Leadership in a Changing World: Relating Transformational Leadership to Internal and External Environmental Issues in Technical Universities

This paper seeks to relate the characteristics of transformational leadership (TL) to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis of technical universities (TUs) in Ghana. The low performance of TUs in Ghana, has necessitated the need for effective TL. Using the qualitative approach, a documentary review and content analysis of 10 TUs were employed for the study. The study found that, the strength of the TUs were the qualified and experienced staff, the university structure, ICT services and flexible academic programmes. The main weaknesses were the inadequate staffing and low research output with opportunities identified as collaborations with industry and other institutions, whilst threats included the low and negative perceptions by the public about the TUs. Comparatively, it was revealed that the TUs in the southern part had more strengths than those in the northern part of Ghana. The TL was therefore key in providing transformation to the TUs by strengthening their SOs and minimizing their WTs. This study contributes to the technical tertiary education in the area of internal and external environmental conditions that could enhance performance of TUs. The content and SWOT analyses added another dimension to the qualitative documentary case study for the TUs.