University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

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Theses and Dissertations

5-2012

The Construct Development of Spiritual

Leadership
Emily Rachael Lean
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

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THE CONSTRUCT DEVELOPMENT OF
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
 THE CONSTRUCT DEVELOPMENT OF
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration

By

Emily Rachael Lean

Union University
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, 2002

May 2012
University of Arkansas
 ABSTRACT

Although the past decade has shown a growing interest in workplace spirituality in the

leadership and organizational literature, research in the area of spiritual leadership, is still in its

infancy. The goal of this study was to delineate the construct of spiritual leadership and to

provide theoretical guidelines for future research. A conceptual definition of spiritual leadership

is offered in addition to a list of behaviors relevant to a spiritual leader. This study was the first

of its kind to take into account the knowledge and opinions of both academic and practitioner

subject matter experts. Furthermore, with regard to developing a measure of spiritual leadership,

this research was the first among its peers to attempt scale development using an empirically-

based method: defining the focus, generating items, rating the items, selecting the items, etc.

This study employed a mixed method form of research and included samples from both

academic and practitioners at every step; the qualitative results from phase one participants

influenced the quantitative data collected from phase two participants. It is hoped that such an

inductive approach will aid in the development of the field as well as satisfy those not associated

with or who have reservations as to the legitimacy of the spirituality literature.

This dissertation is approved for recommendation
to the Graduate Council

Dissertation Director:

______________________________________________
Daniel C. Ganster

Dissertation Committee:

______________________________________________
Anne M. O’Leary-Kelly

______________________________________________
Alan E. Ellstrand
 DISSERTATION DUPLICATION RELEASE

I hereby authorize the University of Arkansas Libraries to duplicate this dissertation

when needed for research and/or scholarship.

Agreed __________________________________________
Emily Lean

Refused ___________________________________________
Emily Lean
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I most sincerely want to thank my husband, Jeff. Without his love and support, this

would not be possible. He has been my rock – he’s not only held me up but I’ve stepped all over

him a few times and he kept on smiling. I don’t know many people who would let their spouse

move six hours away to go to school. I love you Jeff.

For Momma and Poppa, who wanted to be sure I could stand on my own. I love you both

so much.

For my current and future children, look what Momma did! Thank you for letting me

work while you slept and played.

For Jan and Bill, I’m sure you both thought we were crazy when this process started but

we made it! Thank you for the encouragement.

For Dan, Anne, and Alan, y’all have stayed with me through it all and I truly appreciate

it.

And of course, for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah and Amen, it’s done!
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES x
CHAPTER
I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1
Justification for the Present Study 1
II. LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONSTRUCT DEVELOPMENT 5
Leadership and Spirituality 5
Leadership 5
Transformational Leadership 6
Transactional Leadership 8
Spirituality 9
Spirituality vs. Religion 13
Workplace Spirituality 14
Summary 19
Spiritual Leadership 20
Elements of Spiritual Leadership 28
Spirituality 29
Service to Others 31
Spiritual Leadership vs. Transformational and
32
Transactional Leadership
Summary 34
Development of the Spiritual Leadership Literature 34
This Present Study 36
Summary 40
III. METHOD 41
Phase 1: Development of a List of Potential Spiritual Leadership
41
Behaviors
Sample 41
Procedure 43
Analysis 44
Phase 2: Likert Scaling of Spiritual Leadership Behaviors 45
 Sample 45
Scale Development 47
Spiritual Leadership Items 47
Transformational Leadership Items 49
Transactional Leadership Items 50
Servant Leadership Items 50
Authentic Leadership Items 50
Procedure 50
Analysis 51
Summary 54
IV. RESULTS 56
Phase 1 Results: A Common Understanding of Spiritual
56
Leadership
Phase 2 Results: Behaviors of Spiritual Leaders 58
Item Reduction 60
ANOVA Results 62
Supplemental Analyses 78
Summary of Results 86
V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 87
Limitations 88
Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Research 89
BIBLIOGRAPHY 92
APPENDIX A 106
APPENDIX B 107
APPENDIX C 110
APPENDIX D 111
APPENDIX E 112
APPENDIX F 113
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

2.1 Currently Offered Definitions of Spirituality 12

2.2 Currently Offered Definitions of Workplace Spirituality 16

2.3 Currently Offered Definitions of Spiritual Leadership 25

3.1 Spiritual Leader (SL) Behaviors Mentioned by Participants in 46

Phase 1 Interviews

3.2 Related Leadership Constructs Mentioned by Participants in Phase 48

1 Interviews

3.3 Response Means for Spiritual Leadership Items 52

3.4 Leadership Scales Descriptive Statistics 55

4.1 Phase One Participants’ Responses to Questions Regarding the 57

Seven Literature-Identified Components of Spiritual Leadership
(SL)

4.2 Results of Phase Two Spiritual-Based Demographic Questions 59

(N=145)

4.3 Leadership Scales Mean Statistics by Prior Knowledge of Spiritual 61

Leadership and Academic (N=54) vs. Practitioner (N=91)

4.4 39 Item List of Spiritual Leadership Behaviors 63

4.5 Leadership Scales Mean Statistics by Prior Knowledge of Spiritual 64

Leadership and Academic (N=54) vs. Practitioner (N=91)

4.6 Leadership Scales Descriptive Statistics 65

4.7 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Academic vs. 67

Practitioner

4.8 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Gender 68

4.9 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Regular Pray or Meditate 69

4.10 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Regularly Attend 70
Religious or Spiritual Service

4.11 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Regularly Attend 71

Religious or Spiritual Service as a Child or Teenager

4.12 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Attended an Elementary, 72

Middle, or High School with a Religious Affiliation

4.13 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Attended College or 73

University with a Religious Affiliation

4.14 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Consider Yourself 74

Spiritual

4.15 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Marital Status 75

4.16 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Knowledge of 76

Workplace Spirituality

4.17 Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Knowledge of Spiritual 77

Leadership

4.18 Factor Analysis of Five Leadership Scales 81

4.19 Summary of Five Leadership Scale Factor Analysis 85

 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

1.1 Articles on ‘Spirituality’ Appearing in the Social Science Citation 3

Index Between 1970 and 2008 (Oswick, 2009).

2.1 The Stimulation of Individual Spirituality in the Workplace 21

2.2 Fry’s (2003) Causal Model of Spiritual Leadership 23

4.1 Means Scores of Leadership Scales based upon Prior Knowledge 79

of Spiritual Leadership

4.2 All Leadership Behaviors (5 Constructs) Factor Analyses Scree 84

Plot
 1

CHAPTER ONE

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The past decade has shown a burgeoning interest in workplace spirituality in the

leadership and organizational literature (Dent, Higgins, & Wharff, 2005 and Ferguson &

Milliman, 2008 to name a few). Since its inception in 1999, for example, the Academy of

Management’s special interest group devoted to spirituality and religion in the workplace has

grown to approximately 700 members. Research in the field of spiritual leadership, however, is

still in its infancy, as indicated by the lack of a common definition and unclear boundaries

between workplace spirituality and leadership (Dent et al., 2005). Most of the theory offered in

this literature is derived from the fields of Western religious theology and leadership ethics

(Blackaby & Blackaby, 2001; McNeal, 2000, Northouse, 2001; Sanders, 1986). Consequently,

academic debates continue to address the distinction between spirituality and religiosity.

Giacolone and Jurkewicz (2003) argue that, because of issues such as a lack of an accepted

definition and clear boundaries, the development of this literature “is tethered by its lack of

grounding in theoretical and empirical literature. This has not only hampered development of

the field but in a profound way has artificially reduced its importance” (p. 17).

Justification for the Present Study

Near the turn of the millennium, Fairholm (1998b) noted that in the rush “for so-called

sophistication, many people have dropped their dedication to a specific religious orthodoxy.

Instead, many of us are looking for the sacred from what we do in every day, our work” (p. 113).

As such, workplace spirituality and spiritual leadership have become particularly salient topics in

both the practitioner and academic literatures, see Figure 1.1. Surveys have found that some
 2

Figure 1.1

Articles on ‘Spirituality’ Appearing in the Social Science Citation Index Between 1970 and
2008 (Oswick, 2009)
 3

managers and leaders would even choose meaning and fulfillment from their work over money

(Fry, 2003). In addition to the search for personal spiritual fulfillment in the workplace, several

scholars have recently attempted to determine the link between spirituality and organizational

performance (Ashar & Lane-Maher, 2004; Fry & Matherly, 2006b; Marques, 2006; McLaughlin,

2005; Quatro, 2002). Mitroff and Denton (1999b) go so far as to suggest that spirituality may be

the ultimate competitive advantage. While theories abound as to the advantages of spirituality in

the workplace, there is an apparent lack of empirical evidence of such spiritual benefits

(Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003; Giacalone, Jurkiewicz, & Fry, 2005; Quatro, 2002).

Although both academic and practitioner attention to this emerging literature is slowly

gaining momentum, several gaps remain. Specifically, with regard to the spiritual leadership

literature, at least one issue is critical to its advancement – construct development. The construct

of spiritual leadership may be viewed as a branch of the broader fields of leadership and

workplace spirituality. Like workplace spirituality, the spiritual leadership literature is in the

initial stages of development (Hunt, 1999). Dent et al. (2005) credit Fairholm (1997) as one of

the first to “put the terms spiritual and leadership together to explain spirituality in context of

workplace leadership” (p. 628). Since that time, a considerable amount of research has been

devoted to the concept of spiritual leadership yet little advancement has been made towards the

establishment of a commonly accepted definition of the construct. Such a definition, however,

cannot be obtained until researchers are able to determine and agree upon behaviors unique to

spiritual leaders. That is to say, the elements of spiritual leadership must be identified and

agreed upon before a proper definition may be established. This lack of an accepted definition

has made the comparison of results across spiritual leadership studies virtually impossible.

Without a common, widely agreed upon definition, researchers cannot be certain they are
 4

comparing results of studies examining the same organizational construct. In sum, it seems that

the acknowledgment of the various interpretations of spiritual leadership is the closest the field

has gotten to a resolution of this subject (Dent, et al., 2005; Reave, 2005).

Thus, the purpose of this study is to delineate the construct of spiritual leadership and to

provide theoretical guidelines for future research. There are two primary aims of the study:

1. To determine whether there is a common understanding as to what constitutes

spiritual leadership.

2. To identify whether there is a general consensus as to which leader behaviors may be

considered spiritually oriented.

Each objective is addressed in the following pages. Chapter 2 comprises a review of the

spiritual leadership literature, highlights the need for further study in this area of leadership

theory and finally proposes the need for an exploratory study within the field. Chapter 3 outlines

the methodology for the present study, including a description of the sample, procedure, and

measures. The results of the exploratory study are presented and discussed in Chapter 4.

Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the findings from this study, explains the limitations, and offers

conclusions and implications for future research endeavors

.
 5

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONSTRUCT DEVELOPMENT

The broad research questions were outlined in the previous chapter. The current chapter

reviews the literature pertaining to spiritual leadership and identifies commonalities among

existing research as to what constitutes spiritual leadership. In addition, the need for the

justification for the current study is likewise addressed.

Leadership and Spirituality

In order to discuss spiritual leadership, each component construct – leadership and

workplace spirituality – must be attended to separately. This in itself is not a simple endeavor.

As noted by both Fry and Smith (1987) and Strack and Fottler (2002), both workplace

spirituality and leadership share the difficult situation of not having a precise, widely accepted

definition. This lack of a definition creates a further conceptual dilemma when researchers

attempt to unite the two constructs into spiritual leadership.

Leadership

Yukl and Van Fleet (1992, p. 149) define leadership as “a process that includes

influencing the task objectives and strategies of a group or organization, influencing people in

the organization to implement the strategies and achieve the objectives, influencing group

maintenance and identification, and influencing the culture of the organization.” Kourzes and

Pozner (1987, p. 30) offer a much simpler description by stating that leadership is “the art of

mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.” In addition to providing a vision

and motivating others, leaders must provide adequate reward systems as well as demonstrate that

they have proper knowledge of the jobs they are asking others to do (Kets De Vries, 1998).
 6

While researchers have offered much discourse as to the exact definition of what a leader is as

well as what behaviors are indicative of a leader, for the purposes of this paper, I will proceed

with the understanding that leaders are individuals who influence their subordinates toward the

achievement of a vision or goal (Yukl & Van Fleet, 1992).

While having a general definition of leadership in mind is helpful, it remains necessary to

acknowledge existing leadership perspectives. As with the introduction of any new construct,

controversy is expected to arise when there is a lack of clear distinction between the boundaries

of the proposed construct and the boundaries of related constructs. Attention will therefore be

briefly paid to transformational leadership and transactional leadership – the two most widely

addressed leadership theories in the literature.

Transformational Leadership. Transformational leadership occurs when leaders motivate

followers by getting them to internalize and prioritize a larger collective cause over their own

individual interests. Originally labeled transformational leadership by Bass in 1985, this form of

organizational leadership is the most widely studied leadership theory to date and as such

dominates current thinking about leadership research (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). Behaviors

generally related to transformational leadership include expressing a desirable vision of the

organization’s future; presenting a means to achieve the vision; promoting the acceptance of

group or team goals; offering one-on-one attention and support, intellectual stimulation, and high

performance expectations (Wang, Law, Hackett, Wang, & Chen, 2005).

Much of our knowledge regarding transformational leadership has come from research

employing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Using this questionnaire, Antonakis

(2001) and Avolio, Bass, and Jung (1999) were able to determine that transformational

leadership is composed of four distinct components: idealized influence, inspirational

 7

motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Leaders who display an

idealized influence are held in high esteem, revered, and trusted. Followers generally want to

associate with such transformational individuals who exude confidence and faith in their own

vision. Inspirational motivation occurs when organizational leaders provide a meaning to

follower’s work and further challenge followers to behave in ways necessary to accomplish the

leader’s vision. By encouraging their employees to be innovative and to find creative solutions

to organizational problems, transformational leaders provide intellectual stimulation. And

finally, leaders may offer individualized consideration by acting as a mentor and paying attention

to the different needs of each individual employee. Further, such leaders may delegate specific

work responsibilities to employees in order to grow and develop the skills of the employee (Bass,

1999).

There have been numerous studies looking at the effect of transformational leadership on

various individual, group, and organizational outcomes. Transformational leadership has been

found to be associated with increases in follower performance (DeGroot, Kiker, & Cross, 2000;

Howell & Hall-Merenda, 1999; Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996), organizational

citizenship behavior (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990); self concordance,

overall job performance, job satisfaction, satisfaction with supervisor, and organizational

commitment (Bono & Judge, 2003) and group performance (Howell & Avolio, 1993). It has

been suggested, however, that transformational leadership may differentially impact

subordinates. In other words, what one individual perceives as transformational leadership may

differ from what another perceives (Yammarino & Dubinsky, 1994). From the leader’s

perspective, transformational leadership scores have positively correlated with managerial

 8

performance evaluations (Hater & Bass, 1988) and promotion recommendations (Waldman,

Bass, & Yammarino, 1990).

Transactional Leadership. As opposed to the social relationship engendered in

transformational leadership, transactional leadership focuses strictly on resource exchanges

between leaders and followers (Northouse, 2001). Identified by Burns (1978), this form of

leadership is an extrinsic motivation process in which leaders achieve their goals while followers

receive external, pre-determined rewards for achieving specified job requirements.

Subordinates’ compliance with leader demands is accomplished through explicit rewards and/or

disciplinary measures. That is to say, transactional leaders achieve their goals by catering to

their subordinates’ immediate self-interests (Bass, 1999).

The three forms of transactional leadership include contingent reward, active

management by exception, and passive management by exception. Contingent reward takes

place when a leader explicitly describes what a subordinate needs to achieve in order to receive a

specific reward. In active management by exception, a leader will monitor subordinate

performance and then take corrective action if performance levels fail to meet pre-specified

levels. Here, leaders are on the lookout for mistakes, errors, and deviant behavior. The third

form of transactional leadership, passive management by exception, is one in which leaders wait

for a problem to arise or a mistake to occur before they take any type of corrective action. As

noted by Howell and Avolio (1993), the difference between the two forms of management by

exception lies in the timing of the leader’s intervention.

