use of strategic leadership actions by deans in Malaysian and American public universities

The purpose of this descriptive non-experimental study was to determine if significant relationships exist between the leaders' use of strategic leadership actions and their success as perceived by their followers, and mediated by environmental contexts, and demographics. The participants in this study 3were 124 university professors and 22 Deans from Florida Atlantic University, Universiti Putra Malaysia, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The participants were chosen via a random stratified sampling. They were asked to response to 77 questions on the Strategic Leadership Questionnaire ((SLQ), which was developed based on Pisapia's theory of Strategic leadership. The data collected was analyzed through multiple regression and correlation techniques to ascertain the hypothesized relationships. The criterion variable involved in this study was leader success as interpreted by the professors. The predictor variables were the adaptive actions employed by the Deans as interpreted by the professors. Environmental context and demographic variables serve as control variables. The results of the study revealed that the SLQ was reliable, even though the construct validity of the SLQ was not supported. The instrument is strongly recommended for use in measuring Pisapia's theory of strategic leadership. The study also found that successful leaders use a wider array of leadership strategies than less successful leaders. There was also a significant difference between the array of action sets used by successful Dean's in Malaysian and American Universities and the array of action sets used by less successful Dean's in Malaysian and American Universities. Therefore, these findings are supportive of Pisapia's proposition that leaders often fail because they are trained in and rely upon a linearity of thinking mindset, which does not work in situations characterized by ambiguity and complexity that requires them to be flexible and change oriented.