KAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY NCHIRU – MERU COUNTY POLICY & LEADERSHIP IN RELIGIOUS...

POLICY AND LEADERSHIP IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS BY DR. KIAMBI ATHERU (BTh, BDS, MTh, MGE, Min.D, PhD)

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KAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

NCHIRU – MERU COUNTY Registered by the Attorney General –Kenya, Reg. BN/209/18323 and Accredited by the Ministry of

Education, Science and Technology Kenya, Accreditation No P/TC/1032/13

Phone 0721669651/0721567779

POLICY & LEADERSHIP IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

HND 601: POLICY & LEADERSHIP IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

FOR ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN THEOLOGY

We are focusing on the mysteries of God. For too long now, the church has lost focus in its educational programs;

instead there has been content designed to speak to people’s immediate needs but at the same time to neglect the

deep truths of God. People do not readily understand the truth of the gospel and for many, theology has become

irrelevant. As a result their faith is weak and their lives are defeated. They are ripe for the corruption of heresy

and moral decay because there is no core of truth in their faith! Enroll in KIST today for specialized training on

matters of God! Call 0721669651/0721567779/0710129465/0702305152

Author of this Material

Bishop/Dr Kiambi James T. Atheru (BTh, BDS, MTh, MGE, Min.D, PhD)

Director-General


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Abbreviations and Acronyms

AGM Annual General Meeting

CEO Chief Executive Officer

EACC Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission

KAN King‟s Ambassadors Network

KEMU Kenya Methodist University

MPs Members of Parliament


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................................ ii

Introduction ............................................................................................................... vii

CHAPTER ONE: PUBLIC POLICY IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS ........ 1

1.1 Policy Skills and Strategy ...................................................................................... 1

1.1.1 Policy .................................................................................................... 1

1.1.1.1 The concept of ‘policy’ and ‘public policy’................ 1

1.1.1.2 The need for policies .................................................... 2

1.1.1.3 Policy formulation and implementation process ....... 3

1.1.1.4 Effects of lack of policies in religious organizations . 6

1.1.2 Strategy ................................................................................................ 7

1.1.2.1 The concept of Strategy ...................................................................... 7

1.1.2.2 Classification of Strategies .......................................... 8

1.1.2.3 Strategies verses Tactics .............................................. 8

1.2 Communication and Negotiations ....................................................................... 8

1.2.1 Communication .................................................................................... 9

1.2.2 Negotiation ............................................................................................ 9

1.3 Delivery and Management in Religious organization....................................... 10

1.3.1 Delivery ............................................................................................... 10

1.3.2 Policy Implementation and Management ....................................... 11

1.3.3 Factors affecting policy management in Religious Organizations 13

1.4 Budgeting and financing in Religious organizations ........................................ 13

1.4.1 Budget process .................................................................................... 13

1.4.2 Budget practices ................................................................................. 14

1.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 15

CHAPTER TWO: POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE IN RELIGIOUS

ORGANIZATIONS .............................................................. 16

2.1. Political Concepts and Frameworks.................................................................. 16

2.1.1 Political Concepts in Religious Organizations ................................... 16

2.1.1.1 Political concepts in the Old Testament .............................. 16


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2.1.1.2 Political concepts in Christianity .......................................... 16

2.1.2 Political Framework in Religious Organizations ............................. 17

2.2 Evolution of Politics in Religious Organizations ............................................... 18

2.3 Politics and Governance in Religious organizations ...................................... 18

2.3.1 Politics in religious organizations ....................................................... 18

2.3.2 Governance in religious organizations ............................................... 20

2.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER THREE: LEADERSHIP IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS ...... 23

3.1 Leadership in various organizations ................................................................ 23

3.1.1 The concept of leadership .................................................................. 23

3.1.2 The evolving view of leadership ........................................................ 24

3.1.3 Leadership Approaches in religious organizations ......................... 25

3.2 Leadership theories and frameworks............................................................... 29

3.3 Human Resource Management in Religious Organizations .......................... 30

3.3.1 The concept of Human Resource Management .............................. 30

3.3.2 History of Human Resource Management ..................................... 30

3.3.3 Functions of Human Resource Management ................................. 31

3.4 Legal issues & Ethical considerations in Religious organizations ................... 31

3.5 Transparency & Accountability in Religious organizations ........................... 32

3.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 32

References ................................................................................................................... 34


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SYLLABUS

1. CourseTitle

Policy and Leadership in religious organizations (HND 601)

2. Purpose of the course

The Purpose of this lesson, is to help the students develop both divergent and

convergent thinking in as far as policy formulation, communication, negotiation and

implementation strategy are concerned. Further, this course aims at looking at politics,

governance and leadership, and how such may affect policy in religious organizations

3. Course Objectives

By the end of this lecture, the students should be able to :

(i) Demonstrate the policy formulation ability in a religious organization

(ii) Demonstrate communication and negotiation techniques that could make the

formulated policy be discussed and be accepted in a religious organization

(iii) Demonstrate how strategies and tactics may be employed in the policy

implementation endeavours

(iv) Show how politics and public policies can can affect polices withi religious

organizations

(v) Assess the extent to which bad governance has affected religious organizations

in Kenya.

