University Excellence with Level 5 Leadership Approach: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: universities are the driving engines of countries in the knowledge age. the excellence of universities depends on the success of the faculty. one of the success models for organizations is level 5 leadership. the purpose of this research was to identify the characteristics of the 5th level leaders from the viewpoint of faculty members. methods: this research was a kind of qualitative research that was done using content analysis approach. the statistical population consisted of faculty members of guilan university of medical sciences in 2017. with targeted sampling method, 19 people were selected as participants in the study. in order to obtain validity and validity reliability of the data, two methods of reviewing the participants and reviewing non-participating experts in the research were used. results: after data analysis, 66 primary and 4 main categories were classified. main categories included attributes, solutions, barriers and achievements. sub-themes included management abilities, moral excellence, compliance with law and management principles, necessary incentives, meritocracy, structural barriers, individual and motivational barriers, individual and structural excellence, economic, educational and research, political and social factors. conclusion:considering the importance of educational, health and medical activities of medical universities, level 5 leadership can be a good model for organizational excellence. the dimensions identified in level 5 leadership should also be considered in the selection of corporate executives.