Perceived Effectiveness of Academic Leadership Development Training: The Contribution of Motivational Factors and Peer Interaction

Due to the radical changes and complexities within academicinstitutions, leadership development addressed to academicleaders in the digital age has become more critical. In the availableliterature, the outcome assessment of leadership development andits related factors have not been evaluated rigorously. The currentstudy investigated the contribution of peer interaction and twosubscales of motivation to the effectiveness of the leadershipdevelopment programs perceived by training participants in adiverse context. Of 101 participants, the majority of trainingworkshop attendees were junior and middle-level leaders fromboth European universities and Chinese universities whoparticipated in the leadership development programs organizedunder an EU project. PLS-SEM was exploited to validate themeasurement model and test the hypotheses. The results showedthat self-growth and peer interaction significantly contribute toperceived effectiveness, whereas networking motivator showsnonsignificant impact. The findings also illustrated that the two motivation patterns have significant effects on interaction quality.The mediating role of peer interaction on the relationshipsbetween the two motivational factors and perceived effectiveness,respectively, were not found in the current study. The findingscontributed to identifying the role of different contributors to theeffectiveness of the leadership development program in HEcontexts and the potential of such a program to enhanceknowledge and capacities of academic leaders regarding universitygovernance and leadership.

Keywords:Higher Education, Academic leadership, Leadership development

Accessibility:Open