Journal Critique 2
Journal critique: Effective leadership in higher education
This paper will discuss the article “Effective leadership in higher education: A review of
leadership style preferences among faculty and staff within the United States” and shares its
views on the leadership style preference among faculty and staff at higher education institutions.
We all know that in today’s world, the higher education landscape has redeveloped and has
become a more multifaceted arena since the beginning of the 21st century (Mews, 2019). Due to
new technological advancements and the awareness of diversity and inclusion in both the United
States and higher education, this landscape is essential for those institutions to develop and hire
individuals that can effectively lead faculty and students and carry out change developed through
initiatives.
Introduction
The idea of being a leader is to be someone who can improve critical factors in a
corporation or any other institution in which leadership is needed (Mews, 2019). Some of those
vital factors can be employee job satisfaction and commitment. Leaders can improve those key
factors by understanding and catering to employees’ preferences and developing a viewpoint that
past leaders underrepresented. Research shows a positive correlation between a leader-follower
relationship and organizational outcomes focused on employees of colleges and universities in
the United States (Mew, 2019). So, with that in mind, Joseph Mews, author of this article,
decided to develop a study showing leadership's perception. This is needed for higher education
institutions because faculty and staff do not often request or survey leadership feedback (Mew,
2019). Many higher education professionals know that it is not a frequent technique among
higher education administration to seek leadership advice from their faculty and staff. Therefore,
Mew took it upon himself to complete a survey where he recruited faculty and staff members
Journal Critique 3
from various HEIs to measure their preferred leadership styles by implementing the Vannismpco
Leadership Survey. The Vannismpco Leadership Survey (VLS) is an instrument that validates
the accounts of nine different leadership styles, which include the concept of hybrid (Mew,
2019).
Summary
Some studies have been conducted on leadership in higher education dating back to the
1940s and 1950s on Ohio State University and the University of Michigan campuses. Still, those
studies focused on behavioral theories within leadership. Since then, several other studies have
been conducted to gauge and identify effective leadership, but most have focused on leaders'
perceptions (Mew, 2019). Since the beginning of time, the theories that were developed based on
selective research among college and university leaders, and many of those that resulted from the
studies were contingency theory, behavioral theory, and situational theory. Still, the most
distinguished one of those theories was the follower-based concept. This concept is a leader-
member exchange theory that was developed in the 1970s and has forever changed the direction
of how vital positive leader-follower relationships are to the success of any college and
university administration. Due to the increase of research in leadership perspectives, it has
become more apparent that to become an effective leader. Leaders must pay close attention to
their style and their employees' preference. Employee satisfaction, retention, and commitment
are critical to an effective leader. Higher education institutions are complex organizations that
operate under mandated policies, often creating a need for leaders at every level to maintain
continuity and growth (Mew, 2019).
According to Mew, the purpose of this study was to help identify the preferred leadership
styles of faculty and staff in higher education institutions. This article demonstrates the results of
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36 leadership style pairings but only focuses on the following types: Democratic-
Transformational Leadership, Democratic Leadership, Transformational Leadership,
Transactional Leadership, and Laissez-faire Leadership (Mew, 2019). The study was conducted
among those who were categorized as faculty versus those categorized as staff. As stated before,
there are several benefits to understanding leadership styles and the preference of employees.
Still, there is minimal evidence on identifying which type is preferred, mainly by faculty and
staff members of higher education institutions. Joseph Mew took a quantitative approach to this
study to address the lack of research dedicated to this topic—creating an online questionnaire
titled “Leadership Style Questionnaire” (Mew, 2019). This questionnaire was designed by Mew
using Google Forms and only has two sections: demographics and Vannismpco Leadership
Survey (Mew, 2019). Under the demographic section, one can find questions that help him
distinguish the participants by gender, age, employment classification, and years of service at
their current higher education institution (Mew, 2019). The other section, the VLS, was used to
help the participants to identify their preferred leadership style.
The data collected for this study was collected from faculty and staff who volunteered
from higher education institutions who participated in the study. Google Forms was developed to
collect the data and then was analyzed with Microsoft Excel. As a result of the survey, there 146
participants were involved. Of those 146 participants, 106 were classified as faculty members,
and 40 were classified as staff and 24 of the 36 leadership style pairings had a significant
difference (Mew, 2019). Concluding the survey and the results, the statistical assessment
revealed the volunteers preferred Democratic-Transformational Leadership more and were less
attracted to Laissez-faire Leadership (Mew, 2019). And when it comes to the preference between
faculty and staff, there was a significant difference in tendencies toward Democratic Leadership
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and Transactional Leadership. A democratic-transactional leadership style is characterized as a
method that is often used during times of change, for example, when involvement and inclusions
are being requested from employees regarding the decision-making and communication process
(Mew, 2019). This method is best used when onboarding new employees, mainly when
mentoring opportunities are presented primarily for the leader. Democratic-Transactional
Leadership is a hybrid leadership style the acting leader may have to utilize democratic or
transformational leadership strategies (Mew, 2019). The understanding that democratic
leadership is a collaborative approach. It, too, can be very effective when dealing with creative
groups and select employees who tend to be more open to new ideas. Incorporating this approach
allows leaders to discover untapped potential in either training or professional development
situations. Lastly, transformational leadership is often recruited to help employees increase their
abilities and performance morale. Many leaders use this to motivate their employees and help
achieve a high retention rate. According to the study results, this type of leadership is also
frequently requested by both faculty and staff. Transformational Leadership should be
incorporated to help establish and maintain relationships among faculty and staff for continued
progress in their performance.
Analysis
Understanding that there is limited research on leadership styles and preferences from the
employees' perspective, this article allowed its readers to see an excellent opportunity to examine
this idea continuously. Knowing the employees seek validation from their leader because it helps
embrace them and build healthy relationships. It takes just one person in an administrative
position to invest time and energy into their employees, allowing them to have tremendous
success. As higher education professionals, one knows the importance of being valued and
Journal Critique 6
poured into and having someone that understands the same is genuinely welcoming. Mew stated
that having either democratic or transactional leadership is what faculty and staff members at
HEIs seek and will completely agree. One can see how this is true. Investing in who invests in
you is something a lot of people go by, and with having that mindset, a lot of higher education
institutions are successful because they invest in those who invest in them. Implementing
democratic or transactional leadership at any higher education institution can help retain faculty
and staff because they feel valued.
