University leadership styles using the Kaizen approach

Omier Yetaim Alenezi

doi:10.34069/ai/2022.50.02.11

Abstract

The current research seeks to enhance current university leadership styles by using the Kaizen approach from a university leadership point of view it also highlights the requirements needed to improve university leadership by applying the Kaizen approach. To achieve these objectives, the research uses the questionnaire as a tool to collect research data and applies this to the leaders, faculty, and staff of four universities in the MENA area. The research sample consists of 160 individuals (including deans, co-deans, department heads, faculty, staff, and employees) from four different universities. The research concluded with several results, from which the majority of the sample first agreed that there is a lack of a Kaizen approach culture among university leadership, and also agreed on the importance of applying Kaizen principles as a model for enhancing university leadership.

Highlights

Organizations often seek to improve the quality of their management, and in this context, they search for the most effective and newest methods to support their institutional system
The results revealed that the majority of the leaders at the four chosen Arabian www.amazoniainvestiga.info universities agreed on the weakness of using the Kaizen approach for enhancing leadership and administration, seeking changes for the best, and keeping up continuous improvements
The study concluded that there is a success with Kaizen as a leadership approach and its strategies and principles are strongly beneficial for supporting and enhancing leaders in the management of their university’s departments, it is still not applicable by university leaders, and they have very little information about this approach

Summary

Introduction

Organizations often seek to improve the quality of their management, and in this context, they search for the most effective and newest methods to support their institutional system. Universities wish to be acknowledged as a source of good-quality higher education. As such, they constantly strive to discover innovative ways of performance enhancement. Universities, as an educational sector, are currently one of the most dynamic sectors today and, as such, need tools to create and monitor quality improvement for each aspect of their managerial processes. The challenges faced by universities, such as students demanding continuous excellence in higher education, raising standards of accreditation, and competitiveness between universities, mean that traditional styles for the quality management of education, administration, and modern strategies of universities must be altered (Khayum, 2017). One of the more recent trends in university leadership is the methodological Kaizen approach, with its essence emphasizing the encouragement of innovation and change, demonstrating confidence in the ability and participation of staff in defining the objectives of the organization, and empowering them administratively; it contributes to making them more aware of the tasks that they are assigned, and more capable of completing them, increasing the global competitiveness of universities (Thessaloniki, 2006)

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion