Leadership in Academia of Pakistan: Perception of Crisis Situation and Solutions

Abstract

In current study, aim was to explore effective academic leadership in Pakistani higher education institutes. It was an attempt to understand how people in academia perceive effective academic leadership and what are the qualities expected in an effective academic leader? It was also attempted to explore if academicians feel that there is a crisis of leadership in Pakistani higher education institutes? What are the reasons and solution for this crisis situation? Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of teachers, students, and psychologists. Three focus groups were conducted one after another. Sample (N = 21) included 13 women and 8 men with age range 21-50 years. Sample was selected from different private and public universities and hospitals of Lahore. Emerging themes were analyzed using bottom up thematic analysis. Results indicated that an effective academic leader should have IQ and EQ, be visionary, and should bring everyone together. The participants mostly agreed that there is leadership crisis in Pakistani higher education institutes. They described various reasons for the crisis situation which mainly implied the responsibility to existing leaders, infrastructure, social decline, and policies.