This study aims to examine the effects of academic leadership practices on faculty members’ organizational identification. Intense competition, increasingly stringent performance criteria, and dynamic transformation processes are among the major challenges faced by higher education institutions, underscoring the influence of academic leadership on faculty members’ institutional commitment and sense of belonging. Academic leaders can positively influence individuals’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral commitment by supporting faculty members’ professional development processes, strengthening the cultural values and norms of higher education institutions, and playing an active role in institutional governance. Therefore, revealing the role of academic leadership in shaping faculty members’ institutional commitment and sense of belonging is of great importance. The research was conducted using data collected from 350 faculty members working at non-profit private universities in Istanbul. A quantitative research method was employed, and data were collected through convenience sampling. The findings indicate that the three sub-dimensions of academic leadership—professional development, higher education culture, and higher education administration —have significant and positive effects on both the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components of organizational identification and the perceived external prestige of the organization. The analysis reveals that professional development support, in particular, has the most pronounced effect on strengthening faculty members’ commitment to their institutions. In addition, demographic variables such as gender, age, education level, professional experience, and administrative position were found to significantly influence organizational identification levels. The results emphasize the importance of academic leadership in strengthening faculty members’ sense of belonging to higher education institutions.
Gümüş et al. (Mon,) studied this question.