Globally, people have a rising desire to obtain certificates, degrees, and diplomas in higher institutions, described as “diploma disease”. Additionally, the need for sustainable education becomes imperative as globalization increases. To meet these demands, there is a need for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to have adequate support for both students and academics. However, these HEIs are faced with the challenge of meeting set goals and values. For leaders in HEIs, inclusion is a critical challenge. This paper investigates perceived institutional support’s (PIS) role in mediating the co-relationship between academic loyalty and inclusive leadership within HEIs. The study presents a literature review to give some background. This paper’s conceptual framework is built on PIS from social exchange theories. Based on the design, a quantitative survey was adopted for the study. A random sample of 402 academics in HEIs was deployed for the study. A questionnaire instrument was designed to elicit information from the respondents. A structural equation model (SEM) was then adopted for the data analysis. The SEM approach was utilized to investigate the connection between academic loyalty and inclusive leadership at HEIs, with the mediating factor of PIS. The findings reveal a positive relationship exists between academic loyalty and inclusive leadership. While PIS positively connects both, there is also an inference that institutional support exists. This study provides insights that could assist stakeholders in formulating policies on employee needs and what could be done to improve and attain sustainable education in HEIs. It highlights applicable impacts towards increased productivity in HEIs, reflecting achieved targets regarding key performance indicators (KPI) and improved institutional performance.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) and tertiary education have continued to evolve over the centuries. This evolution brings along also the need for leadership to understand their contribution to ensuring tertiary education and HEIs remain relevant by being centers of innovation to the communities they serve. As a result, the future HEIs depend on its leadership and it allows its academics, as members of collectives, to communicate and negotiate with their institutions, through their leaders and managers, to be recognized and supported for their understanding and practices. Inclusive leadership provides academics with a feeling of a sense of belonging, thus contributing to the vision and goals of the HEIs. On their part, HEIs are meant to continually be centers of innovation, and to achieve this, they must provide leadership that is inclusive by ensuring equality, diversity, and inclusion. This will enable academics to perceive and understand the institutional support available to them towards their innovativeness and achieving their professional goals and ambitions. This chapter explored the influence of inclusive leadership in higher education institutions, from an inclusive approach, on academic innovation based on the purview of its antecedents and consequences on perceived institutional support (PIS).