Engineering leadership education: a PRISMA-based systematic review and comparative analysis with business leadership models

Purpose This paper systematically examines how leadership development is integrated into engineering education and evaluates whether engineering leadership constitutes a distinct socio-technical paradigm rather than an extension of traditional business leadership models.Design/methodology/approach Guided by the PRISMA 2020 protocol, a systematic review of 68 peer-reviewed articles published between 2005 and 2024 was conducted across five major academic databases. Studies addressing leadership frameworks, curricular models, and institutional practices in engineering education were analysed using iterative qualitative coding to generate cross-cutting themes and enable structured comparison with business leadership paradigms.Findings The review demonstrates that engineering leadership is grounded in technical credibility, systems thinking, and ethical accountability, diverging in substantive ways from managerial leadership models. However, leadership integration remains uneven globally, frequently constrained by curricular density, accreditation ambiguity, and institutional silos. Programmatic innovations vary across national contexts, reflecting structural and cultural conditions rather than a unified global template.Originality/value By positioning engineering leadership as a socio-technical leadership paradigm, this study advances conceptual clarity and offers evidence-informed recommendations for curriculum reform, institutional alignment, and policy development.