William S. Harvey is a professor of leadership and Business School Education Director at the University of Bristol in the UK. He led a study on thought leadership at professional services firms in the late 2010s. Specializing in corporate reputation, talent management, and leadership, the Durham University graduate has published in the Harvard Business Review and other leading publications.
Harvey is also an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation. In 2021, Harvey and his three co-authors (Vince-Wayne Mitchell, Alessandra Almeida Jones, and Eric Knight) published their research on thought leadership in a scholarly paper entitled, “The tensions of defining and developing thought leadership within knowledge-intensive firms.” In the paper they redefined the often-misunderstood term of thought leadership and explained nine tensions that hamper its development and value for firms. It won the Emerald Literati Outstanding paper in 2022 in the Journal of Knowledge Management.
Harvey and his co-authors saw clear value in the topic of thought leadership, leading them to their 2021 report and its key findings, which Harvey discusses in depth with Bob Buday in this episode of “Everything Thought Leadership.” The leadership professor believes thought leadership should not be neglected by the world of academia, particularly in light of the today’s challenges with misinformation, disinformation, and “fake news” fueled by social media.
“Everything Thought Leadership” is a video and podcast series produced by Buday Thought Leadership Partners. It provides insider perspectives on the profession of thought leadership — from leading researchers, editorial and marketing professionals, to widely acclaimed thought leaders themselves. The podcast version of this episode releases in mid-October on SoundCloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.