From the follower's viewpoint: A configural approach to the ideal academic leader.

These studies examine the context-specific differences in implicit leadership theory (ILT)—based conceptualizations (i.e., perceptual configurations) of the ideal academic leader in two contexts: private and public universities. Specifically, the authors measured the perceived importance of leadership abilities and traits among university faculty followers (i.e., non—department heads and non-deans) to reveal the ILTs of academic followers and how the ILTs influence these faculty perceptions depending on university context (i.e., private vs. public university context). The studies were conducted within academic business units, and they examined the faculties’ conceptualizations of the ideal academic leader (e.g., department head or dean) among more than 500 business school members from more than 220 universities. Conceptualizations of the ideal academic leader varied substantially across private and public contexts, indicating that the leadership characteristics desired by faculty followers are context specific. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.