(vi) Define the aspect of leadership in religious organizations and the levels to which

this is effective within religious organizations in Kenya.

4. Course Content

(i) Policy formulation and implementation strategies in religious organizations

(ii) Politics and governance aspects affecting religious organizations

(iii) Leadership and management in religious organizations

5. Teaching / Learning Methodologies

Lectures, Group discussion and Individual assignments

6. Instructional Materials and Equipment

Training mannual, Text books, flipcharts and PowerPoint

7. Overall Course Assessment

Any of these methods may be used:

(i) Examination -70%; Continuous Assessment Test (CATS) - 30%; Total- 100%

(ii) An academically wrtten scolarly paper

8. GPA implication for Graduation

3.6 -4.0 Distinction

3.1 -3.5 Credit I

2.6 -3.0 Credit II

2.0 -2.5 Pass

1.0 -1.9 The student will graduate with a lower level credential

9. Main Text Books

Eidsmoe, J. (1984). God and Caesar: Christian faith and Political Action. Cross way

books, a division of Good news publishers, Westchester, Illinois 60153


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Lewicki, R.J., Litterer J.A., Minton J.W., & Saunders, D.M. (1994) Negotiation,

second Edition, Published by Irwin/ McGraw-Hill, a division of McGraw –

Hill Companies, and Printed in the United States of America.

Steiner, G.A., Miner J.B., & Gray, E.R. (1986) Management Policy and Strategy,

Macmillan publishing company

Stoner & Freeman (1989), Management, Prentice Hall Inc., a division of Simon &

Schuster Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 07632

10. Other recommended Text Books

See the references at the back of this treatise. All the books mentioned at the back

were consulted. The students may find them and study them

11. Term paper /Class Assessment Test

In not less than 4 pages,assess the extent to which religious organizations with a

case study on the pentecostal churches in your sub county have been failing to

maximize their social-spiritual and economic potential due to lack of, or poorly

crafted policies

Instructions for this assignment (i) Ensure you find enough time (at least 1 ½ hrs. every day) to study your

manual diligently and slowly, digesting and internalizing every concept. Then,

answer the questions in your own words. DO NOT COPY any statement in

this manual unless you are making a citation. Use your own words to write

this paper!

(ii) The work must be typed, with New times Roman, 1.5 spacing and with 3.8

cm left margin and 2.5 cm on all other margins

(iii)Provide a cover page

(iv) Provide a list of Abbreviations and Acronyms

(v) Provide a well aligned table of contents

(vi) Provide an Introduction

(vii) Use good grammar

(viii) Provide a good conclusion

(ix) Provide a list of references. If you don‟t have, at least provide this training

manual as your main reference

Kindly post the work to Kan International School of Theology, P. o box 3161-60200

Meru or email it in soft copy to [email protected] before the start of next

month.

mailto:[email protected]


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Introduction

Ethical policy formulation and the leadership to govern in the implementation of the

same are critical in the attainment of any religious organization‟s goals and

objectives. Many religious organizations normally fail in their various mandates

because of their lack of policy formulation prowess. Others have the prowess but are

inexperienced in communicating and negotiating the policy with their followers in a

proper leadership and governance environment. Sometimes the policy is formulated,

communicated and even negotiated well, but the problem of implementation strategies

and tactics suffices. All the aforementioned result into poor performance and strife as

we have seen a lot of that in the Kenyan religious organizations of late: Some have

endless strife and court cases over relatively small social issues. Others result into

running their organizations through unethical gimmicks. Radicalization has been

witnessed often in other religious organizations in a myriad places.

This article attempts to deal with this problem by showing, in chapter one, clear cut

direction on how policies are formulated, communicated, negotiated and implemented

vide clear short term, medium term and long term strategies with specific tactics at the

grassroots. This is a sacrosanct direction for any organization to attain its goals and

objectives. Chapter two talks about the matters of politics and how politics helps in

formulation of public policies, for instance, the Acts of parliament, and which affect

religious organizations implicitly or explicitly. The chapter also talks about

governance and its eight pillars, and an assessment to which religious organizations

are poorly governed. Of course, implementation of the policies whether internal,

within the organization or public (brought about by government appointed or elected

politicians) require proper leadership. Much of chapter three has therefore been

devoted the aspect of leadership, management of human resource which is critical for

policy implementation, and finally, the matters of ethics and accountability in the

implementation of policies for sustainable development.

It is my hope that the reader will find this treatise informative and helpful in his/her

religious organization as far as policy formulation, communication, negotiation and

implementation under the premises of good leadership and governance are concerned


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CHAPTER ONE

PUBLIC POLICY IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

1.1 Policy Skills and Strategy

1.1.1 Policy

1.1.1.1 The concept of ‘policy’ and ‘public policy’

Policy in general

Generally, there is normally no consensus among scholars on what the term „Policy‟

means. This is because the term „policy‟ presents itself with many facets and can have

a lot of meanings depending on the type of a group and their prevailing

circumstances. Accordingly, various scholars have been presenting different but

related concepts on what policy is all about. For instance, Steiner, et al. (1986 p14)

says: “Policies are generally considered to be guides to action or channels to thinking.

