Strategic Use of LinkedIn by Academic Leaders: How Heads of Department Curate Professional Identity, Institutional Representation, and Mentorship in Digital Spaces

Abstract

In today's higher education landscape, LinkedIn has become the primary workplace networking site. Although there has been an increasing amount of scholarship into digital leadership and the construction of a professional identity, little empirical research has focused on how a senior academic leader, in particular the Head of Department (HOD), strategically develops their LinkedIn profile for other than traditional job-seeking purposes. The study utilizes an exploratory qualitative mixed methods design that incorporates an analysis of 13 LinkedIn profiles and semi-structured interviews with 10 academic leaders. The LPAM evaluated five areas: Strategic Identity Construction, Institutional Representation, Mentorship and Knowledge Brokerage, Network Connectivity and Visibility, and Narrative Tone and Discourse. The results show that HODs are highly conscious of their target audience and conduct themselves as role-players, performing dual roles as individual scholars and institutional representatives on the professional stage with the aid of the dramaturgy framework of Goffman. The platform of Linkedin is used by its users for both relational and institutional social capital building and mentorship is manifested in three different modalities of the digital domain: guidance, content mediated knowledge sharing and opportunity creation through the digital networking. Additionally, a Pakistani LinkedIn paradox emerges from the contextual analysis, as top academics recognize the professional benefits of the platform, but find that relevant academic-leadership content has not gained much cultural traction. The study provides a typology of HOD digital profiles statistically grounded in the field and provides practical implications for universities that strive to use academic leadership visibility as a strategic institutional asset.