| Abstract: |
Military higher education institutions are charged with producing strategic leaders while simultaneously operating as complex academic organizations whose excellence depends on the quality of their own leadership. Despite extensive scholarship on transformational command and on civilian university leadership, few empirical studies have integrated strategic leadership theory with organizational excellence frameworks in the defence academic setting. This paper reports a mixed-methods investigation of how strategic leadership practices influence organizational excellence, workforce development, and institutional performance across seven accredited military higher education institutions. Data were obtained from 428 faculty members, officer-students, and administrative leaders through a structured questionnaire, complemented by twenty-four elite interviews. Measurement models demonstrated robust reliability and convergent validity. Structural equation modelling showed that strategic leadership exerts a substantial direct effect on organizational excellence (β = 0.41, p < .001) and a significant indirect effect through workforce development (β = 0.24, p < .001). Human-capital development and ethical strategic control were the most potent leadership dimensions. Comparative analysis revealed that strategic-integrative and transformational orientations yielded markedly higher excellence and performance scores than transactional or laissez-faire styles. The study proposes the Sustainable Leadership Model for Military Higher Education, which positions visioning, ethical control, talent stewardship, and a learning culture as interlocking drivers of long-run organizational performance. Implications are drawn for professional military education reform, succession planning, and the design of leadership development pipelines that can sustain institutional excellence under conditions of strategic uncertainty. Findings confirm that excellence in defence academia is a measurable |