More specifically, policies are guides to carry out an action. They establish the

„universe‟ in which action is to be taken”. Stoner & Freeman (1989 p147) defines

policy as “…a general guideline for decision making. It sets out boundaries around

decisions, including those that can be made and elimination of those that cannot. In

this way, it channels the thinking of organizational members so that it is consistent

with organizational setting”. I agree with the two authors, and present a concluding

view that a policy may be seen as a guideline or a guiding principle which sets

boundaries of thinking and action in the attainment of goals within an organization.

Goals and specific measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound objectives are set,

which then are implemented only within the yardsticks of the set policies. Every

religious organization must therefore have its own policies based on its goals and

objectives, and its stakeholders.

Public policy

Various authors on policy field define public policy in different ways. The following

two authors define it as: “Whatever governments choose to do or not to do” (Dye,

1972 p18) “A proposed course of action of a person, group or government within a

given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy was

proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a goal or realize and objective

or purpose.” (Friederich, 1963 p69)


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The implication from these two definitions is that public policy is the action taken by

governments to address various cross cutting issues for the benefit of the populace.

The government first sees the need for a premise to better meet the needs of the

people. It then crafts policies in line to these needs and consequently crafts legal

frameworks such as Acts of parliament to institute the laid policies. For instance,

when the government came up on water policy vide sessional paper No 1 of 1999; it

also set water Act 2002 as a legal framework to help protect the policy so that its main

goal of water supply to all could be achieved. Public policies are normally crafted by

public authorities such as various government departments and may in most cases be

debated by the elected officials before being operationalized.

Public policies affect all social-economic sectors in a country, including religious

organizations. Recently, we had the new public policy on marriage and divorce in

Kenya which was implemented under the legal framework of marriage Act 2014. The

policy saw all religious organizations renew their marriage licenses and obtain new

marriage certificates books. Currently, other policies are being discussed that if

passed, will see all religious leaders obtain their certificates of good conduct,

clearance certificates from EACC, fill their returns before march every year and

declare all their branches. The policies were designed by the government to instill law

and order in religious organizations.

Various policies, whether general organizational or public may exist and be classified

based on the organization‟s scope (whether religious, public, private, or other types);

level (whether at the headquarters, regional or at the grassroots); material or non-

material resources (whether dealing with religion, products or administrative issues);

purpose and/or function (the mission and objectives of the organization) and the

personal policies of the managers (their official principles regarding the organization).

1.1.1.2 The need for policies

According to Stoner & Freedman (1989 p147), policies are normally established

formally by top managers of an organization or the governments under which the

entities fall to improve the organizations‟ efficiency and effectiveness; to have the

organization to reflect some very important (and sometimes minor issues); and to

redress some confusing matters that are prone to occurring at lower levels. Cohen


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(2012 p44) says that the public policy helps in understanding the causes and

consequences of political decisions and improves our knowledge in society. It helps

to understand the socio-economic conditions that shape the content of policy;

understanding the differences between socio-economic forces, political process and

public policy and, helps individuals in shaping questions that can help in attaining

answers from relevant authorities.

To explore the notion of Stoner &Freeman and Cohen, let us take KEMU for

instance: All new students are normally given the policies of the university on the day

they are admitted. These policies basically appear in the form of code of conduct

KEMU/REG/4 and greatly help the students and staff to understand the guidelines and

the premises under which they would exist in the university in the process of

achieving various goals of education. Another example is KAN international. This is a

religious organization based at Nchiru-Meru County. It has policies that for instance

guide employees with Hours of work, official holidays, annual leave, sick leave,

maternity leave, compassionate leave, separation from service, disciplinary measures,

appeals, general provision, Interpretation of regulations and revision of the standard

terms of employment. All these policies and many others help to guide the

stakeholders of an organization to know how to exist in belief, behaviour and actions

within the organization in the attainment of the set goals and objectives.

1.1.1.3 Policy formulation, and analysis

In any organization, management is normally centered on three core resources. These

are financial resources, material resources and human resources. These must be

managed through planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. Many

organizations fail because they want to do these management aspects without policies.

Policies must be formulated in order to offer guidelines, the dos and don‟ts, and the

general atmosphere in which the organization shall exist and operate. Otherwise it is

very difficult to do management in an organization whether religious, public or

private without policies!

Thus, all religious organizations have policy makers either formally or informally.

