Abstract
© 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.Purpose: The present study investigates the relationship between servant and authoritarian leadership, and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors in followers’ conflicts, thereby contributing to integrating knowledge on leadership styles and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors. This study aims to investigate leadership and conflict management in a context hardly studied: local religious communities or convents within a female religious organization. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collected quantitative survey data from 453 religious sisters, measuring their perception of leaders’ behaviors. These religious sisters live in local religious communities within a Catholic Women Religious Institute based in Nigeria (West Africa) and in other countries across the globe. Findings: Results show that servant leadership relates positively to leaders’ third-party problem-solving behavior and negatively to leaders’ avoiding and forcing. Moreover, authoritarian leadership relates positively to leaders’ third-party avoiding and forcing behaviors. Originality/value: This study expands theory development and practices on leadership and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors. The authors associate servant and authoritarian leadership with leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors: avoiding, forcing and problem-solving, in followers’ conflicts. The authors offer practical recommendations for religious leaders on servant leadership and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 769-790 |
| Journal | International Journal of Conflict Management |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Oct 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
No funding from any funding agency was received for this study. The authors acknowledge Dr Wouter Robijn, for providing support with statistical analyses.
