Spiritual leadership and army transformation: Theory, measurement, and establishing a baseline

Abstract

Spiritual leadership theory (SLT) is a causal leadership theory for organizational transformation designed to create an intrinsically motivated, learning organization. Spiritual leadership comprises the values, attitudes, and behaviors required to intrinsically motivate one's self and others in order to have a sense of spiritual survival through calling and membership—i.e., they experience meaning in their lives, have a sense of making a difference, and feel understood and appreciated. The effect of spiritual leadership in establishing this sense of leader and follower spiritual survival is to create value congruence across the strategic, empowered team, and individual levels to, ultimately, foster higher levels of organizational commitment, productivity, and employee well-being. The primary purpose of this research is to test the SLT causal model that hypothesizes positive relationships among the qualities of spiritual leadership, spiritual survival, and organizational productivity and commitment using longitudinal data from a newly formed Apache Longbow helicopter attack squadron at Ft. Hood, Texas. The results provide strong initial support for SLT and its measures. A methodology was developed for establishing a baseline for future organizational development interventions as well as an action agenda for future research on spiritual leadership in general and Army training and development in particular. We conclude that spiritual leadership theory offers promise as a springboard for a new paradigm for leadership theory, research, and practice given that it (1) incorporates and extends transformational and charismatic theories as well as ethics- and values-based theories (e.g., authentic and servant leadership) and (2) avoids the pitfalls of measurement model misspecification.