Leadership-Driven University Labor Education Reform via PDCA Cycle

Abstract

Under the “five-education development” strategy, the reform of labor education in universities is crucial to the quality of talent cultivation, yet it often falls into difficulties due to insufficient driving force, poor coordination among main stakeholders, lack of process management, and unclear effectiveness evaluation. The core issue lies in the inadequate alignment between school leadership and systematic promotion mechanisms. The closed-loop management logic of the PDCA. cycle provides a methodology for this, but its effective operation urgently requires leadership empowerment throughout the process. This study uses a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, to construct an integrated analytical framework of “Leadership-PDCA”. Research has found that the effective advancement of reforms depends on a four-dimensional leadership system encompassing “vision guidance-coordinated planning-process control-reflective iteration”, and it needs to dynamically align with each stage of the PDCA cycle: the planning stage relies on transformational leadership to create a blueprint, the execution stage requires distributed leadership to promote collaboration, the checking stage guides reflection through instructional leadership, and the action stage depends on strategic leadership to drive institutionalization. Research conclusions indicate that combining systematic process control with flexible interpersonal influence to form a “dual-drive” strategy is key to overcoming collaboration barriers, preventing process derailment, and advancing labor education reform from “fragmented” to a “systematic” depth. This study provides a theoretical reference and practical approach for optimizing governance in higher education.