Their work is to ensure that proper policies are formulated to meet their goals and

objectives at all levels. Without policies, there would be an unwarranted laissez-Faire


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situation in these organizations and that may create catch 22 situations in most of

them as we are seeing in Kenya today. But formulation and implementation of the

policies cannot thrive in bad environments. That is why it is critical for organizations

to participate in the prevention of poor public governance, because if these are not

checked, they can affect the achievement of goals and objectives of organizations due

to lack of good environments for policy formulation and implementation. Pressman &

Wildvsky (1973 p68) says: “Any criteria used in policy formulation and

implementation process must also thrive under the premises of political palatability;

social acceptability; environmental friendliness; legal acceptability; economic

viability and, technical feasibility”

Procedure for policy formulation

Steiner (1986 pp83-92) gives us a fairly good policy formulation procedure which is

similar to that of strategic planning process. It involves the following steps:

Step 1-Situational audit (the plan to plan): This involves looking at the major

expectations of the outside interests (shareholders and stakeholders);

expectations of the major inside interests (management, staff and casuals);

data base (past performance, current situation and forecasts); evaluation of

the environment (with regard to the opportunities and threats) and

organization (with regard to its strengths and weaknesses).

Step 2- Policy formulation and Strategies for implementation: These include;

master strategies (Mission-the underlying aim, thrust and design of the

organization); Objectives -purposes, and specifics to be achieved, usually

within stipulated time); and program strategies (development of the

strategies to achieve the mission and objectives)

Step 3- Tactical planning for implementation of policies through clear strategies: This

involves medium range programing and programs (usually 5years on the

average), and short range planning and plans

Step 4- Implementation of plans: Implementation involves the entire management

process.


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Step 5- Review and evaluation of plans: These should be continuous as part of the

implementation plan.

Policy analysis

Once a policy has been formulated, it is always critical to carry out an analysis to see

if it will be fit for implementation. For instance, the policy makers will want to know

its legality and whether it contradicts the stakeholders‟ beliefs. Is it implementable?

Thus logistics will come in. It will also include the determination of alternative

policies to see which ones will be more effective and efficient in the achievement of

the set mission, and objectives as far as such relationships of mission and objectives

are concerned.

There are several types of policy analysis and the following derived from Steiner, et

al. (1986: 116), are inclusive:

Gap Analysis: Gap analysis asks; are there policies that can be modified to reach the

ends or can we modify the end to fit the set policies?

Competitive analysis: If the organization is not competitive, it will fail. And if the

firm is not a superior competitor, it will again fail. To be in a good competitive

situation, the organization must therefore carry out a careful policy analysis.

The consistent existence and survival of organizations is always at stake due to the

fact that we are living in turbulent times where everything including technology,

cultures and politics is changing. Consequently, organizations will keep existing only

if keep analyzing their policies to see if they equal to the competitive environments in

which they live and if they are properly synchronized with their mission, goals and

objectives. According to Birkland, (2001), Policy analysis involves the following

stages:

Stage 1 -Problem identification and verification: This involves a lot of research into

the problems being addressed. It seeks to know who will be affected by the

policy and to what extent.


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Stage 2- Selection of evaluation criteria: This involves the need to determine which

options to take in causing evaluations of the effects of the policy.

Stage 3- Selecting alternative policies: Different policy options are thoroughly

considered and generated

Stage 4- Evaluating policy alternative: Alternatives are weighed using specific criteria

Stage 5 - Displaying and presenting policy option: The policy options are presented to

the people to be affected.

Stage 6- Implementation Monitoring and evaluation of policy: This ensures that

guidelines to monitor and evaluate policy are put in place.

The implication of Birkland‟s steps 1 to 6 is that policies once formulated are not just

administered to people without a thorough appraisal of the same. Policy holders must

ask themselves whether these policies will address the pertinent issues within the

stakeholders and whether they are in line with the law, because it is possible to

formulate policies that are inconsistent with the ordinances of residence. There must

be an investigation of whether there could be existence of other alternative policies.

This of course calls for a thorough literature review. Policy holders must also ensure

that they have means in place to implement, monitor and evaluate the policies, in

order to assess success or failure, so that appreciation or intervention measures can be

taken in time respectively.

1.1.1.4 Effects of lack of policies in religious organizations

No matter the branch of religion one attests to, even as an atheist, it is generally

agreed that religion has over time stood out as one of the pillars of stability in society.

But indicators are there that many religious organizations especially the existing

Pentecostal and charismatic churches in Kenya are poorly governed because of lack of

policies. The results are organizational gimmicks, infightings, and ultimate failure.

Religious leaders, most of them Pentecostals have hit newspaper headlines for facing

claims of extortion, fraud and sexual harassment. The behavior of such leaders has

made skeptics turn to atheism and disregard Christianity, but despite their behavior,


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many of them still have near-fanatical followers. Prof. Charles Oduke, head of the

Department of History Religion and Philosophy of Jaramogi Odinga University of

Science and Technology points out the irony of the situation in the article aired by

Verah Okeyo in the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper 15 /11/2013 issue number

17761: “Because of Pentecostalism, the rules guiding worship were removed because

they hindered spiritual growth, so this would allow the workings of the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, quack preachers took over the church armed with a standard answer

for all their activities: „The Holy Spirit told me to do it‟”

In Islam, reports of illegal activities in mosques the picture of a society that has lost

respect for morals, due to lack of policies that would provide clear philosophical

ethics. Sheikhs have been in the spotlight in recent times, accused of helping in the

radicalization of youths and engaging in terrorist activities.