Several outcomes have been associated with transactional leadership: subordinate effort

and performance; supervisor effectiveness (Bass, 1985, 1990; Bass & Avolio, 1990, 1993;

Hollander, 1985); increased productivity (Daft, 2001); follower, commitment, satisfaction, and
 9

performance (Bycio, Hackett, & Allen, 1995; Hunt & Schuler, 1976; Podsakoff, Todor, Grover,

& Huber, 1984); and even organizational citizenship behavior (Goodwin, Wofford, &

Whittington, 2001)

Burns (1978) originally envisioned transactional and transformational leadership as

occupying opposite ends of the same continuum. Transformational leadership, Burns (1978)

argued, should add to transactional leadership in predicting follower job performance by

motivating followers to move beyond expectations. In addition, Bass and Avolio (1990) argued

that the transformational style is complementary to the transactional leadership style and its

effects may therefore be vitiated in the complete absence of a transactional relationship. As

such, neither transformational nor transactional leadership may be a substitute for the other

(Bass, 1999).

Spirituality

In order to begin to understand the concept of spirituality in the workplace or spiritual

leadership, one must first understand the concept of spirit. Garrett (2004) identifies an

individual’s spirit as the immaterial nature of a human while Thompson (2002) describes spirit as

the center of a person’s being. The American Heritage College Dictionary (1997) defines spirit

in several ways: “(1) the vital principle or animating force within living beings; (2) the part of a

human being associated with the mind, will, and feelings; and (3) the essential nature of a person

or group.” Developing the concept of spirit further, it may be surmised that spirituality is an

individual’s awareness of this “vital principle or animating force” within themselves and others.

Subsequently, if one grows in their spirituality, they grow in the awareness of their connection to

this living force, to their mind, will, and feelings, and/or to others.
 10

The awareness of such a connection is echoed in the pedagogical, psychological,

mainstream, and managerial definitions of spirituality. Wilson (2008) maintains a simplistic

definition of spirituality as simply an “individual transcendent relationship” (p. 18). Gallegos

Nava (2001: 128) identifies spirituality as “an individual, natural, direct experience of that which

is sacred, of that which is transcending, of the ultimate foundation, which is the essence of all

that exists.” Likewise, as defined by Elkins, Hedstrom, Hughes, Leaf, and Saunders (1988: 10),

spirituality is “a way of being and experiencing that comes about through awareness of a

transcendent dimension and that is characterized by certain identifiable values in regard to self,

life, and whatever one considers to be the Ultimate.” According to Zinnbauer, Pargament, and

Scott’s (1999: 902) paper examining the psychological characterization of spirituality,

spirituality “has come to represent whatever people do to attain a variety of goals, such as

meaning in life, wholeness, interconnectedness with others, truth, and one’s own inner

potential.” Fairholm (1998b: 117) offers that spirituality “is the acceptance of universal values

that individuals believe guide their everyday actions and by which they judge their own actions”

and goes so far as to state that spirituality is what separates man from animal. Fry (2003: 29)

proposed that spirituality reflects the “presence of a relationship with a higher power or being

that affects the way in which one operates in the world.” These definitions and others are

provided for review in Table 2.1.

Lyon (2004: 10) begins to tie the aspect of an individual’s spirituality to their work by

describing spirituality as “a mental disposition or attitude that embraces spirit as integral to one’s

work, behavior, thinking, and success.” Pargament and Mahoney (2002: 647) identify

spirituality as a sort of cultural fact that “involves effort to discover the sacred and one that

involves efforts to hold onto the sacred once it has been found.” Moreover, they suggest that
 11

spirituality may be understood and assessed as an outcome, an outcome that “can affect various

psychological, social, and physical health outcomes” (Pargament & Mahoney, 2002, 648).

Taking the perspective that spirituality is a cultural phenomenon, one may be able to argue that

an organization that promotes an outcome of spirituality in the workplace may also be able to

encourage spirituality in an employee’s personal life.

Regardless of the literary foundation, most definitions of spirituality, as seen in Table 2.1,

generally share the common characteristic of a personal consciousness of an intangible inner

force that connects all life. Pargament and Mahoney (2002) and Zinnbauer, et al. (1999) seem to

be the only researchers to emphasize that an individual may actually seek such a consciousness

or understanding of this interconnecting force. Furthermore, while the majority of definitions of

spirituality focus on embracing the universal, transcendent, sacred, or divine, few also address

the notion that this awareness of the universal, transcendent, sacred, or divine might then guide

an individual’s attitude or behavior (Fairholm, 1998b; Fry, 2003; Lyon, 2004; Pargament &

Mahoney, 2002). Although not expressed in every description, I consider the idea that an

individual’s awareness [of an inner force] may direct their actions to be necessary in the

definition of spirituality. Therefore, for the purposes of this paper, I define spirituality as an

individual’s awareness and exploration of the intangible interconnecting inner force within

themselves and others that guides their actions.

Spirituality vs. Religion. Before the construct of spiritual leadership may be properly

outlined and defined, it is important to identify what spirituality is not; that is to say the

misconception that an individual’s spirituality is somehow the same as his or her religious

affiliation. The development of the spiritual leadership literature has suffered as scholars have

been unable to reach an acceptable conclusion regarding the boundaries between spirituality and
 12

Table 2.1

Currently Offered Definitions of Spirituality

Reference Definition Focus

Elkins, Hedstrom, a way of being and experiencing that comes about awareness of
Hughes, Leaf, through awareness of a transcendent dimension and that transcendent
and Saunders is characterized by certain identifiable values in regard to
(1988:10) self, life, and whatever one considers to be the Ultimate

Fairholm the acceptance of universal values that individuals universal values

(1998b:117) believe guide their everyday actions and by which they
judge their own actions

Fry (2003: 29) presence of a relationship with a higher power or being relationship with
that affects the way in which one operates in the world a higher power

Gallegos Nava an individual, natural, direct experience of that which is experience of

(2001:128) sacred, of that which is transcending, of the ultimate the sacred
foundation, which is the essence of all that exists

Sheldrake (2007: a vision of the human spirit and of what will assist it to vision of full
2) achieve full potential potential

Solomon (2002: the subtle and not easily specifiable awareness that awareness that
12) surrounds virtually everything and anything that transcends
transcends our petty self-interest ourselves

Janis (2008: 12) one’s own personal experience and relationship with the experience with
divine the divine

Lyon (2004: 10) a mental disposition or attitude that embraces spirit as embracing the
integral to one’s work, behavior, thinking, and success spirit

Pargament and effort to discover the sacred and one that involves efforts discovering the
Mahoney (2002: to hold onto the sacred once it has been found sacred
647)

White (2000: 1) connection, with ourselves, with others, with the connection with
environment and with transcendent values such as transcendent
love values

Wilson (2008: individual transcendent relationship transcendent

18) relationship

Zinnbauer, et al. whatever people do to attain a variety of goals, such as achieving inner
(1999:902) meaning in life, wholeness, interconnectedness with potential
others, truth, and one’s own inner potential
 13

religion in the workplace.

Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975, p. 1) define religion as the “system of beliefs in a divine

or superhuman power, and practices of worship or other rituals directed toward such a power.”

Hicks (2002) argues that religion is “institutional, dogmatic, and rigid” whereas spirituality is

“personal, emotional, and adaptable to an individual’s needs” and further suggests that

“spirituality unites, but religion divides” (p. 380). Religion can be interpreted as one of the many

ways in which a person may express their spirituality. With regard to boundaries, spirituality is a

much broader concept than religion (Zellers & Perrewe, 2003) in that there is no right or wrong

way to be spiritual. It is this very lack of a ‘right or wrong way,’ in fact, that has hampered the

creation of a meaningful definition of spiritual leadership.

Although spirituality and religion do have common elements, the primary concerns of the

spiritual are definitely separate from the primary concerns of the religious (Veach & Chappell,

1991), i.e., religious individuals are focused on performing certain actions or duties in order to

achieve a place in the afterlife, there are specific ways to practice a religion, and religions tend to

be formally organized. Moreover, according to Fry (2003) while it is necessary for an individual

to be spiritual in order to be religious, religion is not necessary for spirituality. A spiritual leader

is therefore different from a religious leader; each provides guidance for different aspects of an

individual’s life. By recognizing the distinction between spirituality and religion, we are better

able to move forward in developing the construct of spiritual leadership.

Workplace Spirituality. As noted in chapter one, the search for spiritual fulfillment has

begun to manifest itself in the workplace (Fairholm, 1998b; Fry, 2003). Hicks (2003) and Fry

(2008) each note that employees have spiritual needs in the same way that they have physical

and emotional needs and, more importantly, none of these needs are left in the parking lot when
 14

they arrive at work. In addition, more and more research reports that employees seek meaning

and significance from their work and in some cases, more so than they desire money (Ashmos &

Duchon, 2000; Fairholm, 1997; Fry, 2003; Marques, Dhiman, & King, 2005). The question then

is how to integrate spirituality – an individual’s awareness and exploration of the intangible

interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that guides ones actions – into the

framework of the work environment.

While there remains a lack of agreement with regard to the specific definition of

workplace spirituality, various dimensions common to spiritual workplaces continue to appear

throughout the literature, namely: opportunities for an inner life, meaning through work,

enjoyment and creativity through work, personal growth through work, and the desire to belong

to a community (Ashmos, Duchon, & Laine, 1999; Brown-Daniels, 2002; Fairholm, 1997;

Fernando, 2007; Fry, 2003; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003; Mitroff & Denton, 1999a; Pfeffer,

2003; Rego & Cunha, 2008). Table 2.2 breaks down the various definitions explored below

based upon their descriptive characteristics of workplace spirituality.

Probably the most widely cited explanation of workplace spirituality in the

management/organizational behavior literature comes from Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003: 13)

who note the employee’s need to have an “experience of transcendence through the work

process, facilitating their sense of being connected in a way that provides feelings of compassion

and joy.” Ashmos, Duchon, and Laine (1999) also point out that “employees have an inner life

that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of

community” (p. 9). In an attempt to better understand how ‘community’ is interpreted, Ashmos

et al. (1999) questioned 696 hospital employees. They found that the most important aspects of
15

Table 2.2

Currently Offered Definitions of Workplace Spirituality

Reference Definition Opportunities Sense of Sense of Enjoyment Opportunities

for an inner fulfillment community or and for personal
life or social creativity growth
significance connection through through work
through with fellow work
work organizational
members

Ashmos, employees have an inner life that nourishes and X X X X

Duchon, and is nourished by meaningful work that takes
Laine (1999: place in the context of community… a place in
9) which one can experience personal growth, be
valued for themselves as individuals, and have
a sense of working together

Fry (2005: requirement for workplace spirituality is an X X

621) inner life that nourishes and is nourished by
calling or transcendence of self within the
context of a community

Giacalone experience of transcendence through the work X X

and process, facilitating their sense of being
Jurkiewicz connected in a way that provides feelings of
(2003: 13) compassion and joy

Gibbons the search for direction, meaning, inner X X

(2001: 13) wholeness and connectedness to others, to non-
human creation and to a transcendent

Lamont drawing on diversity, encouraging creativity, X X

(2002) taking a holistic approach, and emphasizing the
sense of community
16

Reference Definition Opportunities Sense of Sense of Enjoyment Opportunities

for an inner fulfillment community or and for personal
life or social creativity growth
significance connection through through work
through with fellow work
work organizational
members

Pfeffer Employees look for four characteristics in a X X X

(2003) (Cited spiritual workplace: (1) interesting and
in Fry, 2003, meaningful work that permits them to learn,
704) develop, and have a sense of competence and
mastery, (2) meaningful work that provides
some feeling of purpose, (3) a sense of
connection and positive social relations with
their coworkers, and (4) the ability to live an
integrated life so one’s work role as well as
other roles are in harmony with his or her
essential nature.

Rego and Over several studies identified five dimensions X X X X

Cunha of workplace spirituality such as sense of
(2008); Rego, community, alignment with organizational
Cunha, and values, sense of contribution to society,
Oliveira, enjoyment at work, and opportunities for inner
(2008); Rego, life.
Cunha, and
Souto ( 2007)

Smith (2004: individuals and organizations seeing work as a X X

78) spiritual path, as an opportunity to grow and to
contribute to society in a meaningful way.
 17

community were seen as: “a place in which one can experience personal growth, be valued for

themselves as individuals, and have a sense of working together” (p. 9).

In several studies, Rego along with various other scholars (Rego & Cunha, 2008; Rego,

Cunha, & Oliveira, 2008; Rego, Cunha, & Souto, 2007), identified five dimensions of workplace

spirituality related to key organizational outcomes such as commitment and job performance,

sense of community, alignment with organizational values, sense of contribution to society,

enjoyment at work, and opportunities for inner life. Lamont (2002) similarly noted several

principles of a spiritual workplace including drawing on diversity, encouraging creativity, taking

a holistic approach, and emphasizing the sense of community. Pfeffer (2003), taking a much

narrower approach, argued that employees look for four particular characteristics in a spiritual

workplace: “(1) interesting and meaningful work that permits them to learn, develop, and have a

sense of competence and mastery, (2) meaningful work that provides some feeling of purpose,

(3) a sense of connection and positive social relations with their coworkers, and (4) the ability to

live an integrated life so one’s work role as well as other roles are in harmony with his or her

essential nature” (Fry, 2003: 704).

Such identifying features of a spiritual workplace are further supported by the findings of

the 2005 Leadership Quarterly special issue on workplace spirituality which likewise suggested

that what is required for workplace spirituality is “an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by

calling or transcendence of self within the context of a community” (Fry 2005: 621). In her

research into adult learning, White (2000) echoes Fry’s sentiments and reported that “the most

clearly identified theme in our understanding of spirituality was ‘connection’, with ourselves,

with others, with the environment and with transcendent values such as love” (p. 1). Building

upon an earlier definition by Neal (1997), Smith (2004: 78) considers the application of
 18

spirituality in the workplace to be “about individuals and organizations seeing work as a spiritual

path, as an opportunity to grow and to contribute to society in a meaningful way. It is about care,

compassion and support of others; about integrity and people being true to themselves and

others.” Further exploration by Gibbons (2001: 13) suggests that spirituality at work may be

related to “the search for direction, meaning, inner wholeness and connectedness to others, to

non-human creation and to a transcendent.”

Although each definition of workplace spirituality is helpful, there is no one description

which incorporates all of the five elements identified throughout the literature. I take a more

simplistic approach to defining this construct and offer that workplace spirituality occurs when

some aspect of the work environment stimulates an employee’s awareness and exploration of the

intangible interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that guides their actions.

Such stimulation may come from the organizational culture, the community of people in the

organization, the nature of the work itself, or, as I argue in the proceeding sections, from an

organizational leader. See Figure 2.1. I suggest, and will discuss below, that workplace

spirituality may occur when a leader allows opportunities for employees to explore their inner

life, encourages a sense of fulfillment or significance through their work, supports a sense of

community or connection among organizational members, helps employees to find enjoyment

and creativity through their work, and promotes opportunities for employees to experience

personal growth through their work. The literature identifies these five elements as

characteristics of workplace spirituality but I would propose that they are not characteristics of

the workplace itself but rather characteristics of a stimulating element in the workplace, namely a

leader. This may further explain why no study, and therefore no existing definition of workplace

spirituality, has incorporated all five dimensions.

 19

Summary

The section above reviewed the constructs of leadership, spirituality, and

workplace spirituality. Five characteristics of workplace spirituality were identified

through a literature search and guiding definitions were offered for both spirituality and

workplace spirituality.

Spiritual Leadership

Wilson (2008) advocated that spirituality cannot exist independently in the workplace

and as such is fostered by organizational leaders - a notion which is reflected in Figure 2.1.

Likewise, in her qualitative review of approximately 150 studies, Reave (2005) found a

relationship between spirituality and leader success. Because of such findings, the once tenuous

academic link between spirituality and leadership is strengthening. As with workplace

spirituality, there remains a clear lack of agreement among researchers in terms of an accurate,

accepted definition of spiritual leadership. This lack of clarity surrounding spiritual leadership,

as previously noted, has hindered the comparison of results across spiritual leadership studies.

Moreover, of the findings that do exist, researchers cannot be certain they are comparing studies

examining the same construct. Until such a definition is proffered and the boundaries of spiritual

leadership agreed upon, scholars must attempt to develop the field based on existing research.

