Date of Graduation

5-2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Management

Advisor/Mentor

Daniel C. Ganster

Committee Member

Anne M. O'Leary-Kelly

Second Committee Member

Alan E. Ellstrand

Keywords

Philosophy, religion and theology, Social sciences, Leadership, Scale development, Spirit, Spiritual leadership

Abstract

Although the past decade has shown a growing interest in workplace spirituality in the leadership and organizational literature, research in the area of spiritual leadership, is still in its infancy. The goal of this study was to delineate the construct of spiritual leadership and to provide theoretical guidelines for future research. A conceptual definition of spiritual leadership is offered in addition to a list of behaviors relevant to a spiritual leader. This study was the first of its kind to take into account the knowledge and opinions of both academic and practitioner subject matter experts. Furthermore, with regard to developing a measure of spiritual leadership, this research was the first among its peers to attempt scale development using an empirically-based method: defining the focus, generating items, rating the items, selecting the items, etc. This study employed a mixed method form of research and included samples from both academic and practitioners at every step; the qualitative results from phase one participants influenced the quantitative data collected from phase two participants. It is hoped that such an inductive approach will aid in the development of the field as well as satisfy those not associated with or who have reservations as to the legitimacy of the spirituality literature.

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