The spiritual dimension in leadership at Dilmah Tea

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is first to report an exploratory study intended to capture the elements of a leader's spirituality; and second to examine these elements against the current discussion of spiritual leadership in general, and the transcendental leadership model in particular.Design/methodology/approachWithin a single case study scenario, the in‐depth interview method captures the elements of the leader's spirituality. Grounded theory is used to analyze the data.FindingsThe findings suggest that a spiritually driven leader's high internal locus, a strong passion for giving and caring for his followers, and spirituality epitomize the concept of transcendental leadership.Research limitations/implicationsThe major limitation concerns generalizability of the findings. While in‐depth studies of larger samples of spiritually driven business leaders are needed, these leaders could be drawn from different cultural settings. Using different assessment tools to measure various aspects of spirituality might provide helpful perspectives in future research aimed at understanding the relationships between spirituality and leadership styles.Practical implicationsThe paper provides an alternative way of characterizing spiritually oriented leaders, as they strive to integrate spirituality to all aspects of their life.Originality/valueThe paper assesses the functionality of a spirituality‐driven business leader as early evidence of the viability of the concept of transcendental leadership. It is of value to academic researchers and practitioners.

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“…Moreover, in determining transferability the responsibility of the researcher lies in providing enough descriptive data so that similar judgments can be made by others (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). As illustrated by the case study research of Fernando et al (2009) on Merrill J. Fernando, founder of Dilmah Tea and chair of MJF Group, in depth analysis of one leader in one organization can provide novel insights and opportunities for future research. Stake (2000) suggests that case study researchers triangulate their findings.…”

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“…The spiritual leadership theory has been developed by Fry (2003) within an intrinsic motivation model and is based on characteristics such as hope, faith and altruism, and its aim is creating homogeneous vision and values at the individual, team, and organizational level, which may eventually generate higher levels of commitment and productivity of organization ( Fernando, Beale, & Geroy, 2009 ). Fry introduces seven dimensions of spiritual leadership:…”

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