Visionary Leadership for Management of Innovative Higher Education Institutions: Leadership Trajectories in a Changing Environment

Abstract

The study sought to explore the paths that leadership can take to come up with meet innovative changes in the higher education landscape. Most people look upon leadership in higher education to inject solutions to employment problems that are in society. It is through an innovative curriculum that such changes can take place. In such an environment, there is need for leadership with a vision. The kind of paths that leadership should follow to meet such changes is the object of this paper. The study was qualitative by nature and employed the case study design. Semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires were used as the main data generation tools. A convenience sample of 10 lecturers and 27 students was made. The major findings of the study were that leadership requires skills to bring in curriculum change and innovation. Leadership should have the ability of creating an organisational work culture that makes every one think of ways of doing work in new ways. The need to encourage academic professional development was highlighted as a useful path to take by a visionary leader. Learning should comprise of programmes that meet both the formal and informal sector market. There is need for leadership support through motivational strategies, introduction of ICT and creating a conducive climate for innovation as useful paths.

Keywords: leadership trajectories; management; innovative programmes; change; visionary leadership; higher education institutions