The “good” and the “bad” of spiritual leadership

Abstract

This paper develops and presents a spiritual contingency model of spiritual leadership that includes spiritual leadership characteristics such as follower’s feelings of interconnectedness, religious or existential faith, and leader charisma along with such boundary conditions and contingencies (moderators) as narcissism, pro-social motivation to lead, follower perceptions of leader integrity (ethics), and perceived organizational support. In exploring these contingency factors, the paper also examines the potential “dark side” of spiritual leadership and concludes with implications for future research and managerial practice as suggested by the model.

Keywords:

• spiritual leadership
• workplace spirituality
• contingency model