Linking Challenges to Academic Leadership Behaviors in Public University Context

Linking Challenges to Academic Leadership Behaviors

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate potential root causes of challenges that arise and explain what drives
the development of academic leadership behaviors in Ethiopia's public university context. The authors
employed a cross-sectional survey design to achieve the research objective. The study established 540
sample units using Cochran's (1977) sample size determination and correction techniques, and further
employed a stratified random sampling technique to select the stated sample academic leaders from three
bands of six public universities. Among the 540 questionnaire papers distributed to participants, 487
(90.2%) were properly filled out and submitted. The collected data was recorded, organized, and analyzed
using Excel and STATA-12. The study employed multivariate regression analysis using STATA-12 to
scrutinize if subordinates' developmental challenges were attributed to the development of immediate
academic leaders' behaviors. As a result, the study investigated the selected potential challenges that
accounted for the highest variation in explaining the deviation in instructional leadership behavior (R2 =
0.16) compared to the variants in transformational (R2 = 0.11), transactional (R2 = 0.09), and laissez
faire (R2 = 0.04) leadership behaviors. This insight argues that the variety of complete academic
leadership behaviors in public universities can be explained by one or more developmental challenges,
such as members' novelty, staying up-to-date, challenging the status quo, being innovative, questioning
immoral acts, and taking risks. The study suggests that reasonable potential sources of developmental
challenges in academic governance are useful for the development of academic leadership behaviors in
the public university context. Thus, the rational challenge is a developmental tool to advance academic
leadership behaviors. The policy makers need to rethink and re-formulate academic governance policy
dimensions that provide faculty members legal opportunities to challenge superiors either to stop immoral
academic governance or to promote innovative academic governance in the university context.

Keywords: challenge; academic leadership; leadership behaviors; university; context