The workplace of the organised church: Theories of leadership and the Christian leader

Stewart, Alice C.

doi:10.1080/14755610802535645

Cited by 6 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Leaving aside books written about leadership in churches, often specific to a particular denomination (e.g. McIntosh, 2009;Rusaw and Swanson, 2004;Stetzer and Dodson, 2007), there is a limited body of scholarly work that has looked at leadership in churches from an organization studies perspective (Stewart, 2008). Churches provide a fruitful site for leadership studies for two reasons.…”

Section: Lodj 347mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike for profit organizations and similar to other nonprofit organizations, the resources (e.g. money, time, people) available to a church leader are volunteered and the relationship between church leaders and congregational members is interdependent (Green, 2001;Stewart, 2008). Members can withhold their financial and time contributions and in some cases even impose a threat of termination (Stewart, 2008).…”

Section: Lodj 347mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Barnes, 1978;Nelson, 1993;Poloma, 1997;Stewart, 2008), transformational (e.g. Druskat, 1994), transactional (e.g.…”

Section: Leadership In Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Green, 2001;Stewart, 2008), collaborative (e.g. Druskat, 1994;Gilmour, 1997;Stewart, 2008), spiritual (e.g. Whittington et al, 2005) and strategic (e.g.…”

Section: Leadership In Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Graham (1991) goes further to argue that charismatic leadership is the theoretical underpinning of both servant and transformational leadership in that both are moral and inspirational. Charisma is used in the popular sense to refer to the personal qualities of an individual to persuasively influence behavior and emotions of followers (Barnes, 1978;Stewart, 2008). Barnes (1978) examines 15 religious founders recognized as charismatic leaders across a diverse range of religions, however, in the religious context charismatic leadership is most often linked to more evangelical Churches (e.g.…”

Section: Leadership In Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An exploratory study of strategic leadership in churches

Grandy

2013

Leadership &Amp; Organization Development Journal

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to extend the notion of strategic leadership, that which has been primarily applied to for profit organizations, to nonprofits, specifically the church setting. Design/methodology/approach -The research employs a case study methodology and draws primarily upon qualitative data collected from interviews and observation. Findings -The findings reveal that over the past several years, the organization and its members have undergone a number of incremental and more radical changes. Much of this change has been attributed to the vision and leadership style of the current leader. Four key themes illuminate the processes and content of change under this strategic leader, including unsettlingly the status quo, model of shared leadership, shared vision and culture of community and learning.Research limitations/implications -The findings are based upon one case study site and this limits the generalizability of the research. In addition, exposure to the organization was limited to short periods of time on-site and the sample size was relatively small. Practical implications -Achieving success in nonprofits requires leaders to have an intimate understanding of the complex nature of stakeholder relations and measuring success needs to be multi-dimensional in nature and linked directly to the mission and context of the organization, rather than based solely on generic measures. Originality/value -There is limited research to date that examines the applicability of leadership theories that have been traditionally applied to for profit and public sector organizations to nonprofits. The research extends the notion of strategic leadership from the for profit setting to nonprofit organizations generally, and more specifically to the church setting.

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Section: Lodj 347mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lodj 347mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Barnes, 1978;Nelson, 1993;Poloma, 1997;Stewart, 2008), transformational (e.g. Druskat, 1994), transactional (e.g.…”

Section: Leadership In Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Green, 2001;Stewart, 2008), collaborative (e.g. Druskat, 1994;Gilmour, 1997;Stewart, 2008), spiritual (e.g. Whittington et al, 2005) and strategic (e.g.…”

Section: Leadership In Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Leadership In Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An exploratory study of strategic leadership in churches

Grandy

2013

Leadership &Amp; Organization Development Journal

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Projectification of a global organization – case study of the Roman Catholic Church