The most widely cited definition of spiritual leadership to date was developed by

Fry (2003) in his article explaining his causal theory of spiritual leadership. He describes

spiritual leadership as “comprising the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are necessary

to intrinsically motivate oneself and others so that they have a sense of spiritual survival

through calling and membership. This entails: (1) creating a vision wherein

organizational members experience a sense of calling; and (2) establishing a

 20

Figure 2.1

The Stimulation of Individual Spirituality in the Workplace

Nature of the Organizational

Work Culture

Organizational
Organizational
Community
Leadership
Members
Individual
Spirituality
 21

social/organizational culture based on altruistic love whereby leaders and followers have genuine

care, concern, and appreciation for both self and others, thereby producing a sense of

membership and being understood and appreciated” (p.694-695). Fry (2003) further suggests

that the primary focus of spiritual leadership is to “tap into the fundamental needs of both leader

and follower for spiritual survival so they become more organizationally committed and

productive” (694).

Based upon this definition, Fry developed the spiritual leadership theory. Displayed in

Figure 2.2, the spiritual leadership theory is a causal leadership model designed to create an

intrinsically motivated, learning organization. According to this theory, spiritual leadership

which is based on vision, altruistic love, and hope/faith affects an employee’s sense of spiritual

well-being and eventually leads to positive organizational outcomes such as increasing the

employee’s organizational commitment and performance.

While Fry’s (2003) is the most often cited definition of spiritual leadership, other

descriptions have been offered. One of the most straightforward explanations comes from

Ferguson and Milliman (2008) who describe spiritual leadership as simply “leadership based on

spiritual principles” (p. 445). They go on to explain that central to the construct of spiritual

leadership is the idea that employees need and want something they can commit to, something

they feel worthy of their best efforts. A spiritual leader may offer employees a target by which

to direct their efforts. Along a similar vein, Fleming (2004) neatly labels a spiritual leader as one

with a spiritually-based worldview. Taking a more complex perspective, Korac-Kakabadse,

Kouzmin, and Kakabadse (2002: 171) contend that, “Spirituality in leadership is conceived by

many as an awareness within individuals of a sense of connectedness that exists with their inner
 22

Figure 2.2

Fry’s (2003) Causal Model of Spiritual Leadership

 23

selves and the world (other people and the environment)…[T]he essence of leadership stems

from the leader’s soul, rather than his/her behavior.” Various other definitions offered

throughout the literature include Isaacson’s (2002) description of spiritual leadership as the act of

using the leader’s spiritual self as a prompt for the follower’s personal growth and work

experience. Klenke (2003) likewise deems spiritual leadership as a sort of humanitarian act

aimed at better understanding the spiritual distinctiveness of each employee. Though not

offering a definition herself, Reave (2005) suggests that in order to better develop the theory of

spiritual leadership, researchers should begin by examining the leader’s ethical standards and

integrity as well as the leader’s behavior to determine whether the behavior exhibited matches

the values professed.

However diverse (see Table 2.3 for a listing), nearly all definitions to varying degrees

contend that “spiritual leadership involves the multiple aspects of personage in the workplace, at

the leader and follower levels, that are beyond the physical self” (Wilson, 2008: 25). In other

words, the essential principle of spiritual leadership is its focus on the intangible inner force

within both the employee and his or her leader. This primary focus on an interconnecting inner

force, however, remains a major point of contention especially among scholars outside the

literature. It is the very essence of spiritual leadership, namely the spiritual facet itself, which

causes such controversy among academics. As noted by Benefiel (2005), researchers in this field

of study “easily fall into various traps: they inadvertently draw upon outdated, discredited, or

shallow approaches to spirituality; they re-invent the wheel; they dip into credible theories of

spirituality but then don't fully develop them or resolve the conflicts among them” (p. 727).

Perhaps because of this fact, there are few definitions as many researchers have forgone offering

an explicit description of a spiritual leader and opted rather to explain such a leader in terms of
 24

Table 2.3

Currently Offered Definitions of Spiritual Leadership

Reference Definition

Ferguson and leadership based on spiritual principles

Milliman (2008:
445)

Flemming (2004) one with a spiritually-based worldview

Fry (2003: 694- comprising the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are necessary to
695) intrinsically motivate oneself and others so that they have a sense of
spiritual survival through calling and membership. This entails: (1)
creating a vision wherein organizational members experience a sense of
calling; and (2) establishing a social/organizational culture based on
altruistic love whereby leaders and followers have genuine care, concern,
and appreciation for both self and others, thereby producing a sense of
membership and being understood and appreciated.

Isaacson (2002) the act of using the leader’s spiritual self as a prompt for the follower’s
personal growth and work experience

Klenke (2003) a sort of humanitarian act aimed at better understanding the spiritual
distinctiveness of each employee

Korac-Kakabadse, an awareness within individuals of a sense of connectedness that exists

Kouzmin, and with their inner selves and the world (other people and the
Kakabadse (2002: environment)…[T]he essence of leadership stems from the leader’s soul,
171) rather than his/her behavior

Wilson (2008: 25) the multiple aspects of personage in the workplace, at the leader and
follower levels, that are beyond the physical self
 25

their behaviors. Cashman (2003) begins by noting that for a spiritual leader to foster spirituality

within the workplace, they must first develop their own leader skills. The spiritual leader may

then begin refocusing the organization’s culture from profit- or production-centered towards

creating meaning and developing spiritual wellbeing. It is the purpose of such a leader to

maintain a focus on the alignment between an employee’s values and behaviors. That is to say,

it is the job of a spiritual leader to acknowledge that an employee’s “core values are the compass

that keep career and life in harmony with authentic talents, values, and meaning” (Wilson, 2008:

48). Dehler and Welsh (1994) equally assert that spiritual leaders not only inspire and energize

employees through purpose rather than rewards but also encourage their followers to overcome

self-interest for the good of other members of the workplace community.

This notion of redirecting the organization and/or employee’s focus is echoed in several

descriptions of spiritual leaders. Konz and Ryan (1999) conceded early in the development of

this literature that those leaders who bring their spirituality to work may transform their

workplace from purely performance-focused environments to ones in which spiritual

development is not only encouraged but incorporated into the daily functions of the workplace.

Fry (2003) likewise emphasized that spiritual leaders should create a vision in which employees

may experience feelings of membership among their workplace community as well as a sense of

calling through their work. Sanders, Hopkins, and Geroy (2004) support Fry’s idea that spiritual

leaders should endorse organizational spirituality by creating a workplace which “encourages a

sense of meaning and interconnectedness among employees” (p. 12). Matherly and Fry (2005)

later go on to expound upon the type of culture created stating that both leaders and followers

should have a sincere sense of appreciation and concern for themselves as well as those around

them.
 26

In addition to the type of behavior associated with spiritual leadership, the claimed

outcomes of such behaviors have been touted as well, both empirically and theoretically. At the

organizational level, one outcome is the development of a culture in which employees experience

a sense of calling, meaning, vocation, purpose, etc. (Wheatley, 2002). Ferguson and Milliman

(2008) suggested that, by focusing on both the physical and emotional facets of employees,

spiritual leaders may encourage energy and commitment. In his dissertation research, Wilson

(2008) found weak but recognizable relationships between leadership spirituality and workplace

spirituality, leadership spirituality and organizational performance, and between workplace

spirituality and organizational performance. Fry (2003) goes so far as to say that by supporting

an individual’s spirituality, leaders may “create an intrinsic motivating force that elicits

spontaneous, cooperative effort from people, and make it more likely for employees to learn,

develop, and use their skills and knowledge to benefit both themselves and their organizations”

(p. 705).

In order to maintain the continuity between spirituality and workplace spirituality and

now spiritual leadership, I continue with my line of reasoning and offer that spiritual leadership

occurs when an organizational leader’s behavior stimulates an employee’s awareness and

exploration of the intangible interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that

guides their actions. This stimulation, however, requires very specific behaviors from a leader;

behaviors that differentiate a spiritual leader from a transformational or transactional leader, for

example. In the section below, I expand upon the behaviors found in the literature to be

associated with a spiritual leader.

 27

Elements of Spiritual Leadership

Prior research indicates that spirituality in the workplace may contribute to the wellbeing

of an employee and ultimately the organization by providing: (1) opportunities for an inner life;

(2) sense of fulfillment or significance through work, (3) sense of community or social

connection with fellow organizational members; (4) enjoyment and creativity through work; and

(5) opportunities for personal growth through work (Ashmos, Duchon, & Laine, 1999; Brown-

Daniels, 2002; Fairholm, 1997; Fernando, 2007; Fry, 2003, 2005; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003;

Lamont, 2002; Mitroff & Denton, 1999a; Pfeffer, 2003; Rego & Cunha, 2008; Rego, Cunha, &

Oliveira, 2008; Rego, Cunha, & Souto, 2007). Although the literature identifies these five

elements as characteristics of workplace spirituality, I have put forward that they are not

characteristics of the workplace itself but rather characteristics of a stimulating element in the

workplace, i.e., a spiritual leader. The spiritual leadership literature supports and builds upon

this idea. For example, upon reviewing workplace spirituality, Fry (2003) identifies three

dimensions of spiritual leadership. Effort (hope and faith), performance (vision) and reward

(altruistic love), Fry argues, are essential in order to satisfy an employee’s spiritual needs of

calling and membership. In other words, it is characteristics of the spiritual leader which work

toward fulfilling an employee’s spiritual needs. He further notes that a spiritual leader must be

intrinsically motivated to behave in such a manner.

Several academics have offered that spiritual leaders should be dedicated to core ethical

values such as justice, honesty, freedom, trustworthiness and integrity (Bryan, 2008; Fairholm,

1998; Kurth, 2003; Mitroff & Denton, 1999a; Reave, 2005). Reave (2005), in her review of the

literature, points out that such leaders should express caring as well as listen responsively to their

employees. In terms of the business side of an organization, Mitroff and Denton (1999a)
 28

recommend that a spiritual leader also place an emphasis on shared profits and shareholders’

well-being. Fairholm (1998) similarly calls attention to the need for spiritual leaders to be

concerned with the vision of the organization.

Aside from those elements identified in workplace spirituality literature, there are two

other aspects unique to the construct of spiritual leadership theory, explicitly the spirituality of

the leader and the leader’s focus on service to others.

Spirituality. Strack and Fottler (2002: 16) propose that “the management of individual

spirituality as well as the leadership of others from a spiritual perspective is among the most

fundamental of all management tasks.” A spiritual leader is therefore hypothesized to embrace

spiritually oriented beliefs and values (Beazley, 2002; Fairholm, 1998; Northouse, 1997) and

thus operate based on such. Stated another way, the construct of spiritual leadership is unique

from existing leadership constructs in that spiritual leaders live in a “faith relationship with the

Transcendent” and participate in “prayer, meditation, or other communication involving the

Transcendent” (H. Beazley, 1998: 102). Researchers support this idea by noting one of the key

practices of a spiritual leader is to maintain a personal spiritual life through practices such as

spending reflective time in nature, prayer, yoga or mediation, inspirational reading, introspective

journaling, or other communication involving transcendence (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Kurth,

2003; Neal, 2000, Reave, 2005). Ferguson and Milliman (2008: 445) label this phenomenon as

“articulating to a higher cause or purpose.” Fry (2008) suggests that their inner life practice is

the fundamental source which spiritual leaders draw upon. Glanz (2006) further acknowledges

that leaders who are in touch with their spiritual nature adhere to specific values and act based on

these values. This concentration on ‘spirit’ is vital to the construct of spiritual leadership.
 29

Without such a focus, as previously noted, spiritual leadership could not establish its unique

place within the leadership literature.

In addition to their own spiritual well-being, spiritual leaders accept and respect the

spiritual practices of others in their work community (Kolodinsky, Bowen, & Ferris, 2003).

These leaders are less concerned with how a follower develops his or her spirituality and more

with the fact that he or she does develop spiritually. Spiritual leaders recognize the spirit in

others (Fairholm, 1997) and offer support in spirit developing activities (Klenke, 2003). Unlike

other leader oriented activities, this focus on the development of an employee’s inner self is

directly for the benefit of the employee; organizational benefits may occur but generally not as

the primary end product. This attention to an inner force is a key element of the construct of

spiritual leadership. Without such a focus, spiritual leadership would simply be an alternative

version of transformational leadership.

How and which behaviors an employee deems spiritual will depend upon the employee’s

own background. For example, an employee with a highly developed religious background may

find prayer to be a meaningful way to focus on their inner life or to reach a transcendent state.

An atheistic or non-practicing individual, on the other hand, may use meditation to reach such a

state. Because each employee has a different background and will therefore interpret spirituality

independently, a spiritual leader accepts the ways in which an employee chooses to develop his

or her own spirituality. Stated plainly, a spiritual leader accepts a person for the way they are

(Fairholm, 1998). This simple acceptance is supported by Zellers and Perrewe’s (2003) idea that

there is no right or wrong way to be spiritual.

Service to Others. One of the core attributes asserted to a spiritual leader is the focus on

service to others (Beazley, 2002; Block, 1996; Fairholm, 1998; Northouse, 1997; Reave, 2005).
 30

Spiritual leaders should both aid employees in their self-development (Klenke, 2003) as well as

offer employees empowerment opportunities (Ferguson & Milliman, 2008). Lauer (2003)

describes spiritual leaders as those who not only live by the Golden Rule (to do unto others as

you would have them do unto you) but who “take responsibility, look out for their colleagues

and lead by example, not by dictatorial orders and punishment” (p. 20). A spiritual leader,

according to Isaacson (2002), uses his or her own spirituality as a sort of catalyst for the

follower’s personal growth and work experience.

It was proposed that spiritual leadership occurs when an organizational leader stimulates

an employee’s spirituality. Based upon the literature review, this spiritual prompt may occur

through displays of the leader’s own spirituality, the leader’s focus on service to others, allowing

opportunities for employees to explore their inner life, encouraging a sense of fulfillment or

significance through their work, supporting a sense of community or connection among

organizational members, helping employees to find enjoyment and creativity through their work,

and promoting opportunities for employees to experience personal growth through their work.

Spiritual Leadership vs. Transformational and Transactional Leadership

Prior research suggests that the boundaries between transformational leadership and

transactional leadership are established (see Howell & Hall-Merenda, 1999; Wang, et al., 2005).

While some of the qualities of the leadership constructs may overlap, especially in the case of

spiritual and transformational leadership, I argue that it is a distinct construct not to be easily

dismissed as simply another fad (Grant, 2005).

The basic nature of transactional leadership consists of a contractual relationship between

leader and follower in which the act of the leader rewarding or punishing the follower is simply a

means to an end for the leader. This form of relationship is very different from the genuine and
 31

meaningful interpersonal relationships encouraged in spiritual leadership (Neal, 2000).

Additionally, transactional leadership is an extrinsic motivation process (Burns, 1978) in which

followers are motivated by tangible rewards. Followers of spiritual leaders, on the other hand,

are intrinsically motivated toward goals such as finding their calling through work and

developing their connection with those around them (Fry, 2003).

Transformational leadership, the most dominant leadership theory to date, focuses to

varying degrees on the physical, psychological, and emotional dimensions of human interaction

at work yet neglects the spiritual. Though similar to spiritual leadership in that transformational

leaders attempt to give the work their followers do meaning, one distinction between spiritual

and transformational leadership is the source of the leader’s motivation. In other words, why

does a leader want to develop or transform his or her followers? As noted by Reave (2005),

transformational leadership theories explain how leaders influence their followers’ motivation

yet the source of the leader’s motivation remains unaddressed. Spiritual leadership, however,

addresses this concern by identifying the fact that for spiritual leaders to effectively stimulate

their employees, they themselves must maintain a personal spiritual life from which to draw

upon. For example, spiritual leaders give of themselves to motivate others but must also spend

time alone in order to replenish their own spiritual motivation (Brock & Grady, 2004; Komives,

Lucas, & McMahon, 1998).

In addition to the lack of a spiritual dimension, and an unclear motivational source,

transformational leadership differs from spiritual leadership in that transformational leaders may

possesses qualities which would be considered unattractive by the standards of a spiritual leader.

Bass (1999), in fact, has identified that transformational leaders’ commitment derives from their

own internalized values, values which, while rare, may or may not benefit their followers, i.e.,
 32

narcissism, exploitative and manipulative traits, the tendency to abuse power for personal gain,

as well as the inclination to put their own self-interest before the best interests of their

subordinates (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999; Conger, 1990; Conger & Kanungo, 1998; Deluga, 2001;

Sankowsky, 1995). Furthermore, as pointed out by Liu (2007, p.4), “nothing in the

transformational leadership model says leaders should serve followers for the good of

followers.” Indeed, Stephens, D’Intino, and Victor (1995) echo this sentiment in their argument

that transformational leaders, like with many existing leadership theories, are biased toward

benefiting particular stakeholder groups (top management, owners) at the expense of others (the

general employee population). Harrison (1987) has similarly proposed that the emotional

involvement required by transformational leaders of their followers may lead to stress-related

burn-out. Because of such possible detrimental effects, Yukl (1999) has called for further

investigations of the negative side of transformational leadership. This is not to say that all

transformational leaders are bad or that all spiritual leaders are good but rather to point out that

there are aspects of transformational leadership that are not inherent in spiritual leadership.

