Descripción de algunos elementos que contiene el modelo

Sangeeta Parameshwar (2005:691) developed a spiritual leadership model that helps leaders to manage unexpected situations successfully, using ego-transcendence. The model is based on Louis Fry’s spiritual leadership theory and emerged after Parameshwar had conducted a phenomenological study that investigated significant life events in the lives of renowned leaders (Klenke, 2007:86). Parameshwar’s study revealed how operating in accordance with spiritual principles contributes to the process of ego-transcendence that enables leaders to transform challenges into opportunities.

According to Parameshwar (2005:696–706), spiritual leaders reflect eight ego-transcendental processes. The principle of self-transcendence, which is a characteristic of spiritual leadership, is a core component of Parameshwar’s spiritual leadership model. The first ego-transcendental process pertains to demonstrating perspective agility and implies recognising other people’s plight and showing compassion. The second ego-transcendental process involves uncovering thick nexuses among institutional structures and this entails recognising discrimination resulting from institutional influences. The third ego-transcendental process entails leaders accessing guidance from a higher purpose in times of crisis. The fourth process involves choosing a higher purpose over societal norms. This means making decisions and choices based on one’s own higher purpose and moral principles instead of as a result of societal norms and pressures. The fifth process involves bridging challenges with a higher purpose and taking action. This process refers to the leader interpreting

challenges, using a higher purpose, and taking responsibility. The sixth process entails defusing ego-threats and deepening the commitment to a higher purpose, thus overcoming one’s ego by focusing more on one’s commitment to a higher purpose. The seventh process entails inspiring others through ego-transcendence. This means that the leader initiates ego-transcendental actions even if conditions are not ideal, and through this others are influenced to act in ego-transcendental ways. The eighth process refers to drawing inspiration from the transcendence of others by being inspired and sustained by these ego-transcendence experiences.

The strength of Parameshwar’s model is that it examines the dimension of ego-transcendence comprehensively by linking it to the principles of spirituality.

However, although Parameshwar alludes to the organisational benefits of the model, it has not been tested in an organisational context.

4.3 CRITERIA TO ANALYSE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

MODELS

Leadership theories are generally open to criticism if they tend to be either too theoretical or too esoteric. However, a theory of spiritual leadership conceptualised as a model of spiritual leadership may contribute to overcoming these criticisms, as well as ensuring that the theory may be applied more easily.

The ISL model has been developed on the basis of a selection of the most appropriate principles and characteristics of the various spiritual leadership models. However, it was deemed necessary to establish certain criteria first, in order to isolate best practice elements from the array of spiritual leadership models available. This section will discuss the five criteria that will be applied in critically reviewing the spiritual leadership models.

According to Green and McCann (2011), benchmarking leadership is extremely difficult because the only means of realising the required objectives is through

the actions of the leader. These authors maintain that benchmarking leadership involves determining the traits, behaviours and actions that make a leader successful. In an attempt to identify distinct attributes that distinguish servant leadership from any other leadership theory, Russell and Stone (2002:146) clustered common leadership attributes into broad categories in order to compile a list of comprehensive functional attributes. This process may be applied to identifying the attributes, behaviours and actions typical of the spiritual leadership models. However, these attributes, behaviours and actions could belong to any leadership model and should, thus, be based on the characteristics of spiritual leadership. Hence, the first criterion pertains to the spiritual leadership model and the way in which the model reflects the key characteristics of spiritual leadership as aligned to the principles of spirituality. These characteristics include commitment to self-transcendence, transforming from the inside out, authenticity, operating from a set of core positive values and principles, being directed by a higher purpose, understanding the leader’s interconnectedness and using spiritual intelligence as well as the other personal intelligences as a source of guidance.

The second criterion for an effective spiritual leadership model involves determining the relevance of the model to the South African public service. It is therefore essential that the spiritual leadership model is sufficiently versatile so that it may be adapted to different contexts and, specifically, to the South African public service.

The third criterion pertains to the spiritual leadership model making a positive, tangible difference to organisational performance in cases where it is possible to measure the bottom line benefits. This criterion will be used to conduct a critical comparison of the spiritual leadership models in order to determine the extent to which they are able to assist the South African public service in meeting its departmental targets, and systemically addressing issues related to corruption, unethical behaviour and poor performance. Hayward (2011:31) posits that the

effective evaluation of leadership programmes depends on clearly defined evaluation criteria being established up front. The same principle should be applied when evaluating models, since a model should also possess clearly established, bottom line benefits that can be measured.

The fourth criterion refers to the purpose of the model as it relates to the development of spiritual leaders in terms of their ability to improve organisational performance. This criterion is important because it ensures that only models that fulfil this purpose are selected to assist in the development of an ISL model that can improve organisational performance in the South African public service.

The fifth criterion pertains to leadership style. The leadership style of the spiritual leadership models should resonate with the principles of spiritual leadership.

Consequently, leadership style must be assessed because it informs behaviour and contributes to organisational efficiency (Levine, 2000).

4.4 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

MODELS

This section compares the spiritual leadership models to the criteria discussed above. The comparative analysis focuses on areas of the models that are common and also those that are different. The comparative analysis also highlights overall areas of uniqueness and deficiency.