File11483 theory sl

Towards a paradigm of
Spiritual Leadership

M.J.H.A. Hurkens
University of Maastricht
Faculty of economics and Business administration
Maastricht, 18 September 2007
I121967
Student International Business
Supervisor: Dr. Peter Berends
Master Thesis

ABSTRACT
The workplace is becoming the centerpiece of our lives. Since more and more time is
spend at the workplace, most of us also have to find their full sense of meaning there.
This implies that our spiritual needs also have to be fulfilled at the workplace. The
purpose of this study to enhance the understanding of the emergence and development
of spiritual leadership theories. By studying the current spiritual leadership theories,
the impact of this new stream of literature could be determined. As the spiritual
leadership theories are still at the infancy stage of development they increase the
awareness of researchers and organizational leaders to think about the urge people
have to express their spiritual selves at the workplace. However, through the
implementation of the suggestions for improvement of the spiritual leadership theories
provided in this study, the spiritual leadership literature is going to be a step closer to
developing towards a new spiritual leadership paradigm.

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Table of content
1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................6
1.1 Purpose of study ...................................................................................................7
1.2 Research questions ...............................................................................................7
1.3 Outline..................................................................................................................8
1.4 Methodology ........................................................................................................9
1.4.1 Planning the review.......................................................................................9
1.4.2 Selection of the studies..................................................................................9
2. Leadership in general ......................................................................................12
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................12
2.2 Leadership history ..............................................................................................12
2.3 Developments in the academic leadership literature over the last century ........13
2.3.1 Trait school..................................................................................................13
2.3.2 Behavioral or style school ...........................................................................14
2.3.3 Contingency school .....................................................................................16
2.3.4 Visionary or charismatic school..................................................................18
2.3.5 Transformational school..............................................................................20
2.3.6 Emotional Intelligence school.....................................................................21
2.4 Integration Leadership schools of thought .........................................................22
2.5 Conclusion..........................................................................................................25

3. Spiritual leadership..........................................................................................27
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................30
3.2 Spirituality versus religion .................................................................................31
3.3 Spirituality and motivation.................................................................................32
3.4 Workplace spirituality ........................................................................................34
3.5 Spiritual leadership.............................................................................................35
3.5.1 Fairholm’s skeletal model of spiritual leadership .......................................36
3.5.2 Fry’s model of spiritual leadership..............................................................36
3.6 Spirituality and leadership effectiveness............................................................41
3.7 Spirituality and organizational transformation...................................................45
3.8 Spiritual leadership from a religious point of view............................................48
3.8.1 Judeo-Christian............................................................................................48
3.8.2 Islam ............................................................................................................49

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3.8.3 Taoism.........................................................................................................50
3.8.4 Buddhism ....................................................................................................52
3.9 Comparison; religious & non-religious inspired views on spiritual leadership .53
3.10 Conclusion........................................................................................................54

4. Spiritual leadership: a critical review .......................................................55
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................55
4.2 Spirituality-Religion dichotomy.........................................................................56
4.2.1 Spirituality unites where religion divides....................................................56
4.2.2 Spirituality, and the ‘whole’ person view ...................................................57
4.3 Scrutinizing the empirical research about spirituality leadership ......................58
4.3.1 Study 1: Duchon & Plowman (2005)..........................................................58
4.3.2 Study 2: Fry, Vitucci & Cedillo (2005).......................................................60
4.3.3 Results studies .............................................................................................60
4.4 How ‘spiritual’ is spiritual leadership ................................................................61
4.4.1 Spirituality, and Wilber’s Great Chain of Being.........................................61
4.4.2 Is there a fundamental difference between ‘normal’ leadership theories and
spiritual leadership theories?................................................................................64
4.5 Suggestions for improvement.............................................................................65
4.5.1 Suggestions critical point 1 .........................................................................65
4.6 Conclusion..........................................................................................................67

5. Conclusion ...........................................................................................................68
5.1 Answering the research questions ......................................................................68
5.2 Limitations of this study.....................................................................................71

References ................................................................................................................72
Appendices ...............................................................................................................84
Appendix A: Extensive description of the six leadership schools of thought..........84
Appendix B: Questionnaire items used by Duchon & Plowman (2005). ..............106
Appendix C: Questionnaire items used by Fry et al. (2005)..................................110
Appendix D: Individual spiritual transformation (Benefiel, 2005, p. 733)............112
Appendix E: Organizational spiritual transformation (Benefiel, 2005, p. 736). ....113

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1. Introduction
The topic of management and especially leadership intrigues a broad range of people.
Not only do many people buy so-called ‘popular literature’ books about leadership,
there has also been a broad range of academic research in this specific management
area. The question of what makes a good leader and / or a profitable and successful
organization has been on the top of people’s minds since the first exchange of
commodities took place. Because, without effective leadership at all levels in private
as well as public organizations, it is difficult to maintain profitability, productivity,
and excellent customer service (DuBrin, 2004). However, leadership can be a doubleedged sword; leaders can be very effective but not necessarily ethical, leading to
exposures of the dark side of business leadership. Examples of the unethical practices
are CEOs enriching themselves at the cost of employees and stockholders. Due to
recent exposures of this dark side of business leadership, now more than ever,
attention is paid to the values and personal characteristics of leaders and followers.
Additionally, the need for spirituality in the workplace is becoming more pressing
over the last decade. The following statement gives a nice example of this recent
development in business:

“Our premise is that the wealth of corporations and institutions consist of their
human element – what is called ‘human capital’ – not simply intellectual property,
not only human knowledge and skills, but human spirit as well. To nurture and value
the human spirit is an integral part of leadership.”
(Spirituality, Leadership, and Management Network, 2003)

This comes from the view that organizations must care for the employee’s physical,
emotional, as well as spiritual well being (Cacioppe, 2000). Some companies are
encouraging meaningful work by combining their profit motive with the values of
social responsibility. Encouraging employees’ spirit of accomplishment and
motivation, by the idea that the company supplies a reasonable amount of money to
charity. However, to encourage the spirituality in the workplace, leaders have to take
on a different leadership style named spiritual leadership.

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1.1 Purpose of study

The purpose of this research is in an enhanced understanding of the emergence and
development of spiritual leadership theories. However, the field of spiritual leadership
is still in its infancy stage, and therefore marked by differences in definitions and
other basic characteristics (Dent et al., 2005). Therefore, it is interesting to structure
the current leadership literature to build on a better understanding of spiritual
leadership. This is done by performing a systematic literature review; about leadership
in general, and specifically about spiritual leadership.

1.2 Research questions
As mentioned previously, spiritual leadership is a relatively new area of research in
the leadership literature. There are many different angles of research, theories formed,
and claims made, concerning the link between spiritual leadership and organizational
performance. Accordingly, this research aims to analyze, compare and criticize
spiritual leadership. Therefore, the following general research question is formed:

What is the impact of the spiritual leadership theories?
To answer this general research question, it is divided into the following sub
questions:

1. How are the different schools of thought in the leadership literature over the last
century interlinked?
2. What are the essential developments in the spiritual leadership literature?
3. What are problematic issues within the spiritual leadership literature?

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1.3 Outline

The following outline is chosen for this thesis: in section 1.4 the methodology of this
thesis is discussed, including what resources were used to find the literature used for
the analysis. The keywords used, the amount of hits and the restriction criteria, which
the selected articles and books had to fulfill to be selected are presented. Additionally,
the results of the electronic search will be presented schematically. In chapter two, the
different schools of thought in the leadership literature, over the last century are
explained and analyzed for the developments over time. To be able to understand the
developments of the leadership literature towards spirituality, a valid comprehension
of previous developments in the leadership literature is necessary. Therefore, a special
emphasis is put on the links between the different schools of thought. Questions
central in this chapter are: when did people first start writing about leadership? What
are recent (this century) developments in the academic leadership literature? Are there
certain schools of thought that can be distinguished? This chapter will be concluded
with a schematical representation of the schools of thought in the academic general
leadership literature over time, and how these leadership schools of thought relate. In
chapter three, a more in-depth analysis will be conducted, for the spiritual leadership
literature. According to specific criteria (indicated in section 1.4) several books and
articles will be selected. These books and articles are used to clarify the concept of
spirituality in a systematic manner. The purpose is to gain an insight into the different
theories of spiritual leadership, and related concepts like motivational theories,
workplace spirituality, spiritual transformation, and leadership according to religious
traditions. Furthermore, chapter four gives a critical review of the spiritual leadership
literature and its related concepts, discussed in chapter three. Emphasizing issues like
incoherent acceptance of spirituality versus religion, validity of the empirical studies,
and how ‘spiritual,’ spiritual leadership is. The critical review of spiritual leadership is
closed by suggestions for improvement of the critical issues found. Finally, a
conclusion, answering the research questions of this final thesis is provided, followed
by the limitations of this study.

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1.4 Methodology

1.4.1 Planning the review
To conduct an adequate literature review the guidelines provided by Tranfield et al.,
2003 are used. They identify the following stages for conducting a systematic review:

Stage I: Planning the review
Phase 0 – Identification for the need for a review
Phase 1 – Preparation of a proposal for a review
Phase 2 – Development of a review protocol
Stage II: Conducting a review
Phase 3 – Identification of research
Phase 4 – Selection of studies
Phase 5 – Study quality assessment
Phase 6 – Data extraction and monitoring progress
Phase 7 – Data synthesis
Stage III: Reporting and dissemination
Phase 8 – The report and recommendations
Phase 9 – Getting evidence into practice
Figure 1. Stages of a systematic review, (Tranfield, et al., 2003, p.214).