Summary

The section preceding reviewed the various definitions of spiritual leadership

offered throughout the literature. The similarities and shortcomings of the definitions

were noted along with a description of the multiple dimensions of spiritual leadership.

Spiritual leadership was also compared with some of the most common leadership

theories to date.

Development of the Spiritual Leadership Literature

Aside from simply legitimizing the field of spiritual leadership, it has been suggested that

spiritual leadership research may be the next evolution of leadership theory thereby representing
 33

the newest leadership paradigm for the twenty-first century (Fry & Whittington, 2005).

Undoubtedly, however, the development of this specific literature is still in its infancy. Reichers

& Schneider (1990) would label the present state of the spiritual leadership research as

introduction and elaboration. As explicitly seen in the current literature, this stage is generally

identifiable through: (a) efforts to authenticate the emerging construct, (b) papers attempting to

bestow legitimacy on both the research and researchers, and (c) efforts to determine a widely-

accepted definition of the new construct.

Although it may be considered a necessary evil in the development of a new construct,

the controversy surrounding the literature and the difficulty to define spiritual leadership has

caused many to become skeptical and to question whether spiritual leadership, like workplace

spirituality, deserves the attention it has received (Brown, 2003). Moreover, as pointed out by

Wilson (2008), “until a relationship can be empirically established, the idea of spiritual

leadership in business will not be acknowledged as a significant leadership theory“(p.4). The

problems associated with existing definitions and measures noted herein have left the

development of the spiritual leadership literature at an impasse: empirical relationships cannot be

established until a construct has been developed and accepted measures in place yet possible

relationships must be identified in order to create such a measure. Unquestionably, the

conclusion may be reached that although researchers have identified several aspects of the

construct there is not currently an acceptable constitutive definition of spiritual leadership and

likewise no acceptable measure.

A review of prior research indicates that there are several dimensions of spiritual

leadership. In order to determine whether these dimensions are accurate, or supported by

academics and practitioners, these dimensions will be tested at various levels. Should the results
 34

converge around these behaviors, then it may be determined that they are in fact aspects of

spiritual leadership. It is hoped that such an inductive approach will aid in the development of

the field as well as satisfy those academics not associated with or who have reservations as to the

legitimacy of the spirituality literature.

The Present Study

This study aims to focus on what constitutes spiritual leadership. While a definition of

spiritual leadership has been suggested along with several behaviors associated with spiritual

leadership, this research takes an open-ended and inclusive position in order to determine where

there might be agreement among academic experts and organizational practitioners alike. It may

be found, for instance, that while the literature suggests seven behaviors specific to a spiritual

leader, only four emerge. Should this be the case, the central behaviors of a spiritual leader

suggested herein will be revised. This perspective is consistent with Mitroff’s suggestion that

the low degree of precision in the field of spiritual workplaces is part of the circumstantial

phenomenon, thus making it necessary to avoid “obsession with the definition” and to work from

“guiding definitions” (Dean, 2004: 17).

Freshman (1999) noted in her exploratory analysis of workplace spirituality definitions

that research in this field may require a new way of thinking about data collection and analysis.

This research, like Freshman’s, will attempt to capture a “snapshot image of definitions which

are admittedly varied and in flux” (p. 319). In other words, this study endeavors to determine

those elements which may serve as ‘guides’ toward further development of the spiritual

leadership construct. The intention of this study, therefore, is to explore rather than conclude.

As such, no specific hypotheses are being offered by which to direct this research.
 35

Noted previously, the primary objective of the present study is to determine whether there

is a common understanding as to what constitutes spiritual leadership and to identify which

leader behaviors may be considered spiritually oriented. It was established through the literature

review that spiritual leadership is composed of seven elements: (1) opportunities for an inner life;

(2) sense of fulfillment or significance through work, (3) sense of community or social

connection with fellow organizational members; (4) enjoyment and creativity through work; (5)

opportunities for personal growth through work; (6) spirituality; and (7) service to others. Based

on these elements, a spiritual leader would be a leader who encourages these behaviors. Using

these components as the primary guide, a list will be created of leader behaviors which may be

deemed spiritually oriented. The current lack of such a list of accepted behaviors associated with

a spiritual leader has made the comparison of results across studies practically impossible.

Without an understanding of what exactly spiritual leaders do, scholars cannot be certain they are

comparing results of studies looking at the same construct.

It is the intention of this study to develop such a list of widely accepted behaviors

descriptive of a spiritual leader by collecting data from both academics interested in this field

and practitioners in work organizations. My aim is to generate as complete a list of potential

spiritual leadership behaviors as I can in phase 1 and then use a Likert scaling process in phase 2

to determine the level of agreement among respondents regarding the applicability of each of the

behaviors to the construct of spiritual leadership. Thus, a secondary aim of this inductive study

is to explore how individual implicit definitions of what constitutes a spiritual leader may differ

among various groups of respondents, such as those who are religious versus those who are not,

or between academics and managers and subordinates in work organizations.

 36

Implicit leadership theory states that each individual has his or her own perception of

what constitutes a good leader. This notion of a good leader is based upon the individual’s

expectations of a leader (Eden & Leviathan, 1975) and in this case, expectations of a spiritual

leader. The respondent’s expectations are not formalized but rather “inferred from his or her

spontaneous descriptions and expectations” about the leader (Konrad, 2000: 337). If a

respondent should have a preconceived idea of what a spiritual leader is, for example, such an

idea may influence his or her determination of the effectiveness or appropriateness of certain

spiritual leader behaviors. My ultimate goal, beyond the scope of this one study, is to develop a

useful measure of spiritual leadership that reflects the dominant implicit theories. Of course, a

possible outcome of this research could be the discovery that there is minimal agreement among

various respondents regarding the essential elements of spiritual leadership. In that case this

would still constitute a valuable finding for this field.

While the creation of a list of leader behaviors is only an early step in the development of

the construct and ultimately a measure of spiritual leadership, it is a necessary step. A widely

accepted definition of spiritual leadership may not be reached until the various elements of

spiritual leadership are identified and agreed upon by both academics and practicing managers.

In addition, to date, no empirical study has looked at what scholars as well as the common

manager or employee thinks of the concept of spiritual leadership.

It is important to capture the perspective of both academic and practitioner alike so that

both communities may mutually benefit from research in this field. This notion of linking

academic ideas and knowledge to managerial practice is not a new phenomenon. Scholars have

often called for research involving a reconciliation of academic theory with managerial reality

(Gopinath & Hoffman, 1995; Sizer, 2001; Whittington, 1996; Starkey & Tempest, 2005; Augier
 37

& March, 2007). Management research and knowledge production need to be relevant to

everyday managers. Kelliher, Harrington, and Galvan (2007: 2) noted that in order to promote

knowledge, “business and academic communities should collaborate to provide a practice-based

perspective in leadership education and training.”

In a study looking at academic and practitioner perspectives of employee commitment,

Shepherd and Matthews’ (2000) findings highlight the need for managers to become more aware

of the advancements made in academic research. They also suggest that academics may not be

sufficiently insightful in their operationalization of a construct. By conducting research based

primarily on quantitative measures, scholars may be ignoring the subtle nuances of the construct

that practitioners are more familiar with. As a way to correct this oversight, Shepherd and

Matthew (2000) suggest that an alternative method to assessing constructs, such as in the form of

a type of mixed method research, may be necessary.

Starkey and Tempest (2005) argue that academia needs organizational cooperation in

order to determine what goes on managerially in the firm. In other words, while the concept of

spiritual leadership may be new to the academic community it may be a long-accepted practice

within the practitioner community – a question which will remain unanswered until researchers

study both perspectives. Hence, the apparent need for the current study.

Summary

In the segments above, the initial research question was addressed through a review of

the literature in order to determine whether there is a common understanding as to what

constitutes spiritual leadership. Based upon the literature review, I offered that spirituality is an

individual’s awareness and exploration of the intangible interconnecting inner force within

themselves and others that guides ones actions. Consequently, workplace spirituality occurs
 38

when some aspect of the work environment stimulates an employee’s awareness and exploration

of the intangible interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that guides their

actions. An organizational leader is one example of an element in the work environment which

may elicit spirituality among employees. Spiritual leadership, therefore, occurs when an

organizational leader stimulates an employee’s awareness and exploration of the intangible

interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that guides their actions. This spiritual

prompt may occur through displays of the leader’s own spirituality, the leader’s focus on service

to others, allowing opportunities for employees to explore their inner life, encouraging a sense of

fulfillment or significance through their work, supporting a sense of community or connection

among organizational members, helping employees to find enjoyment and creativity through

their work, and promoting opportunities for employees to experience personal growth through

their work.
 39

CHAPTER THREE

METHOD

The previous chapter addressed the research question of whether there is a common

understanding as to what constitutes spiritual leadership. In the proceeding sections, I attend to

the initial question as well as address the remaining question pertaining to which behaviors

exhibited by workplace leaders may be considered spiritual in nature. This research was

conducted in two phases: (1) generation of a list of potential spiritual leadership behaviors, and

(2) examination of the convergence among different groups of respondents about which

behaviors fall in their implicit theory of spiritual leadership.

Phase 1

Development of a List of Potential Spiritual Leadership Behaviors

Sample

In this first phase of the study, my goal was to develop a list of potential spiritual

leadership behaviors that represent, as much as possible, the views and opinions of individuals

who have an interest in this construct. These individuals fall into one of two categories: (1)

academic researchers interested in spiritual leadership and (2) practitioners who have expressed a

significant interest in the construct. For this round of data collection, I recruited participants

from three sources: the Academy of Management’s Management, Spirituality, and Religion

Interest Group, suggestions from Dr. Judith Neal, director of the Tyson Chair for Faith and

Spirituality at the University of Arkansas, and prior applicants/recipients of the International

Spirit at Work Award. The Center for Spirit at Work is an international non-profit group of

individuals and organizations interested in the study and practice of spirituality in the workplace
 40

(www.spiritatwork.org). Participants originating from the MSR interest group were either e-

mailed directly or responded to a post on the MSR Listserv requesting participation in this study.

See Appendix A for the introductory e-mail and Listserv posting. Individuals suggested by Dr.

Neal as well as individuals representing organizations associated with the Spirit at Work Award

were likewise contacted via direct e-mails. Initial e-mails for these participants were similar

with the inclusion of a single line indicating how I had received their contact information.

It was hoped that between twenty and thirty subject matter experts would be willing to

participate in this study. Because this phase of the study was an open-ended inductive process, it

was necessary to exercise some judgment regarding the completeness of the list that I generated.

My intention was to continue interviewing additional respondents from both academic and

practitioner domains until I no longer obtained unique behaviors. This strategy could result in

more or less phase one participants than originally anticipated. If for example, after interviewing

fifteen experts, I continued to receive the same behavioral suggestions, I could conclude that the

list of behaviors had been exhausted and would therefore have no need to interview additional

experts. On the other hand, if I continued to receive new behavioral suggestions after thirty

interviews, I would continue until no new spiritual leader behaviors were offered.

As data collection for this phase progressed, I began to notice a pattern of similar

responses after approximately twenty interviews. Upon examination of the data, I found that

participants had only suggested two new spiritual leader behaviors over the last fourteen

interviews and therefore concluded that I had reached a point of saturation. However, because I

had already made arrangements for several more interviews and did not wish to break those

appointments, I completed all scheduled interviews as planned and ended with a final sample of

twenty-six participants for my first phase of data collection. Fifteen respondents were identified
 41

as academics and eleven were practitioners. Seventeen were male. For this round of data

collection, additional demographic information was not deemed necessary and was therefore not

collected.

Procedure

In the initial contact e-mail and MSR Listserv posting, individuals interested in

participating were asked to respond to me directly in order to schedule a date and time for the

interview to occur. Interviews were conducted over a 58 day time period and were scheduled in

such a way that, as much as possible, an interview with an academic respondent was followed by

an interview with a practitioner respondent and vice versa. This was done in an attempt to

guarantee that both academics and practitioners would have received relatively equal

representation once it was determined the point of saturation had been reached and further data

collection efforts were unnecessary. One interview was conducted via e-mail. Because this

participant lives in Australia, we were unable to find a time suitable to both our schedules. In

this instance alone, I sent a copy of the interview questions to the participant via e-mail and she

responded in like with her answers.

During the structured interviews, respondents were asked predetermined questions (see

Appendix B for interview script) regarding their expert opinion on spiritual leadership. Follow

up or clarifying questions were asked when deemed necessary. Participants in this phase were

asked to allow conversations to be recorded in order to ensure accuracy; there were no objections

to permit recordings. Following the interviews, the suggestions from each respondent were

reviewed and categorized based on which element of spiritual leadership the behavior referred to.

Each interview was transcribed and reviewed at least three times to make certain no pertinent

information had been overlooked or misreported.

 42

Analysis

Upon completion of the interviews, I reviewed each conversation multiple times in order

to compile a list of all suggested spiritual leader behaviors. This was in line with the purpose of

my study: (1) to determine whether there is a common understanding as to what constitutes

spiritual leadership; and (2) to identify whether there is a general consensus as to which leader

behaviors may be considered spiritually oriented.

The second research question of this study concerning whether there is a general

agreement among experts regarding spiritual leader behavior is addressed in Tables 3.1 and 3.2.

In other words, these tables offer behaviors that a spiritual leader might exhibit which stimulate

an employee’s awareness and exploration of the intangible interconnecting inner force within

themselves and others that guides their actions. The behaviors listed in Table 3.1 were gleaned

from participants’ responses to the interview question, “Are there any behaviors which you feel

are unique to spiritual leaders?” as well as any specific behaviors mentioned by participants in

response to other questions. In total, twenty-six behaviors were identified throughout the

interviews. Some behaviors such as being authentic were mentioned as many as twenty-five

times while others such as using spiritual gifts were only suggested once. Table 3.1 lists the

number of times a spiritual leader behavior was suggested over the course of all interviews and is

then broken down by the number of academics, practitioners, and total participants who mention

this behavior. In some cases, a behavior was mentioned by the same person several times in

response to various questions thus causing the total number of times the behavior was suggested

to be larger than the actual number of participants mentioning the behavior. No behaviors put

forth by participants were left out of this list and, as previously stated, only two new behaviors

were suggested over the last fourteen interviews so saturation may be concluded. Furthermore,
 43

Table 3.1

Spiritual Leader (SL) Behaviors Mentioned by Participants in Phase 1 Interviews

Number of Number of Total number

Number of
practitioners academics of participants
times
mentioning mentioning mentioning
behavior is
behavior (as a behavior (as a behavior (as a
Suggested SL behavior mentioned
% of total % of total % of all
in
practitioners, academics, participants,
interviews
N = 11) N=15) N = 26)
Is guided by spiritual values or 23 6 (55%) 6 (40%) 12 (46%)
principles
Is authentic 25 6 (55%) 4 (27%) 10 (38%)
Accepting of individuality 16 6 (55%) 4 (27%) 10 (38%)
Kind, compassionate, or caring 22 4 (36%) 6 (40%) 10 (38%)
Maintains their own personal 23 5 (45%) 4 (27%) 9 (35%)
spirituality
Self-Aware or reflective 9 3 (27%) 5 (33%) 8 (31%)
Nourishes a sense of community
or social connection with fellow 8 3 (27%) 5 (33%) 8 (31%)
organizational members
Values others 11 3 (27%) 5 (33%) 8 (31%)
Forgives 10 3 (27%) 3 (20%) 6 (23%)
Nourishes opportunities for 9 2 (18%) 4 (27%) 6 (23%)
personal growth through work
Honest, trustworthy, or has 15 3 (27%) 3 (20%) 6 (23%)
integrity
Is intelligent 7 2 (18%) 4 (27%) 6 (23%)
Nourishes opportunities for an 9 2 (18%) 3 (20%) 5 (19%)
inner life among their employees
Is of service to others 7 1 (9%) 4 (27%) 5 (19%)
Nourishes a sense of fulfillment 6 1 (9%) 3 (20%) 4 (15%)
or significance through work
Is positive
among their employees 7 1 (9%) 3 (20%) 4 (15%)
Nourishes enjoyment and 3 0 (0%) 3 (20%) 3 (12%)
creativity through work
Helps others achieve goals or 4 1 (9%) 2 (13%) 3 (12%)
develops others
Is humble 3 2 (18%) 1 (7%) 3 (12%)
Is respectful 5 2 (18%) 1 (7%) 3 (12%)
Works with others 5 1 (9%) 2 (13%) 3 (12%)
Listens 3 0 (0%) 1 (7%) 1 (4%)
Does not emphasize personal 1 0 (0%) 1 (7%) 1 (4%)
likes or dislikes
Helps others achieve high 1 0 (0%) 1 (7%) 1 (4%)
integration of their experiences
Uses spiritual gifts 1 0 (0%) 1 (7%) 1 (4%)
 44

because at least three or more respondents suggested behaviors that fell within each of the seven

components of spiritual leadership (as identified by the literature review in chapter two), it was

determined that no element of spiritual leadership had been overlooked or neglected. Two of

the seven identified elements of spiritual leadership, maintains their own personal spirituality and

nourishes a sense of community, was suggested by over a third of all phase one participants.

