Robert G. Isaac

Intellectual capital management: pathways to wealth creation

Purpose – The management of intellectual capital (IC) within organizations depends on appropriate organizational structures and characteristics. This paper seeks to argue that certain structural, cultural, and climate characteristics will lead to more effective IC management.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the theoretical and empirical IC literature, as well as the literatures regarding organic environments, trust, participative decision making, and creative renewal processes, to develop a model relating to the antecedent conditions necessary for the management of IC.Findings – The model developed will assist researchers in the identification and exploration of variables linked to the effective management of IC within organizations.Practical implications – It is concluded that managers of organizations need to create organic structures, build trust with employees, encourage creative renewal, and develop participative decision‐making processes.Originality/value – By integrating several fiel...

Organizational culture, climate and IC: an interaction analysis

Purpose – This study aims to empirically investigate the role of organizational culture and climate in supporting intellectual capital (IC) management systems. Specifically, it seeks to investigate the relationship between organizational characteristics (culture and climate) and IC management systems in the Middle East (Iran and Lebanon) and Canada.Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered via a survey instrument and statistical analysis was used to test for significance between dependent and independent variables. Then a two‐stage hierarchical multiple regression was used to test for the nature and effects of country of origin as a moderating variable.Findings – The findings suggest that both culture and climate play significant roles in developing management systems for IC. In addition, for country, when organizational climate improves, Middle Eastern respondents perceived an even greater improvement in IC management systems compared to their Canadian counterparts.Originality/value – There is lim...

Management planning and control: Supporting knowledge‐intensive organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions for empirical validation regarding appropriate management planning and control systems (MPACS) in knowledge‐intensive organizations.Design/methodology/approach – The propositions were developed from interviews with members of a knowledge‐intensive virtual organization that is known for its innovative practices regarding intellectual capital (IC) development and surveys from low to middle range managers, using a semi‐structured questionnaire, from a variety of companies. Trends in responses permitted us to identify issues of importance in developing innovative MPACS for knowledge‐intensive companies.Findings – The paper proposes that two variables, the level of IC intensity and the uncertainty of knowledge, are important for determining the degree of adaptive versus generative characteristics that an organizations MPACS should contain. Regarding IC, the paper further proposes that organizations must give careful thought to ensure that both ada...

Organizational characteristics fostering intellectual capital in Canada and the Middle East

Purpose – This study sets out to examine how organizational characteristics are related to intellectual capital and how these variables are different between Canadian and Middle East contexts.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed to measure the four major study constructs, i.e. intellectual capital, culture, climate, and organizational traits. Each of these constructs was represented by a number of subscales that were subjected to ANOVA and correlations to test the hypotheses.Findings – The analysis showed that all three categories of characteristics (culture, climate, and other traits) are significantly correlated with IC management. The results also indicated significant differences in all organizational characteristics and IC management between Canada and the Middle East.Research limitations/implications – Culture, climate, and other traits are important enablers for the effective management of IC. Although the research tested three culture variables, four climate variables, and t...

Leading the strategic development of intellectual capital

The Intellectual Capital Realization Process (ICRP), developed by the authors, permits the leaders of an organization to develop strategies to realize the potential of intellectual capital (IC). This process is consistent with the resource‐based view of the firm, which suggests looking inward to develop core competencies for building competitive advantages. By utilizing a public sector organization as an example, this paper seeks to inform the reader of the preliminary work and subsequent steps to follow when implementing the ICRP. The Canadian Sport Centre Calgary (CSCC) organization serves this purpose, although the ICRP has also proven equally successful when used in a private sector company. The ICRP helped the CSCC identify and plan the development of its unique capabilities, relationships, and processes that benefit the organization through the creation of leadership ability and the generation of wealth.