Volume 32, Issue 1 (3-2025)
RJMS 2025, 32(1): 1-8 |
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PhD of Higher Education Management, Doctor of Higher Education Management, Center for Studies and Development of Medical Education, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran , adel.golafshani58@gmail.com
Abstract: (255 Views)
Background & Aim: Visionary leadership is considered one of the key factors in improving the quality of educational effectiveness and the internationalization of universities. Therefore, the overall objective of the present research is to provide a model to explain the impact of visionary leadership on the internationalization of medical sciences universities in Macro Region One of the country's health sector. The current health system suffers from significant problems and a major gap in the domain of management and leadership competencies. Identifying and developing potential (visionary) managers to train successful future leaders can eliminate this gap. Visionary leadership emerged as an important concept in leadership literature in the 1980s. Visionary leaders provide a powerful image of a vision for change and improvement in universities and higher education institutions for faculty members, vice-chancellors, deans, department heads, and staff, enabling them to willingly embrace the path toward achieving the vision and share their hopes and dreams. Visionary leadership must first create a vision, then share this vision, and bring about transformation in public sectors and organizational change, addressing questions that arise along the way. Visionary leaders must utilize strategic management. They must anticipate and imagine future events, believe in change, and remain flexible. Visionary leaders are true learning machines, skilled and creative in gathering ideas and knowledge from various sources, combining them in new ways, and discerning new patterns and methods. Educational institutions at all levels, from kindergarten to university, also need to play a responsible role in nurturing future visionary leaders. Given the emphasis by faculty members and students on the effectiveness of a medical leader, as well as the necessity for medical professors and students to become familiar with leadership concepts and be trained as effective visionary leaders, empowerment becomes essential. The increasing complexity of healthcare service systems heightens the need for effective medical leaders to make decisions within organizations, yet few physicians are trained to work as effective leaders. The leadership and management process directly impacts the educational, research, and consequently, treatment capabilities within the country's medical sciences universities in creating a desirable organizational climate and ultimately their success. Therefore, the role of visionary managers is essential for organizations, to the extent that academic disciplines have been established to cultivate and prepare managers to contribute to the improvement of organizations, regions, the country, and even the world. Claflin University is an example of such an institution, having established a bachelor's degree program in visionary leadership at its Institute for Visionary Leadership. They believe that visionary leadership can be taught and learned through academic courses.
Methods: The method of this research is descriptive survey. Its statistical population consisted of 1851 faculties of the macro-regional universities of medical sciences, 320 of whom were selected using the random stratified sampling method according to Cochran's C test. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire of visionary leadership consisting with 90 questions and 2 dimensions and 6 components, and a researcher-made questionnaire of Internationalization with 50 questions and 8 dimensions were used. To analyze the data, structural equation test was performed using SPSS20 and PLS software.
Results: The results indicated that visionary leadership, with a factor loading of 0.661, has a positive and significant impact on the internationalization of medical sciences universities in Macro Region One. Furthermore, the proposed model demonstrated a good fit. First, a summary of some of the demographic characteristics of the respondents is presented separately: For the variable of gender: women constituted 36.9% of the statistical sample, and men constituted 63.1%. For the variable of age: 13.5% of the statistical sample were in the age group under 40 years, 60.6% were in the 40-50 years age group, and 25.9% were in the age group over 50 years. For the variable of work experience: 20.9% of the statistical sample had less than 10 years of experience, 56.3% had 10 to 20 years, and 22.8% had over 20 years of experience. For the variable of academic rank: Instructors constituted 10.9% of the statistical sample, Assistant Professors 64.1%, Associate Professors 19.1%, and Full Professors 5.9%. To determine the impact of visionary leadership on the internationalization of the medical sciences universities in Macro Region One for the purpose of presenting a model, structural equation modeling was used. The results are presented in Diagrams 1 and 2 and Table 2.
Conclusion: A necessary condition for active participation in the internationalization of higher health education is the effective management and leadership of higher education management structures. The aforementioned research can open new perspectives for changing the general policies of managers and officials in medical sciences universities of the macro-region, especially Macro Region One, towards revising programs and packages for transformation and innovation. The true skill of a leader lies in their ability to interact positively with followers on the path to achieving the university's missions and securing a good future for them. Given that higher health education centers are one of the most important custodians of learning within the country's educational system, it is essential for these centers to be equipped with visionary leaders. Therefore, for universities and higher education institutions, as one of the country's educational entities, to play a role on the international stage, they must possess a strong leadership and management system. A prerequisite for active engagement in the internationalization of higher health education in Iran is effective management and leadership in the internationalization of higher education management structures within academic educational and research domains and the national environment. In the strategies for academic leadership in health education, "focusing on internationalization as a priority" is the most influential issue.
Methods: The method of this research is descriptive survey. Its statistical population consisted of 1851 faculties of the macro-regional universities of medical sciences, 320 of whom were selected using the random stratified sampling method according to Cochran's C test. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire of visionary leadership consisting with 90 questions and 2 dimensions and 6 components, and a researcher-made questionnaire of Internationalization with 50 questions and 8 dimensions were used. To analyze the data, structural equation test was performed using SPSS20 and PLS software.
Results: The results indicated that visionary leadership, with a factor loading of 0.661, has a positive and significant impact on the internationalization of medical sciences universities in Macro Region One. Furthermore, the proposed model demonstrated a good fit. First, a summary of some of the demographic characteristics of the respondents is presented separately: For the variable of gender: women constituted 36.9% of the statistical sample, and men constituted 63.1%. For the variable of age: 13.5% of the statistical sample were in the age group under 40 years, 60.6% were in the 40-50 years age group, and 25.9% were in the age group over 50 years. For the variable of work experience: 20.9% of the statistical sample had less than 10 years of experience, 56.3% had 10 to 20 years, and 22.8% had over 20 years of experience. For the variable of academic rank: Instructors constituted 10.9% of the statistical sample, Assistant Professors 64.1%, Associate Professors 19.1%, and Full Professors 5.9%. To determine the impact of visionary leadership on the internationalization of the medical sciences universities in Macro Region One for the purpose of presenting a model, structural equation modeling was used. The results are presented in Diagrams 1 and 2 and Table 2.
Conclusion: A necessary condition for active participation in the internationalization of higher health education is the effective management and leadership of higher education management structures. The aforementioned research can open new perspectives for changing the general policies of managers and officials in medical sciences universities of the macro-region, especially Macro Region One, towards revising programs and packages for transformation and innovation. The true skill of a leader lies in their ability to interact positively with followers on the path to achieving the university's missions and securing a good future for them. Given that higher health education centers are one of the most important custodians of learning within the country's educational system, it is essential for these centers to be equipped with visionary leaders. Therefore, for universities and higher education institutions, as one of the country's educational entities, to play a role on the international stage, they must possess a strong leadership and management system. A prerequisite for active engagement in the internationalization of higher health education in Iran is effective management and leadership in the internationalization of higher education management structures within academic educational and research domains and the national environment. In the strategies for academic leadership in health education, "focusing on internationalization as a priority" is the most influential issue.
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Clinical Psychiatry