Phase 2

Likert Scaling of Spiritual Leadership Behaviors

Sample

For the second phase of this study, 179 participants were drawn from multiple areas

including subscribers to the Academy of Management’s Management, Spirituality, and Religion

listserv as well as the Academy of Management’s Network of Leadership Scholars listserv, and

employees of a private university in the Southern United States. 34 responses were eliminated

due to incomplete data leaving the final sample size at 145.

Participants ranged in age from 22 to 72, with an average age of 43 years. 51 percent

were male and 97.9 percent of the sample had some college or 2-year degree or higher. The

mean tenure in a respondent’s current position was 7.2 years. Most (71%) were married and had

a current religious affiliation of Christian (79%).

Survey Development

It was initially anticipated that in addition to the spiritual leadership items generated from

the phase one interviews, transformational leadership and transactional leadership scale items

would also be included for the purposes of determining discriminant validity. Following the first

round of data collection, however, it became apparent that servant leadership and authentic

leadership items would need to be included as well. When phase one subject matter experts were
 45

asked to identify any behaviors a spiritual leader may perform which might overlap with other

leadership constructs, servant leadership and authentic leadership were commonly mentioned.

Moreover, participants would often put forward (on their own) how spiritual leadership related to

other leadership constructs while answering other questions. In total, 38% of respondents

reported servant leadership as related to spiritual leadership, 23% discussed transformational,

19% suggested authentic leadership, and 8% offered transactional leadership. See Table 3.2 for

a more complete breakdown of responses.

The following sections document the source of the items chosen for this instrument as

well as any supplementary information on established scales.

Spiritual Leadership Items. Based on the spiritual leader behaviors suggested by phase

one participants, I compiled a list of items to be administered to phase two participants. Several

of the behavioral suggestions were reworded so that they made more sense in the survey format

but the intended behavior remained the same. When multiple experts suggested the same

behavior, each suggestion was reviewed and the one with the most precise wording was kept for

inclusion in the final list of spiritual behaviors. I chose to eliminate three suggested behaviors

since these particular behaviors had only been offered once. Therefore, all spiritual leadership

behaviors included in the phase two survey were suggested at least three times by the subject

matter experts from the phase one interviews. In addition, I created one item for a behavior that I

felt had not been adequately addressed; although 77% of all participants agreed that spiritual

leaders nourish a sense of creativity and enjoyment, no behaviors related to creativity were put

forward. To remedy this, I added “promotes a culture of creativity.”

In sum, 68 spiritual leadership items were generated for the purpose of this study. These

items were further subdivided into the various categories listed in Table 3.1. To ensure there was
 46

Table 3.2

Related Leadership Constructs Mentioned by Participants in Phase 1 Interviews

Number of Number of
Total number of
practitioners academics
participants
mentioning mentioning
mentioning
Leadership Construct leadership construct leadership
leadership
(as a % of total construct (as a %
construct (as a %
practitioners, of total
of all participants,
N = 11) academics,
N = 26)
N = 15)

3 (27%) 7 (47%) 10 (38%)

Servant Leadership

Transformational 0 (0%) 6 (40%) 6 (23%)

Leadership

1 (9%) 4 (27%) 5 (19%)

Authentic Leadership

0 (0%) 2 (13%) 2 (8%)

Transactional Leadership
 47

inter-rater reliability, a colleague who had an understanding of this study was asked to classify

the items into the subcategories. There was 72% agreement between my classification of the

items and that of my colleague.

For these items as well as all other behavior-related items, participants were asked to rate

the importance of specific behaviors to a spiritual leader. Responses were based on a five-point

Likert scale ranging from 1 (not important) to 5 (essential). The internal consistency in the

present sample was .95.

Transformational Leadership Items. Transformational leadership behaviors were

measured with 20 items the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ – Form 5X), the most

frequently used measure of transformational leadership created by Bass and Avolio (1995) (α =

.87). The following are sample items, listed by dimension: idealized influence, “talks about their

most important values and beliefs”; inspirational motivation, “articulates a compelling vision of

the future”; intellectual stimulation, “re-examines critical assumptions to question whether they

are appropriate”; and individualized consideration, “spends time teaching and coaching”.

Transactional Leadership Items. As with transformational leadership, transactional

leadership behaviors were measured with 8 items from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

(MLQ – Form 5X) (α = .71). A sample item is “provides others with assistance in exchange for

their efforts.”

Servant Leadership Items. This 24 item scale were taken from Whittington, Frank, May,

and Murray’s (2006) study on servant leadership (α = .94). The following are sample items,

listed by the four dimension: other-centered, “honors the inherent values of others regardless of

work performance”; facilitative environment, “creates an environment that fosters learning”;

self-sacrifice, “keeps commitments to others even when it requires self-sacrifice”; and follower
 48

affirmation, “values employees as a human being regardless of what they contribute to the

organization.”

Authentic Leadership Items. Authentic leadership was measured using the 16 item

Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) recently validated by Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner,

Wernsing, and Peterson (2008) (α = .88). The following are sample items: “seeks feedback to

improve interactions with others”; “says exactly what he or she wants”; and, “demonstrates

beliefs that are consistent with actions.”

Procedure

After an invitation to participate in the study (for an example of an initial contact e-mail

see Appendix C), phase two survey respondents were directed to a web-based survey hosted by

Qualtrics. In the phase two survey, participants were asked to indicate which behaviors they felt

were most important to a spiritual leader. Scales for transformational leadership, transactional

leadership, servant leadership, and authentic leadership were also incorporated in order to aid in

the determination of discriminant validity. Additional demographic questions were included as

well as questions asking participants to rate the degree of their own spirituality.

Prior to administration of the survey, individuals were assured of the anonymity of their

responses as well as thanked for their participation in the study. Printed surveys were made

available for those that preferred a paper copy versus the web-based version. Five paper versions

were requested and 2 were returned completed. All results from the phase two surveys were

entered into SPSS for statistical analysis.

Analysis

During the second phase of this study, the generated list of spiritual leadership behaviors

was administered to a large number of study participants in order to determine those behaviors
 49

which were perceived as most important to a spiritual leader. In other words, participants were

asked to indicate which behaviors they thought were vital to spiritual leadership.

The key analyses for this study involved comparing the means for the items. Items with

high means indicate that participants believed the behavior to specific to spiritual leaders. Table

3.3 lists the means for all 68 spiritual leadership items. Due to copyright restrictions, several of

the additional leadership scales may not be printed in their entirety therefore those item response

means cannot be outlined in table format (See permission letters in Appendix D & E). The range

of means for those leadership scales was: transformational (3.17-4.41); transactional (1.91-4.38);

servant (3.46-4.33); and authentic (2.92-4.48).

Additional analyses included comparisons across items grouped by scale. In other words,

because behaviors related to five leadership constructs were tested in this study (spiritual,

transformational, transactional, servant, and authentic), comparing the mean ratings for items

coming from the different scales may indicate the extent to which there is a unique set of items

that are seen as spiritual. Therefore, scale means were computed for spiritual leadership,

transformational leadership, transactional leadership, authentic leadership, and servant

leadership, see Table 3.4.

While the analysis for this research may follow many of the patterns typical of Likert

scale development, this is only a very early stage of scale development. Further studies

involving both managers and subordinates that are beyond the scope of this current study will be

necessary for a more thorough development and validation of a measure of spiritual leadership.

Summary

In the segments above, I laid out the methods that I used in each of the two data

collection phases. Specific details regarding samples, procedures, and analyses were given.
 50

Table 3.3

Response Means for Spiritual Leadership Items

How important is it that Item How important is it that Item

spiritual leaders… Mean spiritual leaders… Mean
(SD) (SD)

-listen to their employees. 4.50 (.675) -maintain some kind of spiritual 4.11 (.978)
practice.
-listen with an understanding of the 4.51 (.708) -are role models of what they 4.53 (.574)
other person. believe in their everyday life.
-are humble. 4.44 (.790) -talk about the need for a personal 3.22 (1.220)
spiritual practice.
-are selfless. 4.26 (.895) -understand they need to be the kind 4.09 (.939)
of person worthy of imitation.
-have respect for the human dignity 4.74 (.489) -act authentically. 4.61 (.549)
of the person they are interacting
with.
-are open about their own spiritual 3.79 (1.087) -show kindness and compassion. 4.53 (.587)
journey.
-spread a lot of positive energy 3.99 (.940) -listen with empathy. 4.49 (.601
-encourage employees to find their 3.34 (1.189) -make decisions based on their 3.92 (1.058)
own spiritual path. spiritual values or beliefs.
-are always looking for the highest 4.05 (.955) -show concern for those who are 4.16 (.659)
good. less fortunate than themselves.
-are honest. 4.86(.370) -have a high degree of self- 3.95 (1.014)
awareness.
-would not take advantage of their 4.45 (.739) -engage in practices that will 3.91 (1.008)
position. develop their self-awareness.
-apply what they believe with 4.64 (.599) -are reflective. 4.12 (.866)
integrity in the workplace.
-are insightful. 3.98 (.838) -will ask God or the universe for 3.94 (1.191)
guidance before they make an
important decision.
-ask a lot of questions. 3.33 (1.056) -are inclusive. 4.00 (.968)
-have strong perception skills. 3.81 (.950) -foster the notion of the ideal self. 3.02 (1.199)
-are intelligent. 3.57 (1.014) -are not restrictive about what 3.71 (1.301)
spiritual path an employee should
take.
-understand that everything is not 4.53 (.613) -try to create an environment where 4.13 (.887)
about them. employees can be their authentic
selves.
-value others as much as they values 4.60 (.593) -honor the uniqueness of the inner 4.02 (1.011)
themselves life of each individual
-are genuinely interested in the 4.28 (.829) -consider everyone’s point of view. 3.93 (.962)
personal development of their
employees.
-seek to make decisions that are for 4.16 (.808) -are collaborative. 3.97 (.865)
the highest good of all.
-are more conscious of who their 3.66 (1.035) -work to promote the leadership 4.16 (.765)
employees are rather than what they development of those around them.
do.
 51

-model forgiveness and 4.32 (.810) -empower employees. 4.32 (.637)

reconciliation.
-are able to forgive themselves. 4.26 (.783) -create an environment where 4.29 (.792)
employees enjoy coming to work.
-forgive others for any wrongs they 4.10 (.874) -promote a culture of creativity. 3.95 (.913)
may have committed.
-are open. 4.26 (.862) -use words like family and 3.33 (1.207)
community when describing the
workplace.
-walk their talk. 4.69 (.570) -spend time getting to know their 3.93 (.920)
employees personally.
-lead from an effort to have pure 4.46 (.729) -appeal to peoples’ spirits. 3.57 (1.052)
motives.
-will pray for an employee or 3.84 (1.128) -help employees develop spiritually 3.46 (1.111)
situation. – beyond just professional
development.
-listen to their conscience. 4.29 (.744) -help employees to see the meaning 4.09 (.843)
and purpose of their work.
-are prayerful. 3.80 (1.208) -try to help employees see their 3.02 (1.308)
work as an act of worship.
-create a context for employees to 3.93 (.812) -find ways to make work personally 3.84 (1.019)
experience a form of community. meaningful for each employee.
-create a safe community where 3.40 (1.122) -enable employees to more fully use 4.21 (.807)
employees can discover more about their gifts and talents in their work.
their deeper inner self.
-offer events, programs, and 3.32 (1.139) -help employees see how the work 4.15 (.811)
different opportunities for they are doing is serving their
employees to grow deeper in their customers, community, etc.
inner life.
-are of service to others. 4.30 (.645) -encourage employees to become all 3.57 (1.345)
that God designed them to be.
 52

Table 3.4

Leadership Scales Descriptive Statistics

Leadership Scale Mean SD Min Max

Transactional Leadership 2.96 .641 1.38 5.00

Transformational Leadership 3.97 .484 2.25 5.00

Spiritual Leadership 4.04 .441 2.76 5.00

Authentic Leadership 4.06 .490 3.00 5.00

Servant Leadership 4.08 .548 2.13 5.00

 53

Chapter four will proceed to discuss the results of the analyses conducted.
 54

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS

This chapter reports the results of the data collection and analyses described in chapter

three as well as additional research findings related to the primary research questions: is there a

common understanding as to what constitutes spiritual leadership and, if so, which leader

behaviors may be considered spiritually oriented.

Phase 1 Results:

A Common Understanding of Spiritual Leadership.

In this initial phase, spiritual leadership subject matter experts were interviewed to gather

their views and opinions in order to determine whether there is an underlying agreement as to

what constitutes spiritual leadership. The types of behaviors suggested were presented in Table

3.1 along with the number of times each behavior was put forward by phase one participants.

Through the literature review in Chapter Two, it was determined that spiritual leadership

behavior revolves around seven major categories: displays of the leader’s own spirituality, the

leader’s focus on service to others, allowing opportunities for employees to explore their inner

life, encouraging a sense of fulfillment or significance through their work, supporting a sense of

community or connection among organizational members, helping employees to find enjoyment

and creativity through their work, and promoting opportunities for employees to experience

personal growth through their work. Table 4.1 outlines the results of participants’ responses to

questions regarding these seven literature-identified components of spiritual leadership.

Although this table breaks down responses based on whether participants are a practitioner or an

academic, in total, at least 75% of all respondents agreed that spiritual leaders exhibit behaviors
 55

Table 4.1

Phase One Participants’ Responses to Questions Regarding the Seven Literature-Identified

Components of Spiritual Leadership (SL)

Number of
Number of academics who Total number of
practitioners agree it is a participants
who agree it is a component of who agree it is a
SL Component
component of SL SL (as a % of component of
(as a % of total total SL (as a % of
practitioners, academics, all participants,
N = 11) N = 15) N = 26)

Nourishes opportunities for an

9 (82%) 14 (93%) 23 (88%)
inner life among their employees

Nourishes a sense of fulfillment

or significance through work 10 (91%) 14 (88%) 24 (92%)
among their employees

Nourishes a sense of community

or social connection with fellow 9 (82%) 15 (58%) 24 (92%)
organizational members

Nourishes enjoyment and

8 (73%) 12 (80%) 20 (77%)
creativity through work

Nourishes opportunities for

11 (100%) 15 (100%) 26 (100%)
personal growth through work

Maintains their own personal

10 (91%) 14 (93%) 24 (92%)
spirituality

Of service to others 10 (91%) 15 (100%) 25 (96%)

 56

from all seven components of spiritual leadership. The majority of spiritual leadership elements,

five out of the seven, were supported by 90% or more of all phase one subject matter experts.

These results lend preliminary support to the notion that there is a general agreement among

subject matter experts as to what constitutes spiritual leadership and, additionally, that there are

in fact seven primary components of the spiritual leadership construct.

Phase 2 Results:

Behaviors of Spiritual Leaders

Using the suggestions of the phase one subject matter experts, a list was created of

spiritually-oriented leader behaviors. These behaviors along with behaviors of related leadership

constructs were presented to phase two participants. In addition to the basic demographic

information presented in chapter three, supplementary spiritual-based demographic information

was also collected from these respondents. The results are summarized in Table 4.2. It was

interesting to note that while over 90% of participants consider themselves to be spiritual

individuals, only 65% regularly attend some form of religious or spiritual service. Eighty-four

percent, however, regularly pray or meditate.

