American Strategic Leadership (ASL), a Comprehensive Approach to Better Lead Large Organizations (Case of Moroccan Public Universities)

The economy has become more globalized due to the VUCA environment which is characterized by an increased and challenging level of interconnectedness and where there are no boundaries anymore between countries. Most public administrations & organizations in developing countries are not yet familiar with the Strategic Leadership (SL) culture initiated and largely dominated by the Anglo-Saxons in general and the Americans in particular. In this context, the state of the art relating to SL in the United States has empirically demonstrated the cause-and-effect relationship between the implementation of SL within large organizations and the improvement of their performance, especially through the development of a clear and dynamic vision centered on the development of competencies not only at the individual level but also and above all, those specific to leading large organizations, particularly within the VUCA environment. From a closer qualitative analysis of the Moroccan public university president’s feedback, as leaders at a strategic level, including validated questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, through the application of a post-positivist epistemology and hypothetical-deductive reasoning, many gaps compared to the foundational ASL framework were found. Then, how these findings can help facilitate a smooth and progressive American Strategic Leadership implementation within the national public universities’ community through a smart and adapted induction and some actional recommendations have been discussed. By combining theoretical frameworks with practical analysis, this research provides a deeper understanding of effective SL in public higher education. Specific findings provide valuable insights into leadership challenges and competencies, offering a fresh perspective on adapting leadership theories to different cultural contexts and standing as a useful resource for researchers and practitioners aiming to improve leadership practices in similar or other contexts. Therefore, the adoption of SL, as a mode of governance, would be a critical and important contribution to improving the overall performance of national public universities and their sustainability which would very likely play a fundamental key role in the development and upgrading of national human capital and ipso-facto launch them to a better repositioning on the regional and international arena.