The influence of graduate attributes and humanistic principles on leadership, social responsibility, and performance

Higher education institutions’ philosophy

An organization’s philosophy describes its reason for existence and principles that guide its operations. Like any other organization, HEIs also develop a philosophy that guides their operations, policies, and practices. It is particularly relevant to the HEI’s relationships with internal and external stakeholders (Byars and Neil, 1987), whose roles in education have expanded due to their importance and influence in organizational, school activities (Tauginienė and Urbanovič, 2018). University stakeholders commonly include: collaborators, professors, students, suppliers, regulatory authorities, parents, national and international accreditors, nongovernmental organizations, alumni (Marshall, 2018), the community, amongst others.

According to Fernández et al. (2018), HEIs have internal and external stakeholders; the latter are permanently associated with the institution, and the former are temporarily associated. Internal stakeholders include “students, teaching and research staff, administrative and service personnel, and governance team,” and external stakeholders include “regulators, companies-industry, graduates, and international arena” (Fernández et al., 2018, p. 39). And, according to Tauginienė and Urbanovič (2018), there are three main types of stakeholders associated with schools, universities: users, suppliers, and manufacturers. While users, “educational users: pupils, students, parents, employers, and society at large”, and manufacturers, “developers of the curriculum, authors and publishers of the textbooks, and manufacturers of training materials”, include internal and external stakeholders, suppliers are internal, such as “teachers, heads of schools, and education managers” (Tauginienė and Urbanovič, 2018, p. 151). Given stakeholders’ particular roles in university activities, the philosophy is a means by which HEIs communicate their identity, purpose, and long-term plans to attain their strategic objectives, internally and externally.

Philosophies are elemental to the organization’s strategic planning (Morphew and Hartley, 2006); that is, in the design of their mission, vision, values, objectives, strategies, and tactics. One of the most influential elements of a HEI’s philosophy is its mission. A mission statement directs the organization towards the achievement of a shared strategic objective (Mion et al., 2024) and guides collaborators’ work towards a desired performance (Campbell, 1992); therefore, it is one way by which its academic structure or framework is evaluated (Ellis and Miller, 2014).

In general, HEIs’ mission, main purpose may be described as the process of training professionals who pursue truth through their everyday actions (Flores Rabasa, 2021); however, universities may have additional missions. For instance, according to Taliento (2022), universities may have three main missions, known as the first, second, and third missions. The first mission refers to education, shaping and training individuals academically, the second mission focuses on research, the development of knowledge, and the third mission denotes the HEI’s role in social and market needs (Pinto et al., 2016). All three send a clear message to internal and external stakeholders about the HEI’s position, priorities, approach to their teaching-learning process, and performance related to the organization itself, as well as their students and, thus, their alumni.

An organization’s philosophy, and therefore its mission, is also aligned with its culture; the latter is informed by a set of values as well as beliefs that guide collaborators’ behavior (Tsai, 2011). Values are defined as desirable aims associated with affection that guide a person’s actions and decisions and determine their self-concept (Schwartz, 2010). HEIs’ values are determining factors for its existence (National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, 1997), and may include: commitment to seeking truth, ethical implications of findings/practices, and sharing knowledge, right to free thought/expression, careful evidence analysis and logical reasoning to draw conclusions, openness to different perspectives, and being mindful of others’ perception of one’s arguments (McNay, 2007).

A HEI’s philosophy’s impact extends beyond providing direction for the organization; that is, it also offers guidance for the teaching-learning process. In other words, it influences the development of academic programs and curricula, which translates into specific skills that their students acquire; in turn, ensuring that their alumni are well-equipped to fulfill the HEI’s broader goals and contribute positively to society. The HEI’s specific human capital may drive innovation even when associated resources are scarce (Roncancio-Marin et al., 2022) and play a significant role in connecting creativity and innovativeness (Garcia-Alvarez-Coque et al., 2019), the latter entailing an entrepreneurial mindset (Fernández et al., 2018). Therefore, if its philosophy, for instance, is based on innovativeness, then it might focus on developing critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial skills (Ruano-Borbalan, 2024).

A humanistic philosophy suggests that the teaching-learning process is student-centered, and professors are facilitators and occasionally advisors (Wang, 2009). It has been defined as the “‘pursuit of the whole person” or “full human being” in skills, abilities, moral development, and psychological wellbeing” (Tamrat, 2020, p. 189). As such, a humanistic philosophy is person-centered, thus, it is well associated with a person-centered style of leadership. And, HEIs’ social aspects, in addition to their significant role in shaping future leaders and policymakers, highlight the clear importance of incorporating social responsibility principles in their core operations (Jorge and Peña, 2017). Therefore, a HEI’s philosophy also informs its graduate attributes.

Graduate attributes

Graduate attributes are considered the set of skills that students will have developed once they have completed their degree (Barrie, 2004). They have also been defined as the attitudes, knowledge, skills, as well as values that are learned as students at HEIs and contribute to the manner in which they exercise their profession (Spronken-Smith et al., 2015). Previous studies have found that common graduate attributes include leadership, technological, interpersonal, teamwork, communication, creativity, self-management, and problem-solving skills (Osmani et al., 2015). In addition to these, Hill et al. (2016) also mention: “critical thinking skills, research and inquiry skills, information literacy, digital literacy, self-awareness, self-confidence, personal autonomy/self-reliance, flexibility, and ethical, moral and social responsibility, integrity, and cross-cultural awareness” (p. 156) as common graduate attributes. And, according to Bisschoff and Massyn (2023), the social responsibility related skills that positively impact employability include: “care, continuous improvement and learning, governance, influence, personal safety, risk management, situation awareness, and systems approach” (p. 69). Therefore, graduate attributes are HEIs’ students’ intended learned skills.

