Objectives: In contemporary times, educational institutions are instrumental in the development of societies, and universities in every country, along with their leaders, play a significant role in this domain. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the effect of spiritual leadership characteristics and social identity on cultural intelligence with an emphasis on the mediating role of social responsibility among the managers of Urmia University.
Methods: The research method was descriptive. The entire population of Urmia University managers (151 individuals) was included as the sample, given the limited population size. The data collection tools included the Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire (Early & Ang, 2004), Carroll's Social Responsibility Questionnaire (1991), Fry's spiritual leadership characteristics (2005), and Jenkins' social identity (1996). The validity of the instruments was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis and their reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The data were analyzed in SPSS (version 28) and LISREL (version 8.1) software packages using descriptive and inferential statistics (structural equation modeling).
Results: The research findings pointed to the significant positive impact of spiritual leadership characteristics on the cultural intelligence of Urmia University administrators. In addition, social identity had a meaningful positive effect on the cultural intelligence of these managers. Spiritual leadership characteristics also exerted a significant positive effect on the social responsibility of Urmia University administrators, as does social identity. Furthermore, social responsibility has a significant positive impact on the cultural intelligence of university managers. Notably, spiritual leadership characteristics, mediated by social responsibility, affected the cultural intelligence of Urmia University administrators. In a similar vein, social identity, through the mediation of social responsibility, affected the cultural intelligence of these managers.
Conclusion: The enhancement of spiritual leadership traits and social identity of Urmia University administrators, which in turn influence their cultural intelligence, can make it possible to improve the performance of the university. Furthermore, this enhancement is expected to increase employees' accountability.
