Academic Leaders in the View of Distributed Leadership

Abstract

The study aimed to recognise the reality of academic leaders’ performances in Saudi universities in the view of distributed leadership from faculty members’ perspectives, as well as to identify the difficulties and proposed requirements for improving the performance of academic leaders in this view. To achieve the objectives of the study, descriptive surveys and two questionnaires were used to collect data. The study was applied to 247 academic leaders and 373 faculty members. The study concluded that the performance level of academic leaders in the view of distributed leadership was high. The difficulty levels of developing the performance of academic leaders in the view of introducing distributed leadership were also high. The score for requirements to develop the performance of academic leaders in the view of introducing distributed leadership was very high. Therefore, there were a number of recommendations made, including developing Saudi universities’ regulations to encourage them to distribute tasks and roles in an atmosphere of freedom and distance themselves from bureaucratic restrictions.