These steps provided by Tranfield et al., (2003) are taken into account while
conducting this research. Since stage I (planning the review) has already been
executed, stage II (conducting the review) will be conducted in this chapter.
Therefore, in the introduction the identification of the research took place (phase
three). The selection of the studies (phase four) will be presented next, starting with
the identification of key words and search terms (Tranfield et al., 2003). The studies
that meet the restriction criteria presented next, are included in this research.

1.4.2 Selection of the studies
For the selection of the studies several search engines were used to obtain the
academic articles; EBSCO (containing; Business Source Premier, Regional Business
News, Econlit, and PsycARTICLES), Emerald, Oxford journals, Science Direct, and
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International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS). The following key words
were searched, for being present in the title and / or the abstract: ‘spiritual leadership’
and ‘leadership and spirituality.’ This led to the following search results:

ACADEMIC LITERATURE SEARCH:

EBSCO: (spiritual leadership) -->

title: 8 results;

abstract: 10 results

title: 11 results;


title: 1 result;


(leadership and spirituality) -->

title: 3 results;


(spiritual leadership) -->

title: 2 results;

abstract: 1 result


title: 2 results;

abstract: 5 results

title: 0 result;

abstract: 5 results

title: 1 result;

abstract: 2 results

title: 11 results;


title: 5 results;

abstract: 7 results

Emerald: (spiritual leadership) -->

IBSS:

Oxford journals: (spiritual leadership) -->
Science Direct: (spiritual leadership) -->
Figure 2: sources and results academic literature search

To refine the search in the EBSCO database, the following restriction criteria were
used: publication type: academic journals; document type: article. In total fifty-four
distinctive hits were obtained from the EBSCO database. The Emerald search engine
generated twenty distinctive hits, IBSS had nine distinctive hits, whereas Oxford
journals had seven distinctive hits. Finally, Science Direct gave twenty-five
distinctive hits on the search terms ‘spiritual leadership’ and ‘leadership and
spirituality,’ searching in article title and article abstract. A total of eighty-nine unique
hits were retrieved in the academic literature search at the first stage.

After collecting the eighty-nine different papers, phase five ‘study quality assessment’
of the literature review, consisting of making a selection of useful articles, to answer
research questions two and three (see section 1.2) is carried out. The selection is based
on the title, abstract, and content of the articles. Using selection criteria as ‘does the

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article describe what spiritual leadership is?’ and ‘does the article address the factors
that contribute to spiritual leadership like motivational theories, workplace
spirituality, spiritual transformation, and leadership according to religious traditions?’
Phase five of conducting a review resulted in seventeen useful articles. Furthermore,
twelve books were selected, to analyze spiritual leadership. These seventeen articles
and twelve books are summarized and presented schematically, in the beginning of
chapter three (phase six and seven).

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2. Leadership in general

2.1 Introduction

To gain an insight into the developments in the leadership literature, this chapter
contains a discussion about the concepts of leadership, and an analysis of the
developments in the leadership literature over time. For the most recent (this century)
leadership literature a just a short summary will be provided, since it is assumed that
readers have extensive knowledge of the leadership topic. However, an extensive
description of the leadership schools of thought is given in appendix A for totality
purposes. To introduce the topic of leadership, first a short overview of the history of
leadership is provided. Followed by, the summarized overview of the recent
developments in the academic leadership literature, including the six schools of
thought. The seventh school of thought spiritual leadership will be discussed
separately and in-depth in chapter three.

2.2 Leadership history

Throughout history people have tried to establish what makes a good leader. This
goes back to as early as 500 years Before Christ. At that time, Confucius recognized
some virtues of effective leaders. There were four cornerstones to his belief namely:
1. Jen - love, 2. Li - proper conduct, 3. Xiao - piety, 4. Zhang rong - moderation
(Turner & Müller, 2005). It is striking that three of the four virtues are emotional and
just one is managerial. Aristotle’s view of pathos, ethos, and logos is similar to
Confucius in the sense that he also identifies both emotional and managerial values.
According to Aristotle’s a leader must: “1. Build relationships with those who are led,
2. Advocate a moral vision, 3. Persuade by logic to manage actions,” (Turner &
Müller, 2005, p.50). Furthermore, there are other famous authors that have been
quoted many times throughout history including; Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke
from the West, (Collinson, 1998). However, these studies are outside of the scope of
this academic literature review, because the focus in this study is on the development
of the leadership theory throughout the 20th century, which is discussed next.

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2.3 Developments in the academic leadership literature over the last century

Six main schools of thought concerning the leadership theory have been identified
over the last seven decades by amongst others; Dulewicz & Higgs, 2003; Handy,
1982; Partington, 2003; Turner & Müller, 2005. The six schools of thought they
mention are; 1. Trait school which was predominant in the 1940s, 2. Behavioral or
style school, which was predominant from the 1940s to the 1960s, 3. Contingency
school, which was predominant in the 1960s and 1970s, 4. Visionary or charismatic
school, which was predominant in the 1980s and 1990s, and at the same time the 5.
Transformational school was forthcoming. Transformational leadership is part of the
visionary or charismatic school. However, it is prevailing as a separate entity, and
therefore discussed separately. Finally, 6. Emotional intelligence school, which was
predominant since the late 1990s, is discussed. Per school of thought the weaknesses
are provided, and at the end of this chapter the matching schools of thought and
predominance periods are represented schematically. Additionally, an analysis of the
linkages between the six schools of thought is given, followed by a schematic
representation of the analysis.

From the late 1990’s onwards, there is a new development forming in the leadership
literature namely; spiritual leadership. Since, spiritual leadership is central in this
academic literature review, it is analyzed separately in the forthcoming chapters.

2.3.1 Trait school
The origin of the trait school is traced back to the 19th century, where the “great man”
leadership theories were very popular. These theories are the foundation of the trait
school theory. The “great man” theories assert that leadership qualities are inherited,
especially by people from the upper class, (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991). Conversely,
the trait theory does not make assumptions about whether the leadership traits are
inherited or acquired, it is only emphasize that, leaders’ traits and characteristics are
dissimilar from the traits and characteristics from non-leaders (Kirkpatrick & Locke,
1991). Several efforts have been made to identify the key leadership traits. Bass &
Stogdill (1990), summarize over 3,000 books and articles on leadership spanning the
period from 1947-1981. According to Bass & Stogdill (1990), “the leader is
characterized by a strong drive for responsibility and task completion, vigor and
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persistence in pursuit of goals, venturesomeness and originality in problem solving,
drive to exercise initiative in social situations, self-confidence and sense of personal
identity, willingness to accept consequences of decision and action, readiness to
absorb interpersonal stress, willingness to tolerate frustration and delay, ability to
influence other persons’ behavior, capacity to structure social interaction systems to
the purpose at hand,” (Bass & Stogdill, 1990, p. 87).

Weaknesses of the trait theory
A limitation to the trait approach is that it does not indicate which specific leadership
traits are required in different situations and to what proportions leaders should use
certain traits. Furthermore, a hazard of the trait approach is that it can nurture the
conception that leadership is elitist, thereby discouraging people who do not score
exceptionally in these key leadership traits to search for leadership positions.
Therefore, a more balanced perspective on the trait approach is generally accepted;
which indicates that certain traits, motives, and characteristics increase the probability
that a leader will be effective, yet it does not guarantee effectiveness (DuBrin, 2004).
Furthermore, the trait theory is unable to offer a clear distinction between leaders and
non-leaders, and fails to incorporate situational variance in leadership behavior
(Zaccaro, 2007).

2.3.2 Behavioral or style school
In the behavioral style school it is assumed that leaders adopt certain styles or
behaviors that make them effective, therefore, it is implied that leaders can be made.
The emphasis is on what effective and ineffective leaders do on the job, (how they
behave). There are two prevalent behavioral leadership theories, namely Mintzberg’s
ten managerial roles, and Kotter’s leadership factor.

Mintzberg’s Ten Managerial Roles
Mintzberg, (1971) identifies three basic managerial behaviors to which he assigns ten
managerial roles. The ten managerial roles form a whole with the three managerial
behaviors, and cannot be considered in isolation. The three basic managerial
behaviors Mintzberg (1971) distinguishes are 1) interpersonal contact; 2) processing
of information; and 3) decision-making.

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Three of the ten managerial roles relate to a manager’s behavior that focuses on
interpersonal contact; these are titled interpersonal roles. The interpersonal roles
identified by Mintzberg (1971) are figurehead, leader, and liaison and derive directly
from the authority and status associated with holding a managerial office. A second
set of managerial activities relate to the processing of information and the manager’s
behavior to accomplish information processing by taking on informational roles.
Three managerial roles are assigned to the processing of information activity of a
manager: nerve center, disseminator and spokesman. Since, the manager is legally
responsible for the important actions, strategies, and decisions made in the
organization, there are four decisional roles described by Mintzberg (1971). These
are the entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.
The manager bears great responsibility being the human chain between the external
environment, the top management, and his subordinates. The manager’s behaviors and
roles are interlinked; an example is a manager who wants to improve performance of
the organization. The manager will use his leadership skills (interpersonal), while at
the same time he needs to act as a nerve center keeping everybody informed, and
facing the same direction (informational).

