**5. Conclusion**

TU transformational leadership is key to the prompt development of tertiary technical education. By linking the TL to the TU leadership, a model of the technical

#### *Leadership in a Changing World: Relating Transformational Leadership to Internal… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102574*

university transformational leadership (TUTL) concept was developed for the weaknesses and threats of the TUs as well as the strengths and opportunities that exist were identified for the internal and external conditions that would enhance performance for innovation. The TUTL concept must be adopted by the TUs. The TU leaders should critically consider and apply the strengths and opportunities that exist and link them up with the TL qualities available. The SWOT analysis of the TUTL provides a clear direction for all leaders at the TUs which would enhance performance for innovations.

Major findings on the strengths for the TUs include qualified staff, university structure, physical infrastructure and information and communication and technology (ICT) services and flexible academic programmes. The performance of the TUs would greatly increase when TLs utilize these strengths of the TUs. This would encourage new ideas, creativity and innovations and initiative [7, 58]. These strengths are deepened and facilitated by the opportunities that exist for the TUs. Major findings of the opportunities include the collaborations and partnerships, consultancy services, global and local networks, exchange programmes and entrepreneurship education. Hill and McShane [34] and Ramalingam et al. [56] argue that the features of TL are capable of churning the strengths and opportunities for an improved environmental conditions and performance of the TUs. Though all the 10 TUs had similar strength, the document reviews revealed more strengths and opportunities in the southern than the northern part, in areas of many qualified and experienced staff and high student numbers.

Comparatively, weaknesses and threats do exist in the TUs for which TL should be able to mobilize followers or employees to address the problems and minimize the negative conditions. This finding confirms a study on evaluation on the weaknesses of transformational and charismatic leadership theories [59, 60]. Major findings for the TU weaknesses include inadequate infrastructure; frequent changes in leadership and staff; inconsistencies in statues, scheme of services and policies and high turnover. These weaknesses are aggravated by the threats which exist among the TUs, which are low and negative public perception of TUs; national and international competition for students and resources. The weaknesses and threats were more pronounced in the northern area of the TUs than the southern area in the areas of high turnover and inadequate facilities, national and international competition for students and resources.

This study highlights on the documentary review of the TUs in relation to the characteristics of the TL based on their strategic plan, reports from management and websites. This study contributes to the technical tertiary education in the area of environmental factors that could enhance performance. The content and SWOT analysis added another strategy to the qualitative document case study for the TUs.

## **6. Limitations**

The study employed one leadership theory for the study. Other leadership theories such as situational, transactional and charismatic leadership styles were not adopted as part of the study. In addition, the study was limited to the qualitative conceptual model and documentary analysis concept. The SWOT analysis provided an examination into the environmental conditions of the TUs. Subsequent research could include interviews and direct observations from participants. Further limitations are that, the SWOT analysis may not prioritize issues, may generate many ideas for which not all may be important to solve the problem [61, 62]. However, the content analysis and the SWOT of the TUs in relation to the TL provided robust results in determining the environmental conditions which could influence or inhibit performance in the TUs.
