Assessing School Leaders’ Strategic Thinking Skills and Digital Leadership Readiness for Cybersecurity Management

Abstract

This study aims to assess the strategic thinking skills and digital leadership readiness of school leaders in relation to cybersecurity management within educational organisations. As schools increasingly adopt digital platforms for teaching, administration, and data storage, the role of strategic and digitally competent leadership has become critical in mitigating cyber risks. Drawing on the framework of 21st-century leadership and cybersecurity governance models, a quantitative survey was conducted involving 207 secondary school leaders in Sabah, Malaysia. Descriptive analysis revealed that overall levels of strategic thinking were moderately high, particularly in dimensions such as future-oriented thinking and conceptual thinking. However, digital leadership readiness, especially in aspects involving cybersecurity protocols, risk awareness, and data protection practices, was found to be at a moderate level, indicating room for improvement. Further analysis using one-way ANOVA showed a statistically significant difference in both strategic thinking and digital leadership readiness based on leadership experience. Leaders with more than 10 years of experience demonstrated significantly higher scores in strategic foresight and proactive cybersecurity engagement compared to those with less than 5 years of experience (p < 0.05).These findings highlight the importance of embedding strategic leadership training and cybersecurity literacy in professional development programs for school leaders. The study suggests that tailored interventions are needed to bridge the preparedness gap among school leaders, especially those newer to the role, to enhance cybersecurity governance in the digital transformation of education.