Academicians’ Innovative Work Behaviour: Which Leadership Style Most Effective to Foster it?

Abstract

This article investigates the factors that influence academicians' innovative work behaviour (IWB) in higher education institutions. It is important to meet the education market that undergoing fast change, and demand for high-quality educational delivery is rising. Therefore, this article provides a preliminary assessment of the extent to which leadership style most influences academicians' IWB in higher education institutions. Social cognitive theory will serve as the conceptual framework for this investigation. The method employed in this article is a survey of the relevant literature from journals, conference papers, and theses, and this paper adopted a conceptual method. The variables in this analysis were given dimensions and measurements based on earlier research and recommendations. This study was predicted to show that transformational leadership is the most significant predictor of innovative work behavior. The finding of this research is consistent with research conducted by previous scholars, who concluded that in order to improve Malaysia's performance in Global Innovation Index (GII), administrators of Malaysia higher education institutions must encourage academicians to engage in IWB, given their expertise and forte.  This paper also provides perspective on the leadership style understanding and its potential for fostering academicians IWB in Malaysia's higher education system.