The Impact of Strategic Leadership Skills on the Performance of Certified Academic Staff An Analytical Study of Kurdistan's Public Universities

Wajdan Jassim Mohammed; Sabah Hatim Rashid

doi:10.25098/4.1.17

Authors

Wajdan Jassim Mohammed
Sabah Hatim Rashid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25098/4.1.17

Keywords:

Leadership competencies, strategic leadership, Academic staff performance, Kurdistan public universities

Abstract

This research aims at studying the nature, effectiveness and the extent of both importance and impact of the three leadership competency dimensions; (intellectual, managerial and emotional competencies), upon perceived academic staff performance that ought to be possessed by the leadership of Kurdistan public universities; to achieve distinction and maintains sustainability. Research problem is represented by the decline in the educational levels of public sector of Iraq generally and Kurdistan Region in particular. This decline seems to have been caused by unfortunate negative political and economic events resulted in a gradual destruction in the infrastructure as well as brain migration; that had occurred in the last two decades of last century; documented and reported by the (UNESCO, 2014). Authors were inspired to investigate the bilateral correlated relationships among all study variables and level of impact of each of the three strategic leadership competencies, measured unilaterally, on academic staff performance. The aim is to ascertain the level of both correlation and contribution on that performance. To accomplish this, questionnaire was used for data collection; more than half were delivered in person and the rest distributed by email; among the 649 academic leaders representing the “research population” in Kurdistan public universities. Only 50% of which was returned intact. Latest mathematical models were used for data analysis such as Structural Equation Modelling and Regression to achieve results/conclusions. Findings proved significant positive correlation among all research variables and a significant positive contribution made by both intellectual and managerial competency dimensions; whereas the emotional competency, (the third dimension), has shown insignificant contribution (low contribution) towards academic staff performance. Therefore, the authors recommended establishing appropriate training programs, specifically designed to enhance emotional competency to improve the overall academic staff performance.

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