An Empirical Study of Leadership Practices in select Universities in India

Due to change in the complexion of global academic environment, higher educational institutions are presently facing challenges to be competitive and relevant in meeting student's expectations in general and creating an environment of excellence in particular. Higher educational institutions are faced with no choice but to attract and develop sound leaders who can transform and take the institutions to higher levels. The role of academic leaders cannot be undermined in creating favourable image of their institutions at various local, national and international levels. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to examine the existing leadership practices in sample select institutions. The respondents of the present study comprise of teaching staff consisting of 66 male and 42 female academic staff. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that there prevails a favourable perception of academic staff towards leadership practices. Moreover, female academic staff showed higher satisfaction level than male academic staff. The study suggest that leadership practices such as idealized attribute and idealized behavior need to be further strengthened as these leadership practices have shown more favourable perception among academic staff of select institutions.