Egan et al. (2021) developed a study and found that alumni significantly valued their experience as well as the skills learned as students and considered that leadership programs should include “leadership experiences, learning community, formal learning, peer coaching, and intentional reflection” (p. 78). Students are increasingly showing greater interest in learning theory, skills, and strategies that would enable them to address social and environmental issues after graduation. For instance, a study developed by Alfirević et al. (2023) posited that business school students revealed preference for a greater emphasis on social and environmental practices and responsibilities and a decrease in the traditional economic focus. This is particularly true for younger generations; in fact, the older the generation, the lower the correlation between their perception of social responsibility and their behavior (Supanti and Butcher, 2019).

Experiences and lessons learned as students affect executives’ decision-making, mindset, and potential networks that may positively influence the CSR engagement of the organizations in which they collaborate (Hu and Fang, 2022) and lead. Therefore, teaching and strengthening graduate attributes associated with leadership styles as well as social responsibility is not only of students’ interest but may also impact their future decision-making as graduates.

Person-centered leadership

Many styles of leadership have been defined, some more true-to-life than others, in order to better understand how some may influence and motivate others to achieve goals. Leadership is only plausible when the leader has followers (Orlović, 2020); therefore, the leader’s traits and developed skills are particularly significant to ensure that their followers remain as such, as well as achieve intended objectives and performance. It has become clear across industries and sectors that, in the vast majority of cases, a leader who is task-oriented is insufficient for optimal outcomes (Cummings et al., 2010); focusing only on collaborators’ results is not an effective way to obtain the best individual and organizational performance.

HEIs’ mission is also associated with the predominant style of leadership because it is indicative of the institutions’ desired direction; for instance, Stolze and Sailer (2022) found that progress towards achieving the third mission may be fostered through a leadership style that is “change-embracing [and] effectively establishes a vision and goals through collaborative means” (p. 582). A person-centered leadership (PCL) style requires management’s clear attention towards collaborators’ growth and development. Some of these leaders’ traits and skills include: inclusiveness (Amin et al., 2018), learning (Beckett et al., 2013), considering collaborators’ needs, being participatory, focusing on collaborators’ development (León and Morales, 2018), their needs, feelings (Plas, 1996), empowerment, wellbeing (Cardiff et al., 2018), as well as fostering a sense of community, amongst others. For those reasons, a PCL style is typically associated with transformational, relational, as well as ethical styles of leadership (Eide and Cardiff, 2017).

Such styles of leadership, in addition to a humanistic philosophy, are well-associated with organizations’ sense of responsibility to their community and society (Ahsan, 2024; Gałat, 2023) at large. In other words, it makes sense that HEIs favoring a PCL style may engage in social responsibility as well.

Corporate social responsibility

CSR is indicative of the manner in which organizations operate; it has been evolving since its conception by Bowen (1953) as a theory and practice across industries and sectors. It entails achieving effective social, environmental, and financial performance (Jáčová and Horák, 2015), thereby generating social and business growth and development (Fernández and Rajagopal, 2014). As such, CSR-related objectives and strategies should be aligned with those of the organization (Vasilescu et al., 2010); therefore, they ought to be derived from the firm’s philosophy. In general terms, ethical, sustainable, socially responsible, and humanistic philosophies are naturally suitable for CSR engagement. CSR has a direct impact on organizational image (Suryani and Lindiawati, 2018) and performance (Latif et al., 2020; Ma’in et al., 2022). While Singh and Misra (2021) found that CSR has a particular positive effect on performance when the organization’s social responsibility is focused on external stakeholders, Waheed et al. (2021) posit that internal and external CSR practices do have a positive impact on organizational performance.

Similar to other organizations, HEIs seeking to ensure that their objectives, policies, actions, and results have a positive impact on society and the environment tend to engage in university social responsibility (USR). The latter encompasses a series of practices, such as ethics, volunteership, fostering a sense of community, encouraging commitment towards sustainability, civic duty, and citizenship, and social development (Vasilescu et al., 2010). Importantly, engaging in social responsibility also entails proactively working towards the organization’s growth and development, including that of their collaborators. In a HEI, this suggests that such efforts extend from the organization to its academic community, i.e., its stakeholders, beginning with its collaborators and students. Academicians respond to the cues communicated by the HEI (de Jong and Balaban, 2022) as well as those in the environment (locally, nationally, and internationally); therefore, the information may lead to the adjustment of academic programs to ensure that students are learning and reinforcing the necessary skills and competencies. Hence, the following hypotheses have been formulated:

H₁: The greater the Senior Management alumni’s PCL stemming from the HEI’s graduate attributes, the greater the CSR of the organization they lead.

H₂: The more person-centered Senior Management alumni’s leadership style and CSR engagement of the organization they lead, the greater the positive effect on the organization’s performance.