Psychological types and self-assessed leadership skills of clergy in the Church of England

Abstract

The study uses data from an online survey of parish churches carried out in 2013 for the Church of England. It obtained a sample of 1480 clergy, mainly stipendiary. As expected from previous studies, there were relatively high frequencies of psychological types marked by introversion, intuition, feeling, and judging. Gender differences were small. Clergy also provided self-assessments of their abilities in a number of areas related to parish ministry. Personality has substantial effects on these leadership strengths, although the types that have positive associations are often not those most commonly found among Anglican clergy. A single scale can be created for most of the qualities (including managing, motivating, innovating, etc.), but empathising and connecting do not belong on the same dimension. If clergy are to be deployed effectively, it may be desirable to distinguish between positions calling for good general leaders and those where the emphasis is on pastoral work.