Navigating sustainable leadership: the role of organizational culture in shaping Pakistani women leaders' emotional intelligence and high-performance

Purpose This study examines the mediating role of organizational culture (OC) in the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and high-performance leadership (HPL) among women leaders in Pakistani universities. It investigates in what way emotional competencies and institutional culture interact to shape sustainable leadership in higher education. Grounded in contemporary frameworks of leadership education and development (Allen et al., 2022), the study emphasizes the need to integrate emotional and cultural dimensions into leadership preparation for women in academia. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed, using a structured questionnaire administered to 200 women leaders from both public and private universities in Lahore, Pakistan. The results revealed that leaders in private universities demonstrated higher levels of EI, OC and HPL compared to those in public institutions. Emotional intelligence emerged as a strong predictor of high-performance leadership, while organizational culture significantly mediated this relationship. Findings The findings emphasize that emotionally intelligent leaders are better equipped to promote a supportive organizational culture, which in turn enhances leadership performance. In general, the study highlights the importance of advancing leadership education and development initiatives that cultivate emotionally intelligent and culturally responsive women leaders to promote equity, institutional resilience, and sustainable leadership in higher education. Originality/value This study is original because it uniquely explores how organizational culture shapes the emotional intelligence and high-performance of Pakistani women leaders, a group that remains significantly under-researched in leadership and management literature, particularly within South Asian cultural and organizational contexts.