret and make sense of it and how they apply or adapt it in their own healthcare settings Fischer et al, 2015). A renewed interest in how healthcare organizations manage or mobilize knowledge has developed in recent years in the wake of debates about the value of 'evidence-based medicine' (EBM) and the corresponding relevance of 'evidence-based management' (EBMgt) (Walshe and Rundall, 2001;Pfeffer and Sutton, 2006).…”

“…Indeed, the well-researched 'translation gap' that exists in understanding how clinical knowledge developed through research is translated into clinical practice (e.g. Eccles et al, 2009) is paralleled by another, less widely explored translation gap that pertains to problems in the diffusion of management thinking into and through healthcare management practice (Nicolini et al, 2008;Ferlie et al, , 2015Fischer et al, 2015).…”

“…This in turn raises important questions about the kinds of things managers ought to know, where this knowledge ought to come from, and how best its translation into the variegated operational front-line of service delivery ought to be achieved. When the policies of governments and organizations emphasize the importance of 'cutting edge' managerial thinking, there is an assumed equivocality of meaning, not only of the kind of knowledge required but of its effective transmission to practice (Ferlie et al, 2015;Fischer et al, 2015). Similarly, there is a tendency within offi cial guidance to homogenize both 'management' and the institutional context of the health systems within which they operate.…”

“…For some time, healthcare management has been perceived as lagging behind developments in management practice. This negative profi ling of middle management work in the NHS has meant, among other things, greater emphasis being placed on the need for healthcare managers to mobilize 'leading-edge' management thinking more effectively (Pollitt, 2013;Fischer et al, 2015). In turn, this has led to much closer examination of the underpinning knowledge base of managerial work in healthcare, as well as the factors enabling and inhibiting the mobilization and exploitation of different forms of management knowledge.…”