The Organizational Spiritual Leadership Model

Personal vs. Organizational Spiritual Leadership

An important distinction we make in spiritual leadership is between leading (personal
spiritual leadership) and leadership (organizational spiritual leadership). Leading is concerned
with leader development of personal spiritual leadership (PSL) where the emphasis is
typically on individual knowledge, and skills and abilities associated with a formal leadership
role, as well as the directional influence of leaders on followers.

Leadership is concerned with organizational spiritual leadership development (OSL) where

the focus is on the collective social influence process that engages everyone and enables
groups of people to work together in meaningful ways. Organizational Spiritual Leadership
emphasizes a less leader-centric approach, focusing on engaging all group members to meet
spiritual needs and enhance organizational commitment and performance. In this way, each
person exercising positive influence enhancing the group’s calling, membership, and
performance is considered a leader.  Spiritual leadership is thus both a cause and effect as
group members interact and various formal and informal leaders in the group emerge.

The Components of the Spiritual Leadership Model

Spiritual leadership, with inner life as its source, emerges from the interaction of, hope/faith,
vision, and altruistic love.  The qualities of Spiritual Leadership are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: The Qualities of Spiritual Leadership

Vision

 Broad Appeal to Key Stakeholders

 Defines the Destination and  Journey
 Reflects High Ideals
 Encourages Hope/Faith
 Establishes Standard of Excellence
Altruistic Love

 Trust/Loyalty
 Forgiveness/Acceptance/ Gratitude
 Integrity
 Honesty
 Courage
 Humility
 Kindness
 Compassion
 Patience/Meekness/Endurance
 Excellence
 Fun

Hope/Faith

 Endurance
 Perseverance
 Do What it Takes
 Stretch Goals
 Expectation of reward/victory
 Excellence

Inner Life
An inner life or spiritual practice is important in the process of enabling personal spiritual
leadership and facilitating work that is meaningful and takes place in the context of a
community. Many companies are beginning to recognize the importance of supporting an
employees’ inner life. Cordon Bleu-Tomasso Corporation has established a room for inner
silence. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd’s (ANZ) have developed training
programs focusing on “High Performance” mind techniques and “quiet rooms” for individual
spiritual practice. Missouri’s Ascension Health is committed to a workplace that deepens
personal spirituality through the adoption of an ethical discernment process that fosters self-
reflection. These organizations and many others recognize that employees have spiritual
needs (i.e., an inner life) just as they have physical, mental, and emotional needs, and none of
these needs are left at the door when they arrive at work.

Spiritual Leadership
Hope/Faith. Hope is a desire with expectation of fulfillment. Faith adds certainty to hope. 
Taken together, Hope/Faith is a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. It is
based on values, attitudes, and behaviors that demonstrate absolute certainty and trust that
what is desired and expected will come to pass. Individuals with Hope/Faith have a vision of
where they are going, and how to get there. They are willing to face opposition and endure
hardships and suffering in order to achieve their goals.  Hope/Faith is also the source for the
conviction that the vision, either personal or organizational, will be fulfilled.  In action
Hope/Faith is like a race that has two essential components–the victory (vision) and the joy
preparing for the race itself.  Both components are necessary and essential elements of
Hope/Faith to generate the necessary effort to pursue the vision.

Vision. Vision refers to a picture of the future with some implicit or explicit commentary on
why people should strive to create that future. Tomasso Corporation’s vision of “Joyful and
Passionate People Serving Enthusiastic Customers is an example. In motivating change,
vision serves three important functions by clarifying the general direction of change,
simplifying hundreds or thousands of more detailed decisions, and helping to quickly and
efficiently coordinate the actions of group members. Moreover, a compelling vision energizes
workers, gives meaning to work, and garners commitment, and establishes a standard of
excellence. In mobilizing people a vision must have broad appeal, define the organizations
destination and journey, reflect high ideals, and encourage hope and faith.

