IET Smart Cities - 2022 - Gurick.pdf

Received: 13 October 2021
-Revised: 13 January 2022
-Accepted: 14 January 2022
-IET Smart Cities
DOI: 10.1049/smc2.12022
O R I G I N A L R E S E A R C H
Organisation and community intelligence in smart city
leadership and beyond
Mitchell Gurick | Steven Felger
Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, California, USA
Correspondence
Mitchell Gurick, Pepperdine University, Los
Angeles, CA 90045, USA.
Email: mitchell.gurick@pepperdine.edu
Funding information
Pepperdine University Provost Office Grant
Abstract
The relationship between smart cities and communities is anchored on the way or-
ganisations leverage technology to impact the quality of living in a city, state, or
country. The emergence of smart cities has been welcomed as one of the significant
breakthroughs in improving the public sector. In particular, generation of revenue,
utilisation of technology, and formulation of policies are used to deal with challenges
related to smart city infrastructure. Leadership is one area that has faced strategic
challenges with the development of smart cities. This study aims to showcase con-
nectivism between smart cities and communities, challenges associated with smart
cities, requirements for modern leadership, and opportunities related to smart cities to
improve the community.
1 | SMART CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
A smart city can be described as a technologically enabled
urban centre that utilises different types of electronic methods,
including data collection and voice activation sensors. A
community has been defined as ‘a process of interrelated ac-
tions through which residents express their common interest in
the local society’ [1]. Communities and organisations are
constructed through psychological bonds [2, 3]. However, a
community typically entails a physical space, bond, and digital
space. Smart Communities can be defined as leveraging tech-
nology interventions to provide value to citizens and improve
the quality of living in the state, county, or city by digitising
standard processes [4]. The concept of intelligent communities
describes the emergence of communities where leaders and
stakeholders use the Internet and electronic networks to form
partnerships capable of driving innovations and bringing new
social and economic value, bridging/connecting the physical,
human, and digital divide.
Since 2009, several terms such as digital, virtual, and wired
have been used to describe emerging smart cities [5]. Initially,
much emphasis on ‘smart communities’ focusses on deploying
information and communication technology (ICT) and trans-
port networks through social capital and human resource
investment [6, 7]. Thus, the concept idealised the application of
information and communication technologies. However, it has
expanded to integrate interactions between government orga-
nisations and other stakeholders in the private sector through
technology, leading to the onset of artificial intelligence in local
governments. Consequently, leading technology‐based com-
munity development requires a new perspective and compe-
tencies for city leadership beyond traditional public sector
management.
2 | SMART CITY FRAMEWORK
Public sector city and community leaders face many chal-
lenges as their corporate counterparts regarding managing
revenue, expenses, service levels, people, processes, and
technology following strategic plans and policies. Leadership
in the public sector also has significant unique challenges
given the breadth of responsibility associated with their res-
idents' safety, security, and quality of life. With more than 1.3
million people moving into cities weekly, there is a need to
plan on how cities will accommodate the growing numbers of
urban dwellers with projections that by 2040, 65% of the
world population will be residing in urban areas [6, 8].
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
© 2022 The Authors. IET Smart Cities published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.
IET Smart Cities. 2022;4:47–55. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smc2
-47

Therefore, it is critical to understand public sector service
areas and priority outcomes to speak of the leadership
required to lead smart cities effectively. Figure 1 represents
core categories of management areas for smart city leaders
and planners to consider.
