Leadership Strategies and Styles as Determinants of Occupational Justice in Selected Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

Abstract

Leadership strategies and styles play a crucial role in fostering occupational justice within higher education institutions (HEIs), particularly in promoting fairness, inclusivity, and equitable workplace practices. In selected HEIs, leadership strategies were practiced at a very high level, with professional development, communication, and conflict management as the most emphasized domains, followed by employee engagement and decision-making. Administrators also demonstrated strong application of leadership styles, particularly transformational, transactional, and democratic/participative approaches, while laissez-faire leadership was less frequently practiced. Correspondingly, the level of occupational justice was perceived to be very high, especially in terms of interactional justice and recognition and inclusion, indicating a generally fair and supportive work environment. The goal of this study was to determine the level of leadership strategies, leadership styles, and occupational justice; examine the relationships among these variables; and assess the predictive power of leadership strategies and leadership styles on occupational justice in selected HEIs. The findings revealed significant and strong positive relationships between leadership strategies and leadership styles, as well as between leadership strategies and occupational justice. Moreover, leadership styles demonstrated strong to very strong correlations with occupational justice, particularly transactional and democratic/participative leadership. Regression analysis further showed that leadership strategies significantly predicted occupational justice, explaining 54.0% of its variance (R² = 0.540, p < .001). Meanwhile, leadership styles demonstrated greater predictive power, accounting for 80.8% of the variance (R² = 0.808, p < .001), indicating that leadership styles are stronger contributors to occupational justice. It was concluded that both leadership strategies and leadership styles significantly influence occupational justice, with leadership styles serving as the more dominant predictor. This study implies that strengthening transformational and participative leadership, alongside effective leadership strategies, can further enhance fairness, inclusivity, and equitable practices in HEIs. The proposed JUSTICE framework serves as a practical guide for administrators to continuously improve leadership effectiveness and promote a more equitable and inclusive academic environment.