Kotter’s Leadership Factor
Kotter (1988, p.5) defines leadership as “the process of moving a group (or groups) in
some direction through mostly non-coercive means. Effective leadership is defined as
leadership that produces movement in the long-term best interest of the group(s).”
Kotter has extensively researched general managers’ and leaders’ behaviors and daily
activities. In his article ‘what effective general managers really do,’ he identifies two
fundamental challenges general managers face in their jobs. Most general managers
have difficulties in figuring out what to do despite uncertainty and enormous amounts
of potentially relevant information, along with, getting things done by a large and
diverse group of people on which the general manager has little direct control due to
capacity problems (Kotter, 1999). According to Kotter (1999) effective general
managers tackle these problems with the help of two mechanisms, namely: agenda
setting, and network building. Furthermore, Kotter (1999) indicates several
characteristics that effective senior managers need to possess. First, they need to
possess extensive industry and organizational knowledge, including fruitful

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relationships (networks) in the firm and the industry to operate effectively. An
excellent reputation and record of accomplishments are necessary to get respect and
cooperation inside the firm and from external networks.

Weaknesses of the behavioral theory
Although the behavioral leadership theory made major contributions to the leadership
research, (Minzberg’s leadership theory is still widely used to train leaders) research
efforts to determine the one best leadership style have been weak and inconsistent for
most criteria of leadership effectiveness, (Lussier & Achua, 2004). In other words,
there is no one best style of leadership in every situation. This led to the next
leadership paradigm; the contingency school of thought, which is discussed next.

2.3.3 Contingency school
“The essence of the contingency approach to leadership is that leaders are most
effective when they make their behavior contingent upon internal and external
situational forces, including group member characteristics,” (DuBrin, 2004, p.135).
Three of the most renowned contingency theories are; Fiedler’s contingency theory,
House’s path-goal theory, and the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model
(SLM). These theories are discussed separately in this section.

Fiedler’s contingency theory
Fiedler created a completely new school of thought with his contingency theory
namely; the contingency school. The contingency model Fiedler developed is widely
researched, and quoted. Fiedler was the first to link appropriate leadership styles to,
the situation leaders are working in, rather than seeking for a universal leadership
theory. Fiedler distinguishes two types of leadership behaviors, 1) task-oriented
leadership, and 2) relationship-oriented leadership. Behaviors are difficult to modify
since they are ingrained in our characters. Therefore leaders should become aware of
their leadership behavior (style). Once leaders are aware of their specific leadership
behavior they are able to match the work situation to their leadership style. Similarly,
organizations should help managers match their leadership styles and situations
(DuBrin, 2004). Furthermore, Fiedler indicated that “task-oriented leadership style
works best in situations at both extremes, those in which the leaders has a great deal
of influence and power and also in situations where the leader has no influence and
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power over the group members. Relationship-oriented leaders tends to perform best in
mixed situations where they only have moderate influence over the group,” (Fiedler,
1969, p. 29).

Path-Goal Theory of leadership effectiveness
In short, the path-goal theory of Robert House specifies what a leader must do to
achieve high productivity and morale in a given situation (DuBrin, 2004). The pathgoal theory is based on the expectancy theories of motivation from amongst others
Atkinson, 1958; Galbraith and Cummings, 1967; Graen, 1969; and Vroom 1964. “The
central concept of the expectancy theories is that the force on an individual to engage
in a specific behavior is a function of 1) his expectancies that the behavior will result
in a specific outcome, and 2) the sum of the valences, that is personal utilities or
satisfactions, that he derives from the outcome,” (House, 1971, p.322). Similarly, the
path-goal theory indicates that the leader should choose a leadership style that takes
into account the characteristics of the subordinates, and the demands of the task,
thereby, matching the leadership style to the situation (contingency theory). In the
latest version of the path-goal theory, four different leadership styles / behaviors are
indicated: 1) Directive style; 2) Supportive style; 3) Participative style; and 4)
Achievement-oriented style (House, 1971). Each leadership style is appropriate for a
situation. The directive style is considered to improve the group morale when the task
is vague and unclear. Whereas the supportive style is preferred if there are insecure
group members who are working on dissatisfying and stressful jobs were they need a
supportive leader to keep their morale up. A participative style is best suited for
improving the morale of subordinates performing non-repetitive tasks and who are
well motivated and involved in the task to be performed. For the even more
achievement oriented teams working in an ambiguous environment where they have
to perform non-repetitive tasks the achievement-oriented style is said to be most
appropriate (DuBrin, 2004).

The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model (SLM)
The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model is an extension of the leadership
theories presented in the Managerial Grid by Blake & Mouton (1969). The HerseyBlanchard SLM offers procedures that can be repeated, which guide matching
leadership style to the readiness of the group members. Like Fiedler’s and House’s
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contingency theories the SLM makes a distinction between task behavior and
relationship behavior. Furthermore, Hersey & Blanchard also identify four
appropriate leadership styles (telling, selling, participating, and delegating style) that
contribute to four levels of subordinate maturity.

Weaknesses contingency theory
Although the contingency theory is one of the most validated of all leadership theories
(Lussier & Achua, 2004), there are some critical points that have to be noted. Most of
the criticism on the contingency theory is because of its inconsistent empirical
findings. Numerous studies have tested the theory, and although research tends to
support the theory, this is not the case for every situation, and not as strong for field
studies as it is for laboratory studies, continuing the debate on the validity of the
contingency theory (Lussier & Achua, 2004).

2.3.4 Visionary or charismatic school
In Greek ‘charisma’ means ‘divinely inspired gift.’ Max Weber was the first to
describe charismatic leadership. He contributed characteristics as mystical,
narcissistic, and personal magnetic savior who would arise to lead people through
crises to a charismatic leader (DuBrin, 2004). “A leader becomes charismatic when
he/she succeeds in changing his/her followers’ attitudes to accept the advocated
vision,” (Conger & Kanungo, 1987, p.640). There are three main schools of thought
in the charismatic leadership approach. First, House’s theory of charismatic
leadership will be shortly discussed, followed by a description of the attribution
theory of charisma. Finally, the self-concept theory of charismatic leadership is
described.

House’s Theory of Charismatic Leadership
House developed a theory of charismatic leadership that defines charisma in terms of
its effects. House (1977), listed nine charismatic effects of leaders which led him to
define a charismatic leader as ‘any person who brings about certain outcomes to an
unusually high degree’. The nine charismatic effects House (1977) presents are: 1)
follower trust in the correctness of the leader's beliefs; 2) similarity of followers'
beliefs to those of the leader; 3) unquestioned acceptance of the leader; 4) affection
for the leader; 5) willing obedience to the leader; 6) identification with and emulation
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of the leader; 7) emotional involvement of the follower in the mission; 8) heightened
goals of the follower; and 9) feeling on the part of followers that they will be able to
accomplish or contribute to the accomplishment of the mission.

Halpert (1990), factor-analyzed these nine hypothesized charismatic effects and put
them as immediate antecedents to follower performance, thereby identifying three
dimensions of charisma, namely: 1) job involvement; 2) referent power; 3) expert
power. Job involvement refers to the last three charismatic effects listed by House.
Referent power refers to the number 2, 4, and 6 of the nine hypothesized outcomes by
House (1977). Finally, expert power refers to 1, 3, and 5 of the hypothesized
outcomes by House (1977).

Attribution Theory of Charisma
The attribution theory is about how the followers perceive certain characteristics the
leaders possesses and which specific characteristics makes the leaders be identified as
charismatic. DuBrin (2004) names many characteristics charismatic leaders have,
such as; masterful communication skills, the ability to inspire trust and to make group
members feel capable. Furthermore, DuBrin (2004) states that, lots of energy and an
action orientation characterizes charismatic leaders, they are emotionally expressive
and warm, they romanticize risk, use unconventional strategies to achieve success,
and usually have a self-promoting personality. Next to that, a major contributor to
charisma is being dramatic and unique in a positive way.

Self-Concept Theory of Charismatic Leadership
The self-concept theory of charismatic leadership attempts to explain how charismatic
leaders are able to engage to followers’ self-concepts in the interest of the mission
articulated by the leader and to put aside their self-interest for the sake of
enhancement of the organization. This theory builds on the findings of earlier and
related studies supplementing these theories with this motivational theory that will
depict the relationship between leader behaviors and effects on followers with the
reservation that humans are self-expressive. The theory identifies four processes: 1)
personal identification, 2) social identification, 3) value internalization, and 4) selfefficacy (individual as well as collective).

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Weaknesses charismatic leadership theory
Most academics agree that charisma can be a double-edged sword capable of
producing both positive as negative outcomes (Lussier & Achua, 2004). This implies
that not all charismatic leaders are good leaders. The best-known example is Adolf
Hitler, who was perceived as being very charismatic. The lone star individualistic
approach of charismatic leaders might not be appropriate for an organization facing
serious internal weaknesses and a threatening external environment. “Most of the
descriptive literature on effective leaders suggests that charisma in its individualized
form may be inadequate to achieve major changes in an organization, and improve its
performance,” (Lussier & Achua, 2004, p. 355).

2.3.5 Transformational school
Transformational leadership is also very much involved with the relationship between
the leader and the follower. Transformational leadership is a part of charismatic
leadership. However, most researchers differentiate between transformational and
transactional leaders. Transformational leaders are able to stimulate group members to
think beyond their self-interests towards the good of the group, organization, or
society, whereas, transactional leaders focuses more on routine transactions with an
emphasis on rewarding group members’ pre-set targets, which is known as contingent
reinforcement (DuBrin, 2004). Bass’ theory of transformational leadership is
predominant in the transformational leadership literature and is discussed next.
Followed by an overview of the weaknesses in the transformational literature.