Elements of a connected communities' framework
Element of connected
communities framework Description
Connectivity and access Network infrastructure and Wi‐Fi/mobile
data
City/citizen communication
channels
Public forums, public‐facing websites/
apps, customer service points, and
citizen engagement
Citizen to citizen and entity
interactions
Calls, messages, emails, and physical
interactions
Devices and sensors Apps, Cameras, sensors, and computers
Data and information systems Personal, public, and private
Transportation patterns Public and private transport
Asset utilisation and
consumption tracking
Barcodes, GPS, RFIDs and smartphones
Actions or responses to
stimuli
Resident engagement score
Measure of interactions
Resident engagement score Measures of efficacy
3 | SMART CITY PRIORITIES AND
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
Understanding the framework allows leaders to grasp the range
of priorities and challenges as a whole and within each domain
or service area. The implementation of services within the
framework presents unique interactions that dictate imple-
mentation methodologies and approaches. For example, gov-
ernment organisations commonly strategise and implement
public–private partnerships (P3) initiatives to enhance and
modernise services to the public, given the potential innova-
tion upside [9, 10]. The PPP Knowledge Lab defines a P3
relationship as ‘a long‐term contract between a private party
and a government entity, for providing a public asset or ser-
vice’ [11]. These P3s present the best opportunities for speed,
innovation, talent access, domain expertise etc. However, they
also offer challenges of communication, costs, quality, policy
compliance, privacy, and high levels of procurement
management.
The public sector, generally speaking, is roughly 10 years
behind the private sector when it comes to organisational
capabilities, technology maturity, and innovation [3, 12]
Smart cities and P3 approaches are ways to offset the known
lag, and these require modernising the public sector leader-
ship approaches, models, and resources. To understand the
types of leadership needed, it is helpful to review leadership
challenges and priorities (represented by community needs)
F I G U R E 1 Strategy of things smart city ecosystem framework [15]
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required to modernise cities. Common challenges reported
by smart city leaders include bureaucracy, budget, taxpayers,
customer/citizen input, and a broad range of enterprise
services. The table below highlights the most common
intelligent city priorities and their associated challenges for
leaders to achieve. This list is not exhaustive and is meant
only to set a context for new leadership styles and
approaches.
Smart city priorities Leadership challenges
‐ Transportation ‐ Procurement bureaucracy
‐ Connectivity and access ‐ Managing public‐private partnerships
‐ Mobility ‐ Growing urban populations
‐ Use data as an asset ‐ Decentralised responsibility
‐ Transparency and privacy
3.1 | Comparison of Smart City Leadership
and Existing Cities
Whilst existing leadership at the cities focusses on creating
project ideas and sharing with community members to
mobilise support, smart city leadership engages in leveraging
technological innovations to promote development at smart
cities. Leaders at existing cities serve as catalysts of change
while those at smart cities play a decentralised role in
ensuring technology distribution across all domains. Similarly,
the existing leadership is entrusted with motivating members
of the community. Leaderships at smart cities are flexible
especially when dealing with growing populations in smart
cities.
4 | CONNECTED COMMUNITIES
As a best practice demonstrated by many public sector
leaders, we must first begin with the citizens' perspective,
essential services, infrastructure, and assets required to
operate a city. While technology and information systems
can add obvious value in keeping the trains and buses on
schedule, the logistical and security nuances multiply when
you add an IoT. The millions of sensors on thousands of
assets collect data, which then produce technology archi-
tecture diagrams include personal information and images
[9, 13]. For instance, Barcelona is one of the heavily
connected cities that has embraced the Internet of Things
and Wi‐Fi infrastructure to enhance connectivity. The
connectivity of these nodes enables a smart city to inno-
vate and operate more efficiently; the associated costs and
effort to maintain standards are also compounded in
breadth and complexity. Therefore, given differences in
appetite and capabilities for technology, solutions for smart
cities are not a one‐size‐fits‐all and require a right‐fit
solution.
5 | SMART CITIES AND LEADERSHIP
It requires all types of leadership traits and layers of intelli-
gence. Outstanding leadership at this level demonstrates vital
individual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and social intel-
ligence to understand and represent the people and awareness
of the ecosystem of smart city public and private entities. As
described, ‘Community leaders are an effective mechanism to
support and enable community development in the past’
[14, 15]. Individual leadership focusses on a personal capacity
and is usually the subject of small groups or teams. Organ-
isational leadership in smart city settings focusses on
improving the organisation's performance by piecing together
individual needs and providing a working solution that suits the
organisation's progress as a whole [16].
