Spirituality and Leadership
It has truly been a good lesson from reading what Dennis Tourish has brought out in his book “The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership. A leadership perspective”. I sincerely appreciate the critique approach on the transformational leadership which has gained much emphasis in the recent past and is what many leadership trainers are stressing organizations to embrace in their respective organizations. We all know, and Dennis still emphasizes the importance of transformational leadership b8t it has its dark part of itself.
Dennis is reminding me of the kind of leadership we are experiencing in the Friends church here in Africa which informed me to come up with my research focus based on my church between the clergy and laity leadership differences and more of the dark side of leadership is experienced in the church. It is disturbing when you find laity leaders who are in charge of church finances, sharing the church funds and the clergy are not remunerated well just because the laity leadership shares the church funds without accountability. The situation has created a conflict between the clergy and laity leadership the church and that has seen the followers confused and following either the clergy or the laity.
However, now being attracted to the combination of Spirituality and leadership as described by Dennis. He argues that Spiritual management approaches seek to abolish the distinction between people’s work-based lives on the one hand and their personal lives and values systems on the other.[1] I remember when I was working in the bank, many employees had a lot of family and financial challenges that severely affected their performance hence led to depression. The bank spent much money in the treatment of staff suffering from depression. Since I was in the department of human resources and was the person issuing warning letters and also referring them to psychologists for treatment, I decided to come up with a section of spiritual counseling to the members who were severely suffering, and many lost their jobs. As I continued to share with them and to hear their stories, I learned so much that employees were going through and the Spiritual vacuum. I continued to pray with individual members at a time, and that made much change in their lives. Duchon and Plowman assert that ‘Workplace spirituality is defined as a work-place that recognizes that employees have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community.[2] I realize that the bank did not care about the inner life of the individual worker hence a high level of depression. Equally the pastors in the Quaker church in Africa are di, and nobody wants to know how their inner life of pastors are address, but the church would love to see the pastor serving them with joy and without complaining. It is in the same spirit that Dennis argues that SAW encompasses there major themes: the importance of a person’s inner life, the need for meaning at work and the importance of a sense of connection and community within organizations.[3] This is a concept that we all need to look at with a positive approach as Dennis is putting it in perspective. I believe the SAW can to some extent to address the issues Chuck Collins, and Felice Yeskel have written in the book “Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity.” Its clear from their book that growing inequality is not the result of some natural phenomenon like global warming, but is due to changing technology, lack of education and globalization.[4] Spirituality and leadership concept, can to some extent address this issue. It would eliminate greed and man-eat-man syndrome in our society. Addressing the inner person of any leadership in an organization would transform all aspect of both economic, political and corporate dealings. The African community is facing this serious problem and hence the need to incorporate spirituality and leadership in the workplace and training within business institutions. It is evident that secularization has played a significant role in the inequality equation. However, the combination of both secularism and spirituality in management matters and training would address many employee challenges at workplaces. Dennis concludes that effective leadership development cannot be bought off the shelves in a supermarket of ideas. Preferably, each organization needs to improvise, adapt and grow distinctive forms of leadership development whose usefulness will most likely be time limited, since there is no one enduring key to long-term success.[5] SAW is key to bringing unity and bridging the gap within the organization and arresting industrial unrest of employees.
[1] (Tourish 2013) pg.59
[2]‘ (Tourish 2013) pg.63
[3] (Tourish 2013) pg.63
[4] (Churck Collins and Felice Yeskel 2005) pg.65
[5] (Tourish 2013)pg.213
About the Author
John Muhanji
I am the Director Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting. I coordinate all Quaker activities and programs in the Quaker churches and school mostly in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The focus of my work is more on leadership development and church planting in the region especially in Tanzania.. Am married with three children all grown up now. I love playing golf as my exercise hobby. I also love reading.4 responses to “Spirituality and Leadership”
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John, I would agree that we need spirituality in leadership in some ways. However, what some deem as spirituality is not Christianity, and therefore based on individual morality. It seems for spirituality to work in the workplace, it would have to be based on true Christianity, and that’s where the problem lies. The clergy needs to make sure they are training the laity to be leaders who show the love of Christ. Once the laity is trained, the workplace will be better. It is a lot of work but if we seek to fulfill the Great Commission, it can be done. Blessings!
Hi John. I found your blog enlightening, as I also worked as a counselor within a banking institution setting. It’s interesting that banking personnel appear to often have more financial struggles than people in everyday life. Maybe it’s because they are always dealing with cash and living day to day in the world of money, and I think that compounds their financial concerns. But I agree that helping them come to terms with their issues and also encouraging them in their faith walk was what they needed to find the answers they were seeking. I appreciated your post, John.
Hi John. The whole idea of spirituality at work is confusing to me. I didn’t find the definitions of spirituality and religious faith rather unhelpful. spirituality tends to be a form psycho-religious experience that is unique to an individual and Religious Faith is a commitment to a historic faith community/Dogma. The two are not the same. In New Zealand, there is a general recognition of the latter but not the former. However, the reasons businesses attend to religious needs is political rather than altruistic. The growing Muslim community tends to require their daily prayer rituals and clothing to be accepted, alongside Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish requirements. Ironically, Christians are hardly recognised. However, I’m not sure SAW is recognised in New Zealand for its social and personal health benefits. More likely it is a symbol of socio-political inclusivity. It certainly isn’t a feature of transformational leadership in this part of the world.
that cute story