Shedding light on a muddled field : a Christian ethical appraisal of transforming and transformational leadership
Meier, Elke Annette
Principles of “transforming leadership” have been widely promoted
since the publication of James McGregor Burns’ book Leadership,
especially among Christian leaders. The purpose of this study is to
examine the ethical foundations of his model and Bernard Bass’“transformational leadership”. Imprecise use of the terms“transforming”, “charismatic”, and “transformational” leads to an
adoption of methods without adequate understanding of the
underlying value system. This literature review compares and
evaluates the source texts within a framework of world view,
intention, character and menschenbild, as well as the Christian
ethical mandates of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Valuing the imago Dei in
others has significant implications for a leader-follower
relationship. Bonhoeffer’s mandates will help leaders reflect their
position within their organisations and the wider society. Though
the incentive for this research was leadership within the context of
the Wycliffe Global Alliance, its findings will be relevant to Christian
leadership in general, especially in intercultural contexts.
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