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By applying Parameshwar’s (2005) ego-transcendence model to two influential business leaders, the purpose of this paper is to examine how social innovation is promoted by business leaders through spiritual leadership.

The study used research tactics available within a phenomenological framework.

Based on the analysis of the two business leader case studies, several links between spiritual leadership and social innovation were identified. The central role of a higher purpose in enacting spiritual leadership as well as bringing about social innovation was most significant.

Use of secondary data, the inherent weaknesses in analysis based on a single individual’s interpretations and the analysis of only two business leaders were key limitations. A unique overlap was found between Dawson and Daniel’s (2010) social innovation model and Parameshwar’s (2005) ego-transcendence model.

As higher purpose was a key element in enacting spiritual leadership, leaders could look for the seeds of a higher purpose within the challenging circumstances of a situation. By shaping one’s behaviour to a higher purpose-related social cause than merely following rules and procedures or social conventions, leaders are more likely to develop their own personal decision-making style. By highlighting the importance of paying attention to the suffering of others rather one’s own suffering, the study also have implications for reducing the ego-based practices in day to day leadership in organisations.

Ego-transcendence model explains the link between social innovation and spiritual leadership in a non-organisational setting. The current study applies this link to the leadership context in business.

This chapter explores the perceptions that custodians of African cultures such as parents, grand-parents, village chiefs, and other community leaders hold regarding what higher education institutions ought to achieve for their children, and the extent to which these final ends are being, or can be, achieved through teaching and learning in cyberspace. Using the African context of Botswana as a reference point, the chapter situates learning and teaching practices online in the context of culture. After exploring the literature on cultural worldviews, African expectations of higher education, and online pedagogy and technology, the chapter documents the understandings and perceptions of the final ends that higher education institutions ought to pursue held by 39 village chiefs, community leaders, and parents from different cultural groups and communities. Evidence from phenomenological interviews revealed that Africans held that Afro-communal purposes for higher education in which promoting virtue, supporting culture, facilitating cooperation, and contributing to socio-economic development were seen as the paramount final ends for higher education institutions. The findings support Metz’s (2019) theoretical model of the ends of African higher education institutions. The chapter argues that, for online pedagogy in African universities and colleges to be successful, it should be grounded in collectivism where emphasis is given to the use of synchronous communication systems for the delivery of learning experiences, pedagogical practices are framed within community of practice, students are exposed to education for morality to foster a deeper sense of being real humans, and a socio-economic development agenda is emphasised.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dominant conceptualisation of quality in Afghanistan’s higher education strategic planning and policies, and consider the implications a broader conceptualisation of quality might have within Afghanistan’s conflict-affected context.

Drawing on data from document analysis and semi-structured interviews, the author identifies the dominant policy conceptualisation of quality.

The dominant conceptualisation of quality in Afghanistan’s higher education policy documents aligns with the sector’s primary policy purpose of promoting economic growth. However, quality assurance processes were developed with significant input from international actors, and replicate global norms for quality assurance. Whilst this is important for validity and legitimacy, at the same time it can be delegitimising for local stakeholders, and can limit opportunities for conceptualisations of quality which genuinely engage with the particularities of Afghanistan’s broader conflict-affected social context.

Introducing conceptualisations of quality in Afghanistan’s higher education policy which de-centre economic growth, and rather re-position social goals of cohesion and political sustainability as a central understanding of quality higher education, opens possibilities for the sector’s contribution towards national development.

There is limited published research into conceptualisations of quality within low-income and conflict-affected higher education contexts in general, and Afghanistan in particular. This paper intends to extend a critical conversation about the non-economic dividends a quality higher education sector can offer in such contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore parents as “stakeholders” in higher education in England and how they perceive teaching excellence.

The study adopted a qualitative research design using an interpretative approach through which the authors aimed to develop understandings of parents’ perspectives as higher education “stakeholders”. The empirical data were gathered via focus group interviews and an online survey with 24 participants in the UK.

This study found that the majority of parents wished to be treated as an important stakeholder group in higher education. Parent participants perceived that teaching excellence could be evidenced through indicators and measures, for example, the design and delivery of the courses, progress measures, contact hours, speed of return of marked work, graduate employability and so on. They also saw value and significance in the students’ exposure to ideas and perspectives not previously experienced, in zeal and passion in the teaching, and in an academically nurturing, understanding and supportive pedagogical relationship between academic and student.

