Model of Leadership based on Soft Power in Iranian Higher Education

In the last decade of the twentieth century, the field of international relations studies witnessed a theory based on which a model was introduced to solve complex equations in the field. The theory was introduced by Joseph S. Nye and expanded by the United States diplomacy. The theory is based on “the influence of the cultural attractions and values on creating power” in civilizational domain. Based on Nye’s theory, “communications, policy vision and emotional intelligence” are considered the main factors and loci of making soft power in the leadership of international system. The present article is part of a comprehensive research about the role of soft power in the process of organizational leadership in Iran higher education. It seeks to answer whether soft power at the level of Iranian knowledge-based organization like the international system is effective. If yes, what are its criteria, elements and effective domains and what a local model looks like? The research has been done on the basis of viewpoints from experts in the national higher education and statistics derived from the sample including university faculty members, students and the staff. Based on the data, it can be claimed that first of all there is certain difference between the local model and the original one. Besides, of the six effective domains including behavioral-ethical, social-communicational, skilled-professional, cultural-normative, political-perceptive and ideological-spiritual domains _ with little difference of course_ the skilled-professional domain has been the most effective and the ideological-spiritual domain the least effective in the leadership model based on soft power in the educational system. In addition, more effective intelligence in this model is natural, cultural, ethical, emotional, political and spiritual intelligence respectively.