International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12
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 Volume 12, Issue 3 (March 2025), Pages: 58-68

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 Original Research Paper

Examining the role of transformational leadership in promoting sustainable practices among university teachers in Guangdong

 Author(s): 

 Xu Yanhong 1, 2, Nor Azma Binti Rahlin 1, *, Sharifah Rahama Binti Amirul 1

 Affiliation(s):

 1Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
 2College of Management, Guangzhou College of Technology and Business, Guangzhou, China

 Full text

  Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4511-2343

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2025.03.007

 Abstract

Sustainability is an important issue for universities worldwide, especially in fast-growing regions such as Guangdong Province, China. Although higher education institutions increasingly focus on sustainability, a gap remains between the promotion of sustainability by academic leaders and its actual implementation by educators. This study examines how transformational leadership influences sustainable practices in universities in Guangdong Province. Specifically, it explores the impact of transformational leadership on university teachers’ attitudes, subjective norms, and behaviors related to sustainability. The research is based on a sample of 421 university teachers, selected using a stratified random sampling method. Structural equation modeling was conducted using SmartPLS 4 to analyze the data and measure these relationships. The findings show that transformational leadership significantly improves teachers’ positive attitudes toward sustainability but does not directly increase their engagement in sustainable practices. This result reveals a gap between leaders’ intentions and teachers’ actions. The study provides useful insights for academic leaders and policymakers aiming to promote sustainability in higher education institutions.

 © 2025 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Sustainability practices, Transformational leadership, University teachers, Higher education, Behavioral impact

 Article history

 Received 21 September 2024, Received in revised form 12 February 2025, Accepted 20 February 2025

 Acknowledgment

No Acknowledgment.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

Informed consent was obtained from all participants, and data confidentiality was maintained throughout.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Yanhong X, Binti Rahlin NA, and Binti Amirul SR (2025). Examining the role of transformational leadership in promoting sustainable practices among university teachers in Guangdong. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 12(3): 58-68

 Permanent Link to this page

 Figures

 Fig. 1 

 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 

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