Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore the link between transformational leadership and spirituality within the greater Riverside, California, geographic area and more specifically within Leadership Riverside, a program of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce, which spans public, and private and nonprofit organizations. Methodology. The research design was exploratory. Utilizing purposive sampling and two validated assessment tools the research explored the relationship between spirituality and transformational leadership. The two assessment tools included the Spirituality Assessment Scale® and by Hamilton Beazley (1997) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire ® by Bass and Avolio (1989). The population surveyed consisted of 266 leaders who had completed the Leadership Riverside program through the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. Sixty percent of the population returned the two completed surveys. Data were analyzed using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Findings. The study concluded that there was no relationship found between spirituality and transformational leadership in the Leadership Riverside population. Further, no significant differences were found across sector organizations in response to spirituality and transformational leadership. Several of the spiritual dimensions and transformational leadership factors approach a weak relationship with significance of .20 or less. Conclusions and recommendations. Although literature indicates that there are common factors between spirituality and transformational leadership, this quantitative study concluded that there were not significant relationships for the population samples. Also of interest were the findings showing no significant differences in response between public, private, and nonprofit sector organizations. Recommendations for further research include doing another study of this population using different assessment tools to glean whether the lack of relationship was due to the tools used or otherwise. Another recommendation was to do a study of individuals not in leadership positions and how they compared to those in leadership positions. In addition, the researcher recommends looking at the taboo nature of spirituality within organizations and more specifically within the realm of leadership.