Intellectual Capital and Transformational Leadership Style: a Case Study in Iran Telecommunication's SME

As intellectual capital is increasingly becoming important, organizations need a special form of leadership that has been compatible with strong abilities and skills, and establish commitment to lifelong learning. Appropriate leadership is requires for intellectual capital (IC) development; however, there has been little empirical analysis of the theoretical relationships among organizational capitals and leadership styles. This article examines the relation between level of intellectual capital (IC) and leadership styles in SME's of telecommunication industry. A survey of 159 managers from telecommunication industry was undertaken using the four IC categories scale and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Based on the results, a significant positive relationship was found between the four-category IC model and transformational leadership. Also human capital and End-customer relationship capital were as a direct factor of transformational leadership. Further, analysis revealed that IC has a negative relation with laissez-fair leadership. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

Intellectual Capital , Knowledge Workers , Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) , Transformational Leadership