Initial analyses indicated that while the newly generated list of spiritual leadership items

was internally consistent and supported the view of related subject matter experts, phase two

participants did not find the items to be overly discriminating, see Table 3.4. In fact, when asked

to rate the importance of behaviors to a spiritual leader, the items associated with authentic

leadership and servant leadership had higher scale means than those created specifically for

spiritual leadership. Based upon these results, I considered that the 68 behavioral items may be

too large and thus began the process of item reduction.

 57

Table 4.2

Results of Phase Two Spiritual-Based Demographic Questions (N=145)

Did you regularly attend religious or spiritual 85.5% Yes

services as a child or teenager?

What was your religious affiliation during your 87.6% Christian 4.1% Judaism
childhood or teenage years? .7% Islam .7% Buddhism
2.1% Hinduism 2.8% None
2.1% Other

Do you regularly attend religious or spiritual 65.5% Yes

services?

What is your current religious affiliation? 79.3% Christian 2.8% Judaism

.7% Islam .7% Buddhism
2.8% Hinduism 7.6% None
6.2% Other

Changed religious affiliation from childhood to 13.1% Yes

current

Do you regularly pray or meditate? 84.1% Yes

How knowledgeable are you about the concept of 20.7% Very knowledgeable
workplace spirituality? 56.6% Somewhat knowledgeable
22.8% I have no prior knowledge of
workplace spirituality

How knowledgeable are you about the concept of 19.3% Very knowledgeable
spiritual leadership in the workplace? 54.5% Somewhat knowledgeable
26.2% I have no prior knowledge of
workplace spirituality

Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person? 92.4% Yes

If no, has there ever been a time in your life

when you would have considered yourself a 45.5% Yes
spiritual person?
 58

Item Reduction

Because phase two participants as a whole did not seem to be able to discriminate

between the importance of certain behaviors to spiritual leaders as compared to those behaviors

associated with authentic or servant leaders, I separated the leadership scale means according to

the individual’s status as an academic or practitioner as well as how knowledgeable they were

with regard to the concept of spiritual leadership, see Table 4.3. As expected, academics who

considered themselves to be very knowledgeable regarding spiritual leadership not only had the

highest means for the spiritual leadership scale but also appeared to be able to best differentiate

amongst the five leadership scales. This result makes sense given that academics very

knowledgeable about spiritual leadership would be most likely to know and understand the

nuances between the various leadership theories due to their interest in and/or publications

related to the subject matter. As Table 4.3 shows, although very knowledgeable academics had

the highest mean for the spiritual leadership scale, very knowledgeable practitioners likewise

showed a similar pattern of discernment. Further examination indicates that participants without

prior knowledge do not seem to be able to reasonably differentiate between behaviors related to

the five types of leadership.

Based on the results of Table 4.3, I chose to look at those specific behaviors which very

knowledgeable academics (who may be considered subject matter experts) ranked as essential to

spiritual leaders. This very knowledgeable segment of phase two respondents scored 39 of the

original 68 items with a mean of 4.50 or higher. The internal consistency of this reduced list

remained within acceptable standards (α = .93). See Table 4.4 for a complete list of the retained

spiritual leader behaviors.

59

Table 4.3

Leadership Scales Mean Statistics by Prior Knowledge of Spiritual Leadership and Academic (N=54) vs. Practitioner (N=91)

Spiritual
Transactional Transformational Servant Authentic
How knowledgeable are you Leadership
Leadership Leadership Leadership Leadership
about the concept of spiritual (68 items)
Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
leadership in the workplace? Mean (SD)

Academic 2.83 (.984) 4.03 (.703) 4.21 (.668) 4.25 (.639) 4.36 (.436)
Very
Practitioner 2.95 (.518) 3.95 (.406) 4.08 (.310) 4.02 (.448) 4.25 (.293)
Knowledgeable
Total 2.91 (.703) 3.98 (.532) 4.13 (.478) 4.11 (.532) 4.29 (.346)

Academic 2.92 (.591) 3.86 (.505) 4.02 (.471) 4.00 (.470) 3.87 (.335)
Somewhat
Practitioner 3.00 (.628) 4.01 (.444) 4.15 (.519) 4.08 (.523) 4.05 (.443)
Knowledgeable
Total 2.97 (.610) 3.95 (.470) 4.10 (.501) 4.05 (.501) 3.98 (.411)

I have no prior Academic 4.25 (.650) 4.65 (.361) 4.60 (.222) 4.47 (.480) 4.23 (.445)
knowledge of Practitioner 2.82 (.427) 3.88 (.416) 3.82 (.742) 3.95 (.347) 3.89 (.503)
spiritual leadership Total 3.02 (.678) 4.00 (.489) 3.97 (.741) 4.05 (.418) 3.96 (.504)

Academic 3.01 (.788) 3.97 (.583) 4.13 (.533) 4.11 (.531) 4.03 (.427)
Total Practitioner 2.94 (.557) 3.97 (.427) 4.05 (.558) 4.04 (.467) 4.04 (.450)
Total 2.96 (.641) 3.97 (.484) 4.08 (.548) 4.06 (.490) 4.04 (.441)
 60

Table 4.4

39 Item List of Spiritual Leadership Behaviors

How important is it that spiritual leaders…

-listen to their employees. -are of service to others.
-listen with an understanding of the other -appeal to peoples’ spirits.
person.
-are selfless. -find ways to make work personally meaningful
for each employee.
-have respect for the human dignity of the -help employees see how the work they are
person they are interacting with. doing is serving their customers, community,
etc.
-are honest. -encourage employees to become all that God
designed them to be.
-apply what they believe with integrity in the -are genuinely interested in the personal
workplace. development of their employees.
-understand that everything is not about them. -maintain some kind of spiritual practice.
-value others as much as they values -are open about their own spiritual journey.
themselves
-seek to make decisions that are for the -make decisions based on their spiritual values
highest good of all. or beliefs.
-model forgiveness and reconciliation. -listen to their conscience.
-are able to forgive themselves. --are guided by their spiritual values.
-forgive others for any wrongs they may have -spend time getting to know their employees
committed. personally.
-are open. -create a context for employees to experience a
form of community.
-walk their talk. -empower employees.
-lead from an effort to have pure motives. -practice what they preach.
-are role models of what they believe in their -create an environment where employees enjoy
everyday life. coming to work.
-act authentically.
-show kindness and compassion.
-listen with empathy.
-are accepting of a person’s individuality.
-are inclusive.
-try to create an environment where
employees can be their authentic selves.
-honor the uniqueness of the inner life of each
individual.
 61

Using the new 39 item list of spiritual leader behaviors, I compared the overall scale

means once again using the entire sample of phase two participants. The results, posted in Table

4.5, show that the condensed list has higher means especially amongst those who consider

themselves to be very knowledgeable about spiritual leadership in the workplace. Other than

academics with no prior knowledge of spiritual leadership, all participants indicated that those 39

behaviors were more essential to spiritual leaders than the behaviors associated with

transactional, transformational, authentic, or servant leadership. Table 4.6 lists overall

descriptive statistics for the 39 item spiritual leadership scale in comparison to the other

leadership scales.

ANOVA Results

The aim of this research was to generate a list of potential spiritual leadership behaviors

and then use a Likert scaling process to determine the level of agreement among respondents

regarding the applicability of each of the behaviors to the construct of spiritual leadership. A

secondary goal was to explore how individual definitions of what constitutes a spiritual leader

may differ among various groups of respondents. In order to determine whether such differences

existed, several repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted. Groups were created

based upon the demographic data presented in Table 4.2. Analyses were run looking for group

differences with regard to gender, academic vs. practitioner, regular attendance of a religious or

spiritual service as a child or teenager, if they changed religious affiliation since their childhood,

if they regularly pray or meditate, their knowledge in terms of both workplace spirituality and

spiritual leadership, and whether they considered themselves to be a spiritual individual.

Because there were less than 5 participants per category, analyses could not be run to
62

Table 4.5

Leadership Scales Mean Statistics by Prior Knowledge of Spiritual Leadership and Academic (N=54) vs. Practitioner (N=91)

Spiritual Spiritual
Transactional Transformational Servant Authentic
How knowledgeable are you Leadership Leadership
Leadership Leadership Leadership Leadership
about the concept of spiritual (68 items) (39 items)
Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
leadership in the workplace? Mean (SD) Mean (SD)

Academic 2.83 (.984) 4.03 (.703) 4.21 (.668) 4.25 (.639) 4.36 (.436) 4.67 (.355)
Very
Practitioner 2.95 (.518) 3.95 (.406) 4.08 (.310) 4.02 (.448) 4.25 (.293) 4.45 (.235)
Knowledgeable
Total 2.91 (.703) 3.98 (.532) 4.13 (.478) 4.11 (.532) 4.29 (.346) 4.53 (.296)

Academic 2.92 (.591) 3.86 (.505) 4.02 (.471) 4.00 (.470) 3.87 (.335) 4.16 (.310)
Somewhat
Practitioner 3.00 (.628) 4.01 (.444) 4.15 (.519) 4.08 (.523) 4.05 (.443) 4.25 (.417)
Knowledgeable
Total 2.97 (.610) 3.95 (.470) 4.10 (.501) 4.05 (.501) 3.98 (.411) 4.22 (.379)

I have no prior Academic 4.25 (.650) 4.65 (.361) 4.60 (.222) 4.47 (.480) 4.23 (.445) 4.50 (.354)
knowledge of Practitioner 2.82 (.427) 3.88 (.416) 3.82 (.742) 3.95 (.347) 3.89 (.503) 4.09 (.468)
spiritual leadership Total 3.02 (.678) 4.00 (.489) 3.97 (.741) 4.05 (.418) 3.96 (.504) 4.17 (.473)

Academic 3.01 (.788) 3.97 (.583) 4.13 (.533) 4.11 (.531) 4.03 (.427) 4.33 (.390)
Total Practitioner 2.94 (.557) 3.97 (.427) 4.05 (.558) 4.04 (.467) 4.04 (.450) 4.25 (.419)
Total 2.96 (.641) 3.97 (.484) 4.08 (.548) 4.06 (.490) 4.04 (.441) 4.27 (.410)
 63

Table 4.6

Leadership Scales Descriptive Statistics

Leadership Scale Mean SD Min Max

Transactional Leadership 2.96 .641 1.38 5.00

Transformational Leadership 3.97 .484 2.25 5.00

Authentic Leadership 4.06 .490 3.00 5.00

Servant Leadership 4.08 .548 2.13 5.00

Spiritual Leadership (68 item) 4.04 .441 2.76 5.00

Spiritual Leadership (39 item) 4.27 .410 3.00 5.00

 64

determine whether group differences existed in relation to religious affiliation as a child or

teenager and current religious affiliation.

The majority of the ANOVAs resulted in insignificant findings (see Tables 4.7 – 4.16)

with the exception of the analysis involving gender, see Table 4.8. Men had a higher mean for

every scale but spiritual leadership; the spiritual leadership score mean for men was .04 less than

that of women (4.30). The most interesting and strongest result came with regard to the

leadership scale means and participants’ prior knowledge of spiritual leadership. One of the

primary assumptions of this type of analysis is that of sphericity, a statistical check of whether

the variance/covariance matrix of the observed data follows a particular pattern. I looked at

Mauchly’s Test which checks for the equivalence of the hypothesized and the observed

variance/covariance patterns. The test was significant, W = .41, χ 2 (9) = 86.020, p < .001,

suggesting that the observed matrix does not have approximately equal variances and equal

covariances. This also indicates that using an uncorrected F-test would result in a likely inflation

of Type I Errors, rejecting the null hypothesis while it was true more often than generally

accepted. Several corrections have been proposed, most notably the Greenhouse-Geisser and

Huynh-Feldt epsilon corrections. These do not affect the computed F-statistic, but instead raise

the critical F value needed to reject the null hypothesis. For my data these corresponding

corrective coefficients were: Greenhouse-Geisser ε = .66 and Huynh-Feldt ε = .68.

Table 4.17 summarizes the results of the analysis. The column labeled F gives the F value

of the test followed by three columns of significance values. The last two columns represent the

corrected significance levels for the observed statistic given the above reported corrective

coefficients. There is a significant interaction between how knowledgeable the participant is of

spiritual leadership and their leadership scale means, F (4, 388) = 162.82, p < .05.
 65

Table 4.7

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Academic vs. Practitioner

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 22.6 4 181.63 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .030 4 .25 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Academic or
Practitioner

Error .124 392

________________________________________________________________________
 66

Table 4.8

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Gender

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 25.1 4 207.89 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .376 4 3.112 p<.05 p<.05 p<.05

Gender

Error .121 392

________________________________________________________________________
 67

Table 4.9

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Regular Pray or Meditate

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 8.20 4 66.12 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .07 4 .53 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Regular Pray or
Meditate

Error .124 392

________________________________________________________________________
 68

Table 4.10

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Regularly Attend Religious or Spiritual Service
________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 20.07 4 162.03 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .076 4 .614 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Regularly Attend
Service

Error .124 392

________________________________________________________________________
 69

Table 4.11

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Regularly Attend Religious or Spiritual Service as
a Child or Teenager
________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 11.52 4 93.21 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .107 4 .867 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Regularly Attend
Service as a Child or
Teenager

Error .124 392

________________________________________________________________________
 70

Table 4.12

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Attended an Elementary, Middle, or High School
with a Religious Affiliation
________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 59.13 1 287.18 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .106 1 .513 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Attended an
Elementary, Middle,
or High School with
a Religious Affiliation

Error .206 98
________________________________________________________________________
 71

Table 4.13

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Attended College or University with a Religious
Affiliation
________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 24.25 4 198.86 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .144 4 1.17 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Attended a College
or University with
a Religious Affiliation

Error .123 392

________________________________________________________________________
 72

Table 4.14

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Consider Yourself Spiritual

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 4.15 4 33.38 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .194 4 1.56 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Consider Yourself
Spiritual

Error .124 376

________________________________________________________________________
 73

Table 4.15

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Marital Status

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 6.26 4 49.83 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .07 16 .545 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Marital Status

Error .126 380

________________________________________________________________________
 74

Table 4.16

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Knowledge of Workplace Spirituality

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 19.27 4 158.78 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .220 8 1.82 p>.05 p>.05 p>.05

Knowledge of
Workplace
Spirituality

Error .21 388

________________________________________________________________________
 75

Table 4.17

Repeated Measures ANOVA Results for Knowledge of Spiritual Leadership

________________________________________________________________________

Greenhouse- Huynh-
Effect MS df F p Geisser Feldt
________________________________________________________________________

Leadership Scale 19.3 4 162.82 p<.001 p<.001 p<.001

Leadership Scale x .336 8 2.82 p<.001 p<.05 p<.05

Knowledge of
Spiritual
Leadership

Error .119 388

________________________________________________________________________
 76

Based upon these findings it would be reasonable to argue that the behaviors identified in

the spiritual leadership items are considered more essential to spiritual leadership than the

behaviors described in the four other leadership scale items. This finding is not unexpected

given the nature of this study. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between the

means of the leadership scales with respect to prior knowledge of spiritual leadership, see Figure

4.1. It would seem that the more knowledgeable an individual is in terms of spiritual leadership,

the more likely they are to discriminate between items associated with the leadership scales.

This makes sense considering that these individuals are more familiar with spiritual leader

behaviors and can therefore better distinguish between behaviors associated with spiritual

leadership and, for example, those behaviors related to transformational leadership.

Supplemental Analyses

The purpose of this particular research is not to produce a functioning spiritual leadership

scale but rather to determine whether there is a common understanding as to what constitutes

spiritual leadership and to identify whether there is a general consensus as to which leader

behaviors may be considered spiritually oriented. The results of this study, however, may be

considered as the initial stages of scale development. It was therefore of interest to compare this

compilation of 39 spiritual leader behaviors to those of existing leadership scales. The

presumption being that if there are different forms of leadership then it would make sense to

determine whether there is any evidence of this across the different scales.

The 39 spiritual leadership behaviors along with the 68 additional items from the four

other leadership scales were entered into a principle components analysis with varimax rotation.

