The Importance Of Social And Emotional Competencies For Effective Academic Leadership In Private Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

This study aims to examine the role of social and emotional competencies for effective leadership in private higher education. We examined the impact of personality, self-confidence, and emotional intelligence (EI) on academic leadership in private higher education institutions. The five-factor model of normal personality as indexed by the Mini-International Personality Item Pool questionnaire, Self- confidence scale, Emotional Skills, and Ohio State teacher efficacy scale were applied to a sample of 157 academic leaders in private higher education institutions (97 men, 60 women, the mean age was 46 years). As predicted, regressions analyses showed a significant impact on academic leaders' competencies on personality, self- confidence, and EI abilities. The results demonstrated unique predictive relations for the three leaders self-efficacy scales: extraversion, conscientiousness, and intellect/imagination. Only efficacy for instructional strategies was related to low neuroticism. Self-confidence significantly affected all teacher self-efficacy components (instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement). Emotional intelligence showed positive effects on all three components of teacher self-efficacy. Perceiving and understanding emotion and managing and regulating emotion significantly predicted all three academic leaders' self-efficacy components, while expressing and labelling emotion was associated with efficacy for instructional strategies and student engagement. The results highlighted the importance of personality, self- confidence, and emotional intelligence in explaining academic leaders' self- efficacy. They showed that these social and emotional competencies accounted uniquely significant percentage of the total score variance in indicators of effective leadership. Keywords: Academic Leadership, Teacher Self-efficacy, Personality, Self-confidence, Emotional Intelligence, Private Higher Education