Altruistic Love. For spiritual leadership, altruistic love is defined as a sense of wholeness,
harmony, and well-being produced through care, concern, and appreciation for both self and
others. There are great emotional and psychological benefits from separating love, or care
and concern for others, from need, which is the essence of giving and receiving
unconditionally. Both medicine and the field of positive psychology have begun to study and
confirm that love has the power to overcome the negative influence of destructive emotions
such as resentment, anger, worry, and fear. Altruistic love defines the set of key values,
assumptions, understandings and ways of thinking considered to be morally right that are
shared by group members and taught to new members (See Table 1). Spiritual leaders
embody and abide in these values through their everyday attitudes and behavior. (Keep
reading for more on the values of altruistic love.)

Spiritual Well-Being
Calling. Calling refers to the experience of transcendence or how one makes a difference
through service to others and, in doing so, finds meaning and purpose in life. Many people
seek not only competence and mastery to realize their full potential through their work but
also a sense that work has some social meaning or value. The term calling has long been used
as one of the defining characteristics of a professional. Professionals in general have expertise
in a specialized body of knowledge, ethics centered on selfless service to clients/customers,
an obligation to maintain quality standards within the profession, a commitment or calling to
their vocational field, a dedication to their work, and a strong commitment to their careers.
They believe their chosen profession is valuable, even essential to society, and they are proud
to be a member of it. The challenge for organizational leaders, which is addressed through the
spiritual leadership model, is how to develop this same sense of calling in its workers through
task involvement and goal identification.

Membership. Membership encompasses a sense of belonging and community; The cultural

and social structures we are immersed in and through which we seek, what William James,
the founder of modern psychology called man’s most fundamental need – to be understood
and appreciated. Having a sense of being understood and appreciated is largely a matter of
interrelationships and connection through social interaction and thus membership. At work,
people value their affiliations and being interconnected to feel part of a larger community. As
we devote ourselves to social groups, membership extends the meaning of our personality by
enmeshing it in a network of social connections that goes out as far as the group has influence
and power, and backwards and forwards in relations to its history. Ultimately, we grow
greater, longer lived, more meaningful in proportion as we identify ourselves with the larger
social life that surrounds us.

Definition of equity

Individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with those of others and then respond to
eliminate any perceived inequities. Referent Comparisons:

Inputs and outcomes

Inputs

Inputs are defined as each participant’s contributions to the relational exchange and are
viewed as entitling him/her to rewards or costs. The inputs that a participant contributes to a
relationship can be either assets – entitling him/her to rewards – or liabilities - entitling
him/her to costs. The entitlement to rewards or costs ascribed to each input vary depending
on the relational setting. In industrial settings, assets such as capital and manual labor are
seen as "relevant inputs" – inputs that legitimately entitle the contributor to rewards. In social
settings, assets such as physical beauty and kindness are generally seen as assets entitling the
possessor to social rewards. Individual traits such as boorishness and cruelty are seen as
liabilities entitling the possessor to costs (Walster, Traupmann&Walster, 1978). Inputs
typically include any of the following:

 Time
 Education
 Εxperience
 Effort
 Loyalty
 Hard Work
 Commitment
 Ability
 Adaptability
 Flexibility
 Tolerance
 Determination
 Enthusiasm
 Personal sacrifice
 Trust in supervisors
 Support from co-workers and colleagues
 Skill

Outcomes

Outputs are defined as the positive and negative consequences that an individual perceives a
participant has incurred as a consequence of his/her relationship with another. When the ratio
of inputs to outputs is close, then the employee should have much satisfaction with their job.
Outputs can be both tangible and intangible.[3] Typical outputs include any of the following:

 Job security
  Salary
 Employee benefit
 Expenses
 Recognition
 Reputation
 Responsibility
 Sense of achievement
 Praise
 Thanks
 Stimuli

