Foundations
Spiritual Leadership-Comprising the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are necessary to intrinsically motivate one’s self and others so that they have a sense of spiritual survival through calling and membership (pp. 411)
Qualities of Spiritual Leadership (pp. 411):
- Vision: reflective of high ideal encouragement of hope/faith
- Altruistic love: forgiveness, integrity, kindness, trust/loyalty patience, and humility
- Hope/faith: endurance, perseverance
Spirit: the vital, energizing force or principle in the person, the core of self; underpinnings/foundation stones of spirituality are morality, stewardship, and community (pp. 411)
Deregulation of employment- the abandonment of the traditional psychological contract connecting workers to a life-long career with the company (pp. 417)
Almost 85% of survey respondents found a significant connection between their leader’s disposition to spirituality and his or her impact on their work (pp. 417)
Spirituality: relationship with something intangible beyond the self (pp. 417)
The increasing interest in the integration of spirituality with secular leadership and organizational development holds promise of further application of these seminal ideas in leadership (pp. 417)
The transcendent values of spiritual leaders include a rejection of these self-interest values (pp. 417)
Spiritual leaders make connections between others’ interior worlds of moral reflection and the other worlds of work and social relationships (pp. 417)
Skeletal model of spiritual leadership (pp. 418):
- a carefully designed corporate philosophy or vision embedded in a corporate culture
- a value of personal and other forms of development (growth) to become one’s best self
- commitment to serving others
- a sense of interactive, mutual trust
- an authentic concern for people and organizational goals
- an environment that encourages openness, fairness, individuality and creativity
- commitment to group unity, teamwork and sharing
- integrity in all interpersonal relationships
- simplicity and flexibility of structure and systems
- a process that emphasizes continuing evaluation of progress
Morality
- moral leaders prefer not to compromise, accommodate, or collaborate in areas where their core values are at stake (pp. 419)
- infrastructure of spiritual leadership is an idea of moral leadership focused on service (pp. 419)
- inspire a sense of shared community values, vision setting, sharing meaning, enabling, influence and power, intuition, risk taking, service, transformation (pp. 419)
Stewardship
- The idea of stewardship can be contrasted with ownership. Ownership is shifting to stewardship…connotes possession, control and proprietorship (pp. 420)
- In a stewardship organization, power is inherent in each steward to help accomplish his or her unit’s ends; not just the steward’s own ends (pp. 420)
- Based on self-directed free moral choice (pp. 420)
- Both ends and means are vital to stewardship; how we work is as important to what we do (pp. 420)
Community
- Leaders create co-operative, action-oriented communities that provide the environment and culture within which leaders can operate from a sense of spirituality (pp. 421)
- Community serves as the vessel of vision, values, and mutually helpful connections that guide individuals and teams (pp. 421)
Scholars
Dent; Higgins; Wharff; Fry; Fairholm; Cappelli
Research
Fairholm, G. W. (1996). Spiritual leadership: Fulfilling whole-self needs at work. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 17(3), 11-17.
Notes
Related Theories
Charismatic Leadership; Transformational Leadership; Servant Leadership; Authentic Leadership; Ethical Leadership
ALEC 801 