Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which transformational
leadership is exercised in the public sector universities of Pakistan. The public sector
universities have been subjected to lots of criticism as their performances have been on a
continuous decline despite considerable level of attention being given to them in recent
years by the government. It has been observed that the teachers, who act as the corner
stone in the performance of an educational institution, are less satisfied with their
institutional leadership. This study aimed to identify gaps and specific areas of
improvement in the leadership practices of these institutions. The Kouzes and Posner’s
(2007) transformational theory lens has been deployed to conceptualize effective
leadership practices that are modeling the way, inspiring the shared vision, challenging
the processes, enabling others to act and encouraging the heart. The leadership practices
inventory, designed by James Kouzes and Bary Posner (2007), has been used to measure
these transformational leadership practices of the top management and faculty heads of
the public sector universities. A cross sectional survey research design has been selected
for this study and data from two hundred teachers of three public sector universities of
Islamabad and Rawalpindi has been collected. The results from 148 usable survey
instruments revealed that transformational leadership practices are exercised at a below
average frequency in these universities. It was also found that universities, ranked higher
by the higher Education Commission (HEC) in terms of quality and performances, have
reported a greater frequency of transformational leadership practices.