Propositions

Equity theory consists of four propositions:

self-inside

Individuals seek to maximize their outcomes (where outcomes are defined as rewards minus
costs).[4]

self-outside

Groups can maximize collective rewards by developing accepted systems for equitably
apportioning rewards and costs among members. Systems of equity will evolve within
groups, and members will attempt to induce other members to accept and adhere to these
systems. The only way groups can induce members to equitably behave is by making it more
profitable to behave equitably than inequitably. Thus, groups will generally reward members
who treat others equitably and generally punish (increase the cost for) members who treat
others inequitably.

others-inside

When individuals find themselves participating in inequitable relationships, they become

distressed. The more inequitable the relationship, the more distress individuals feel.
According to equity theory, both the person who gets "too much" and the person who gets
"too little" feel distressed. The person who gets too much may feel guilt or shame. The
person who gets too little may feel angry or humiliated.

other-outside

Individuals who perceive that they are in an inequitable relationship attempt to eliminate
their distress by restoring equity. The greater the inequity, the more distress people feel and
the more they try to restore equity. (Walster, Traupmann and Walster, 1978)

In business
Equity theory has been widely applied to business settings by industrial psychologists to
describe the relationship between an employee's motivation and his or her perception of
equitable or inequitable treatment. In a business setting, the relevant dyadic relationship is
that between employee and employer. As in marriage and other contractual dyadic
relationships, equity theory assumes that employees seek to maintain an equitable ratio
between the inputs they bring to the relationship and the outcomes they receive from it
(Adams, 1965). Equity theory in business, however, introduces the concept of social
comparison, whereby employees evaluate their own input/output ratios based on their
comparison with the input/outcome ratios of other employees (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978).
Inputs in this context include the employee’s time, expertise, qualifications, experience,
intangible personal qualities such as drive and ambition, and interpersonal skills. Outcomes
include monetary compensation, perquisites ("perks"), benefits, and flexible work
arrangements. Employees who perceive inequity will seek to reduce it, either by distorting
inputs and/or outcomes in their own minds ("cognitive distortion"), directly altering inputs
and/or outcomes, or leaving the organization (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978). These perceptions
of inequity are perceptions of organizational justice, or more specifically, injustice.
Subsequently, the theory has wide-reaching implications for employee morale, efficiency,
productivity, and turnover.

Assumptions of equity theory applied to business

The three primary assumptions applied to most business applications of equity theory can be
summarized as follows:

1. Employees expect a fair return for what they contribute to their jobs, a concept referred to
as the "equity norm".
2. Employees determine what their equitable return should be after comparing their inputs
and outcomes with those of their coworkers. This concept is referred to as "social
comparison".
3. Employees who perceive themselves as being in an inequitable situation will seek to reduce
the inequity either by distorting inputs and/or outcomes in their own minds ("cognitive
distortion"), by directly altering inputs and/or outputs, or by leaving the organization.
(Carrell and Dittrich, 1978)

Implications for managers

Equity theory has several implications for business managers:

 People measure the totals of their inputs and outcomes. This means a working mother may
accept lower monetary compensation in return for more flexible working hours.
 Different employees ascribe personal values to inputs and outcomes. Thus, two employees
of equal experience and qualification performing the same work for the same pay may have
quite different perceptions of the fairness of the deal.
 Employees are able to adjust for purchasing power and local market conditions. Thus a
teacher from Alberta may accept lower compensation than his colleague in Toronto if his
cost of living is different, while a teacher in a remote African village may accept a totally
different pay structure.
 Although it may be acceptable for more senior staff to receive higher compensation, there
are limits to the balance of the scales of equity and employees can find excessive executive
pay demotivating.
 Staff perceptions of inputs and outcomes of themselves and others may be incorrect, and
perceptions need to be managed effectively.
  An employee who believes he is overcompensated may increase his effort. However he may
also adjust the values that he ascribes to his own personal inputs. It may be that he or she
internalizes a sense of superiority and actually decrease his efforts.

