The Increasing Need for Inclusive Leadership for Academic Loyalty in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) and tertiary education have continued to evolve over the centuries. This evolution brings along also the need for leadership to understand their contribution to ensuring tertiary education and HEIs remain relevant by being centers of innovation to the communities they serve. As a result, the future HEIs depend on its leadership and it allows its academics, as members of collectives, to communicate and negotiate with their institutions, through their leaders and managers, to be recognized and supported for their understanding and practices. Inclusive leadership provides academics with a feeling of a sense of belonging, thus contributing to the vision and goals of the HEIs. On their part, HEIs are meant to continually be centers of innovation, and to achieve this, they must provide leadership that is inclusive by ensuring equality, diversity, and inclusion. This will enable academics to perceive and understand the institutional support available to them towards their innovativeness and achieving their professional goals and ambitions. This chapter explored the influence of inclusive leadership in higher education institutions, from an inclusive approach, on academic innovation based on the purview of its antecedents and consequences on perceived institutional support (PIS).