Higher Education Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between transformational leadership practices of the deans and the perceived organizational culture of public universities in the UAE.
METHODOLOGY The population consisted of academic deans, who have been in their positions for at least two years (N = 26), at three public universities in the UAE who hold a critical institutional role. Eleven completed the Leadership Practices Inventory and the Organizational Culture Inventory (Cooke & Lafferty, 2003), and responded to some open-ended questions and telephone interviews.
KEY FINDINGS Enabling was the most frequent leadership practice, followed by Model and Encourage, and Inspire and Challenge. No statistically significant correlations were found between transformational leadership practices and organizational culture; which the author attributes somewhat to the small sample size. Interview data suggested that three leadership practices (Inspire, Enable and Encourage) “were found to be practiced consistently among the respondents” (p. 75). “All participants believe that the leadership practices of the deans depend far more on the individual personality, and expertise than their origin or gender. They all exercise transformational practices in their leadership roles at their universities…” (p. 85).