University leadership and role distribution

Universities are large corporate structures where many of the operations functions, that are imperative for the effective operation of the university, are not directly connected to education or research. Therefore, the structure of these managerial functions requires a variety of abilities and skills in which typical academician are not trained and experienced. The specific aim of our paper is to dispute a Central Eastern European (CEE) conviction that only academicians can become appropriate academic leaders and occupy higher functions in the university organizational structure. Since a majority of positions at universities are knowledge workers, our paper uses a knowledge management perspective in our analysis of the university workforce. In pursuit of this, the following questions are discussed: Can the expected abilities and skills be categorized to cluster university knowledge workers? What do we expect out of individuals belonging to a particular cluster? Are there knowledge workers of every cluster present at our universities in sufficient proportions and number? Are these knowledge workers recognized and adequately rewarded?' Our analysis does not provide an optimistic outcome for universities in the CEE and in particular the Slovak Republic due to the intransient position and the limited desire and motivation of the academic community to transform its traditional structure.