ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how a leader can influence academic staff to support the brand of the institution via internal branding. Based on existing literature in several fields (including higher education management, brand management, corporate communication, human resource management, marketing management and leadership), this chapter suggests that a transformational leader of an institution not only is a role model for their followers to act in alignment with the brand, but also either initiates or influences internal branding activities in the institution, thereby creating brand support among followers. Therefore, institutions which want to build brand support from the academic staff should ensure that the leaders of their academic staff’ exhibit transformational leadership characteristics. This chapter is expected to be valuable in advancing current knowledge about internal branding in universities and also useful for higher education management that wants to encourage academic staff to support their university’s brand. A case study of a business school is presented.