Clearly, lack of policies has been the main reason for the moral and social failure

witnessed in these religious organizations. Internal guidelines from within the

organizations themselves are conspicuously lacking, either due to poor internal self-

governance structures or lack of will to formulate the same. Lack of private policies

within themselves has led to laissez faire attitude in these organizations. The however,

has government has enough policies existing under chapter 108 laws of Kenya for

instance, but due to its stand on giving religious organizations much unbridled

freedom, everything is increasingly in shambles therein.

1.1.2 Strategy

1.1.2.1 The concept of Strategy

On various occasions, people confuse the term „strategy‟ to mean „policy‟. But there

is a dichotomy. Policies are the basic premises under which an organization operates

while strategies are the basic forgings or „action-steps‟ taken to maintain those

policies. George, et al (1986:5) presents a clear concept of strategy: “„Strategy‟ is the

formulation of an organization‟s policy, mission, vision, core values goal, objectives,

action plans, budgets, and timelines of achieving those targets”.


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Alfred (1962:16) proposes another definition of „strategy‟ but which is basically

similar to that of George A. Steiner as: “the determination of the basic long term goals

and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the

allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals”

Strategies are critical in ensuring that the organization‟s policies are maintained. To

enhance strategies, short, medium and long term plans are drawn. This way, the

organization is able to map out directions and implement the policies. Without the

strategies, policies will never be realized. Hence the need for every organization to

have a business or a strategic plan

1.1.2.2 Classification of Strategies

Just like policies, Strategies may be classified based on the organization‟s scope,

level, material or non-material resources, purpose and/or function and personal

strategies of the managers. Strategies cannot be drawn where there are no policies,

and where that is done, it is like walking without a head, if at all that can be practical.

1.1.2.3 Strategy versus Tactics

Organizational strategies exist within a broad spectrum, operating as strategies at the

upper level for instance the headquarters of the organization on one hand, and having

tactics of achieving those strategies at the grassroots (George, et al 1986:13). So the

headquarters people will craft plans and enhance implementation by the grassroots

people through various ground level tactics or the nitty-gritty of the strategy that is

used to implement the policy.

1.2 Communication and negotiations

Once policies, strategies and tactics have been drawn, it is critical that they be

communicated and negotiated well with the stakeholders. Sometimes good policies

are short down by the stakeholders because the policy makers did not either

communicate or negotiate the policy and the strategy well. Man times we hear of

organizations going to launch their strategic plans. That is commendable. How these

plans are communicated and negotiated is what matters.


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1.2.1 Communication

Communication is the art of passing information and understanding from one party to

the other. Communication is usually the heart of the negotiation process. Lewick, et

al. (1994:174) says: “Even if negotiators deal with one another simply by trading bids

and offers on slips of paper, communication processes, both verbal and nonverbal are

critical to achieving negotiation goals”

Communication pervades through the negotiation process. According to Chatman et

al. (1991:59), an understanding of communication sets a premise of carrying on the

negotiation process for examining bargaining interaction and observance of details

that may frequently alter the course of negotiations.

Effective communication must go through the cycle of: Information definition by the

sender Encoding of the message Transmission of the message through

a medium and a channel Receiver Decoding of the message by the

receiver Feedback

The communication cycle is enhanced under the qualities of clarity of both expression

and mind, completeness of message in facts, courtesy, correctness of the message,

consideration and conciseness, avoid irrelevant and unnecessary details. Many

religious organizations break up because of poor communication between the leaders

and the followers.

1.2.2 Negotiation

According to Machira (2008), Negotiation is a process to achieve your goals through

communication with at least one other party, with the presumed outcome and

agreement. The two parties have a conflict or have differences that may result in

conflict. It is communicating for the purposes of getting a joint decision, one that can

be congruently agreed upon by both sides. It is the process of getting what you want

from others by giving others what they want, and takes place in any situation or

meeting where interests are in conflict. It occurs in religious organizations especially

when spreading their faith. It also occurs in business, non-profit organizations, and

government branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations


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such as marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life. Negotiation can be done in

Person, by phone or by email.

Negotiation can take a wide variety of forms, from trained negotiator acting on behalf

of a particular organization or position in a formal setting, to an informal negotiation

between friends. It can take various approaches as such as employing a skilled

negotiator such as an advocate who ensures that he gets the most valuable outcome

out of the communication.

The other approach involves the „yes‟ negotiating agreement without Giving in. This

method consists of four main steps: separating the people from the problem; focusing

on interests, not positions; generating a variety of possibilities before deciding what to

do; and insisting that the result be based on some objective standard. If policies have

undergone through formulation and analysis processes by the makers, they may adopt

this negotiation approach effectively, without negating the rights of the stakeholders.

1.3 Delivery and Management in Religious Organizations

Policy making and policy implementation is not the same thing. Good policy making

will consider and define the systems, the structures and the processes that need to be

put in place to effectively implement the decision of policy makers. It will define and

outline the budget and resources that will be required to deliver and manage the

policy. It will define and establish the targets to be achieved and indicate a timeframe

for achieving the targets. It will also establish a monitoring system and indicate

review dates to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy in practice. Sabatier & Hank

(1999: 117-159) says that this will ensure that the outcomes are delivered upon as

intended by the policy makers.

