One of the most powerful impacting factors on the development of higher education institution solely by itself would be the ‘president’ and the leadership and performance capacities that he or she brings into campus. There is no doubt that every single college and university has been gearing their every effort to have a better design of presidential search method and to find the most competent personnel for their presidency. It has been the case in Korea as well. This research was initiated with the purpose to provide a theoretical framework that can help institutions when designing their presidential search process. For pursuing this research purpose, first, the methodology of presidential selection at world best universities were diagnosed upon the following four categories: 1) how tightly organized the presidential selection method would be; 2) how the search committee are organized; 3) whether to utilize the search consultant; and 4) how the confidentiality issue are dealt with. Second, in order to gauge the situational suitability of each methodology preferred by world best universities, two theories were applied in the in-depth discussions using narrative analysis method. Third, the cases of presidential search and selection processes at 5 selected world best universities were presented in order to facilitate the vivid understandings. Based on the outcomes and leanings through the above three sections of the research, conclusive discussions in the realm of the theoretical framework was provided along with the suggestions for developing better presidential search and selection system.