Another significant concept in smart cities is smart
governance. Smart governance is concerned with the use of
technology to facilitate and support enhanced decision making.
Effectively, it enhances the planning process by improving the
transformation ways through which services are delivered to
the public. The process utilises ICT and other technologies to
promote collaboration, participatory, transparency and sus-
tainable environment for community members. The governing
process utilises Internet and other communication services to
enhance efficiency in service provision. Consequently, smart
governance equates to provision of better services for the city
residents.
6 | SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Social intelligence is the ability to build relationships and
navigate social environments [17]. As defined, ‘SQ is a set of
interpersonal competencies built on specific neural circuits
(and related endocrine systems) that inspires others to be
effective’ [18, 19]. Social intelligence can be organised into
social awareness (sensing) and social facility action [18, 19].
From a leadership perspective, social awareness runs the
gamut from empathy to empathic accuracy all the way to
social cognition, which is facing complicated social situations
head‐on. Simply sensing how another feels, or knowing what
they think or intend, does not guarantee fruitful interactions.
The social facility builds on social awareness to allow
smooth, effective interactions. The spectrum of the social
facility includes self‐presentation, influence, concern, and
synchrony [20].
Creating leadership awareness is a crucial element of the
situational leadership model focussing on coaching, directing,
supporting, and delegating duties. Leadership awareness in a
smart community has emerged as one of the critical aspects
towards realising a harmonious society that can diversify
needs and differences across stakeholders and citizens to
work towards a common goal. Thus, the smart city space
opens social and emotional intelligence avenues and pro-
motes understanding between different cultures, partners, and
organisations [19, 21]. The behavioural mix and the skills
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required for smart city leadership are complex. Most impor-
tantly, such leadership should prioritise critical issues such as
human rights, public health, civic engagement, and privacy
and security to facilitate local government management.
Familiarising smart city residents through directing, coaching,
and continuous support will be vital in unlocking leadership
flagships in smart cities.
7 | METHODS
The study used structured interviews as the research tool [22].
The target population consisted of 22 stakeholders in the
diverse smart community. From the sample size of 22, two of
those were city leaders, four worked in the technology
department at the director level and above, three were from
consulting agencies that partner with smart cities in the
implementation of their projects, and the others were affiliated
with smart cities in leadership roles. The objective was to
ensure inclusivity across different cities and provide a
comprehensive analysis of the data. Interviews are rigid on
how they can be used, making them ideal in eliciting genuine
participant feedback. In particular, the research preferred in-
terviews since they are a perfect match for any quantitative
approach based on the aim of the study. Despite interviews
being used in survey research, interviews were preferred due to
their accuracy. Different respondents provide unique re-
sponses; it is easy to organise the collected data and facilitate
quick analysis.
Additionally, since the research targeted a large sample of
smart city leaders, interviews provided an efficient way of
reaching out to them through the phone. Additionally, the
methodology aids in obtaining better information from the
participants since the interview's scope and structure are
designed before the interview session. Finally, this method was
preferred since it minimises the margin of error since all
interview questions are uniformly designed and asked the
participants.
8 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data collected using the research methodology identified
dominant themes from the responses obtained from different
smart cities leaders. These themes are discussed as follows.