1.3.1 Delivery

The carrying out of policy or its implementation is usually done by other institutions

than those that were responsible for its formulation and adoption. Such institutions

include Religious institutions. Many problems are technically so complex and

difficult that the legislature does not try to deal with them in detail. The legislature

thus indicates the broad lines of policy, and leaves the elaboration of the policy to

other governmental agencies. The complexity of the policy, coordination between the


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agencies putting it into effect and compliance, determine how successfully the policy

is implemented. For instance, for the latest Kenyan marriage policy formulated in

2014, the Kenyan legislature drew the marriage 2014 bill and the Attorney General

interpreted its details and ensured that all religious organizations comply.

1.3.2 Policy Implementation and management

Sabatier & Hank (1999:117-159), presents five approaches to policy implementation.

These are:

Synthesis Approach: A top down approach is more useful when goals and objectives

are clearer and policies are designed in a comprehensive way. A single domain,

comprehensive policy and planning a vision and technical skills and extensive pool of

resources which are rare in developing countries. Local experiences and perspective

are important factors, which contribute for success or failure of any public policy.

Furthermore, bottom up approach helpful for implementation if objectives are not

clear and polices viewed as non-singular domain.

Structural Approach: The structural approach is a relatively hierarchical, representing

bureaucratic organization. For its external operation or working environment, the

processes are identical to vertical organization. However, when it reaches to policy

implementation, more "organic" features are required; less emphasis on hierarchy,

more flexibility and adoption to changing environments. To process more information

and take action simultaneously demands more organic or less vertical organizational

behavior. A possible compromise between bureaucracy and "adhocracy" is a cross

section of "horizontal" and "vertical" authorities.

Procedural and Managerial Approach: Appropriate procedures and processes are more

important in an organizational structure than anything else. Implementation process is

heavily dependent on managerial and technical skill.

Procedures are introduced to control, set pace, coordinate, scheduling timeline,

monitoring progress and management. Procedures define managerial boundaries,

control, logical sequence, allocation of resources. These procedures, techniques and

tools enhance the probability to move in the right direction, timeline management and


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anticipate risks. They make procedures that are forward looking and flexible. The

organization should be able to determine change in direction to procedures. Manager

can make structural changes.

Behavioral Approach: Human behavior and attitudes, individual or collectively as a

nation, has great impact on implementation process. For any change, moving away

from status quo, the range of human reactions varies; active resistance, passive

resistance, indifference, passive acceptance or active acceptance. Fear of change

represents uncertainty, ambiguity, and people reflect low tolerance for both. For more

direct concerns as personal benefits, economic condition, privileges, social status,

security and career prospect, reaction is more obvious and certain. It recognizes

resistance to change by people. There‟s a human factor that has to be addressed like

behavior. E.g. attitudes of people to be changed

In design phase and before implementation process an extensive consultancy and

communication should occur among all the policy actors and target population to

avoid any possible resistance.

A full disclosure of information should be provided as early as possible, including

concerns, difference of opinions, objectives and logistics. Seek to convince might be

more effective approach than command. The war on terror might have positive result

if U.S. Administration and coalition partners try to win "hearts and minds" instead

relying on their weaponry power.

Political Approach: This refers to patterns of power and influence between and within

organizations. Political approach is not limited to party politics. In term of policy

implementation, pattern of power use within organization and its influence "over

flow" on other organizations and policies need a careful examination. If the policy is

not crafted according to the political authority of relevant organization, the probability

of success in implementation phase can be drastically reduced. The dominance of a

"political will" is "a must" requirement for successful policy implementation. This

dominance always prevails regardless it is through coordination, coalition, by

partisan, mutual adjustment or through decisive command and control.


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1.3.3 Factors affecting policy management in Religious

Organizations

Several issues can affect policy implementation and Management. Calamities, for

instance severe food insecurity; political instability and hence bad environment for

policy implementation and management; poor timings; insufficient resources such as

low budgetary allocations or insufficient human resource; obscurity in policy details,

misunderstandings between policy makers, managers and clients, poor logistics,

policy dependence on donors; Changes in National economy and its policies; change

in international prices and change in government.

A look at macroeconomics for instance will show that any emerging policy from the

government affects the private sector, the Non-governmental organizations and the

religious organizations either positively or negatively. When the government came up

with a policy of not ranking schools in their national exams outcomes, there was the

possibility that public schools would relax their performance thereby affecting the

children negatively. The government policy on controlling NGO‟s funding was seen

as an impediment to their operations. The policy by the government to regulate

religious organizations would bear both positive and negative implications to those

organizations and the society. All this means that if these organizations have already

formulated their policies and are implementing and managing them smoothly,

management of the same would be affected by government‟s macroeconomic policies

for instance, among other factors as already mentioned.

1.4 Budgeting and financing in Religious organizations

Policies, strategies, tactics, communication and negotiation of the same require to be

captured in the budget of the organization. Otherwise the work would be quite

strenuous without funding. When Kenya came up with the policies on devolution,

human rights, leadership and integrity among other policies, legal frame working was

necessary and all this needed to be captured in the budget.

