Impact of Leadership Style and Demographic Profile on Accounting Student Performance – The Case of Academic Administrators and Faculty Members in the Philippines

Abstract

Manuscript type: Research paper Research aims: This study aims to investigate how leadership styles and the demographic profiles of academic administrators and faculty members can influence the university students’ performance in the Board Licensure Examination for Certified Public Accountants (BLECPA). Design/Methodology/Approach: The leadership styles of the academic administrators and faculty members are measured through the Bass model. Data are collected from 94 academic administrators and faculty members attached to 35 top performing colleges/universities in the 2017’s BLECPA. Research findings: The results suggest that the leadership styles and the demographic profiles of the academic administrators affect the students’ performance in the BLECPA. Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study extends on the existing literature by providing empirical evidence which highlight the relationship between academic leadership styles and universities’ performance in the BLECPA. This outcome focusses on universities in and outside of Manila. This study uses a more sophisticated estimation technique to address the limitations of the classical linear regression model (CLRM). Moreover, this study evaluates leadership by incorporating both the administrators and the faculty members’ leadership styles. In that regard, this study differs from existing studies which had focused on a single source of leadership. Practitioner/Policy implications: The findings of this study inform universities on how leadership style and the characteristics of academic administrators, and faculty members may influence universities’ performance. Policies can be formulated based on the findings of this paper, particularly those offering accountancy education for both the Philippines and the ASEAN region. Research limitation: This study does not take into account the differences of the organisational structure and the number of staff and students of the universities. Keywords: Bass Leadership Model, Demographic Profile, Student Performance, Higher Institution Education JEL Classification: M49