The Influence of Staff Background on Their Perception towards Leadership Effectiveness of the Vice Chancellor

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of demographic background of staff on their perception towards the leadership effectiveness of their vice chancellor (VC) in a private university in Malaysia. The Leadership Orientation Survey instrument was administered to 43 of the staff reporting directly to the VC to examine his leadership effectiveness. Results show that the staff perceived the VC’s leadership effectiveness as exhibiting two of the four leadership frames, which are the structural frame and the symbolic frame. The staff perceived him as a leader compared to as a manager. However, the study failed to reject the hypothesis that demographic background of the staff (gender, age, academic qualification, current position held, number of years spent in their current job and managerial experience) is an influential factor of their perception towards leadership effectiveness of the VC. In other words, demographic background of the staff did not seem to cause any significant influence on their perception towards leadership effectiveness of the vice chancellor.