Jałocha

Góral

Bogacz-Wojtanowska

2019

IJMPB

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand projectification processes of the global organization, based on the example of the Catholic Church’s activities. The Catholic Church is the oldest and the largest international organisation to be assessed also from the longue durée perspective. The Church as both a large and supranational organisation and a religious community has carried out a lot of social tasks. A part of its activity relating to the Church’s basic mission is carried out in these days in the form of various projects. In this paper, the authors demonstrate that seemingly unchanging structure, such as the Catholic Church, based on a determined hierarchy, strict principles and rules of conduct, is affected by the projectification processes. Design/methodology/approach The authors chose the method of a single case study. To analyse the projectification processes in the Church, the authors focussed on flagship mega-events of WYD programme, from which the following were selected: Rome (1985), Manila (1995), Sydney (2008), Rio de Janeiro (2013) and Krakow (2016). Findings The study demonstrates that organisational projectification processes can have a real impact on the strategic changes in the global organisation. Under the influence of significant projects, organisations can change internally and also redefine their way of interacting with the stakeholders. Projectification at the same time is a change and leads to it. The research also shows that projectification of a global organisation can intensify internal learning processes. On the one hand, “projectification agents” transfer project practices to various regions of the world, and, on the other, draw on local practices. Therefore, the projectification process is not simply transplanting the project “virus” into new places, but also a process of change and adaptation to the stimuli flowing from the environment. Originality/value The particularities, the distinctiveness of the projects of the Catholic Church can be an inspiration for others realizing projects. The experience of the Catholic Church in the implementation of WYD can be valuable for organisations implementing other projects that require involvement and activation of many, diverse stakeholders, for example, charitable projects or the so-called community engagement projects implemented by large international organisations, such as the World Bank, UNICEF, the UN, the Red Cross or humanitarian projects organised by NGOs in different parts of the world.

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Strategic leadership, change and growth in not-for-profit, membership-based, value-driven organisations

Andrews

2023

JOCM

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PurposeThis research paper takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from empirical data, to explore the relationship between organisational change management and strategic leadership to promote growth in value-driven, membership-based organisations through a qualitative multi-case-based analysis and to provide a discussion on the philosophies and practices of leadership teams which underpin successful organisational change within such not-for-profit organisations.Design/methodology/approachEach participating organisation had 700+ members, had previously experienced prolonged periods of auditable membership growth and employed distinctly different organisational models to facilitate growth. A qualitative multi-case study approach was adopted informed by 32 interviews with eight leadership teams. A thematic analysis provided a comparative review of responses.FindingsAll case study organisations emphasised the significance of strategic leadership teams and clearly communicated vision and flexible organisational structures as central to their strategic planning and subsequent growth. This builds on previous research which has explored organisational change in not-for-profit organisations and strategic leadership in not-for-profit organisations, which explores the strong linkages between the roles and functions of strategic leadership, organisational structures designed with the adaptive capacity to manage continuous and convergent change and their impact on sustained growth. Such linkages are more specifically supported by extended tenure of office for those in senior leadership roles, clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, the adoption of an outward growth-oriented focus and adaptable structures that encourage wider participation in leadership and management functions for the fulfilment of the organisation's mission. Most significantly, these organisations plan with change and growth in mind.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research have transferable value to other not-for-profit, membership-based, value-driven organisations as well as other faith-based organisations, which will help to provide future linkages between leadership structures, decision-making and organisational design and its impact on the not-for-profit organisations' capacity for sustained growth.Originality/valueThis research challenges previous conceptions on UK church growth trends and observes that all the case organisations presented different organisational structures which were intentionally designed, context specific and developed by leadership teams with sustained growth in mind. Results from psychometric testing of participants confirmed that senior leaders of large value-driven organisations that have demonstrated a capacity for sustained growth are consistently likely to exhibit leadership characteristics which demonstrate a balanced capacity for personal humility and a committed resolve or professional will, which is also reflected in a pragmatic-type leadership style, building on previous psychometric testing research in this context.

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The workplace of the organised church: Theories of leadership and the Christian leader

Cited by 6 publications

References 9 publications

An exploratory study of strategic leadership in churches

An exploratory study of strategic leadership in churches

Projectification of a global organization – case study of the Roman Catholic Church

Strategic leadership, change and growth in not-for-profit, membership-based, value-driven organisations

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