Leadership Styles and Spiritual Traits of Catholic Priests: A Research Exploring the Relationships between Leadership Styles and Spiritual Traits of C

Aning Amoah’s Leadership Styles and Spiritual Traits of Catholic Priests explore the relationship between leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) and spiritual traits (self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (CO), and self-transcendence (ST). The quantitative correlational study sampled 93 catholic priests from Ghana in active ministry. The results showed a statistically significant correlation between transformational leadership and spiritual traits, a nonstatistical correlation between transactional leadership and spiritual trait variables, a negative statistically significant correlation between laissez-faire leadership style with self-directedness and cooperativeness, and a positive statistically significant correlation between laissez-faire leadership style and self-transcendence. Thus, the more catholic priests provide guidance, counseling, teaching, and shepherding among congregation as a transformational leader, the more likely they will be reliable, mature, effective, helpful, compassionate, and spiritual. Contrary, the more catholic priests become laissez-faire leader, the more likely they will be weak, blaming, ineffective, emotionally unstable, lacking internal organizational principles (low SD), self-absorbed, intolerant, critical, revengeful and self-regarding (low CO), and absorbed in what they do, spiritual and capable of adapting to situation of pain and suffering (high ST).