1.4.1 The budget process

According to Young (2007: 23), Budget process is the way an organization goes about

building its budget. A good budgeting process engages those who are responsible for

adhering to the budget and implementing the organization's goals and objectives in


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creating the budget. The following steps should be adhered to in developing a good

budget for formulating and implementing policies of an organization.

1. Write all pertinent issues down.

2. Decide who should be involved in policy formulation and when.

3. Establish an annualized timeline. List specific tasks with specific

responsibility assignments.

4. Ensure that budget line items and accounting line items are in sync to prevent

irregularities

5. Develop worksheets, templates, and tools that promote inclusion of all

relevant budget components and envisage contingencies

6. Adopt policies for adhering to budgets, handling variances and approval

authority

1.4.2 Budgeting practices

Policies cannot be drawn with unrealistic budgets. Budgets for any items are drawn

with the envisaged organization‟s income and the proposed allocation for that item.

All monies cannot, for instance, be channeled to policy making issues only. There are

other operations and services that will also need budgeting. Thus it is crucial to

practice prudent budget mechanisms. From Young (2007), clear guidelines on

budgeting practices for financing can be adopted as follows:

1. Practice income-based budgeting. Don‟t budget for monies not seen or

objectively expected. This entails analyzing and understanding your revenue

concentrations. In many cases, lack of diversification of revenue sources can

pose a serious risk to the financial stability and budgeting within an

organization should a single large revenue source become unavailable.

3. Confirm your budget's relationship to your policy‟s mission and long

range/strategic goals.

4. In addition to operations, don't forget infrastructure such as offices, computers,

vehicles and other forms of infrastructure will be needed for use by policy

makers.

5. Provide narrative notes and appendices to explain budget assumptions to the

board. Pay attention to presentation of the budge to the financier. If it is poorly

presented, it will have little chances of being funded.


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1.5 Conclusion

Just like in any other organization, religious organizations need policies in order for

them to achieve their mission, goals and objectives. Without policies, they cannot

achieve their visions however good they may be. Policies need to be implemented

through specific strategies and tactics.

Religious organizations in Kenya, especially the Pentecostals and the charismatics,

have of late been having a lot of issues that are contrary to the law. There has been a

Laissez Faire scenario, which clearly is an indicator that there are no objective and

legal inside policy frameworks within these organizations. At the same time, the

existing government public policies on religious organizations are inadequate and

those already existing under chapter 108 laws of Kenya are not fully put into effect.

There is therefore the need to ensure that organizations have their own policies which

must properly be enshrined in their constitutions. Further, the government needs to

come up with clear public policies to regulate religious organizations.

Public policies however, must not be formulated and implemented solely by the

government. They must be communicated well and sufficient negotiations done on the

same. For instance, the Attorney General of Kenya came up with new regulations for

religious organizations in Kenya. He wanted to implement them straight away on the

organizations, but there was resistance. The Kenya Anglican archbishop Eliud

Wabukala said the following to that effect: “The proposed regulations for religious

bodies are discriminatory against churches and should be withdrawn. Instead, the

government should engage in consultation with churches towards strengthening the

internal regulatory framework and other matters relating to church such as the

Marriage and registration Act” (Sunday Nation Newspaper, issue number 18210 of

Sunday 15th

February, page 13)

Drawing and implementing policies without substantial communication and

negotiations amounts to dictatorship, and such an approach may create a breach to

human rights and/or a total implementation failure. Thus the policies must be

implemented only after thorough consultation with the stakeholders. For this to

happen, adequate budgeting for the entire process of policy formulation,

communication, negotiations and implementation must prudently be in place.


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CHAPTER TWO

POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

2.1. Political Concepts and Frameworks

2.1.1 Political Concepts in Religious Organizations

Politics is the activities involved in getting and using power in public life, and being

able to influence decisions that affect a country or society (Joanna T. et al.,

2010:1132). Politics and power are closely linked, and that is why people get involved

in all activities that are calculated to making them get to power. Policies are also

linked to people in politics and holding power. They come up with policies and

cascade them to the followers for democratic negotiations. Sometimes because of

their power, they may force policies down to the people. Consequently, formation of

trade unions and religious organizations alliances has always been enhance for the

purposes of creating strong voices in negotiating public policies, created by those in

power.

2.1.1.1 Political concepts in the Old Testament

According to Gardner (1960:310), the starting point of understanding politics in

religious organizations especially Judaism Christianity, is the monotheistic belief of

one God who is the creator and the ruler of the entire universe and the Lord of

History. He is a God who stresses on the obedience to the kings and the execution of

justice in social economic life. Amos 5: 24 and Micah 6: 8 are instrumental in

presenting a conspicuous concept of politics from the divine realms. The government

was to be obeyed only to the extent that it did not interfere with the faith of the Jews.

Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego refused to obey bad policies of the

Babylonian politics.

