A Study of Relationship between Cognitive and Leadership Style of the Presidents of Iranian Universities and Institutions of Higher Education

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between cognitive styles and leadership styles among presidents of universities and institutions of higher education in Tehran. 30 presidents in Tehran and 102 raters (subordination of presidents) response to Cognitive Style Index CSI and third edition of multifactor leadership questionnaire, MLQ (Leader and rater version) has been used. Collected data is analyzed taking into consideration both descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean) and Pearson correlation. The result of this study indicates the existence of a meaningful and positive correlation between intuitive cognitive style and idealized influence (transformational leadership), analytical cognitive style and contingent rewards (transactional leadership). It also displays a negative meaningful relationship between analytical cognitive style and laizess-fair leadership style.