8.1 | Theme 1: leadership styles and skills
One of the leadership styles that can be associated with smart
cities leadership is the democratic style. This style is also
considered inclusive as it encourages collaboration between the
leaders and the city dwellers. The democratic leadership style
provides a platform for the people to speak and be heard. The
leaders provide an enabling environment that is critical to the
creation of a safe space. Democratic leadership offers an
environment where communication is essential in solving
problems that people face in the city. For example, the City of
San Diego is governed by a mayor who works closely with nine
members of the city council. The leadership‐democratic gov-
ernment is responsible for public safety, police, streets, sewers
and water services. City council members are elected from
member districts within the city. Similarly, the mayor is voted
directly by residents across the entire city. Consequently, San
Diego has emerged as one of the fastest growing smart cities in
the world. In 2010, San Diego was ranked as the ninth‐safest
cities in the top 10 list of the safest cities in the US accord-
ing to Forbes magazine [23]. One drawback about democratic
leadership is that the leader, in context, does not offer their
opinion in the team meetings until the end, so as to not bias
other viewpoints. In other words, the leader is aware of the
hierarchy's influence on his role. Also, leaders promote active
participation by facilitating an inclusive approach to the lead-
ership style.
8.2 | Democratic leadership traits identified
Mentor, a democratic leader in a smart city, plays a significant
role in empowering others to become better in their position.
This is attained by offering coaching sessions to juniors who
might not be well‐versed in leadership traits.
Consultant, a democratic leader in the smart city, plays a
significant role in offering consultative services to those in
need, especially subordinate workers. The leader explains
what is expected from the smart city and areas that need
change. For example, a democratic leader offers practical
advice based on evidence on what services should be availed
to the people.
Servant, a democratic leader serves as a servant to his
people. In other words, the leader offers himself for the good
of the smart city and the people by sacrificing his interests for
the common good of all smart city dwellers.
Human‐centred, a democratic leader is passionate,
friendly, and provides a personal rapport with everyone on
his team and his members. The leader shifts his mindset
towards the people. Although this might take decades to
attain a well‐established culture, the leader is always deter-
mined to pursue the dream for the benefit of the city. The
leader also provides feedback to the people in real time. This
helps to analyse and develop strategies that will enable the
city to move forward by demonstrating a selfless attitude
towards growth.
8.3 | Values and behaviours of a democratic
leader
� Transparent: a democratic leader should be honest in deal-
ings. This includes revealing how the city's significant pro-
jects are managed and ensuring accountability of disposable
resources.
� Visionary: the leader creates a structure for those affected
that allows the energy to channel others to share the vision
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and contribute towards it. The leader shares lessons and
stories, for instance, enlisting difficult situations they have
had to face during their time in office. The leader also
recognises that the vision of the smart city is more signifi-
cant than the details of an individual challenge. By
demonstrating the success stories of others, it helps to
inspire people to drive forward regardless of the difficulties
they might come across.
� Integrity: the leader effectively ensures all members abide by
the outlined rules and regulations. Such an approach is
essential in providing that people know what governs them
and are aware of the possible consequences of breaking or
defying the rule of law.
� Listening: supports the consultative role. Often others push
more and broadcast. The leader always creates a listening
session for the local governments and others to gather
feedback from group representatives and diverse residents.
Additionally, the leader should empower team members by
setting a solid vision and mission. This can be articulated by
moving up and down the organisation chart and remaining
steadfast about real issues facing the people. For example,
the leader should sit down with daily workers and front‐line
workers to identify the root cause of the problem. An
approach, like the problem identification, can be made using
the bottom‐up approach.
� Agility: the key to leading in a collaborative and agile space
as smart cities. The leader should be flexible to the needs of
the followers. The leaders should also experiment and be
open‐minded to embrace the emerging needs of the people.
� Lead by example: the leader should be candid, authentic, and
outspoken. In addition, he keeps a clean reputation and
values‐centred leadership approach.
� Supportive: patience and tenacity are critical to facilitate new
forms of public sector procurement.
8.4 | Weaknesses of smart city leaders
Inpatient; failure to own up in case a project is held up or
delayed for implementation. The leader moves too fast for new
clients dragging them sometimes in the set direction. Often,
there is a conflict between the private and the public sector.
Misunderstanding; often, leaders might fail to understand
the needs of the people and end up misrepresenting their in-
terests in a meaningful way. This also creates challenges in
building new relationships and collaboration with other mem-
bers. In some instances, leaders might pretend to know every-
thing, which affects their stand. For example, the leader might
quit if they do not want to initiate change in their dockets.
