Integrating Leadership Models in Educational Management: A Review of Academic Expertise and Managerial Strengths

This paper provides an exhaustive review of current research on leadership models in educational management but particularly the notable overlap of academic skills and managerial competencies in tertiary and secondary schools. We test how the presence and respective relative prominence of transformational, transactional, democratic, and laissez faire dominance within a leadership style portfolio relate to the readiness of the leadership for the organization versus organizational effectiveness, controlling for organizational justice and demographic variables (age, experience, field of study) in the leadership. An important finding is the critical role of the emotional intelligence, especially while considering the influences of managerialism in educational settings. The review also looks at the challenges associated with reconciling for academic and managerial leaders at dual sector institutions combining higher education with vocational education. The study seeks to identify how effective leadership depends on achieving equilibrium between academic and operational responsibility through a combination qualitative and quantitative methods. Instead, organizational justice moderates the leadership style organizational performance relationship, thereby emphasizing the need for transparent and equitable institutional governance structures. Based on these insights, the paper makes practical recommendations for improving leadership development and training. This is a signal reminder of why school leaders need to need to be able to handle their administrative tasks and their academic responsibilities simultaneously. The paper concludes with a call for additional research that investigates the emergent character of educational leadership because of the changing nature of these organizational contexts and greater sophistication in educational leadership expectations.