Positive leadership and its role in achieving organizational recovery: An exploratory study of the opinions of a sample of heads of academic departments in a number of government universities ranked among the top three in the Kurdistan region of Iraq

Abstract

Positive leadership has emerged as a prominent concept that has garnered considerable academic attention within organizational management models, owing to its ability to enhance organizational effectiveness by fostering positive values and motivational behavior patterns. Public universities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are increasingly facing organizational challenges due to fluctuating economic and political conditions, which negatively impact their ability to recover and return to normal operations after crises. This study aims to examine the nature of the correlation and causal relationship between positive leadership and organizational recovery in the top-ranked public universities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Data were collected from a sample of 204 heads of academic departments in these universities using a questionnaire designed to measure the study variables. The researcher utilized a set of statistical techniques to analyze the data using SPSS version 26 for descriptive analyses, while Smart PLS version 4.0.9 was employed to test the relationships between the study variables through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that positive leadership plays a fundamental role in promoting organizational recovery, as it contributes to improving universities’ capacity to confront crises and adapt to changes by fostering a positive work environment that supports creativity, resilience, and adaptability.