This study uncovered some apparent tensions, contradictions and challenges for parents as stakeholders in higher education, for example, in reconciling the co-existence of their desire to be involved and engaged with scope for students to be formed as independent young adults. Parents’ desire to measure teaching excellence is also compounded by their concern that excellent teaching is thereby reduced to a box-ticking exercise. This study has implications for higher education institutions wishing to engage parents as a stakeholder group in a meaningful way.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between organizational purpose, leadership practices and sustainable outcomes for universities in emerging economies. We propose that a strong sense of purpose is a fundamental and defining feature in the leadership practices of these institutions, which ultimately contributes to their success.

The authors present a research model that defines the relationships between a sense of purpose, leadership practices, student success outcomes, alumni involvement outcomes and societal reputation outcomes. Over 200 higher education administrators in India participated in the study.

The institutions' sense of purpose directly relates to their leadership engagement practices and their student success outcomes. Student success outcomes are a crucial linkage between leadership engagement practices and alumni involvement outcomes to achieve their societal reputation.

As competitiveness intensifies, educational institutions under resource constraints must differentiate their organizational practices. This paper demonstrates how their core purpose and leadership actions result in achieving effective outcomes and overall sustainable societal reputation.

There is a significant difference between having an organizational purpose and enacting that purpose through their leadership practices. These results highlight the cascading effect from the institution's fundamental sense of purpose to their leadership practices and the positive outcomes of student success, alumni involvement and societal reputation.

This interorganizational discussion covers Astley and van de Ven's (1983) Organizational Analysis Matrix and key information to understand a broader, macro discussion including the purpose of organizations in society as well as overview the interorganizational relationships between the for-profit sector (i.e., businesses and corporations) and the specific sector of higher education. A consideration of motives, return on investment expectations, and interorganizational behavior is explored. This chapter highlights the complex nature of higher education and the for-profit realm, including inconsistent third-party support and intermingling from the government. Highlights from Sethi's (1975) seminal article serves as the basis for measurement and future expectations in a three-state schema for classifying corporate behavior.

Debate over the extent to which commercially derived concept and practices of quality can be applied to English higher education has continued unresolved for more than a decade. An obstacle to progress is the lack of consensus on the purpose of the higher education system – with views ranging from the utilitarian response to economic needs to the liberal idealist focus on learning for learning’s sake. Likewise, there are divergent opinions on the roles of individual stakeholders within the system. These differences and uncertainties persist and are evident in a detailed empirical “Voice of the Stakeholder” investigation of a specific degree programme. However, there is also some evidence, at both local and national level, that the differences may be reconcilable and that a model of educational quality, different from but capable of being related to commercial models is beginning to emerge. Such a model focuses on education as an interactive process, allows multiplicity of purpose and accepts the possibility of individual actors in the process simultaneously playing multiple roles. As quality theory continues to evolve, there is the interesting prospect that the higher education experience may have advanced that theory rather than proved its limitations.

This chapter examines the internationalisation of public higher education in Brazil using the theoretical triptych of internationalisation as developed by leading scholars in the field: internationalisation at home (IaH), internationalisation abroad (IA), and internationalisation at a distance (IaD). This framework – while rooted in knowledge, systems, and scholarship from researchers and institutions in the Global North – is a constructive tool for categorising and understanding internationalisation at Brazil’s higher education institutions (HEIs) when coupled with an exploration of the history, context, policy, and dynamics of internationalisation efforts. The chapter then summarises and underscores recent and important scholarship by Brazilian researchers and others in the Global South that describes the history of the nation’s internationalisation efforts. It also critiques the powerful influence that Global North-centred objectives and priorities for internationalisation have on the process at Brazilian HEIs. Following a discussion of the theoretical framework and relevant literature, the chapter provides a case study of internationalisation efforts and initiatives of an elite public university, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Content analysis of UFMG’s website and publicly available reports and data demonstrates a high level of institutional internationalisation that has unfolded in recent years, stimulated by federal funding and guided by a strategic framework developed within the Ministry of Education. An analysis of UFMG’s mission, partnerships and programmes finds that the institution serves as an example of internationalisation in Brazil’s public higher education context, as its programmes and initiatives exemplify the overarching objectives of internationalisation in Brazilian higher education.