Bass’ Theory of transformational leadership
Bass and his later colleagues essentially built upon Burns’ notion of ‘transformational
leadership,’ which operates from the vision that transformational leadership has to do
with transforming behaviors (Conger, 1999). “Transforming leadership ultimately
becomes moral in that it raises the level of human conduct, and ethical aspiration of
both the leader and the led, and thus transforming effects on both,” (Burns, 1982, p.
20). Ethics is an important topic in the transformational leadership literature, since
transformational leaders set examples that are emulated by their followers. When
leaders are more morally and ethically mature, those who are being led display a
higher degree of moral reasoning as well (Bass & Steidlmeir, 1999). There are no
pure transactional or pure transformational leaders; most leaders have a profile of full
20

range leadership that includes both transactional and transformational factors.
However, those leaders referred to as being transformational display more
transformational behaviors than they do transactional, and vice versa.

Weaknesses transformational leadership theory
A weakness of the transformational leadership theory is in the subdivision in certain
vaguely defined leadership ‘types’. These ‘types’ are often simplistic stereotypes with
little potential and use, to facilitate in understanding effective leadership (Yukl, 1999).
Next to that, the emphasis on universal applicability has been too strong; more
attention should be paid to the situation at which facilitating and limiting conditions
should be identified specifically to transformational and charismatic leadership (Yukl,
1999). Furthermore, it is still too early to justify applying labels as ‘transformational,’
‘transactional,’ and ‘charismatic’ to individual leaders (Yukl, 1999). Another problem
with the subdivision in the categories of ‘transformational,’ ‘transactional,’ and
‘charismatic’ is that the underlying influence processes are not described clearly, nor
do they specify how the leaders are related to these processes (Yukl, 1999).

2.3.6 Emotional Intelligence school
Each of the leadership schools of thought discussed until now have one thing in
common, they all argue about what makes up a good leader. In this section the
concept of emotional intelligence is discussed.

Emotional intelligence linked to job performance and leader effectiveness
Goleman (1998), argues that leaders are alike in one crucial way, in that they all have
a high degree of emotional intelligence (EQ). In Goleman’s opinion leaders obviously
need a high intelligence level (IQ) and sufficient technical skills and knowledge.
However, these are the minimal requirements for being a leader. Emotional
intelligence is what makes the difference between a leader and an effective leader
according to this school of thought. There are three groups of capabilities; technical,
cognitive, and emotional intelligence capabilities. Next to Goleman (1998; 2004),
several other studies have linked emotional intelligence to an increase in
organizational performance, amongst others; Bachman at al., 2000; Coté & Miners,
2006; Lam & Kirby, 2002; Law et al., 2004; and Sue-Chan & Latham, 2004. Coté &
Miners (2006, p. 1), found evidence that “the association between emotional
21

intelligence and job performance becomes more positive as cognitive intelligence
decreases.” Coté & Miners (2006, p. 5) define cognitive intelligence as “the
specialization of general intelligence in the domain of cognition in ways that it reflect
experience and learning about cognitive processes such as memory.” Contrarily,
“emotional intelligence represents the specialization of general intelligence in the area
of emotions in ways that reflect experience and learning about emotions,” (Coté &
Miners, 2006, p. 5). Goleman (1998; 2004), identify five personal capabilities that
emotionally intelligent people posses: 1) self-awareness; 2) self-regulation; 3)
motivation; 4) empathy; and 5) social skill.

Weaknesses Emotional Intelligence theory
However, there are also authors that are not convinced that emotional intelligence in a
good indicator or even predictor of leadership effectiveness. “According to several
researchers (Abelson, 1981, p. 727; Zeidner et al., 2001; Becker, 2003) learning,
retrieving, and acting on scripts can be applied to a variety of condition-action
procedures or causal sequences, including the meanings associated with emotions,”
(Antonakis, 2004, p. 177). This indicates that emotional intelligence is general
intelligence, directed at an emotional phenomenon, by forming scripts, which can be
learned experientially or vicariously.

2.4 Integration Leadership schools of thought

Based on the studies of Dulewicz & Higgs (2003), Handy (1982), and Partington,
(2003); Turner & Müller (2005) six main schools of leadership theory could be
identified. Additionally, they classified them according to predominance in time. The
matching schools of thought and predominance periods are represented in model 1
below.

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

trait
behavioral
contingency
visionary/charismatic
transformational
emotional intelligence
Model 1: Schematic presentation of the leadership schools of thought over time based on Turner & Müller (2005).

22

The trait –and behavioral theory (predominant in 1940-1960) are a quest to finding
one unique leadership trait or behavior that can be applied in all business
circumstances and environments. The behavioral theory is a follow-up from the trait
theory, in that it goes further than the assumption that effective leaders are born with
certain traits, which make them more effective than others. In the behavioral theory it
is assumed that leaders adopt certain behaviors that make them more effective,
therefore it is implied that leaders can be made. The trait and especially the behavioral
theory are at the foundation of the contingency theory (predominant in 1960-1980)
they led to a paradigm shift (Lussier & Achua, 2004). Because at that point in time,
academics did not search anymore for the one leadership trait or behavior, that led to
unique and outstanding leadership performance in all situations. Situational models
were developed, with the underlying assumption that there is not one universal
leadership style, prescribing to use the existing behavioral leadership style that best
met the situation (Lussier & Achua, 2004). “The essence of the contingency approach
to leadership is that leaders are most effective when they make their behavior
contingent upon internal and external situational forces, including group member
characteristics,” (DuBrin, 2004, p.135). Charismatic and transformational leadership
theories (predominant in 1980 - late 1990s) also find their roots in the behavioral
theory. However, “charismatic and transformational theories highlight the importance
of feelings and emotional reactions by followers towards leaders; earlier theories
emphasize the quantitative, rational aspects of leader-to-follower relationships,”
(Lussier, Achua, 2004, p. 355). Obviously, the emotional intelligence theory
incorporates feelings and emotions, as do the charismatic and transformational
leadership theories. The emotional intelligence theory (predominant since late 1990s)
leans more towards the universal trait theory, since it is argued that all effective
leaders have one thing in common which makes them so effective, namely a high
degree of emotional intelligence.

Based on the previously performed literature review, there are four dimensions, which
can be identified. These dimensions are rational versus emotional, and situational
versus universal. The six schools of thought can be categorized according to these
four dimensions.

23

Emotional Intelligence
Charismatic Leadership

Emotional

Transformational Leadership

Contingency Theory
Rational

Behavioral Theory
Trait Theory
Situational

Universal

Model 2: Framework six schools of thought in the leaderships theory, developed by Moniek Hurkens

Starting with the trait theory, which is rational in nature; emphasizing that leaders
traits and or characteristics are dissimilar from the traits and characteristics of nonleaders (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991). Trait theory scholars search for the key
(universal) trait or characteristic. Therefore, the trait theory is placed on the bottom
right of model 2 being universal of nature and most rational of all leadership schools
of thought. In the behavioral school of thought it is assumed that leaders adopt certain
styles or behaviors that make them effective, therefore, it is implied that leaders can
be made, identifying different roles leaders can adopt; interpersonal contact,
processing information, and decision-making (Mintzberg, 1971). These behavioral
roles give an indication how leaders should best approach other individuals, groups or
tasks. Due to these interpersonal exchanges in the behavioral theory it is argued that,
although behavioral theory is universal and rational in nature, it is more leaning
towards emotions than the trait theory. For this reason the behavioral theory is placed
above the trait theory in model 2.

The only theory of a truly situational nature is the contingency theory. “The essence
of the contingency approach to leadership is that leaders are most effective when they
make their behavior contingent upon internal and external situational forces, including
group member characteristics,” (DuBrin, 2004, p.135). Because the contingency
theory incorporates the group member characteristics it is more emotional in nature
than the trait and the behavioral theory, and therefore placed in model 2 in the left
corner at a higher level than the previously discussed theories.

24

Since the charismatic, transformational, and emotional intelligence theories are (as
previously indicated) of an emotional nature they are placed at the upper field of the
model. Whereas charismatic and emotional intelligence leadership theories are of a
universal nature, is transformational leadership is somewhere between being
situational and universal. Charismatic leadership theories emphasize how followers
perceive certain characteristics the leader possesses and which specific characteristics
makes the leader be identified as charismatic, and is therefore universal of nature.
Similarly, the emotional intelligence theory predicates that all leaders have one thing
in common; a high degree of emotional intelligence. Therefore, it is stated that the
emotional intelligence theory is more universal than the charismatic leadership theory,
operating at the same level as the trait theory, at the highest emotional level (see
model 2).

Transformational leadership is slightly less emotional than charismatic leadership.
Although they are similar in set up there is one difference, which is that the
transformational leadership theory has three specific behaviors, making the
transformational leadership theory not truly universal of nature. Due to the reason that
these three identified behaviors (passive management by exception, active
management by exception, and laissez-faire leadership) are not assigned to three
specific situations, transformational leadership is also not truly situational of nature,
and therefore placed in the middle of model 2 just below the emotional level of
charismatic leadership.

2.5 Conclusion
In this chapter, the developments (six schools of thought) over the last century in the
leadership literature have been discussed, and placed in specific time periods. This is
represented schematically in model 1. Furthermore, the six leadership schools of
thought are linked to one another by an analysis on four dimensions; rational versus
emotional, and situational versus universal. The six schools of thought are placed in a
model according to these four dimensions (see model 2).

25

Recently, a new school of thought is upcoming, namely the spiritual leadership. Since
the emphasis of this thesis is on spiritual leadership it will be discussed, analyzed and
criticized in depth. This is done separately from the previously presented leadership
schools of thought, in the upcoming chapters.