Poor human resources; common traits include the
imposter syndrome and lack of faith in civic institutions. This
affects the relationship between the leaders and the members.
Frustration; leaders might often get frustrated with regular
training geared towards junior staff. Additionally, there are
difficulties navigating different cities and county agencies due
to different politics, citizens' concerns, and structures. Further,
the leader might fail to lack diligence, especially if there are no
plans to deal with unforeseen situations that might happen in
the future.
8.5 | Strategies to mitigate risks and
weaknesses of smart city leaders
Performance appraisal; an effective approach to address the
issue of poor human resources. It may involve deploying a
scientific appraisal technique depending on the needs of the
institution. It can be done on a regular interview until the
desired output is attained.
Collaboration; one of the measures that can be implemented
to address the issue of misunderstanding among members and
leaders. The strategy is ideal in promoting teamwork by
embracing their strengths and supporting their weaknesses.
Promoting honesty: dealing with impatience and frustra-
tion can be a challenging endeavour for the smart city leaders.
Particularly, when leaders feel employees are not giving the
expected throughput even after undergoing training. Also,
differences in policies and structures across the city can pose
challenges to development plans. Nonetheless, leaders should
encourage honesty especially in gathering feedback from
members. Additionally, leaders should encourage cooperation
with stakeholders to ensure speedy implementation of devel-
opment plans.
8.6 | Strategies to implement or realise their
leadership strengths and approaches
Be personal. Leaders should set the stage early by finding out
their team's personality types. Leaders should learn the envi-
ronments in unique ways, go to lunches with customers, and
discover their concerns [24]. Then, collaborate with different
stakeholders and continually educate citizens.
8.6.1 | Prioritise giving, receiving, and
incorporating feedback
Iterativeness and agility are essential to design into your
approach to work. Be decisive, but do not aim to be perfect.
Provide real‐time feedback to staff and vendors—both
acknowledgement and criticism for improvement. The leader
should ask for feedback and constructive criticism. This can be
achieved by using personal development as a strategy. Leaders
are not only allowed to disagree, and they are required to voice
their disagreement if they disagree [25].
8.6.2 | Listen for understanding
� The leader should create trust by meeting junior staff and
treating them as humans and not just employees.
� The leader should be open to new forms of communication
and feedback from staff.
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� Informal ‘coffee talks’ and other forms of personal
connection and rapport building are critical in creating a
trusting environment.
� The leader should ask open‐ended questions to warm up the
other person. Again, the leader should ensure that members
are warmed up to open up.
� It is essential to understand the risk‐averse nature.
� Building relationships and asking good questions require
some degree of understanding as a starting point.
� Problem‐solving approaches are critical for leaders to
overcome barriers and succeed as a leader. The following
strategies can be adapted.
� Bring in external or complementary resources to solve
problems his team cannot; the leader can outsource services
of an expert to solve imminent issues that the team cannot
address.
� Engage experts together and know how to make the best
decisions based on their inputs.
� Understanding the root cause and distilling it down to
simplify the problem.
Create systems or personal processes to follow to over-
come weaknesses. For example, if one is poor at following up,
the calendar follow‐ups can be an ideal way of ensuring all
crucial projects and follow‐up meetings are not let up.
� Follow public sector procurement standards and others to
ensure checks and balances are followed. While being
bureaucratic, it offers the balance necessary for good
governance.
� ‘Follow the directions’—Public sector procurement is all
about ‘following the directions.’
� The leader should be aware of his role of governance at all
levels of the organisation.
� Structure your business to remove the impatient circum-
stances and situations. For instance, changing the context to
adjust to your personal style.
� Seeking your business model requires the leadership to look
at culture and impact. Then, the business can be sustained
by tweaking through ‘management changes’ driven by data.
