The role of Authentic Leadership in supporting Innovations in Academic Institutions An applied study in the faculties of the University of Kufa

Abstract

Authentic leadership is one of the important administrative leadership styles that are compatible with the nature of work in the higher education sector, as well as the importance of various innovations in this sector, including service innovation. This study aims to explore the role that meritorious leadership can play through its elements (the internal ethical perspective, relational transparency) in supporting service innovations, whether those designed for administrative issues or those targeting various educational and scientific issues. This study came in two phases, the first phase is the pilot study, where a checklist was distributed to the study community in the initial study, represented by the scientific and administrative assistants in the (21) faculties of the University of Kufa, bringing the total number of associates (42) as well as (6) From the directors of the relevant scientific and administrative departments of the university’s office, (42) valid examination forms were retrieved for analysis, and after analyzing the data of the preliminary study, it was found that there are (10) faculties in which the worthy leadership is available at a high level with the presence of innovations, and (6) faculties are available Characteristics of meritorious leadership, but there are no innovations within the scale adopted by the researcher, and there is one college in which innovations exist, but there are no meritorious leadership characteristics, and finally, there are four colleges that were not within the study scale in either meritorious leadership characteristics or innovations. Accordingly, the second phase of the study (the basic study) was conducted on the ten colleges in which both themes of the study (worthy leadership and service innovations) are available as an "intentional sample". Where personal interviews were conducted with the deans of those colleges according to the qualitative approach, and the interview time ranged between 40 minutes and two hours for each dean, and these data were analyzed according to the mechanisms of the NVivo program. The study reached a set of conclusions and recommendations, the most important of which are: The results showed that in some colleges there is no comprehensive agreement on the element of the internal ethical perspective, as there is a weakness in this element in some colleges with regard to narrowing the horizon, weak self-regulation and the ability to resolve contradictions. The results showed that there is a consensus on most of the characteristics of service innovation with regard to improving the performance of the service institution, developing existing services and creating new services, but despite the presence of students and cadres seeking to provide new service innovations, providing a unique service innovation is still the subject of ambition for those cadres.