Philosophical Expositions of Leadership and Human Values in Catholic Social Teachings: Resolving Nigeria’s Leadership Deficit and Underdevelopment

Abstract

In spite of Nigeria’s vaunted claims to leadership of the African continent and the entire black race, the country tragically suffers from an enduring self leadership deficit that has had a negative impact on its development. The masses of the people had been alienated by the ruling class from governance and a lot of ethnic groups had been marginalized and excluded from participating in democratic power. This has manifested in different typologies of conflicts and systemic failure which had served to undermine development planning since the country’s independence. This paper explores some existing but unexplored linkages, immediate and mediate, between Catholic Social Teachings and some particular school of leadership, human values and conflict resolution frameworks, which could, in the future, generate sustainable solutions to the problems of the Nigerian leadership and development challenge in the twenty first century. After a brief survey of community participatory leadership and interactive leadership theories under the framework of transformational leadership concept, we will look at the critical recurring components in community participatory leadership, the five human values, and conflict resolution theories as contained in the Catholic Social Teachings. Our examination of Catholic Social Teachings will be drawn primarily from the social encyclicals beginning with Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum nova rum and continuing through the social encyclicals of Pope John Paul II. These critical recurring components we have noted include: 1) a transforming vision; 2) community participation in decision-making; 3) power; 4) affirmation of others’ human values such as need for truth, integrity, love, peace, non-violence, worth, or dignity; and 5) conflict resolution. The paper argues effectively that human value concepts are reflected in both the frameworks of transformative leadership, a fundamental content of the catholic social teachings, seen as a veritable answer to the problems of leadership in Nigeria. The article will use analytical and dialectical expositions to explore these theoretical linkages and draw enduring lessons for Nigeria.

Share and Cite:

Casimir, A. , Nkechinyere, O. , Ugwu, R. & Okpara, M. (2013). Philosophical Expositions of Leadership and Human Values in Catholic Social Teachings: Resolving Nigeria’s Leadership Deficit and Underdevelopment. Open Journal of Philosophy, 3, 391-400. doi: 10.4236/ojpp.2013.33059.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Achebe, C. (1993). The problem with Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers Ltd.
[2] Achebe, C. (2012). Once there was a country. London: Heinman.
[3] Albritton, R. L. (1998). A new paradigm of leader effectiveness for academic libraries: An empirical study of the Bass (1985) model of transformational leadership. In T. F. Mech, & G. B. McCabe (Eds.), Leadership and academic librarians (pp. 66-82). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
[4] Alimo-Metcalfe, B., & Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2001). The development of a new Transformational Leadership Questionnaire. The Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 74, 1-27. doi:10.1348/096317901167208
[5] Antonakis, J., Avolio, B. J., & Sivasubramaniam, N. (2003). Context and leadership: An examination of the nine-factor Full-Range Leadership Theory using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 261-295. doi:10.1016/S1048-9843(03)00030-4
[6] Avolio, B., Waldman, D., & Yammarino, F. (1991). Leading in the 1990’s: The four I’s of transformational leadership. European Industrial Training, 15, 9-16.
[7] Bass, B. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press.
[8] Bass & Bass (2008). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications (4th ed.). New York: Free Press.
[9] Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance. New York: Free Press.
[10] Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military, and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
[11] Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (Eds.) (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
[12] Belenky, Clinnnchy, Goldberger, & Tarule (198X). Women’s ways of knowing.
[13] Brown, M. D. (1986). Leadership and organization transformation: A competency model. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Fielding Institute.
[14] Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.
[15] Cantor, D. W., & Bernay, T. (1992). Women in power. The secrets of leadership. Boston, New York & London: Houghton Mifflin.
[16] Fiedler, F. (1967). A theory of leadership effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill.
[17] Haines, D. G. (1994). The power to lead. Forming women for public ministry. Journal of Supervision and Training, 15, 190-199.
[18] Helgersen, S. (1990). The female advantage. Women’s ways of leadership. New York: Doubleday.
[19] Hinze, C. (1992). Power in christian ethics. Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics, 277-290.
[20] House, R. J. (1977). A 1976 theory of charismatic leadership. In J. G. Hunt, & L. L. Larson (Eds.), Leadership: The cutting edge. Carbondale, IL: Southern University Press.
[21] House, R. J. (1971). A path-goal theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16, 321-338. doi:10.2307/2391905
[22] Kotlyar, I., & Karakowsky, L. (2006). Leading conflict? Linkages between leader behaviors and group conflict. Small Group Research, 37, 377-403. doi:10.1177/1046496406291388
[23] Kotlyar, I., & Karakowsky, L. (2007). Falling over ourselves to follow the leader. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 14, 3849. doi:10.1177/1071791907304285
[24] Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (1999). Encouraging the heart. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers.
[25] Klenke, K. (1996). Women and leadership. A contextual perspective. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
[26] Knowledge-Sharing Kit, Canada Corps Knowledge Sharing Kit Guide to key concepts in governance and development 3.
[27] Namus, B. (1992). Visionary leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
[28] Nissinen, V. (2006). Deep leadership. Finland: Talentum.
[29] Njoku, E. A. (2012). Transformational leadership for Nigeria. London.
[30] Nygren, D. & Miriam, U. (1993). Religious leadership competencies. Review for Religious, 52, 390-417.
[31] Pielstick, C. D. (1998). The transforming leader: A meta-ethnographic analysis. Community College Review, 26, 15-34. doi:10.1177/009155219802600302
[32] Rhodes, L. (1993). Leadership from a feminist perspective. Word and World, 13, 13-18.
[33] Roesner, J. (1990). Ways women lead. Harvard Business Review.
[34] Rosener, J. B. (1990). The ways women lead. Harvard Business Review, 68, 119-125.
[35] Rost, J. C. (1991). Leadership for the twenty-first century. New York, Westport, & London: Praeger.
[36] Sagaria, M. A. D. (1985). The managerial skills and experiences of men and women administrators: Similarities and differences. Journal of Educational Equity and Leadership, 5, 19-30.
[37] Staham, A. (1987). The gender model revisited. Differences in the management styles of men and women. Sex Roles, 16, 409-429. doi:10.1007/BF00289552
[38] Stryker, S. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A social structural version. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company.
[39] Tichy, N., & Devanna, M. A. (1986). The transformation leader. New York: Wiley.
[40] The 24 Peace Indicators, the New Global Peace Index Report (Nigeria/African Section).
[41] Walsh, M., & Davies, B. (Eds.) (1991). Proclaiming justice and peace. Papal documents from Rerum Novarum through Centesimus Annus. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications.
[42] White, G. (1994). Civil society, democratization and development (I): Clearing the analytical ground. Democratization, 375-390. doi:10.1080/13510349408403399
[43] World Bank (1995). World Bank participation sourcebook, environment department papers participation series. Washington DC: World Bank.
[44] Yukl, G. (1999). An evaluation of conceptual weaknesses in transformational and charismatic leadership theories. Leadership Quarterly, 10, 285-305. doi:10.1016/S1048-9843(99)00013-2

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.