An Explanatory Study of the Influence of Pastoral Leadership Styles on the Organizational Effectiveness of Baptist Churches

摘要

The objective of this study was to investigate leadership in nonprofits. Specifically, the goal was to contribute to the empirical literature on the relationship between pastoral leadership styles and the organizational effectiveness of their churches. This quantitative ex-post facto study investigated the explanatory power leadership styles have upon the overall organizational effectiveness among Baptist pastors in a Southern Baptist Association in a Western state. Leadership styles was measured by Avolio, Bass, and Zhu's 2004 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x Short [MLQ] and organizational effectiveness was measured by a Southern Baptist Association in a Western state's annual church profile, respectively. This explanatory research encompassed the comparative relationship between the variable of pastoral leadership styles and how they influence the variable of organizational effectiveness in churches, as defined by church membership, the number of baptisms, and financial giving. A sample of 28 pastors self-reported their leadership styles in an online survey. This was followed by a comparison of the organizational effectiveness statistical data sets collected from a Southern Baptist Association in a Western state to the pastoral leadership styles. SPSS, v. 22 was used for data analysis. The findings state pastoral leadership styles as transactional and transformational. A t-test was conducted to compare the means of the leadership styles. Based upon the t-test results, it was determined there is a difference between the leadership styles of pastors and the organizational effectiveness measures of their churches. The difference was significant.