Shedding light on a muddled field : a Christian ethical appraisal of transforming and transformational leadership
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Principles of “transforming leadership” have been widely promoted \nsince the publication of James McGregor Burns’ book Leadership, \nespecially among Christian leaders. The purpose of this study is to \nexamine the ethical foundations of his model and Bernard Bass’ \n“transformational leadership”. Imprecise use of the terms \n“transforming”, “charismatic”, and “transformational” leads to an \nadoption of methods without adequate understanding of the \nunderlying value system. This literature review compares and \nevaluates the source texts within a framework of world view, \nintention, character and menschenbild, as well as the Christian \nethical mandates of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Valuing the imago Dei in \nothers has significant implications for a leader-follower \nrelationship. Bonhoeffer’s mandates will help leaders reflect their \nposition within their organisations and the wider society. Though \nthe incentive for this research was leadership within the context of \nthe Wycliffe Global Alliance, its findings will be relevant to Christian \nleadership in general, especially in intercultural contexts.
Author: Elke Annette Meier
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W187356975