Considerations on Intellectual and Academic Leadership of a Scholar in Higher Education: The Descriptive Literature Review

Introduction: The search for solutions to the issue of leadership leads to hundreds of leadership studies, most of which are contradictory and inconclusive. The scientific literature on leadership in higher education is focused mainly on educational, academic, managerial or thought leadership. This literature provides the opinion that the intellectual leadership in higher education is directed towards building social and intellectual capital through a scholar’s involvement in decision-making and performance of leadership roles in ways that support the scholar’s collaborative decision-making and empowerment. Scholars see intellectual leadership as the scope of challenging processes, which incorporate ideas, values, understandings, solutions, beliefs, visions, knowledge, approaches, purpose and actions. These aspects must be accepted through collectively-shared understanding and generated contextually for organizational development in higher education. With growth in administrative demands, it becomes difficult for intellectual leaders to achieve an appropriate balance of leadership, teaching and research in higher education