26

3. Spiritual leadership
Author and
year of
publication
Arabi, I
(1975)
Ashmos, D.
P., &
Duchon, D.
(2000)

Benefiel,
M. (2005)

Block, P.
(1996)
Bracey, H.,
Rosenblum
, J.
Sandford,
A., &
Trueblood,
R. (1990)
Cacioppe,
R. (2000)

Chakrabort
y, S. K. &
Chakrabort
y, D.
(2004)
Conger, J.
A. (1994)
Dehler, E.
G. &
Welsh, M.
A. (1994)

Purpose

Main variables

Conclusion

The wisdom of the
prophets (book)
Develop a
conceptualization and
definition of spirituality
at work

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Inner life, meaningful
work, and community

Develop a conceptual
framework for spiritual
leadership of individual
and organizational
transformation
Stewardship (book)

(not applicable)

Definition spirituality at
work: recognition of an
inner life that nourishes
and is nourished by
meaningful work that
takes place in the
context of community
See appendix D and E

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Managing from the
heart (book)

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Describing a new vision
for leadership and the
development of
organizations, which
integrates main
variables

Emerging perspectives
from the fields of
science, transpersonal
psychology, eastern
philosophy and
management

Providing conceptual
insights and practical
examples about
spiritually transformed
leadership
Spirit at work (book)

Yoga-Vedanta spiritual
model

Spirituality in the
workplace is seen as
important in helping
human beings
experience the
fundamental meaning
and purpose of their
work
Leader, lead thyself

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Giving implications for
a new management
paradigm (spirituality)

(not applicable)

New paradigm
(spiritual) managers will
emphasize the creating
of visions that inspire
employees and enable
them to transcend the
emotional limitations of

27

Delbecq,
A. L.
(1999)

Giving implications of
how Christian
spirituality impacts
contemporary business
leadership

(not applicable)

Dent, E. B.,
Higgins,
M. E. &
Wharff, D.
M. (2005)

Empirical review of
definitions, distinctions,
and embedded
assumptions concerning
spirituality and
leadership

Elmes, M.,
& Smith,
C. (2001)

Contextualizing the
workplace environment
in Amarican spiritual
ideals
Leadership Jazz (book)

Eight areas of
distinction: 1)
definition, 2) connected
to religion, 3) marked
by epiphany, 4)
teachable, 5) individual
development, 6)
measurable, 7)
profitable/productive,
and 8) nature of the
phenomenon
(not applicable)

DePree, M.
(1993)
Fairholm,
G. W.
(1996)
Fleischman
, P. R.
(1994)
Fry, L.W.
(2003)

Examining what fulfills
peoples whole-self
needs at work
The healing spirit:
Explorations in religion
and psychotherapy
(book)
Developing a causal
theory of spiritual
leadership

Fry, L.W.,
Vitucci, S.,
& Cedillo,
M. (2005)

Testing the spiritual
leadership theory of Fry
(2003)

Giacalone,
R.A., &
Jurkiewicz,

Handbook of workplace
spirituality and
organizational

the organization
Themes reported are: a
sense of calling, desire
to integrate personal
values in the leadership
role, spirituality as a
source of courage
Most researchers couple
spirituality and religion
and most have either
found, or hypothesized a
correlation between
spirituality and
productivity

Spirituality as ideology

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Spirituality is the
answer

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Hope/faith, vision,
altruistic love, calling,
membership,
organizational
commitment and
productivity
Hope/faith, vision,
altruistic love, calling,
membership,
organizational
commitment and
productivity

See figure 4 and 5

(not applicable)

28

Initial support for the
causal model
hypothesizing positive
relationships between
the qualities of spiritual
leadership, spiritual
survival, and
organizational
productivity and
commitment
(not applicable)

C. L.
(2003)
Goldstein,
J., &
Kornfield,
J.(1987
Hawkins,
P. (1991)

performance (book)
Seeking the heart of
wisdom: The path of
insight meditation
(book)
The spiritual dimension
of the learning
organization (book)
Critically analyze the
scholarship on
spirituality and
leadership

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Howard, S.
(2002)

Providing a spiritual
perspective on learning
in the workplace

(not applicable)

KoracKakabadse,
N.,
Kouzmin,
A., &
Kakabadse,
A. (2002)
Kriger, M.,
& Seng, Y.
(2005)

Explain spiritual
influence on leadership
theory from the Taoist,
Christian, Buddhist
philosophy and physics,
sociology, and
psychology
Create a foundation for
a contingency theory of
leadership based on the
inner values and
worldviews of five
religions

(not applicable)

A structure and culture
in which leaders can
respectfully negotiate
religious and spiritual
diversity should be
created
Leaders who are open to
spirituality are learning
to develop their personal
spirituality and the
impact they are having
on organizations and
society
(not applicable)

Mitroff, I.
I., &
Denton, E.
A. (1999)

A spiritual audit of
Corporate America:
Multiple designs for
fostering spirituality in
the workplace (book)
Review of spiritual
values and practices
related to leadership
effectiveness
The world’s religions
(book)
Presenting logic for a
causal model of spiritual
leadership that

Hicks, D.
A. (2002)

Raeve, L.
(2005)

Smith, H.
(1992)
Whittingto
n, J. L.,
Pitts, T.

Inner meaning, leader
values, vision, moral
examples, multiple
levels of being

(not applicable)

Values as integrity,
honesty, and humility

An integrative model of
organizational
leadership is proposed
and created based on the
main variables and
behavior-based
contingency theories
(not applicable)

(not applicable)

Main variables have
been demonstrated to
have an effect on
leadership success
(not applicable)

The 10 leadership
qualities of the Apostle
Paul

The legacy of the
leader’s influence is
perpetuated through

29

M.,
Kageler,
W. V., &
Goodwin,
V. L.
Wilber, K.
(1999)

represents evidence of
legacy
leadership in terms of
the changed lives of
followers.
The marriage of sense
an soul: integrating
science and religion
(book)

(based on Paul’s first
letter to the
Thessalonians)

(not applicable)

the followers’
incorporation of legacy
principles into their
lives as they become
leaders
(not applicable)

3.1 Introduction
The field of leadership is known for being a ‘soft’ science, which is difficult to
explain by solid facts. Therefore, there are many leadership theories, and schools of
thought (as previously discussed). This is certainly true for the spiritual leadership
school of thought. The field of spiritual leadership is still in its infancy stage, and
therefore marked by differences in definitions and other basic characteristics, (Dent et
al., 2005). Nowadays, arguably, there is no more important and pressing topic than,
the relation of science and religion (Wilber, 1999). While, science is concerned with
discovering the truth, religion and spirituality are about generating meaning. There are
four recent trends in society that enhance the interest in spirituality related to business:
1) downsizing, reengineering, and layoffs have turned the workplace environment into
one in which workers are demoralized, and where there is a growing inequity in
wages (Brandt, 1996; Hamel & Prahalad, 1994); 2) the workplace is serving as a
community (Conger, 1994; Fairholm, 1996); 3) the curiosity about Eastern
philosophies like Zen Buddhism, and Confucianism (Brandt, 1996); and 4) some are
hinting that since the baby boomers move closer to life’s greatest uncertainty (death)
there is a growing interest in considering life’s meaning (Brandt, 1996; Conger,
1994).
To analyze spiritual leadership in depth the following issues will be addressed in this
chapter: first, the difference between spirituality and religion is explained, followed
by the link between spirituality and motivation. Then, the concept of workplace
spirituality is exemplified. Next, several models of spiritual leadership will be
discussed in depth, which will be tested in the subsequent section, followed by the
relationship between spiritual leadership and organizational transformation.
Additionally, several religions and their spiritual leadership implications will be

30

discussed. Finally, the religious and non-religious inspired views on spiritual
leadership are compared.

3.2 Spirituality versus religion

Although religion and spirituality are not necessarily the same, nobody denies that
they interlink, in the sense that they both incorporate ‘meaning.’ Spirituality is
broader than a single organized religion, with its prescribed doctrines, it is the source
for one’s search for meaning in life and sense of interconnectedness with others (Fry,
2003). According to Chakraborty & Chakraborty (2004, p. 202), “Spiritual perception
represents higher and wider understanding than fragmentist mental thinking and
reasoning.” In this definition again the difference between truth and meaning becomes
apparent, spirituality sets out further than the truth. It goes for a wider understanding
of the truth. Therefore, spirituality is considered to be present and necessary in
religion, whereas, religion is not a precondition for spirituality. Spirituality has
historically been rooted in religion (Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002). However, in the
current business and workplace environment it is not associated with any specific
religious tradition. “Religion comes from the Latin word ‘religio’ which has been
translated as reliance or connection,” (Scott-Peck, 1993, p. 23). “Spirit comes from
the Latin word ‘spiritus’ meaning breath” (Kriger & Seng, 2005, p. 797). Religion is
said to focus more on a specific group, whereas spirituality is more generic, and may
include more than one religion; religions can be viewed as the ‘maps,’ while
spirituality can be considered to be the ‘territory’ (Raeve, 2005). People could even
feel excluded when spirituality is viewed through a lens of religion, by the people who
are not part of that specific religion (Cavenaugh, 1999; Nadesan, 1999, Fry, 2003).
Goertzen & Barbuto (2001) describe three components of spirituality: 1) belief in the
sacred; 2) belief in the Unity; and 3) belief in transformation. Spirituality mostly is
defined as “a search for meaning, reflection, inner connectedness, creativity,
transformation, sacredness and energy,” (Dent et al., 2005, p. 633). However, there
are many different definitions of spirituality due to its highly individualistic and
intensely personal nature. Especially since spirituality is something which is not
physically present or scientifically proven, it is difficult to give it an all encompassing
definition. Zinnbauer et al., (1999, p. 903) have done a meta-analysis for over a
hundred different studies and concluded that: “religion was predominantly associated
31

with formal / organizational religion, while spirituality was more often associated
with closeness with God and feelings of interconnectedness with the world and living
things.” Especially, the interconnectedness with the world and all living things should
be emphasized, it encompasses terms as truth, love, service, wisdom, joy, peace and
wholeness, and it combines our basic philosophies of life, and personal values to our
conduct and practices (Howard, 2002). Religion can be seen as a ‘way of life’
whereas spirituality is what our lives are about (Howard, 2002). Furthermore,
spirituality is assumed to be a dimension of the human being that is shared by all
persons, while this is not the case for religious traditions which are shared by groups
of people but differ among groups (Hicks, 2002). Fry (2003) who developed the most
comprehensive theoretical model towards developing a theory of spiritual leadership
to date, states that the common bridge between spirituality and religion is altruistic
love – regard or devotion to the interests of others. Now that we have a more complete
image of the commonalities and discrepancies between spirituality and religion it is
possible to go deeper into the topic of spirituality, starting with the link between
spirituality and motivation.