These results are shown in Table 4.18. Once again, due to copyright restrictions (See Appendix

D & E), three of the four additional leadership scales may not be reproduced in any published
 77

Figure 4.1

Means Scores of Leadership Scales based upon Prior Knowledge of Spiritual Leadership

5
4.75
4.5
4.25
4
3.75
3.5
3.25
Mean Scores

Very Knowledgeable
3 Somewhat Knowledgeable
2.75 No prior knowledge
2.5

Leadership Scales
 78

Table 4.18

Factor Analysis of Five Leadership Scales

“Second Spiritual
“Transformation
al Leadership”
Items

Leadership”

Leadership”

Leadership”

Leadership”
“Authentic
“Spiritual
“Servant
How important is it that spiritual leaders…

Servant 22 .770
Servant 1 .722
Servant 19 .721
Servant 17 .696
Servant 2 .669
Servant 3 .644
Servant 18 .621
Servant 4 .609
Servant 23 .592
Servant 21 .589
Transformational 29 .580
Servant 8 .577
Transformational 18 .576
Servant 7 .560
Servant 24 .543
Authentic 15 .532
Transformational 2 .484
Servant 20 .479
Servant 6 .469 .505
-help employees see how the work they .425
are doing is serving their customers,
community, etc.
Servant 9 .424 .462
Authentic 16 .405
Transactional 1 .404
Servant 11 398 .593
Servant 14 .397
Servant 10 .390 .511
Transformational 13 .676
Transformational 14 .665
Transformational 25 .656
Transformational 26 .640
Transformational 32 .628
Transactional 11 .627
Transformational 34 .620
 79

Transformational 36 .617
Transactional 16 .597
Transformational 9 .593
Transformational 30 .577
Transformational 31 .548
-create an environment where .522
employees enjoy coming to work.
Transactional 35 .505
Authentic 14 .489
Transformational 15 .467
-empower employees .445
Transformational 10 .437
Transformational 21 .429 .446
Authentic 10 .425
Transactional 22 .366
Authentic 3 .341
Transactional 27 .310
-make decisions based on their spiritual .669
values or beliefs.
-are guided by their spiritual values .639
-encourage employees to become all .617
that God designed them to be.
-maintain some kind of spiritual .561
practice.
-lead from an effort to have pure .542
motives.
Authentic 7 .542
-are open about their own spiritual .538
journey.
-are role models of what they believe in .501
their everyday life.
-are genuinely interested in the personal .500
development of their employees.
Authentic 1 .499
-are selfless. .493
Transformational 6 .470
Transformational 23 .460
-walk their talk. .458
Authentic 4 .453
-are of service to others. .451
Authentic 8 .448
-apply what they believe in the .433
workplace with integrity.
-are honest. .399
-practice what they preach. .388
-listen to their conscience. .336
-find ways to make work personally .355 .328
meaningful for each employee.
Authentic 5 .325
-act authentically. .301 .390
Servant 15 .288
 80

Authentic 12 .632
Servant 16 .595
Authentic 11 .584
Authentic 9 .522
Servant 12 .470
-listen with an understanding of the .463 .
other person.
Servant 13 .449
Authentic 6 .470 .447
Authentic 13 .461 .407
Transformational 8 .362
Authentic 2 .358
-value others as much as they value .615
themselves.
-are accepting of a person’s .581
individuality.
-are open. .561
-create a context for employees to .530
experience a form of community.
-model forgiveness and reconciliation. .521
-are inclusive. .511
-are able to forgive themselves. .489
-honor the uniqueness of the inner life .488
of each individual
-forgive others for any wrongs they may .477
have committed.
-appeal to people’s spirits. .475
-show kindness and compassion. .475
-seek to make decisions that are for the .468
highest good of all.
-understand that everything is not about .451
them.
-try to create an environment where .447
employees can be their authentic selves.
-spend time getting to know their .444
employees personally.
-listen with empathy. .496 .431
-have respect for the human dignity of .395
the person they are interacting with.
Servant 5 .379
Transactional 4 -.327
Transformational 19 .315
-listen to their employees. .336 .302
Transactional 24 -.270

Percent of variance explained 25.14 6.61 4.40 3.86 3.50

 81

Figure 4.2

All Leadership Behaviors (5 Constructs) Factor Analyses Scree Plot

 82

material. Because of this constraint, the items from the corresponding leadership scales are

simply labeled as ‘transformational 1,’ ‘transactional 2,’ ‘authentic 3,’ etc. The scree plot for

this analysis is available in Figure 4.2. Factor loadings ranged from .310 to .593

(“transformational”), .390 to .770 (“servant”), .358 to .632 (“authentic”), .288 to .669

(“spiritual”), and -.270 to .615 (“second spiritual”). These five factors explained 43.5% of the

variance. Transactional items did not appear to load onto any one specific component but rather

scattered throughout.

As Table 4.19 shows, the factor loadings for 11 of the items are in bold. This is to

indicate that they loaded strongly onto more than factor and that the factor under which the item

is listed is not the factor for which the item loaded strongest. If the item is listed under the

weaker factor, the loading for the stronger factor is also posted on the table. In one of the cases,

for example, there is only a .017 difference between the factor loadings. Additionally, the factor

headings are in quotations in an effort to indicate that the items for each scale did not load

perfectly. Table 4.19 summarizes how the leadership scale items loaded. Seventeen of the 24

servant items (71%), for example, loaded as expected onto “Servant Leadership.” These 17

items, however, only made up approximately 73% of the overall “Servant Leadership” scale

meaning that 6 of the 23 items that loaded onto this scale came from one of the other leadership

scales. Spiritual leadership actually split into two components; 90% of the original spiritual

leadership items were split almost equally (17 & 18, respectively) between these two

components which I labeled as spiritual leadership and second spiritual leadership. Overall, the

second spiritual leadership was the strongest with 82% of its original items loading as expected.

Aside from transactional leadership which loaded across all the components, authentic leadership

was the weakest with only 54% of its original items loading as expected.
 83

Table 4.19

Summary of Five Leadership Scale Factor Analysis

Number of
Items that
Loaded per
Number of
Scale not
Items That Actual Percent of
Number of Original to
Loaded as Number of Original
Leadership Items Scale (as a
Expected (as Items That Items That
Scale Original to percent of
a percent of Loaded per Loaded as
Scale actual
items original Scale Expected
number
to scale)
items that
loaded per
scale)

Transformational 20 13 (65%) 23 10 (43%) 57%

Servant 24 17 (71%) 26 7 (27%) 73%

Authentic 16 6 (38%) 11 5 (45%) 55%

Spiritual 39 17 (43%) 25 8 (32%) 68%

Second Spiritual 18 (46%) 22 4 (18%) 82%

Transactional 8 0 (0%) 0 0 (0%) 0%

 84

Summary of Results

These results provide moderate support for the notion that there is in fact a common

understanding as to what spiritual leadership is as well as what behaviors are specific to spiritual

leaders. After the original list of spiritual leader behaviors was reduced from 68 to 39, repeated

measures ANOVAs were run to determine whether individual definitions of what constitutes a

spiritual leader might differ among various groups of respondents. The results indicated that the

more knowledgeable an individual is in terms of spiritual leadership, the more likely they are to

discriminate between items associated with the leadership scales. Finally, factor analysis

including behaviors from all five forms of leadership showed relative support for the argument

that the behaviors associated with spiritual leadership are unique from those of transformational,

transactional, authentic, and servant leadership.

 85

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The controversy surrounding the workplace spirituality literature and the difficulty to

define spiritual leadership has caused many to question whether spiritual leadership, like

workplace spirituality, deserves the attention it has received (Brown, 2003). Though Grant

(2005) argues that spiritual leadership should not be ignored as just another leadership fad, until

empirically evidence is offered, many may refuse to acknowledge spiritual leadership as a

significant leadership theory (Wilson, 2008). The problems associated with existing definitions

and measures have left the field at an impasse: empirical relationships cannot be established until

a construct has been developed and accepted measures in place yet possible relationships must be

identified in order to create such a measure. Though researchers have identified several aspects

of the construct there currently is not an acceptable constitutive definition of spiritual leadership

and likewise no acceptable measure.

The goal of this research was to offer a more complete description of the construct of

spiritual leadership and to provide both theoretical and empirical guidelines for future research.

The intention was to explore rather than conclude. Two primary objectives were: (a) to

determine whether there is a common understanding of what constitutes spiritual leadership, and

(b) to identify whether there is a general consensus as to which leader behaviors may be

considered spiritually oriented. In addition, this study aimed to develop a list of behaviors

descriptive of a spiritual leader by collecting data from both academics and practitioners

interested in this field.

In order to achieve these goals, it was necessary to start at the vey beginning. Namely,
 86

what is the ‘spirit.’ Undoubtedly there will be many alternative perspectives but for the sake of

this research I defined spirituality as an individual’s awareness and exploration of the intangible

interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that guides their actions. Workplace

spirituality, therefore, occurs when some aspect of the work environment stimulates an

employee’s awareness and exploration of the intangible interconnecting inner force within

themselves and others that guides their actions. As Figure 2.1 depicts, such stimulation may

come from the organizational culture, the community of people in the organization, the nature of

the work itself, or, as I argue, from an organizational leader. The literature identifies several

elements such as supporting a sense of community or encouraging a sense of fulfillment as

characteristics of workplace spirituality but I propose that these are not characteristics of the

workplace itself but rather characteristics of a stimulating element in the workplace; in this case,

the leader.

Following my line of reasoning, spiritual leadership occurs when an organizational

leader’s behavior stimulates an employee’s awareness and exploration of the intangible

interconnecting inner force within themselves and others that guides their actions. This

stimulation requires very specific behaviors from a leader; behaviors that differentiate a spiritual

leader from a transformational, transactional, authentic, or servant leader. Based upon the

literature review, this spiritual prompt may occur through displays of the leader’s own

spirituality, the leader’s focus on service to others, allowing opportunities for employees to

explore their inner life, encouraging a sense of fulfillment or significance through their work,

supporting a sense of community or connection among organizational members, helping

employees to find enjoyment and creativity through their work, and promoting opportunities for

employees to experience personal growth through their work.

 87

With the help of subject matter experts in phase one of my data collection, I developed a

list of behaviors associated with a spiritual leader. Given that this was an inductive study, I did

not have specific hypotheses regarding which behaviors would be considered most important to a

spiritual leader. A list of 39 behaviors emerged which participants considered essential to a

spiritual leader. Although the creation of a list of leader behaviors is only an early step in the

development of the construct and ultimately a measure of spiritual leadership, it is a necessary

step. When the overall means of the transformational, transactional, servant, and authentic

leadership scales were compared to those of the spiritual leader behaviors, I found that other than

academics with no prior knowledge of spiritual leadership, all participants in phase two of my

data collection indicated that those 39 behaviors were more essential to spiritual leaders than the

behaviors associated with the existing leadership scales.

A secondary aim of this study was to explore how implicit definitions of spiritual

leadership may differ among various groups of respondents. Various analyses of differentiating

individual characteristics such as gender, attending a religiously-based educational institution,

regular church or spiritual service attendance, etc., indicated that the most significant

characteristic was the participants’ prior knowledge of spiritual leadership. This finding makes

complete sense given that those who best know and understand the concept of spiritual

leadership would be best suited to determining what is and is not behavior essential to a spiritual

leader. With regard to the factor analysis, results showed that although there may be areas of

slight overlap, spiritual leadership appears to be a leadership construct unique from

transformational, transactional, servant, or authentic leadership. The findings from this

discriminant analysis strengthen the argument that spiritual leadership is a unique leadership

construct.
 88

Limitations

It is also important to examine this study in terms of its limitations. One limitation of this

research was the sample size. Although there appeared to be a sufficient number of phase one

participants, evidenced by the saturation level reached through their suggestions of possible

leader behaviors, a larger number of phase two participants would have served to strengthen the

findings. Additionally, the results may have varied if a different sample were employed, one that

did not emerge primarily from the Management, Spirituality, and Religion listserv. Different

spiritual leader behavior suggestions may have been offered which could have altered the

conclusions reached in this study.

One very serious limitation faced by all studies in the areas of workplace spirituality and

spiritual leadership is the controversy surrounding the topic of spirituality. The very essence of

spiritual leadership is its focus on an intangible inner force within all individuals. It is this focus

on an inner force, however, which remains a major point of contention especially among scholars

outside the literature. Because spirituality is such a personal issue, a widely agreed upon

definition of spiritual leadership may never be reached, thus hamstringing the development of

this construct. The legitimacy of findings, such as those described in this study, may continually

be questioned until further empirical evidence provides support for this theory of leadership

(Wilson, 2008). It may be that those working and publishing within this field have no recourse

but to simply bear the objecting discourse directed at this research.

Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Research

Despite the identified cautionary observations, this study makes a number of important

contributions to the existing literature and provides a point of departure for future spiritual

leadership research. This research offers a conceptual definition of spiritual leadership in

 89

addition to presenting a list of behaviors relevant to a spiritual leader. This study is also the first

of its kind to take into account the knowledge and opinions of both academic and practitioner

subject matter experts. Furthermore, with regard to developing a measure of spiritual leadership,

this research is the first among its peers to attempt scale development using an empirically-based

method: defining the focus, generating items, rating the items, selecting the items, etc. (Trochim,

2001). As noted throughout, the list of 39 behaviors developed to gauge spiritual leadership is

not a fully functioning scale but rather the first step on the road to such a measure.

The results of this study emphasize the importance of examining the opinions of

academics as well as practitioners. Scholars have long called for research involving a

reconciliation of academic theory with managerial reality (Gopinath & Hoffman, 1995; Sizer,

2001; Whittington, 1996; Starkey & Tempest, 2005; Augier & March, 2007). By focusing

primarily on quantitative forms of data collection, Shepherd and Matthew (2000) worry that

scholars may ignore the more subtle aspects of a construct that practitioners are more familiar

with. My research attempts to address this concern by employing a mixed method form of

research and including samples from both groups at every step; the qualitative results from the

phase one participants influenced the quantitative data collected from phase two participants. It

is hoped that such an inductive approach will aid in the development of the field as well as

satisfy those academics not associated with or who have reservations as to the legitimacy of the

spirituality literature.

Future researchers may benefit by testing the list of spiritually-oriented leader behaviors

on various samples across multiple organizations. Only then can it be surmised that the results

are in fact conclusive and therefore representative of the true nature of spiritual leadership. This

list should also be further tested against other well-established leadership scales in order to
 90

ensure the discriminant validity of these items. Once this measure of spiritual leadership, or

another similar to it, has been authenticated then researchers may begin to test the relationship

between spiritual leadership and organizational outcomes.

Giacolone and Jurkewicz (2003) have noted that the literature “is tethered by its lack of

grounding in theoretical and empirical literature. This has not only hampered development of

the field but in a profound way has artificially reduced its importance” (p. 17). In truth, spiritual

leadership is discussed in many instances without empirical research to support its validity, most

especially with regard to how it differs from other leadership constructs. Over a decade ago,

Hunt (1999) observed that spiritual leadership was in its early stages of development. It is clear

now that while the field of spiritual leadership still has a long way to go, it is undoubtedly

heading in a positive direction. This research provides an opportunity to advance the study of

spiritual leadership with real results rather than mere propositions.

 91

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 100

Appendix A

Introductory E-mail / MSR Listserv Post to Prospective Subject Matter Experts for Phase
1 Data Collection

Good Afternoon,

My name is Emily Lean. I am a PhD Candidate with the University of Arkansas. I am

collecting data for my dissertation on the behaviors of spiritual leaders. My hope is to create a
reliable measure of spiritual leadership that may help promote the development of the workplace
spirituality literature.

My data collection is divided into two phases. In the first phase, I will interview subject
matter experts in order to get their suggestions as to which behaviors are indicative of a spiritual
leader. In the second phase, the created list of behaviors will be administered to a large sample
of academics and practitioners. I am requesting your participation in the first phase of this data
collection. Should you choose to participate, we will set up a time to conduct a phone interview
at your convenience. During this conversation, I will ask you a few questions on your opinion of
what constitutes spiritual leadership and which behaviors you feel are unique to a spiritual
leader.

If you would like to participate, please respond to this e-mail and let me know of your
interest. We can then set up a time and date for the phone interview.

If you are not interested but know someone who may be, please feel free to forward this
e-mail on to them. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Emily Lean
PhD Candidate
Walton College of Business
University of Arkansas
 101

Appendix B

Interview Script for Phase 1 Participants

(Participants were not asked anything in italics. Information in italics was for my benefit only.)