� Align on success metrics. Rate every single programme,
existing and proposed, against the same set of criteria to see
if it helps us achieve our goals
Follow the process: Showing values of taking risk and
failure—‘Show them bad reports’—model the behaviour and
depersonalise it. Uncovering the model risk objectively while
reporting and analysing with different techniques leads to
greater understanding.
8.7 | Theme 2: technology and innovation
Leaders in modern communities also must deal with the aspect
of technology coverage and capacity. The increased demand
for big data has driven the emergence of smart cities and calls
for leaders to face digital security and privacy on an
unprecedented scale [26]. There is a massive difference in how
data is collected and transmitted from the various pilot and
full‐scale deployment projects across different cities. There are
network issues and how stakeholders can provide sufficient
coverage to support even the simplest smart city applications
[7, 27]. Similarly, the high number of sensors that collect data
coupled with robust connectivity is a must‐have ingredient for
success. Leaders deliberating on programs that can guarantee
coverage, reliability, privacy, and security upon deployment of
smart city programs are topics of consideration.
As a result, almost every city operation depends on per-
sonalised data, hence, an increased risk of vulnerability, espe-
cially if there are no adequate security measures [8, 28]. Leaders
have not addressed how to regulate personal data usage, which
exposes users to potential attacks. The formulation of laws to
protect and regulate data usage must be sorted out before
smart city implementation.
Connectivity is a must‐have ingredient for success. Leaders
deliberating on programs that can guarantee coverage, reli-
ability, privacy, and security upon deployment of smart city
programs are topics of consideration. As a result, almost every
city operation depends on personalised data, hence, an
increased risk of vulnerability, especially if there are no
adequate security measures [8, 28]. Leaders have not addressed
how to regulate personal data usage, which exposes users to
potential attacks. The formulation of laws to protect and
regulate data usage must be sorted out before smart city
implementation.
8.8 | Theme 3: Funding
Different smart cities have used different strategies to out-
source finances to fund projects. Various stakeholders are
involved, including prime contractors, small business com-
munities, and big entities requiring constant engagement and
monitoring [29]. A common challenge that smart cities leaders
face includes difficulty in communicating effectively across all
types of stakeholders.
8.9 | Theme 4: employees' leadership
abilities
Employees playing a significant role in ensuring development
goals are achieved in smart cities. Leaders have an obligation to
work in collaboration with staff to ensure they are aligned with
the smart cities mission. Some of the desired employees' ca-
pabilities are discussed as follows.
Critical thinkers; employees in smart cities should be
capable and driven towards solving problems [30]. Moreover,
considering smart cities present a new strain of challenges, the
employees should ensure sustainable solutions are identified
and implemented.
Accountability; employees in smart cities should own mis-
takes and overall outcomes from their work [30]. This includes
admitting they do not have the answer and are willing to find the
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answers through follow‐ups. The employees should take part in
creating a culture of excellence and creating awareness.
Service‐oriented; Sincerity in the work environment for a
purpose or broader reason. Service‐oriented and expecting
longer‐range partnerships rather than single project tasks
[5, 6]. All thinking. The employee should believe in the
mission, be passionate about it, and own the work. Working
in a public sector does not mean making lots of money, but
they should be motivated by the values of giving back
meaningful work.
Flexibility and willingness; the employees should be ready
to deal with uncertainty. There is the need to adjust quickly to
emerging situations.
Communication skills; employees should articulate neces-
sary information by speaking up fluently and using the formal
language of communication in the work setting [31].
8.10 | Negative traits of employees
Despite smart city employees being endowed with great
positive traits, there are some undesired qualities that inter-
fere with their work. Essentially, these traits may develop as a
result of the poor leadership style in a smart city, for
example, the autocratic style where employees' opinion is not
valued. Some of the most common negative qualities include
the following:
Lack of accountability; some employees might hide things
so as not to disappoint their leader [25]. Some are fond of
disliking blame or accepting the fault. Overall, this amounts to
a lack of accountability.
