Strategy, executive leadership and organizational performance have been documented over decades of research. Despite the significant body of descriptive empirical data in the field, there remains a paucity of theoretical frameworks describing and explaining the interrelationships between changes in the external and internal strategic environment, strategy, executive leadership, organizational performance, Management Control Systems and Human Resources. The aim of this research was to ascertain these interrelationships in the context of the higher education industry in Western Canada. A preliminary contingency theoretical framework was developed from the literature to serve as a theoretical stance for the empirical research. The empirical research was undertaken in five phases with an exploratory combined methodology design. The first phase involved a pilot study. The second phase involved the Grounded Theory analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews of executive leaders from the higher education industry in Western Canada (i.e., primary data). The third phase involved the Grounded Theory analysis of institutional documents (i.e., annual reports and financial statements) from 46 higher education institutions in Western Canada (i.e., secondary data). Core themes and interrelationships were extracted from the Grounded Theory analysis of the semi-structured interviews and the institutional documents. The fourth phase involved the analysis of 9 unstructured interviews of executive leaders from the higher education industry in Western Canada (i.e., validation data). The fifth phase involved a triangulation study using descriptive univariate & bivariate statistics as well as non-parametric statistics to further explore the institutional documents (i.e., annual reports and financial statements) of 46 higher education institutions in Western Canada (i.e., triangulated data). The research findings were compared to the preliminary contingency theoretical framework to result in a contingency theoretical framework describing and explaining the interrelationships between changes in the external and internal strategic environment, strategy, executive leadership, organizational performance, Management Control Systems and Human Resources. The contingency theoretical framework addressed the empirical, theoretical and practical gaps in existing knowledge. In regards to the applications of the contingency theoretical framework, some speculative recommendations are offered to policy makers, executive leaders and Human Resources practitioners. More research was however recommended to further establish the descriptive and explanatory range capability of the contingency theoretical framework.