Effective Behavioral, Intellectual, and Emotional Leadership Characteristics in Information Technology Departments in Higher Education

The inexperience of leaders in Information Technology departments has contributed to ineffective leadership. The trend of hiring inexperienced leaders is now creating a concern from university leaders due to ineffective leadership skills in IT departments in higher education. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive single case study was to explore how senior IT leaders perceive the effective intellectual, behavioral, and emotional leadership characteristics of IT leaders in higher education. The sample consisted of 12 senior IT leaders in higher education. Data analysis involved procedures such as noting patterns and themes, counting, clustering, and revealing conceptual coherence. As a contribution to the field of educational technology in higher education, the results of the study led to a deeper understanding of the leadership characteristics appropriate in the IT department in higher education. Four major themes were identified: special features of IT and HE; behavioral; intellectual; and emotional leadership. The researcher identified features of IT and higher education in order to discuss how university leadership differs from the business world, as well as how IT departments match with the other university departments. Another major theme established the behavioral and leadership concerns. The participants expressed how crucial it is for leaders to maintain relationships and communication with their subordinates to effectively solve problems. In addition, it was also highlighted that leaders should provide trust to their subordinates and govern by consent. The next major theme was the intellectual leadership traits, which included prioritizing and developing the intellect of leaders. By stepping back, and seeing the big picture, it was also shown that leaders should create better decisions and actions in line with their vision. Finally, the fourth and last major theme was emotional leadership, which mainly indicated that an effective leader is one who can properly manage his or her emotions. The results of this study may assist in the generation of a leadership profile that can better ensure the effectiveness of individuals promoted to higher education IT leadership positions, which will also improve overall institutional effectiveness.