Lack of initiatives; some employees cannot perform well
unless they are micromanaged. People are being placed in the
wrong roles based on the organisation's behaviours of filing
positions inadequately [(29].
Role‐based thinking; lacking creativity, or not being
resourceful in a particular role affects how employees execute
their duties and their ability to seek guidance in case they get
stuck [25, 31].
Lack of self‐awareness; some employees allow stress to
build up, making it challenging to be creative under duress [25].
Failure to identify their strengths and weaknesses affects the
overall productivity of the employees.
8.10.1 | Techniques to address
Smart cities leaders have the responsibility of addressing issues
that hinder employees from optimising their performances. As
such, leaders can address these issues by spearheading the
following initiatives. Employees and client’s guidance through
a paradigm shift; leaders should focus on training employees,
especially when partnering with vendors to enhance flexibility
and expertise [32]. It is critical to creating an open culture
where employees can articulate their challenges and success
stories freely. If the leader is accessible, it is necessary to have
random meetings with employees to build strong relationships.
Agent of change; Recognized that focussing on the leaders,
culture, and people is the way to achieve change.
Promoting trust; the leader should trust their employees
but verify. Closing the loop in communication helps to
enhance value among employees [32]. The leader should figure
out a way to execute the smart city concept but then make
conscious efforts and investments to create long‐term sus-
tainability over time.
Understand how to systematically de‐risk the culture; Un-
derstanding how to de‐risk things for your team [28]. They
must have a desire for difference. Leaders must understand the
risks employees are facing. Employees who coast in their job
should be warned or eventually fired. Subordinates must set
goals, try with experience, understand what works and does
not work and then improve it [31].
8.11 | Theme 5: equity
Ensuring equity in smart cities is the responsibility of the
leaders. Critical areas that need to be addressed include access
to quality health care, job opportunities, education facilities, a
green environment, and a transportation network. There also
should be equality by promoting democracy in leadership
positions.
Some leaders stated that they do not feel there should be
unique or different roles specifically for women or under‐
represented groups. Leaders see a lot of opportunities to
voice their opinion because it is not strictly technology. Solu-
tions and problem solving can come from various perspectives
[25]. Citizen engagement is an excellent opportunity for people
to bring in their contribution towards smart cities development
[33]. From the employee perspective, the leaders should
consider the educational background to address their guided
courses. For example, community, education, immigration, and
diversity all need to be addressed, and not just one will fix it.
9 | CONCLUSION
Smart cities and communities are connected; they provide a
digital platform for cities, departments, and asset management
and a means for connectivity amongst residents, visitors, and
partner stakeholders. From the findings obtained, it is evident
that a democratic leadership style is needed to streamline op-
erations, policy formulation, and implementation in smart
cities. Effective leadership traits such as being a mentor to the
junior staff, being human‐centred and accountable are essential
in spearheading changes in smart cities.
Additionally, smart cities should engage different stake-
holders, especially when outsourcing for funds needed for
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growth and development. Employees in smart cities also play a
significant role in ensuring that the organisations' mission is
accomplished. Desired traits for employees include flexibility,
communication, and accountability. Another dominant aspect
of smart cities is technology. Innovations and reliance on big
data are essential for smart cities, especially in making data‐
driven decisions. However, leaders may get frustrated by
tedious bureaucracies, poor human resources, and regulations
in different cities. To overcome such challenges, leaders should
focus on engaging employees during partnerships with new
vendors, seeking feedback and taking appropriate actions,
listening to their junior staff, and creating systems to follow to
overcome challenges.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study was funded by Pepperdine University Provost Of-
fice Grant.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
No conflict of interest to disclose.
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE MATERIALS
FROM OTHER SOURCES
None.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Research data are not shared.
ORCID
Mitchell Gurick https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8368-7746
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How to cite this article: Gurick, M., Felger, S.:
Organisation and community intelligence in smart city
leadership and beyond. IET Smart Cities. 4(1), 47–55
(2022). https://doi.org/10.1049/smc2.12022
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