3.3 Spirituality and motivation

Nowadays, the question of how to achieve a good work-life balance is becoming more
pressing. Since we are spending more time at work, work has become the centerpiece
of our lives, whether we like it or not. Work is the place where most of us find our
sense of full meaning, in some cases work even replaces family, friendship circles,
and even church (Fairholm, 1996). “We spend too much time at work or work related
leisure activities for us to compartmental our lives in separate, work, family, religious
and social domains,” (Fairholm, 1996, p.11). “Yet in 1994 only one out of four
workers were extremely satisfied with their work, compared to 40% in 1973,”
(Fairholm, 1996, p.11). So, the work spirit is dropping. Therefore, the following
questions arise; what are employees looking for in their jobs? What motivates them to
do their job properly, meanwhile, giving them the sense of personal satisfaction?

“Motivation is primarily concerned with what energizes human behavior, what directs
and channels such behavior, and how this behavior is maintained or sustained,” (Fry,
2003, p. 698). There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In
32

figure 3, the graphical representation of the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation is given.
EXTRINSIC
MOTIVATION

EFFORT

PERFORMANCE

REWARD

(Give me a reward to work)
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION

EFFORT

PERFORMANCE

REWARD
(My work is my reward)
Figure 3: Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation (Fry, 2003, p. 698).

Specifically, the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is that extrinsic
motivation behaviors are motivated by factors external to the individual, like salary
increase, promotions, more vocation time etc., whereas with intrinsic motivation
behaviors are motivated by interest or enjoyment of the activity for the individual’s
own sake, promoting growth and satisfaction of the higher order needs (selffulfillment) (Fry, 2003). “Intrinsic motivation is associated with better learning,
performance, and well-being,” (Benware & Deci, 1984; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Valas &
Slovik, 1993; Fry, 2003, p. 699). Intrinsic motivation for our work gets more
important, since a lot more time is spend at work. Consequently, people are searching
for more than economic gain from their work. Given that people can eat, shower, drop
their children, and exercise at work, the workplace has an extensive influence on the
whole family instead of just being a workplace. As a consequence, people are less
able to fulfill other personal needs they might have outside the job, like maintaining
their spiritual identity, inner meaning, and personal satisfaction. Since, we are not able
to compartmental our lives anymore in the way we could a few decades ago, the need
for obtaining these personal needs at the workplace is increasing (Fairholm, 1996).
Another factor that is of influence is the abandonment of the traditional psychological
contract connecting workers to a life-long career at a company. This traditional policy
gave workers the feeling of security ensuring them a steady income. By leaving this
policy the tranquility and security of the workplace has been shattered. According to
all the authors that will be mentioned in this chapter, the answer to repairing the
damage that has been done to the tranquility of the workplace is incorporating
spirituality into the workplace.

33

3.4 Workplace spirituality

Understanding workplace spirituality begins with acknowledging that people have
both an inner and an outer life, and that nourishment of the inner life can lead to a
more meaningful and productive outer life (Fox, 1994). “In order for this to occur,
organizations must care for the whole employee’s physical, emotional, and spiritual
well being. Leaders, therefore, have a major role in providing the conditions where
balance can be returned to employees’ lives, and to develop a purpose for
organizational activities that are in harmony with all of life,” (Cacioppe, 2000, p.49).
Some companies are encouraging meaningful work by combining their profit motive
with the values of social responsibility. Encouraging employees’ spirit of
accomplishment and motivation, with the idea that the company supplies a reasonable
amount of money to charity. The most referred to definition of workplace spirituality
is the one of Giacalone & Jurkiewicz (2003, p.13): “A framework of organizational
values evidenced in the culture that promotes employees’ experience of transcendence
(calling) through the work process, facilitating their sense of being connected in a way
that provides feelings of compassion and joy.” According to Fleischman (1994) and
Maddock & Fulton (1998) there are two aspects of workplace spirituality: 1) the sense
of calling (transcendence); and 2) need for membership (social connection). These are
exactly the two aspects that are oppressed in the current way of doing business where
everything is focused on values of self interest, power, and financial gain. That in
combination with the long hours that are currently spend at the workplace leaves a
great gap of feeling meaningful and loved, which influences the work spirit in a
negative way. Pfeffer (2003, p.33) indicates four fundamental dimensions of what
people seek to make their life more meaningful: “1) interesting and meaningful work
that permits them to learn, develop, and have a sense of competence and mastery; 2)
work that provides them with a 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 that one’s work role and other roles are in harmony with his or her essential
nature and who the person is as a human being.” This is coherent with the two
components of workplace spirituality that Fleischman (1994) and Maddock & Fulton
(1998) indicate, namely the first two dimensions are related to calling and the second
two are related to membership. Although not explicitly mentioned by Fleischman
(1994), Maddock & Fulton (1998), and Pfeffer (2003) there is a component that is
34

implicitly present in their components of workplace spirituality, namely: inner life.
Workplace spirituality is, next to being beneficial for personal outcomes also
responsible for reducing absenteeism, and improving productivity and turnover,
(Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003). There appears to be considerable overlap between
workplace spirituality and motivation based theories of leadership, especially the
components and processes of intrinsic motivation, and spiritual survival through
meaning / calling and membership, are important for developing a theory towards
spiritual leadership (Fry, 2003). Furthermore, there is evidence that suggests that
workplace spirituality can be influenced through teaching, implying that
organizational leaders appear to be able to take actions that influence workplace
spirituality (Kolb, 1988; Vaill, 1996). However, nourishing the spirit at the workplace
requires leaders to enquire further than the normal leader-follower relationship, and
consider and respond to yet another dimension of life (Fairholm, 1996). According to
Fairholm (1996, p. 12-13) “spiritual leaders clarify followers’ moral identities,
strengthen, and deepen their commitments. Furthermore, they can make the
connections between others’ interior worlds of moral reflection and the outer world of
work and social relationships.” Fairholm is one of the first to describe the
phenomenon of spiritual leadership. Fairholm (1996, p. 13) is also the first one to
indicate what a working definition of spiritual leadership should entail, namely “ideas
like teaching our followers correct principles and the application of techniques that
enable self-governance. It is creating circumstances in which followers can function
freely with the leader, and within their work subject only to broad accountability. It is
redefining leadership in terms of service and stewardship.” Fairholm is the first, but
not the only one providing a model for spiritual leadership. Other models will be
discussed in depth in the next section.

3.5 Spiritual leadership

To date there are only a few models of spiritual leadership. In this section the two
most prevailing models of spiritual leadership will be discussed to give a better insight
into what spiritual leadership is. The spiritual leadership movement encompasses the
leadership servant (Greenlaef, 1977; DePree, 1993); stewardship (Block, 1996) and
empowerment models (Bracy et al., 1990; Elmes and Smit, 2001). These components
of spiritual leadership will be integrated in this part.
35

3.5.1 Fairholm’s skeletal model of spiritual leadership
Fairholm (1996) specified a skeletal, holistic model of spiritual leadership that
embodies those values and practices proven to be effective in various kinds of
organizations. Fairholm’s (1996, p.13) model’s characteristics include:

•

Carefully designed corporate philosophy or vision embedded in a corporate
culture;

•

Value of personal and other forms of development (growth) to become one’s
best self;

•

Commitment to serving others;

•

Sense of interactive, mutual trust;

•

Authentic concern for people and organizational goals;

•

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;

•

Process that emphasizes continuing evaluation of progress.

This holistic approach (meaning that the individual parts provide synergetic support
for the whole) includes services that address the personal as well as the professional
lives of the workers, which is coherent with the needs of the workers as discussed
under the spirituality and motivation heading. Fairholm’s model of spiritual leadership
provided the foundation for Fry’s model of spiritual leadership. According to the
extensive research of articles about spiritual leadership, and its definitions,
distinctions, and embedded assumptions by Dent et al., (2005), the most
comprehensive theoretical model towards developing a theory of spiritual leadership
to date is Fry’s (2003) model, which will be discussed next.

