The Interplay between Strength of Character and Institutional Traits in the Effective Planning and Leadership of Public Universities

This study is part of a wider research that determined the interplay between strength of character and institutional traits in the effective planning and leadership of public universities in Nigeria. The understanding remains that the interplay between strength of character and institutional traits becomes particularly evident when it comes to long-term planning and leadership strategic direction. The population for the study comprised all faculty members, non-academic staff, and doctoral students in public universities in Rivers State. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to ensure representation across different demographics and characteristics. The sample size is 600 respondents—faculty members, non-academic staff, and doctoral students, respectively. The authors' self-structured questionnaire, tagged the “Strength of Character and Institutional Traits in the Effective Planning and Leadership of Public Universities (SCITEPLPU)”, was developed to assess stakeholders’ perceptions of the strength of character of their institutions. The internal consistency was verified using Cronbach's Alpha and reliability indices of α = .896 and .840. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29. Mean and standard deviation were tallied along “agree and disagree. Any mean score of 3.50 or higher indicates agreement, while any mean score that falls below 3.50 represents disagreement. On the part of the correlation analysis, Kendall’s Tau-b was employed and tested at .05 level of significance. The study found, amongst others, that institutional humility, perseverance, adaptability, etc., play a significant role in improving the planning and leadership of public universities in Nigeria. The study concluded that to foster balance in public universities, leadership must cultivate environments where both leaders and institutions thrive to guarantee the responsive needs of students, faculty, and staff for the good of society as a whole. From the findings, the study recommended that university leaders should further improve their humility, perseverance, self-awareness, adaptability, and moral principles.