Impact of Servant Leadership on Pastoral Alliances in Northern Ghana
Abstract
Pastors in northern Ghana use learned servant leadership skills to create strategic alliances with nonprofit organizations such as schools and hospitals. These alliances are believed to be essential to address communities' changing needs, but little is known about the connections among the pastoral aspects of servant leadership and the performance of organizations led by pastors. The purpose of this quantitative study was to relate 3 aspects of pastors as servant leaders to the number of alliances created or maintained. Years of pastoral ministry and sizes of their congregations were used as control variables. The theoretical framework was principally focused on Greenleaf's work related to servant leadership. Data were collected from 103 randomly selected pastors in active ministry in 5 regions of northern Ghana. Each pastor completed the Servant Leadership Profile-Revised and a demographic survey. Linear regression analysis indicated that the servant leadership skill labeled as authentic leadership predicted the number of organizational alliances (p < .05). The relationships among the other aspects of servant leadership skills, years of pastoral ministry, and congregational sizes were not significant. The implications for positive social change include recommendations for improved training and coaching of pastors on the authentic leadership aspects of servant leadership and reevaluating the courageous and humility aspects. The predicted increase in the number of organizational alliances may better serve the requirements of communities in northern Ghana.