3.5.2 Fry’s model of spiritual leadership
“Fry draws on Horton (1950), Smith (1992), and (indirectly) the Christian New
Testament for his understanding of spirituality. He uses Horton’s continuum of God
as Higher Power, Smith’s understanding of the commonality of all religions, and
Webster’s definition of faith as ‘The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
36

things not seen,’ a direct quotation of Hebrews 11:1” (Benefiel, 2005, p. 727).
Furthermore, “Fry’s (2003) model includes intrinsic motivation as well as religiousbased and ethics and values-based approaches to leadership. This model proposes
conceptual distinctions among hope/faith, vision/mission, and altruistic love. The
model is also causal, suggesting, for example, that hope/faith leads to vision/mission,
which in turn leads to calling,” (Dent et al., 2005, p. 647). Fry (2003) reasons from a
holistic view on leadership that integrates four fundamental arenas that define the
essence of human existence: the body, mind, heart, and spirit. “Spiritual leadership
taps into the fundamental needs of both leader and follower for spiritual survival so
they become more organizationally committed and productive,” (Fry, 2003, p. 694). A
major proposition of Fry (2003) is that spiritual leadership is necessary for the
transformation to and continued success of a learning organization. In Fry’s definition
of spiritual leadership he entails the “values, attitudes, and behavior’s that are
necessary to intrinsically motivate one’s self and others so that they have a sense of
spiritual survival through calling and membership,” (Fry, 2003, p. 695). Creating a
vision wherein followers experience a sense of calling, and establishing a social /
organizational culture based on altruistic love, where organizational members have a
genuine appreciation and concern for each other, thereby, creating a sense of
membership, are part of spiritual leadership (Fry, 2003). The qualities of spiritual
leadership are represented in table 1 below. This is followed by the causal model of
spiritual leadership that Fry’s (2003) has developed, which is graphically represented
in figure 4.

Qualities of spiritual leadership
Vision

Altruistic love

Hope/faith

Broad appeal to key stakeholders
Defines the destination and journey
Reflects high ideals
Encourages hope/faith
Establishes a standard of excellence

Forgiveness
Kindness
Integrity
Empathy/compassion
Honesty
Patience
Courage
Trust/loyalty
Humility

Endurance
Perseverance
Do what it takes
Stretch goals
Expectation of
reward/victory

Table 1: Qualities of spiritual leadership. (Fry, 2003, p. 695).

37

EFFORT
(Hope/Faith)
Works

PERFORMANCE
(Vision)

CALLING
Make a Difference,
Life has Meaning
ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMITMENT &
PRODUCTIVITY

REWARD
(Altruistic Love)

Leader values
Attitudes, & behaviors

MEMBERSHIP
Be Understood
Be Appreciated

Follower needs
for spiritual survival

Organizational
Outcomes

Figure 4: Causal model of spiritual leadership (Fry, 2003, p. 695).

This causal model of spiritual leadership incorporates an “intrinsic motivation cycle
based on vision (performance), altruistic love (reward), and hope/faith (effort) that
result in an increase in one’s sense of spiritual survival (calling and membership), and
ultimately positive organizational outcomes such as organizational commitment,
productivity and continuous improvement increased,” (Fry, 2003, p.714). The vision
refers to the long-term plan of an organization, providing a picture of the future.
Altruistic love as intended in the spiritual leadership theory brings about a sense of
wholeness and harmony through care, concern and appreciation for both self and
others, also see table 1 (Fry, 2003). Whereas, “hope is a desire with expectation of
fulfillment, faith adds an extra dimension to hope, it is the conviction that something,
which cannot be proved by irrefutable evidence is true,” (Fry, 2003, p.713). “The
ultimate effect of spiritual leadership is to bring together or create a sense of fusion
among the four fundamental forces of human existence (body, mind, heart, and spirit)
so that people are motivated for high performance, have increased organizational
commitment, and personally experience joy, peace, and serenity,” (Fry, 2003, p. 718).
To elaborate on the process of spiritual leadership Fry (2003) presents a more
extensive model than the previous causal model of spiritual leadership (see figure 5).

38

Figure 5: Spiritual leadership as intrinsic motivation through vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love. (Fry, 2003,
p.719).

Spiritual leadership theory can be a source of spiritual survival (feeling calling and
membership) in a learning organization by implementing hope / faith in the
organization’s vision, which keeps followers looking forward to the future and
provides the desire and positive expectation that fuels effort through intrinsic
motivation (Fry, 2003). Furthermore, the organizational culture must integrate the
values of altruistic love, which can only be realized when the leaders embody and
abide by these values through their every day attitudes and behaviors (Fry, 2003). The
main point that should be stressed in this model is that spiritual leadership is
necessary for the transformation into and continued success of learning organizations.
“The fundamental building block of a learning organization is the self-directed,
empowered team,” (Fry, 2003, p.719).

Elmes & Smit (2001), already made the connection between workplace empowerment
and spirituality. According to Elmes & Smit (2001), there are three places to locate
empowerment in spiritual ideals, namely in 1) individual and collective visions; 2)
doing service; and 3) learning and continuous improvement. Vision in discourse of
empowerment offers workers a sense of purpose and direction by aligning workers’
goals and objectives (Elmes & Smit, 2001). Furthermore, in a team-based

39

organization doing service (meaning doing good for others), provides synergy in the
organization. “Through the service to others, workers and the workplace become
empowered, because the relationships are transformed, and a larger proportion of the
workforce is allowed to participate in ‘shaping the future,’” (Senge, 1996, p.3). The
discussion of empowerment also emphasizes the importance of learning and
continuous improvement of performance, meaning that empowered workers learn
from positive as well as negative feedback in order to become more effective in future
situations (Elmes & Smit, 2001). According to Senge (1990), learning (to be seen
from an empowerment perspective), is very much an exercise in soul searching,
striving to identify one’s faults and improve both individually and collectively as a
learning organization. These views on empowerment and spirituality correspond with
Fry’s model on the process of spiritual leadership presented in figure 5. Fry (2003)
also indicates that strategic leaders, in addition to empowering their followers, also
should encourage followers to embrace the organizations vision and provide them
with knowledge of how they influence the organization’s performance and
vision/mission. According to Fry (2003, p.719) “empowered teams and their leaders
should also establish a culture and ethical system that embodies the values of altruistic
love where group members are challenged to persevere, be tenacious, ‘do what it
takes,’ and pursue excellence by doing their best in achieving challenging goals
through hope and faith in the vision, their leaders, and themselves.” This all is to
improve the continuous learning in the organization. Thus in sharing power strategic
leaders actually free people from leadership through fear, coercion and control,
allowing the empowered employees to commit more of themselves to do the job
through trust in the strategic leaders, and the hope and faith results from this trust
(Fry, 2003).

As mentioned by Fry (2003) and Elmes & Smit (2001) ‘doing service’ is very
important in spiritual leadership. For this reason, it is important to take a closer look at
servant leadership. Serving followers is the central theme of servant leadership and
stewardship (Greenlaef, 1977). Furthermore, a holistic approach to work, personal
development, and shared decision-making are important factors of servant leadership.
“Servant leadership embodies seven characteristics: they are servants first; articulators
of goals (vision); inspiration of trust; knowledgeable in the art of listening; masters of
positive feedback (accept a person, not necessarily a person’s effort or performance);
40

foresightful (use intuitive sense to bridge information gaps to better foresee the
unforeseeable); and are proponents of personal development (the process of change
starts in the servant, not out there),” (Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002, p. 169).
Additionally, DePree (1993) describes 14 characteristics of becoming a servant leader:
integrity, vulnerability, discernment, awareness of the human spirit, courage in
relationships, sense of humor, intellectual energy and curiosity, respect for the future,
regard for the present, understanding of the past, predictability, breath, comfort with
ambiguity, and presence. A theory that comes close to that of the servant leadership
theory is stewardship. For Block (1996), stewardship is a triumvirate which includes
empowerment, brings accountability and balances responsibility through partnerships.
“Spiritual leadership rejects the past models of human leadership, which focused on
values of self interest. Spiritual leaders focus on ethical values such as integrity,
independence and justice,” (Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002, p. 173). Furthermore,
spiritual leaders clarify the follower’s moral identity, strengthen and deepen their
commitment as can bee seen in Fry’s (2003) model, which states the internally
motivation cycle of hope/faith, vision and altruistic love that increases followers
organizational commitment. Therefore, it can be concluded that spiritual leadership
functions as a natural progression of the servant leadership and stewardship literature.

The above established where spiritual leadership originates from and the predominant
models of spiritual leadership were discussed. The following step is to have a closer
look at the empirical studies, which tested these models of spiritual leadership. This is
done in section 4.3.

3.6 Spirituality and leadership effectiveness

As previously presented in the models of spiritual leadership, there is an assumed
positive relationship between spiritual leadership and leadership effectiveness and
therefore organizational performance. There are many studies linking certain values to
leader effectiveness, however, there are only a few empirical studies, which
investigate the connection between spiritual leadership and organizational outcomes.
The reason for this is that ‘spirituality’ is a broad all-embracing concept, and therefore
difficult to measure and test empirically. However, two of these empirical studies met
the restriction criteria that are mentioned in the methodology section, and will be
41

discussed in depth. The first one is from Duchon & Plowman (2005) including an
exploratory study of six work units within a large healthcare system, examining the
workplace differences in terms of openness to spirituality, and whether these are
associated with differences in work unit performance. The model Duchon & Plowman
(2005) use is similar to the one of Fry (2003) causally linking effort, performance and
rewards to inner life, meaningful work, and sense of community, which is linked to
work unit performance. Secondly, the actual causal model of spiritual leadership as
presented by Fry (2003) will be tested using longitudinal data from a newly formed
Apache Longbow helicopter attack squadron at Ft. Hood, Texas. This is done by Fry,
Vitucci, & Cedillo (2005).

