In order to improve the institutional performance, there is a growing need to investigate the correlation between leadership styles of the administrators (Vice Chancellors or Presidents) of higher education institutions such as universities, on the job satisfaction of the faculty.

One of the main aspects of this type of research is its multidimensionality in terms of (1) identifying leadership styles adopted by the academic administrators, (2) investigating job satisfaction of the faculty, and consequently (3) establishing a relationship between leadership styles adopted by various leaders over the years and the job satisfaction of the faculty.

The research published in [1] was conducted in a leading public sector university in South Asia where a statistical analysis of data for over a decade was performed. The leadership style of the four administrators of the university in the past 12 years was identified through the use of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) [2]. The faculty job satisfaction during the tenures of each administrator in question was investigated through a Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) questionnaire completed by the faculty. Finally, a correlation between the leadership styles of the administrator and faculty job satisfaction was drawn.   

Methodology

Results and Discussion

Based on the methodology described in the previous section, Table 1 provides the leadership styles of each of the 4 academic administrators identified during this study. As per the MLQ guidelines, an average of scores across each group of subscales representing a leadership style was calculated and the leadership style with the highest average is selected as the dominant leadership style. Based on the MLQ-5x based survey, the dominant leadership style of the academic administrator A-1 was perceived to be transformational whereas academic administrators A-2 and A-3 were perceived to be having a transactional leadership style. A-4 was perceived by to be leading with passive/avoidant leadership style.   

Table 1: Leadership Style of Academic Administrators Identified through MLQ-5x Survey

Besides measuring the leadership style, MLQ-5x also allows measuring employee satisfaction. The average faculty job satisfaction score for A-1 with transformational leadership style was calculated to be 3.7 out of 5.0. Faculty job satisfaction score for A-2 and A-3 with transactional leadership style was measured to be 3.3 and 3.1 respectively whereas the faculty job satisfaction score for A-3 was recorded to be 3.6. It is interesting to notice that the faculty was by far more satisfied with passive/avoidant leadership style as compared to the transactional leadership style. Transformational leadership style in the perspective of the organisation in question resulted in more satisfied faculty compared to any other leadership style.