Abstract
Purpose:
This study seeks to investigate the manner in which low visibility experts in Moroccan family-owned enterprises are able to influence leadership through the application of tacit knowledge despite the lack of formal authority and positional power.
Design/methodology/approach:
A qualitative multiple case study approach involved five family-owned businesses in Morocco. The study employed a method of collecting data through interviews with low-visibility experts, whose contributions to the organizational decision-making process were constant but without formal leadership roles. The study employed abductive analysis, drawing from thematic analysis and cross-case analysis, and concepts of tacit knowledge, expert power, legitimacy and social identity, and socioemotional wealth.
Findings:
The findings show that tacit expertise promotes organizational dependence, which can take the form of informal influence if processes of relational legitimacy support voluntary deference by decision-makers. The leadership of silent competence is revealed to become particularly important in high-stakes decision contexts, where concerns with socioemotional wealth support dependence on technical judgment. Informal governance and issues of professionalization can affect the extent to which competence-based influence is recognized as strategic influence.
Originality/value:
The study develops the notion of Silent Competence Leadership, which challenges assumptions about leadership based on visibility by showing how leadership can be based on expertise, relational legitimacy, and dependency. It extends family business research by showing how informal leadership is used within ownership-concentrated governance structures.