The paper focuses on the development of management skills for effective church management in pastoral preparation programs in Zimbabwe, and underscores the need for the use of secular principles and practices in church management. It identifies the management challenges faced by the pastors, explores the extent to which management skills are being developed in pastoral preparation programs, and looks into alternative management practices which could be adopted into the Church for ministry effectiveness. The research instruments used were self-administered questionnaires distributed to a sample of fifty-three Evangelical and Pentecostal Pastors in Harare whose churches are registered with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and/or the Zimbabwe Council of Evangelical Pentecostal Churches (ZCEPC); and six face-to-face interviews held with three seminary deans and three senior pastors for churches which do in-house training. The study found that pastors are currently facing management challenges because the course content of the pastoral preparation programs is more skewed towards the spiritual aspects of ministry. Recommendations were thus made to the effect that pastoral preparation programs should consider collaborating with business schools and business persons to assist in the amendment of their course content to ensure that proper management skills are developed in the pastors by the introduction of management studies alongside theological studies. Some of the suggested management aspects are strategic planning and implementation, financial management and internal control systems, and organizational development and design. As such, the researcher attempts theoretical generalization by proposing that the theory applied in business skills of management, can be generalized in church circumstances.
This study evaluated the criticality of change leadership to business survival in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, focusing on Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)-listed companies in the COVID-19-affected trading period of March to December 2020. As 21st-century VUCA environments are putting business survival under growing pressure, the study sought to verify how much change leadership could mitigate VUCA's adverse impacts on viability. SPSS v.20 bivariate analysis was used to test the study's alternative hypothesis and establish a correlation between the change leadership aspects of vision, understanding, clarity, and agility and business survival in a VUCA environment. Theoretical and empirical literature noted broad consensus on leadership's importance for organizational change initiative success, especially in turbulent environments. A mixedmethods approach was used as the study was qualitative and quantitative. The study found that change leadership practice was common in ZSE companies during the studied COVID-19 period and most change and change leadership interventions were very feasible. It also found that the interventions were largely inevitable and significantly effective and that change leadership is crucial to business survival in a VUCA environment. Further, other factors besides change leadership were found significant for ZSE firms' survival in the era. It was suggested that corporate sector resilience initiatives be established in order to empower local businesses to survive growing VUCA pressures, which could help to boost potential local and foreign corporate investor confidence. Further, creating inclusive business change leadership educational awareness forums and/or institutions can help to capacitate local businesses to survive inevitable future VUCA episodes.
This study seeks to add to the knowledge gap on leadership styles in organizations under harsh economic environments by assessing the leadership styles of senior managers and chief executive officers in the private and public sectors and to correlate the organizational performance to the styles. A survey research design using self-administered questionnaires was used in this study. Questionnaires (150) were sent out to the major companies throughout Zimbabwe targeting senior managers and chief executive officers. Convenient sampling and snowball sampling were used to identify the organizations used in the study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 and MINITAB statistical package were used for analyzing data. Transactional leadership style was the dominant style in both the private and public sectors in the time of economic uncertainty. Contrary to widely held views, the private sector managers excelled on transactional leadership style compared to their counter parts in the public sector. The results suggest that during hard times or in economic crisis, leadership styles may change to suit the environment. In particular, transactional leadership style becomes a dominant style if organizations are to succeed in the maintenance of high standards of performance and retention of skills. In times of crisis, both transformational and transactional leadership styles are important for the survival of organizations. Although leadership styles have been studied in different organizations, information on studies in the public sector has lagged behind. The study described in the study is the first to consider leadership styles in the two sectors under harsh economic conditions (highest recorded inflation). As such, this study gives insight to managers and chief executive officers on how to keep performance high.
The aim of the paper is to focus on leadership styles exercised by Pentecostal leaders in Zimbabwe. The target population was divided into three main groups; the founders, the leaders and the members of Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe. Depth interviews and questionnaires were used on six founders, three hundred and fifty leaders and nine hundred members. The leadership style of the founders was found to be transformational while that of the leaders was democratic. The dominant leadership style as reported by members was supportive. The study extends/applies the study of leadership styles from business organisations to church organisations. The study enabled the creation of leadership models that can be applied to both church and business organisations for growth. An in-depth study on the leadership styles practiced by Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe clarifies on the reasons of growth experienced in the churches.
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