Interviewee: _____________________________
Organization: _____________________________
Phone number: _____________________________
Time and Date of Interview: _____________________________

Hello, is _______________ available? This is Emily Lean with the University of Arkansas. We
had set aside this time for me to ask you a few questions about spiritual leadership, is this still a
good time?

Thank you for agreeing to participate in my study on spiritual leader behavior.

Do you mind if I record this conversation so that I don’t miss any of your suggestions? I expect
that I will be the only person to listen to this recording.

***I’d like to begin by finding out how you define spiritual leadership.
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

***What do you think makes spiritual leadership different from other leadership constructs?
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

***Are there any behaviors which you feel are unique to spiritual leaders?
1.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

5.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 102

6.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

7.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

8.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

9.______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

10._____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

***Are there any behaviors that a spiritual leader may perform which you think may overlap
with other leadership constructs?
1.______________________________________________________________________
2.______________________________________________________________________
3.______________________________________________________________________
4.______________________________________________________________________
5.______________________________________________________________________
6.______________________________________________________________________
7.______________________________________________________________________
8.______________________________________________________________________
9.______________________________________________________________________

***The literature suggests that spiritual leaders exhibit certain behaviors. I’m going to ask you
about a few. Please let me know whether you agree or disagree. Feel free to make any
additional comments as we go along.

___ Do spiritual leaders nourish opportunities for an inner life among their employees?
(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)

___ Do spiritual leaders nourish a sense of fulfillment or significance through work among their
employees?
(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)

___ Do spiritual leaders nourish a sense of community or social connection with fellow org.
members?
(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)
 103

___ Do spiritual leaders nourish enjoyment and creativity through work?

(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)

___ Do spiritual leaders nourish opportunities for personal growth through work?
(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)

___ Do spiritual leaders maintain their own personal spirituality?

(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)

___ Are spiritual leaders of service to others?

(Comments: _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________)

Okay, I think that wraps up all of my questions. Do you mind if I put you down in my
Acknowledgements as having helped? Thank you again for your time and participation.
 104

Appendix C

Initial Contact E-Mail / Listserv Posting Requesting Participation

Good Afternoon,

My name is Emily Lean. I am a PhD Candidate with the University of Arkansas. I am

collecting data for my dissertation on the behaviors of spiritual leaders. My hope is to create a
reliable measure of spiritual leadership that may help promote the development of the workplace
spirituality literature.

My data collection is divided into two phases. In the first phase, I interviewed subject
matter experts in order to get their suggestions as to which behaviors are representative of a
spiritual leader. In the second phase, the created list of behaviors will be administered to a large
sample of both academics and practitioners to get their perspective of the behaviors. I am
requesting your participation in the second phase of this data collection. Should you choose to
participate, the web-based survey will take approximately 15 minutes of your time and does not
ask any identifying information. Participation in this survey is completely voluntary.

If you would like to participate in this research, please click on the link below. If you
would prefer a paper version of the survey, simply “e-mail me and include your name and
address where you would like the survey sent. You will receive a paper version of the survey as
well as a pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelope for easy return.

https://uu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8J8Dt4ArUYLasAc

I appreciate your time and participation in this study of spiritual leadership behaviors. If
you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are not interested but know someone who may be, please feel free to forward this
request for participation on to them.

Sincerely,
Emily Lean
PhD Candidate
Walton College of Business
University of Arkansas
 105

Appendix D

For use by Emily Lean only. Received from Mind Garden, Inc.

www.mindgarden.com
To whom it may concern,

This letter is to grant permission for the above named person to use the following
copyright material;

Instrument: Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ)

Authors: Bruce J. Avolio, William L. Gardner, and Fred O. Walumbwa

Copyright: “Copyright © 2007 Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) by Bruce J.

Avolio, William L. Gardner, and Fred O. Walumbwa. All rights reserved in all medium.”

for his/her thesis research.

Three sample items from this instrument may be reproduced for inclusion in a
proposal, thesis, or dissertation.

The entire instrument may not be included or reproduced at any time in any other
published material.

Sincerely,

Robert Most
Mind Garden, Inc.
www.mindgarden.com
 106

Appendix E

For use by Emily Lean only. Received from Mind Garden, Inc.

www.mindgarden.com
To whom it may concern,

This letter is to grant permission for the above named person to use the following copyright material;

Instrument: Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

Authors: Bruce Avolio and Bernard Bass

Copyright: 1995 by Bruce Avolio and Bernard Bass

for his/her thesis research.

Five sample items from this instrument may be reproduced for inclusion in a proposal, thesis, or
dissertation.

The entire instrument may not be included or reproduced at any time in any other published material.

Sincerely,

Robert Most
Mind Garden, Inc.
www.mindgarden.com

© 1995 Bruce Avolio and Bernard Bass. All Rights Reserved.

Published by Mind Garden, Inc., www.mindgarden.com
 107

Appendix F

Phase 2 Survey

Greetings. Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study on the behavior of spiritual
leaders. Your individual answers are completely confidential and no identifying information will
be collected. Most people can complete the survey in approximately 15 minutes. Your
participation in this study is completely voluntary and you are free to refuse to participate or to
withdraw from this study at any time without penalty. I feel that this study can provide useful
information and hope you agree and will participate. Thank you in advance for your
cooperation.

I would like to start by asking you some general questions about yourself. How we are raised
and our life experiences play an important role in how we see the world. Your answers to these
questions will help me to better understand the impact of such factors on the development of
individual perceptions of spiritual leadership.

What is your gender?

 Male
 Female

Which of the following best describes your ethnic group?

 White
 Black / African American
 Indian or Alaskan Native
 Hispanic / Latino
 Asian
 Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander American
 Multiethnic
 Other

How old are you?

 108

Which of the following best describes your current marital status?

 Married
 Not married, but living with a partner in a committed relationship
 Never married
 Separated
 Divorced
 Widowed

What is the highest grade or level of school that you have completed?
 8th grade or less
 Some high school, but did not graduate
 High school graduate or GED
 Some college or 2-year degree
 4-year college graduate
 More than 4-year college graduate

Have you ever attended an elementary, middle, or high school with a religious affiliation?
 Yes
 No

Have you ever attended a college or university with a religious affiliation?

 Yes
 No

Including your current employer, how many different organizations have you worked for in the
past five years?

Please choose the category that best describes your current position. If none of the categories fits
you exactly, please select the category that comes closest to your position.
 Professional / Executive
 Non-supervisory
 Supervisory
 Academic / University Professor

How long have you worked in your current position?

month(s)
year(s)
 109

Did you regularly attend religious or spiritual services as a child or teenager?

 Yes
 No

What was your religious affiliation during your childhood or teenage years?
 Christian
 Judaism
 Islam
 Buddhism
 Hinduism
 Atheism
 None
 Other

What is your current religious affiliation?

 Christian
 Judaism
 Islam
 Buddhism
 Hinduism
 Atheism
 None
 Other

Do you regularly attend religious or spiritual services?

 Yes
 No

Do you regularly pray or meditate?

 Yes
 No

How knowledgeable are you about the concept of workplace spirituality?

 Very knowledgeable
 Somewhat knowledgeable
 I have no prior knowledge of workplace spirituality
 110

How knowledgeable are you about the concept of spiritual leadership in the workplace?
 Very knowledgeable
 Somewhat knowledgeable
 I have no prior knowledge of workplace spirituality

Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?

 Yes
 No

In what ways do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?

How did you become a spiritual person?

Has there ever been a time in your life when you would have considered yourself a spiritual
person?
 Yes
 No

The next set of questions asks about your perception of the importance of certain behaviors to a
spiritual leader. Many leaders will perform similar behaviors but this study is interested in those
behaviors that you think are specific to spiritual leaders alone. In other words, which behaviors
are important to spiritual leaders that might not be important to other types of leaders. Although
some of the suggested behaviors may seem similar, please read each one carefully and indicate
which behaviors you think are key to spiritual leadership by marking the appropriate box.
 111

How important is it that spiritual leaders...

Not Somewhat Neutral Very Essential
Important Important Important
listen to their employees.     

listen with an
understanding of the     
other person.

are humble.     
are selfless.     
have respect for the
human dignity of the
    
person they are
interacting with.
spread a lot of positive
    
energy.
create an overall negative
    
environment.
are always looking for the
    
highest good.
are honest.     
would not take advantage
    
of their position.
apply what they believe
with integrity in the     
workplace.
are insightful.     
ask a lot of questions.     
have strong perception
    
skills.
are intelligent.     
understand that
everything is not about     
them.
value others as much as
    
they value themselves.
use people simply as
    
resources to be able to
 112

accomplish a goal.
seek to make decisions
that are for the highest     
good of all.
are more conscious of
who their employees are     
rather than what they do.
model forgiveness and
    
reconciliation.
are able to forgive
    
themselves.
forgive others for any
wrongs they may have     
committed.
are open.     
walk their talk.     
lead from an effort to
    
have pure motives.
practice what they
    
preach.
are role models of what
they believe in their     
everyday life.
are fake.     
understand they need to
be the kind of person     
worthy of imitation.
act authentically.     
show kindness and
    
compassion.
listen with empathy.     
are rude or unkind to
    
those they do not like.
show concern for those
who are less fortunate     
than themselves.
have a high degree of
    
self-awareness.
 113

engage in practices that

will develop their self-     
awareness.
are reflective.     
are accepting of a
    
person's individuality.
are inclusive.     
do not create a workplace
where employees feel     
included.
are not restrictive about
what spiritual path an     
employee should take.
try to create an
environment where
    
employees can be their
authentic selves.
honor the uniqueness of
the inner life of each     
individual.
consider everyone's point
    
of view.
are collaborative.     
work to promote the
leadership development     
of those around them.
empower employees.     
create an environment
where employees enjoy     
coming to work.
promote a culture of
    
creativity.
use words like family and
community when     
describing the workplace.
spend time getting to
know their employees     
personally.
remind employees how     
 114

their attitude impacts

those around them.
ask employees to
consider how their
    
behavior impacts those
around them.
promote beliefs which are
beneficial to their
    
employees and
community.
create a context for
employees to experience     
a form of community.
suggest that employees
behave in a way that is
    
most likely to benefit
them personally.
help employees to feel a
sense of membership in     
their job.
are of service to others.     
do a poor job of serving
    
their employees.
encourage employees to
find their own spiritual     
path.
offer events, programs,
and different
opportunities for     
employees to grow
deeper in their inner life.
create a safe community
where employees can
    
discover more about their
deeper inner self.
appeal to peoples' spirits.     
help employees develop
spiritually - beyond just
    
professional
development.
 115

encourage employees to
see how their beliefs     
affect their behavior.
encourage employees to
express their beliefs or     
values in the workplace.
encourage employees to
think about their spiritual     
connection with others.
encourage employees to
express their beliefs or     
values in the workplace.
promote prayer /
meditation / deep thought
    
as a means of examining
one's beliefs.
suggest that employees
consider what their     
beliefs are.
encourage employees to
see the connection
    
between their beliefs and
their actions.
promote prayer or
meditation as a tool for     
decision making.
help employees to see the
meaning and purpose of     
their work.
try to help employees see
their work as an act of     
worship.
find ways to make work
personally meaningful for     
each employee.
enable employees to more
fully use their gifts and     
talents in their work.
help employees see how
    
the work they are doing is
 116

serving their customers,

community, etc.
encourage employees to
become all that God     
designed them to be.
foster the notion of the
    
ideal self.
are genuinely interested
in the personal
    
development of their
employees.
talk about having a higher
    
calling.
are prayerful.     
meditate or pray before
making an important     
decision.
will pray for an employee
    
or situation.
maintain some kind of
    
spiritual practice.
are open about their own
    
spiritual journey.
talk about the need for a
personal spiritual     
practice.
make decisions based on
their spiritual values or     
beliefs.
listen to their conscience.     
are guided by their
    
spiritual values.
will ask God or the
universe for guidance
    
before they make an
important decision.
do not place too much
emphasis on their     
personal desires or
 117

preferences.
help others achieve high
levels of integration with     
their experiences.
use their spiritual gifts
    
and business-related gifts.
provide employees with
assistance in exchange for     
their efforts.
re-examine critical
assumptions to question
    
whether they are
appropriate.
fail to interfere until
    
problems become serious.
focus attention on
irregularities, mistakes,
exceptions, and     
deviations from
standards.
avoid getting involved
when important issues     
arise.
talk about their most
important values and     
beliefs.
are absent when needed.     
seek differing
perspectives when     
solving problems.
talk optimistically about
    
the future.
instill pride in employees
for being associated with     
him/her.
discuss in specific terms
who is responsible for
    
achieving performance
targets.
wait for things to go     
 118

wrong before taking

action.
talk enthusiastically about
what needs to be     
accomplished.
specify the importance of
having a strong sense of     
purpose.
spend time teaching and
    
coaching.
make clear what an
employee can expect to
receive when     
performance goals are
achieved.
show that they are a firm
believer in "If it ain't     
broke, don't fix it."
go beyond self-interest
    
for the good of the group.
treat each employee as an
individual rather than just     
as a member of a group.
demonstrate that
problems must become
    
chronic before taking
action.
act in ways that build
    
employees' respect.
concentrate their full
attention on dealing with
    
mistakes, complaints, and
failures.
consider the moral and
ethical consequences of     
decisions.
keep track of all mistakes.     
display a sense of power
    
and confidence.
articulate a compelling     
 119

vision of the future.

direct employees'
attention toward failures     
to meet standards.
avoid making decisions.     
consider employees as
having different needs,
    
abilities, and aspirations
from others.
get employees to look at
problems from many     
different angles.
help employees to
    
develop their strengths.
suggest new ways of
looking at how to     
complete assignments.
delay responding to
    
urgent questions.
emphasize the importance
of having a collective     
sense of mission.
express satisfaction when
employees meet     
expectations.
express confidence that
    
goals will be achieved.
use methods of leadership
    
that are satisfying.
get employees to do more
    
than they expected to do.
are effective in
representing employees     
to higher authority.
work with employees in a
    
satisfactory way.
heighten employees'
    
desire to succeed.
are effective in meeting     
 120

organizational
requirements.
increase employee
    
willingness to try harder.
lead a group that is
    
effective.
w say exactly what they
mean.     

admit mistakes when they

are made.     

encourage everyone to
speak their mind.     

tell employees the hard

truth.     

display emotions exactly

in line with feelings.     

demonstrate beliefs that

are consistent with
    
actions.

make decisions based on

their core values.     

ask employees to take

positions that support
    
their core values.

make difficult decisions

based on high standards
    
of ethical conduct.

solicit views that

challenge their deeply
    
held positions.

analyze relevant data

    
before coming to a
 121

decision.

listen carefully to
different points of view
before coming to     
conclusions.

seek feedback to improve

interaction with others.     

accurately describe how

others view their
    
capabilities.

know when it is time to

reevaluate their position
    
on important issues.

show they understand

how specific actions
    
impact others.

honor the inherent value

of others regardless of
    
work performance.

treat people as more

important than the results
    
they produce.

provide ample
opportunity for others to
express different or even     
opposite views.

can listen with empathy

and understanding.     

confront criticism with

sensitivity, humility, and
    
non-defensiveness.

place others in positions

    
where they can receive
 122

recognition for their good

ideas and efforts.

make time to listen to an

individual.     

create an environment
that fosters learning.     

uses leadership roles to

teach, equip, and
communicate to the     
organization.

ensure that team member

skills and abilities keep
pace with increasing     
responsibilities.

provide opportunities for

team members to make
long-term plans regarding     
their career goals.

fully support those who

report directly to them.     

remove obstacles that

limit or inhibit the team
from performing     
effectively.

believe that service to

others is more important
than position, titles,     
status, or privileges.

believe the greater good

of the group/organization
is more important than
    
their personal goals and
ambitions.

keep commitments to     
 123

others even when it

requires self-sacrifice.

values employees as
human beings regardless
of what they contribute to     
the organization.

accept that employees

have a unique
contribution to make to
the greater good which     
may or may not align
with the organization.

recognize employee's
inherent worth as a
person apart from their     
role as an employee.

want their employees to

pursue a career path that
is in their best interest
even if it meant leaving
    
the organization and
going to work for a
competitor.

affirm the capacity that

employees have within
themselves to reach their     
full potential.

affirm employees' worth

as unique individuals
even if they are not top     
performers.

encourage employees to
draw on their own inner
strength to meet     
challenges.

encourage employees to     
 124

achieve their own

personal goals even if
achieving them may not
serve the best interests of
the organization.