Duchon & Plowman (2005) reason from the definition of workplace spirituality
provided by Ashmos & Duchon (2000, p. 137), which considers a workplace to be
spiritual when it recognizes the following three components: “that employees have an
inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work, that takes place in the
context of community.” Inner life, meaning that people bring their whole selves to
work, including their spiritual self. This is consistent with Mitroff & Denton’s (1999a,
1999b) who argue that employees should be allowed to bring their ‘whole’ personal
identity to the workplace, including their spiritual ideas and expressions. To capture
the three personal components of workplace spirituality as proposed by Ashmos &
Duchon (2000), Duchon & Plowman (2005) used the ‘Meaning and Purpose at Work’
questionnaire. “The questionnaire also addresses the work unit-level issues by
capturing the informants’ observations of their work unit as a whole (in contrast to
how things affect them personally), as a community (Work Unit Community), and as
passing meaning (Work Unit Meaning) (Duchon & Plowman, 2005, p.818). The
questionnaire items are represented in appendix A. The health care organization uses
measures of patient satisfaction as the key indicator of work unit performance, so
instead of measuring performance as e.g. utilization of resources, turnover, employee
performance rating etc., patience satisfaction is used. Duchon & Plowman (2005),
used two types of patient satisfaction measures: 1) patients’ evaluation of overall
quality of care; and 2) patients’ evaluation of overall sensitivity of the staff providing
the care. These patient attitudes are measured with the questionnaire that the health
care organization distributes to each patient. Conclusions that can be drawn from this
research are that although they cannot speak of causality, the data suggests co-varying
42

attitudes. This implies that leaders in spirit-friendly work units have a stronger sense
of spirit than leaders in less spirit-friendly units. Furthermore, employees of spiritfriendly work units seemed to share more strongly with the views of the leader
(Duchon & Plowman, 2005).

As mentioned before, Fry, Vitucci, and Cedillo (2005) empirically test the previously
discussed causal model of spiritual leadership of Fry (2003), using longitudinal data
from a newly formed Apache Longbow helicopter attack squadron at Ft. Hood, Texas.
Fry et al., (2005) administered two surveys; the first survey provided a database for
the study, whereas, the second survey (which was administered approximately five
months later) focused on the qualities vision/mission, altruistic love, hope/faith,
meaning/calling, and membership as key components of spiritual survival, to examine
the impact on organizational commitment and productivity. Combined, these surveys
were used to test the spiritual leadership theory’s structural equation causal model.
Three dimensions of spiritual leadership (hope/faith; vision; altruistic love), two
dimensions of spiritual survival (meaning/calling; membership), and organizational
commitment and productivity were measured using the survey questions (see
appendix C). To test the spiritual leadership theory’s structural equation causal model,
Fry et al., (2005) used a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) program. SEM uses two
types of variables: latent variables (hope/faith; vision; altruistic love; meaning/calling;
membership; organizational commitment and productivity) and manifest variables,
which are measured by the survey questions associated with each latent variable.
Figure 6 below shows the hypothesized causal model including the depicted linkages
between manifest and latent constructs.

43

Figure 6: Structural equation model for Fort Hood Longbow attack squadron data (Fry et al., 2005, p. 845).

The results provide initial support for the spiritual leadership theory’s (SLT) causal
model and its measures, all standardized path coefficients in the hypothesized SLT
causal model with the exception of calling

organizational commitment, are positive

and significant (Fry et al., 2005). “The goodness of fit test and the indices were all
highly significant giving empirical support that, overall, the model fitted the data
well.”(Fry et al., 2005, p. 846).

In chapter 4 a critical review of the literature will be given in which also these two
models will be discussed, and whether they really measure what is implied by their
authors. However, first, spirituality and organizational transformation will be
discussed, which has been indicated to be of great importance to the spiritual
leadership literature by amongst others; Fairholm, 1996; Fry, 2003; Fry et al., 2005;
Benefiel, 2005; Howard, 2005.

44

3.7 Spirituality and organizational transformation

In the current business environment there is only one thing consistent, which is
change, and the organizational transformation related to it. Therefore, it is important
to have a closer look at organizational transformation in relation to spirituality.

“The ideal of organizational transformation has grown out of the organizational
development movement over the past 20 years. Organizational transformation cannot
be neatly defined, but it suggests organizations need to change in thought and action
at a much more fundamental level than has been accomplished so far by change
agents,” (Howard, 2002, p. 237). The organizational transformation movement has
come to terms with the spiritual; it seeks greater environmental responsibility, social
justice, transparency, morality, and accountability from organizations (Howard,
2002). Furthermore, “organizational transformation proposes that organizations can
choose to support the development of individual spirituality, and choose to organize
themselves around spiritual principles and goals,” (Howard, 2002, p. 238).

Dehler and Welsh (1994) link spirituality (they call it emotion-based response) as a
mediator between vision, transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation, and work
setting, to improved organizational performance and alignment of values, as a result
from change interventions (organizational transformation). This could have been the
first step made in the direction to the development of the spiritual leadership theory as
suggested by Fry (2003). Fry (2003) emphasizes in his spiritual leadership theory
(SLT) that spiritual leadership is necessary for the transformation to and the continued
success of a learning organization, by incorporating the intrinsic motivation cycle
based on vision, altruistic love, hope/faith that result in an increase in one’s sense of
spiritual survival (calling and membership) to increase organizational commitment
and productivity.

Benefiel (2005) proposes a conceptual framework of spiritual leadership for
organizational transformation. “A key element of this conceptual framework, drawn
from the study of spirituality, is to understand that spiritual development is
fundamentally discontinuous and continuing at the same time: it involves distinct
stages and continual rediscovery of the spiritual core in new places,” (Benefiel, 2005,
45

p. 731). Benefiel (2005) first discusses the process of individual leader’s spiritual
transformation, and then this understanding will be extended to organizational
transformation. Central in Benefiel’s article is the what is referred to as the ‘second
part of the journey’ meaning the part of the spiritual organizational transformation
journey where the leader and the organization realize that the spiritual journey is more
about their own transformation than about the material gain they can obtain from
being on the spiritual path (Benefiel, 2005). Since there is a second half of the
spiritual journey there ought to be a first half. The whole individual spiritual
transformation journey as proposed by Benefiel (2005) is represented in appendix D.

The first half of the journey consists of two stages: the awakening and the
transformation stage. The awakening stage (stage I) explains how people come to
taking this spiritual transformation journey. Mostly people (seekers) seem to show
interest in the spiritual path due to some dissatisfaction in life without spirituality. At
first they feel like their prayers are answered, feeling oneness with the universe, a
feeling that can be compared to people falling in love (Benefiel, 2005). However, in
stage II people will encounter the transition to what is referred to as the ‘second half
of the journey’. This is the part of the spiritual journey in which people transition
from thinking that the spiritual journey is about getting gifts, to realizing it is about
their own transformation (Benefiel, 2005). This is the stage where the initial cut is
made often people find that their prayers are not being answered. People feel that they
are doing something wrong, and try harder just to get disappointed again. Some
people give up and decide that the spiritual path is not cut out for them. These people
will never cross to the second half of the spiritual transformational journey, which
proceeds from here on. However, feeling abandoned is a normal and predictable part
of the spiritual journey according to spiritual teachers (Benefiel, 2005). In the third
stage, named recovery, people become aware that the spiritual journey is more about
their own transformation than it is about getting what you want. “Maturing spirituality
involves embracing and letting go, embracing and letting go, time and again: of ways
of prayer and meditation, of relationships, of work commitments, and of personal
commitments,” (Barks, 1997; Heschel, 1997; Kornfield, 2001; May, 1991, 2004;
Benefiel, 2005, p. 734). In the fourth stage the ‘dark night,’ the seeker may come to a
dark night of soul when not only his old form of prayer or meditation does not work
anymore, but even God seems to have disappeared. “It is in this time that the seeker
46

learns to desire God for God’s self, not only for what God can give him. This may be
hard for the seeker to understand, especially if the desires have been reshaped so
much that what he desires is his own spiritual transformation,” (Benefiel, 2005,
p.734). In the fifth and last stage, called dawn, the seeker can ‘surrender,’ at which his
ego and his life become revitalized to a higher good, enabling him to fully let go
(Kornfield, 2001; May, 1991, 2004). Leaders probably will not stay in the dawn phase
very long, because the ego-centric nature of the current business environments pulls
them back. However, overtime, as the leader continues to walk the spiritual path, they
can learn to let go and surrender fully to this higher place (Benefiel, 2005).

According to Benefiel (2005) the leaders who live predominantly in this higher place
(dawn stage) are more available to the needs of the people they serve, and the
organizations they work for. “Because their egos have been revitalized to the higher
good, they can use their skills and energies to serve the good of the organizations as a
whole, rather than using them to fill their own ego needs,” (Benefiel, 2005, p. 735).
The graphical representation of the spiritual journey of the organization is presented
in appendix E. Just as with individual spirituality, organizations and its leaders
primarily turn to spirituality because they need help, which they hope to find in
spiritual transformation. Initially, when companies and leaders embrace spirituality,
they become more energized, joy-filled, productive, and profitable (Benefiel, 2005).
However, organizations will eventually bump into some problems that can, if the
leader and the organizations are open to it, serve as an invitation to the second half of
the journey (Hawkins, 1991).

The previously discussed spirituality literature has primarily discussed the first half of
the journey, therefore, leaders know little about how to facilitate organizations to get
through the second half. “For spirituality reorients an organization to its higher
purpose, and when the higher purpose is no longer being served, a spirituality
grounded organization will either restructure itself to serve a higher purpose or, if
necessary, allow itself to die, so that new forms can emerge that will serve the higher
purpose,” (Hawkins, 1991; Benefiel, 2005, p. 735). The leaders of these spiritual
organizations must continuously strive to lead through a vision that is bold and
courageous; still they have to stay flexible due to the changing environment. This
calls for detachment from what is comfortable and familiar (second part of the
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