How Can Strategic Leadership Support the 5 Functions of Strategic

Management within University Environment?

MA’ALI M. AL-YOUSUFI

Kuwait University

KUWAIT

Abstract:- Bearing in mind the highly important role that leadership has in modern business environment, and

launching from the interconnected relationship between leadership and management; this research aimed at

highlighting how strategic leadership can support strategic management function and in a university

perspective. Results of study accepted main hypothesis and agreed on the fact that strategic leadership supports

functions of strategic management with an R value of .860 and a correlation coefficient of 74%. Concerning

functions of strategic management which were mostly supported by strategic leadership; results indicated that

staffing was the most positively influenced function of strategic management scoring an R value of .936 with a

correlation coefficient of 87.6%. Study recommended that risk management in all its forms and strategies is the

most important fact in this scheme, given that strategic management is mostly based on managing in an

unpredictable environment that is unstable and risky. Practical contribution of current study can be summed in

the fact that it could be a source for leaders to deeply understand what strategic leadership is and how it can

help strategic management be applied correctly in an educational environment.

An environment of chaos and disorganization is not

a suitable environment for production and access to

outputs that can deepen the productive impact of

organizations and then advance the organization in

terms of the products or services it provides, and

therefore, it is the easiest and shortest way to lose

the competitive advantage and get out of the market

[25]. According to [6], management and then

leadership came in order to organize the

organizational environment and keep it away from

as a result of the organizational culture in which it

was created [10].

Since the 80s of 20th century, organizations have

been improving and developing their managerial

and leadership positions by making efforts to reach

a state of harmony and organization that includes

their internal and external operations, their clients,

their competitive environment and the working

individuals [22]. [5] indicates that despite the great

similarity between leadership and management, but

integrating them with individuals is the first stage in

order to create meaningful leaders capable of

achieving the required results [21].

2 Problem Formulation

Strategic leadership is one of the types of leaders

that have proven effective in leading the

organization and the individuals working in it based

of the organization based on convincing them of its

strategy [11].

On the other hand, it indicates [14] that strategic

leaders have the ability to contribute to improving

the way the organization works by adopting

effective strategies in team leadership, motivating

individuals to work and employing the idea of

strategic management well and fruitfully.

[9] emphasized that in strategic leadership, the

strategic leader plays various roles aimed at leading

based on a set of skills that would break the

hierarchy within the internal operations of the

organization, and thus, facilitate the activities of

strategic management.

From that, current research sought to examine the

approach in which strategic leadership has the

ability to influence – in a positive way – strategic

management within university environments.

[16] Indicates in his study that strategic leadership

represents the leader's ability to understand and

assimilate the organization's strategy or part of it

and to lead based on it by motivating working

individuals to understand this strategy and try to

organizational change by spreading the spirit of

motivation in working individuals and increasing

their level of awareness and awareness of the

achieved through it, and this is done by the strategic

organization through his leadership and raising the

the organization, and the influence is through

strategy by individuals and digest them in the right

way, and then convince them that achieving the

objectives of the adopted strategy will be in their

favor, this will influence their decisions and lead

them to complete the work required of them in a

smooth and correct manner, and thus achieve the

desired with higher efficiency and less time.

3.2 Who is the Strategic Leader?

In order for the leader to be considered strategic, he

must have many qualities, the most important of

which is the ability to lead and work in an unstable

and volatile environment, that is, the ability to

complete projects and tasks assigned to the leader

and his team despite the presence of obstacles,

complications and events that would Impact on

workflow, slowing it down, or even increasing its

success of the mission.

The strategic leader must also have problem-solving

and decision-making skills based on their ability to

analyze the factors in the surrounding environment,

create alternatives in order to choose and adopt the

most appropriate ones, and then apply these

alternatives as a means to the success of the required

task, then the strategic leader By evaluating the

predetermined solutions and looking at the

mechanism of their application and the extent of

long-term plans, and therefore he must be

committed, passionate and patient.

[29] says that the strategic leader must be positive in

dealing and the negativity does not interfere in the

way they lead the team. Understand the feelings and

feelings of individuals and have the ability to absorb

the skills of individuals and deal with them

individually.

achieving the interest of the organization will be to

achieve the interest of their team in addition to their

personal interest as individuals.

3.3 Concept of Strategic Management

It is normal that the organization cannot manage

the organization based on the analysis of existing

resources and the study of the internal and external

environment of the organization.

By looking at the thousands of definitions of

strategic management in the previous literature, it

was possible to understand and comprehend the idea

that strategic management is management based on

two main pillars, the first is the management of

organization based on the analysis of the

organization's strategic goals, standing on its goals

and objectives and analyzing the nature of the

competitive environment in which the organization

operates [12].