Criticisms and related theories

Criticism has been directed toward both the assumptions and practical application of equity
theory. Scholars have questioned the simplicity of the model, arguing that a number of
demographic and psychological variables affect people's perceptions of fairness and
interactions with others. Furthermore, much of the research supporting the basic propositions
of equity theory has been conducted in laboratory settings, and thus has questionable
applicability to real-world situations (Huseman, Hatfield & Miles, 1987). Critics have also
argued that people might perceive equity/inequity not only in terms of the specific inputs and
outcomes of a relationship, but also in terms of the overarching system that determines those
inputs and outputs. Thus, in a business setting, one might feel that his or her compensation is
equitable to other employees', but one might view the entire compensation system as unfair
(Carrell and Dittrich, 1978).

Researchers have offered numerous magnifying and competing perspectives:

Equity sensitivity construct

The Equity Sensitivity Construct proposes that individuals have different preferences for
equity and thus react in different ways to perceived equity and inequity. Preferences can be
expressed on a continuum from preferences for extreme under-benefit to preferences for
extreme over-benefit. Three archetypal classes are as follows:

 Benevolent individuals, those who prefer their own input/outcome ratios to be less than
those of their relational partner. In other words, the benevolent prefers to be under-
benefited.
 Equity Sensitives, those who prefer their own input/outcome ratios to be equal to those of
their relational partner.
 Entitled individuals, those who prefer their own input/outcome ratios to exceed those of
their relational
 Triangular Theory of Love
 The triangular theory of love holds that love can be understood in terms of three
components that together can be viewed as forming the vertices of a triangle.  The
triangle is used as a metaphor, rather than as a strict geometric model.  These three
components are intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Each component
manifests a different aspect of love. 
             Intimacy.   Intimacy refers to feelings of closeness, connectedness, and
bondedness in loving relationships.  It thus includes within its purview those feelings
that give rise, essentially, to the experience of warmth in a loving relationship. 
             Passion.  Passion refers to the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction,
sexual consummation, and related phenomena in loving relationships.  The passion
component includes within its purview those sources of motivational and other forms
of arousal that lead to the experience of passion in a loving relationship. 
             Decision/commitment.  Decision/commitment refers, in the short-term, to the
decision that one loves a certain other, and in the long-term, to one's commitment to
maintain that love.  These two aspects of the decision/commitment component do not
 necessarily go together, in that one can decide to love someone without being
committed to the love in the long-term, or one can be committed to a relationship
without acknowledging that one loves the other person in the relationship. 

 The Love Triangle
             The three components of love interact with each other:  For example, greater
intimacy may lead to greater passion or commitment, just as greater commitment may
lead to greater intimacy, or with lesser likelihood, greater passion.  In general, then,
the components are separable, but interactive with each other.  Although all three
components are important parts of loving relationships, their importance may differ
from one relationship to another, or over time within a given relationship.  Indeed,
different kinds of love can be generated by limiting cases of different combinations of
the components.
             The three components of love generate eight possible kinds of love when
considered in combination. It is important to realize that these kinds of love are, in
fact, limiting cases:  No relationship is likely to be a pure case of any of them. 
             Nonlove refers simply to the absence of all three components of love.  Liking
results when one experiences only the intimacy component of love in the absence of
the passion and decision/commitment components.  Infatuated love results from the
experiencing of the passion component in the absence of the other components of
love.  Empty love emanates from the decision that one loves another and is committed
to that love in the absence of both the intimacy and passion components of love. 
Romantic love derives from a combination of the intimacy and passion components. 
Companionate love derives from a combination of the intimacy and
decision/commitment components of love.  Fatuous love results from the combination
of the passion and decision/commitment components in the absence of the intimacy
component.  Consummate, or complete love, results from the full combination of all
three components. 
             The geometry of the "love triangle" depends upon two factors:  amount of love
and balance of love.  Differences in amounts of love are represented by differing areas
of the love triangle:  The greater the amount of love, the greater the area of the
triangle.  Differences in balances of the three kinds of love are represented by
differing shapes of triangles.  For example, balanced love (roughly equal amounts of
each component) is represented by an equilateral triangle.  
             Love does not involve only a single triangle.  Rather, it involves a great
number of triangles, only some of which are of major theoretical and practical
interest.  For example, it is possible to contrast real versus ideal triangles.  One has
not only a triangle representing his or her love for the other, but also a triangle
representing an ideal other for that relationship. Finally, it is important to distinguish
between triangles of feelings and triangles of action.
  
