The Impact of Leadership Soft Skills on Deans’ Trustworthiness in Cambodian Higher Education: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

This study investigates the influence of deanship-based soft skills on perceived trustworthiness among deans of higher education in Cambodia via structural equation modeling (SEM), informed by the ability-benevolence-integrity (ABI) model and transformational leadership theory. While the literature highlights a prominent location for the role of soft skills and trust among leaders, quantitative empirical investigations modeling this association are not common in Southeast Asian contexts. This work takes into account one hundred and one deanship-based soft skills and offers a holistic investigation of ten prospective explainers of trustworthiness among deanship incumbents. The ten included soft skills are communication, collaboration, critical thinking, initiative, leadership ability, personal development, personal effectiveness, planning and organizing, presentation skills, and technology skills. The questionnaires were completed by 485 faculty members from eleven universities in Cambodia via validated Likert-scale instruments and were analyzed via SmartPLS 4.1.1.4. The measurement model revealed strong psychometric features, with factor loadings of 0.68​ to 0.94, Cronbach's alpha values of 0.95--0.98, composite reliability values of 0.94-0.98, and average variance extracted values of 0.63-0.82). The model revealed high indices of fit (CFI = 0.936, TLI = 0.931, RMSEA = 0.039, SRMR = 0.059). The structural model indicated six significant predictors explaining 55% of the variance in trustworthiness (R² = 0.55). Critical thinking was the maximum predictor (β = 0.289, p < 0.001), followed by communication skills (β = 0.286), leadership ability (β = 0.287), presentation skills (β = 0.276), planning and organizing (β = 0.203), and collaboration (β = 0.144, all p < 0.001). Initiative, personal development, personal effectiveness, and technology skills showed nonsignificant associations. These findings provide empirical validation for some soft skills for building trust-based leaders and offer real-world applications for higher education institutions' leader development programs.