The public sector is facing multiple changes. In a constantly changing environment, that is more and more demanding in terms of innovation and performance, the concept of leadership is of particular importance, as it is one of the few tools available to public managers.Based on the transformational leadership theory, the aim of this study is to explore how transformational leadership characteristics influence organizational change within the public sector in Lebanon. To serve this purpose, a qualitative approach is adopted based on a series of semi-focused interviews conducted with ten public managers running 10 public administrations. These administrations have undergone significant changes over the past five years.The results point out the importance of transformational behaviors adopted by public managers in leading change within the public sector in Lebanon, despite the multiple obstacles. They confirmed the role of two transformational dimensions related to idealized influence and inspirational motivation in the successful implementation of organizational change. This study contributes to better understanding of the role of transformational leadership in promoting change in the public sector.

This study investigates the interaction of information and communication technology (ICT) and higher education in driving sustainable development, with a special emphasis on the rising significance of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. This quantitative study, conducted in a Lebanese private university, looks into the impact of ICT, specifically generative AI, on promoting sustainability in higher education. A questionnaire was distributed to university instructors to determine how these technologies contribute to sustainable practices in academic environments. The results, which were evaluated using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, show that ICT tools, professional instructor development, and the upkeep of educational infrastructure all contribute considerably to Lebanon’s sustainable development. Furthermore, integrating generative AI into educational processes has the potential to improve personalized learning, resource efficiency, and content production, all of which contribute to sustainability goals. The study concludes by exploring the findings’ broader implications, acknowledging their shortcomings, and suggesting future research possibilities.

Background: Recent data from several studies and surveys confirm that our society has entered the digital transformation era. The crucial role of this digital trend is becoming increasingly more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, a bunch of technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have the potential to change the present enhancing people’s power to act, to live and to promote equal citizen participation. In this scenario, Smart Cities with its smart technology innovative components are challenging for excluded people. Method: The general objective of this article is to identify and understand the dimensions that must be taken into account to promote the digital participation/inclusion of people with ID. The model is based on a qualitative analysis of people’s perceptions related to how Smart Cities can promote social Inclusion. Results: The challenges associated with social inclusion were identified in the social, economic and political as well as cultural dimensions of the countries investigated: Italy and Malaysia. The results constitute a first step to shape and understand how smart cities can promote social inclusion in different contexts. Conclusion: The outcomes of our research suggest that, starting from standard technologies, smart cities in different countries need tailored solutions. The results reveal that the Smart City strategy is, in general, and in terms of social Inclusion, in particular, a local phenomenon changing in each country. This outcome has important implications for practitioners and future scholarly research alike. The current study contributes to both social inclusion and smart city literature in many ways.

For the past two years, the Lebanese socio-economic crisis has had disastrous effects on the hospitality industry especially the food Service sector. During high adversity and incredibly challenging times, leaders must develop and nurture resilience in the organizations. Resilience may be the attribute that is most needed today by Lebanese leaders since they ought to be more responsive and more attuned to the unprecedented difficult conditions in the country. Based on the Duchek (2020) model of organizational resilience, and the crisis management approach, this qualitative research study focuses on gaining insight and understanding about the managers/owners’ perceptions of events and circumstances affecting their industry, and how they have adjusted to the challenges raised simultaneously by the worst economic crisis in the country and by the spread of Covid-19 around the world. The authors of the study utilized semi-structured interviews to collect and analyze the study data. The findings reveal that pursuing resilience is a process based on the interactions between organizational resilience capabilities and crisis management tasks, and it is mainly characterized by three phases: anticipation of potential threats, coping with disruption and adapting to the new reality.

In order to adapt to an increasingly competitive world, organizations need to continuously change, yet the success of the change is conditioned by its institutionalization. The institutionalization of change is the key factor to perpetuate sustainable changes. Based on the exploration of the role of transformational leadership in times of (institutionalization of) change, the objective of this study is to analyze the contribution of the components of transformational leadership on the institutionalization of change within a Lebanese private university Redundancy, engaged in an accreditation process. Through a qualitative method on a single case study, based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 senior executives occupying key positions in the studied university and through 15 focus groups with 85 faculty members from four disciplinary fields, we explored the role of each of the four dimensions of transformational leadership in times of institutionalization of change. Our findings highlight the essential role of intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation of transformational leadership, while the two other dimensions, idealized influence and individualized consideration, play a limited role in the university context of institutionalization of change. Moreover, individual recognition and idealized influence are essential to convince all members of the need for change and involve them in the accreditation process. This study allows us to understand the role of each of the transformational leadership dimensions in order to promote and escort institutionalization of change within high education sector. Received: 16 June 2021Accepted: 20 June 2023