 Theory of Love as a Story
 Love triangles emanate from stories. Almost all of us are exposed to large numbers of
diverse stories that convey different conceptions of how love can be understood. 
Some of these stories may be explicitly intended as love stories; others may have love
stories embedded in the context of larger stories.  Either way, we are provided with
varied opportunities to observe multiple conceptions of what love can be.  These
stories may be observed by watching people in relationships, by watching media, or
by reading fiction.  It seems plausible, that as a result of our exposure to such stories,
we form over time our own stories of what love is or should be.
 Various potential partners fit our stories to greater or lesser degrees, and we are more
likely to succeed in close relationships with people whose stories more rather than
less closely match our own.  Although fundamentally, the stories we create are our
own, they draw on our experience of living in the world--on fairy stories we may have
heard when we were young, from the models of love relationships we observe around
us in parents and relatives, from television and movies, from conversations with other
people about their relationships, and so forth. 
 Although the number of possible stories is probably infinite, certain genres of stories
seem to keep emerging again and again in pilot analyses we have done of literature,
film, and people’s oral descriptions of relationships. Because the stories we have
analyzed were from participants in the United States, our listing is likely to show
some degree of cultural biased. 
 Stories we have found to be particularly useful in conceptualizing people's notions of
love are
 1.  Addiction.  Strong anxious attachment; clinging behavior; anxiety at thought of
losing partner.
 2.  Art.  Love of partner for physical attractiveness; importance to person of partner's
always looking good.
 3.   Business.  Relationships as business propositions; money is power; partners in
close relationships as business partners.
 4.  Collection.  Partner viewed as "fitting in" to some overall scheme; partner viewed
in a detached way.
 5.  Cookbook.  Doing things a certain way (recipe) results is relationship being more
likely to work out; departure from recipe for success leads to increased likelihood of
failure.
 6.  Fantasy.  Often expects to be saved by a knight in shining armor or to marry a
princess and live happily ever after.
 7.  Game.  Love as a game or sport.
 8.  Gardening.  Relationships need to be continually nurtured and tended to.
 9.  Government.  (a)  Autocratic.  One partner dominates or even controls other.  (b)
Democratic.  Two partners equally share power.
 10. History.  Events of relationship form an indelible record; keep a lot of records--
mental or physical.
 11. Horror.  Relationships become interesting when you terrorize or are terrorized by
your partner.
 12. House and Home.  Relationships have their core in the home, through its
development and maintenance.
 13. Humor.  Love is strange and funny.
 14. Mystery.  Love is a mystery and you shouldn't let too much of yourself be known.
 15. Police.  You've got to keep close tabs on your partner to make sure he/she toes the
line, or you need to be under surveillance to make sure you behave.
 16. Pornography.  Love is dirty, and to love is to degrade or be degraded.
 17. Recovery.  Survivor mentality; view that after past trauma, person can get through
practically anything.
 18. Religion.  Either views love as a religion, or love as a set of feelings and activities
dictated by religion.
 19. Sacrifice.  To love is to give of oneself or for someone to give of him or herself to
you.
 20. Science.  Love can be understood, analyzed, and dissected, just like any other
natural phenomenon.
 21. Science Fiction.  Feeling that partner is like an alien--incomprehensible and very
strange.
 22. Sewing.  Love is whatever you make it.
 23. Theater.  Love is scripted, with predictable acts, scenes, and lines.
 24. Travel.  Love is a journey.
 25. War.  Love is a series of battles in a devastating but continuing war.
 26. Student-teacher.  Love is a relationship between a student and a teache