[7] and [8] presented another concept of strategic

management, where he insisted that strategic

management is an administrative process whose first

and last objective is to manage the competitive

environment in which the organization operates, and

Moving from resource management to managing the

competitive environment, [32] finds that strategic

management is a managerial process based on

coordinating the efforts of working individuals in

order to achieve goals. Strategic management is the

idea that the achievement of goals must be done

depending on the resources available to the

organization, whether they are administrative,

Study by [15] aimed to determine the impact of

strategic leadership on organizational performance

and the relationship with senior management in

Malaysian universities. And through the quantitative

approach, responses were obtained from (135)

leaders (dean) at the university, and the study

reached the conclusion that strategic leadership has

a direct impact on institutional performance,

especially in educational environments, where

strategic leadership contributes to understanding and

cultural character similar to that of the senior

management, this matter contributes greatly to

pushing and motivating the team towards achieving

the goals that the administration aspires to, because

of the harmony between the senior management and

the leadership that directs the team and his

leadership.

In study by [13], it aimed to determine the impact of

strategic leadership on competitive advantage by

looking at the variables of strategic thinking and

adopted by the management in the organization and

playing the role of the spiritual father of

management from through the leader being the

individual who links the team and the senior

management, and thus the strategic management

moves from being the brain that plans the

organization’s strategy to being part of the team and

able to broadcast its ideas among individuals

through leadership that carries the same ideological

thought and is able to achieving goals.

H: Strategic leadership supports functions of

strategic management

5 Methods and Methodology

Realizing aim of current research was done based on

a group of methodological steps that paved the way

for a smooth and academic goals achievement.

Following section highlighted how this research was

carried out.

5.1 Method

suitability – in recent circumstances-, researcher

and avoids the spread of the virus. It should be noted

that the quantitative approach is based on positivist

philosophy, which means that certain knowledge is

based on familiarity with phenomena based on

empirical facts available by empirical science.

5.2 Tool of Study

Questionnaire was chosen to represent the main tool

of study, the questionnaire was built by researcher

depending on previous literature, it was divided into

through Google Forms, it remained online for total

of 8 weeks. After that, researcher withdrew primary

data on an excel sheet for purposes of screening and

analysis.

5.3 Population and Sampling

Population of study consisted of all managerial or

academic employees in Kuwaiti universities. A

sample of (150) individuals were chosen to

represent population of study. The questionnaire

Data collected from questionnaires were tackled and

processed depending on SPSS v. 27th. A group of

statistical tests were used in order to facilitate aim

achievement which included:

- Descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, standard

deviation and percentages)

- Linear Regression

- Cronbach's alpha was used to test consistency of

scale and α = 0.906 reflected that the scale was

reliable since it was greater than accepted

questionnaire majorly were males who appeared to

form 71.5% of total sample, who were within age

range of 31-36 years old 54.7%. In addition to that,

table 1 indicated that majority of respondents who

6.2 Questionnaire Analysis

Table 2. Mean and Standard Deviation of Statements

Mean and standard deviation of respondents'

answers' were calculated in table 2 above. However,

results appeared to be positive as all means were

higher than mean of scale 3.00 which gave an

indication that respondents had positive attitudes

towards statements of questionnaire giving that all

of their means were above 3.00. going deeper into

well, means to have a group of team members who

Table 5. Testing 1st Sub-Hypothesis

Linear regression was used to test 3rd sub-

hypothesis, t value = 30.817 was significant at 0.05

level revealing that Strategic leadership supports

staffing as a function of strategic management. Also,

r = 0.936 reflected positive and strong relationship

between Strategic leadership and staffing explained

87.6% of the variance in the dependent variable.

H4: Strategic leadership supports leading as a

function of strategic management

Linear regression was used to test 4th sub-

hypothesis, t value = 21.33 was significant at 0.05

level, also, Strategic leadership supports leading as

a function of strategic management based on r =

0.878 which reflected positive and strong

relationship between Strategic leadership and

Linear regression was used to test 5th sub-

hypothesis, t value = 14.368 was significant at 0.05

level which meant Strategic leadership supports

controlling as a function of strategic management.

In addition to that, r = 0.778 reflected positive and

strong relationship between Strategic leadership and

strategic leadership may aid and support functions

of strategic management in university environment

in Kuwait. For that sake, quantitative approach was

utilized and a questionnaire was built and uploaded

online for primary data gathering. After application,

(137) managerial and academic employees

responded to the questionnaire and SPSS was used

to handle the analysis of primary data. However,

study was able to reach following findings:

- There appeared to be high awareness among

Kuwaiti university managers and academic

employees on the importance of leadership

in general and strategic leadership in

- Level of respondents within Kuwait

environment was seen to be high regarding

the connection between leadership and

management from a strategic perspective