conceptualising leadership – with regard to spirituality and ethics

This article argues that leadership has four basic dimensions. It begins as a critical engagement with Gary Yukl and Henry Mintzberg’s theoretical models of leadership. Yukl argues that it is possible to identify three metacategories in leadership research. This article basically agrees that a) task-oriented behaviour, b) relationsoriented behaviour, and c) visionary (information-based) change are essential dimensions of leadership. Nevertheless, both Yukl’s and Mintzberg’s models lack a robust ethical vision beyond organisational efficiency. Moreover, these models also overlook a possible fourth dimension of leadership, that of spirituality or liturgical leadership. Liturgical leadership may include prayer and worship, facilitation of Christian practices or sacraments and spiritual discernment. It may also serve as the integrating discipline that shapes change-, relations- and task-orientated leadership into a unified whole.