2.1.1.2 Political concepts in Christianity

Whereas we are told that God demanded justice from the people, the New Testament

tells us to obey the government that is there because it is divine. The Old Testament

prophets wrote in an atmosphere of Israel‟s political government and theocracy. Israel

as a Nation was solely responsible for the politics and government, and to ensure that

the theocratic government was in place. But the New Testament writers, according to


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Gardner (1960:310), were within an environment of Pagan Kings, whose authority

people were told to obey. For instance, Paul in his letter to the Romans in Romans

13:1-2 wrote: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is

no authority except that which God has established. The Authorities that exist have

been established by God” Kenneth, B et al. (1985: 1726). And the author of first

Peter in 1Peter 2:13, 14) wrote: “Submit yourselves for the Lord‟s sake to every

authority instituted among men: whether to the King, as the supreme authority, or to

governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those

who do right” (Kenneth, B et al. 1985: 1891).

The New Testament writers noted that the government was there to punish the wrong

doers. Thus Christians were to obey and facilitate the governments‟ endeavors to

maintain peace. That however did not in any case mean that the Christians were to

obey everything including matters contrary to their faith. We find indicators in the

book of Acts that sometimes the apostles could firmly refuse to implement a

government‟s policy, if such a policy was found to be contrary to their sacred text.

2.1.2 Political Framework in Religious Organizations

“God‟s word is a treasure house of wisdom on economics, military power, war and

peace, international relations, social reform, social welfare, crime and punishment,

capital punishment, church and state – just about every issue you can imagine. While

God‟s word is not primarily a political textbook, it does frequently touch upon

political matters; and when it does so, it is just as inspired and accurate as when it

addresses any other topic. The Christian, who refuses to preach on such matters when

God‟s word plainly addresses them, is not presenting „the whole counsel of God‟”

(Eidsmoe, 1984: xi)

Religious organizations need to be aligned to the political issues of their day and to

keenly follow on how public policies are formulated and implemented. If the

organizations are not contented, they should demand that the policy issues be

subjected to clear communication and negotiation processes. To fail to do that is to

implement the scriptures only partially and in that case the whole truth of God would

not be complete.


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2.2 Evolution of Politics in Religious Organizations

According to Gardner, (1960: 310 - 340), the dominance attitude of the early church

was that of obedience to the government. They did this because they were few,

expected the rule of their savior as soon after His ascension, because, He would

overthrow the evil forces of the world. They also believed that since men were sinful,

they needed a government to cause them to do what was right. This was the spirit in

which Paul wrote Romans 3:3-5: “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right,

but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority?

Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God‟s servant designed to

do you good. But if you do wrong, then be afraid for he does not bear the sword for

nothing. He is God‟s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the

wrongdoer” (Kenneth, B et al. 1726).

When we look at 1 Peter 2: 13 -14, the writer is also asserting the need for the

government for the purpose of punishing those who do evil. Thus the early church

supported the existence of the government.

Altogether, it has to be clearly understood that according to Jesus Christ, Caesar only

needs to be rendered what belongs to him but cannot get what belongs to God such as

worship or compliance to evil practice simple because Caesar has declared (Mark 12:

17 and Revelation 13). We must also understand that the situation in which the

prophets and the New Testament writers wrote is different today. However, Christians

are not asked to engage in organized Political resistance. All that is required is non-

engagement with violence, spiritual resistance, and endurance under persecution.

2.3 Politics and Governance in Religious Organizations

2.3.1 Politics in Religious Organizations

The bible for instance, has a lot to say about politics and governance. Eidsmoe (1984)

says: “God‟s word has a lot to say about government, about crime and punishment,

about abortion, about National defense, about war and peace, about many political

issues that face us daily. Paul declared that he had „not shunned declaring unto you all

the counsel of God‟ (Acts 20:27). The fundamentalist who refuses to preach or


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consider what God‟s word has to say about politics is not declaring the whole counsel

of God and has a serious gap in his ministry” (Eidsmoe, 1984:56 ).

According to Rushdoony (1979), man has to exercise Dominion in the name of God,

and in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. We cannot surrender the world to

Satan. The world belongs to God and thus must continuously be put in order, socially,

culturally, economically and in all other best ways possible. “…The enlightenment by

its savage and long standing attack on biblical faith has brought about retreat of

Christianity from a full-orbed faith to a kind of a last ditch battle centering around the

doctrines of salvation and of the infallible scripture. The time has come for a full scale

offensive, and it has indeed began to bring every area of thought into captivity to

Christ, to establish the whole counsel of God and every implication of His infallible

word” (Rushdoony, 1979: 56).

But it is always said that politics is a dirty game. True, it may be a dirty game, but that

cannot prevent Religious organizations from getting involved in it. To stop

involvement is like doctors saying that he won‟t treat a patient of a cough because

he/she fears catching the disease! But it must be understood that just as God works in

us to save or transform humankind, he also can use us to change governments. Many

great men and women of God like David and Deborah participated fully in shaping

the destiny of their political environments. “ … Individuals such as Joseph (Prime

minister of Egypt); Daniel, (Prime Minister of Babylon and Persia); Esther (Queen of

Persia) and Ezra, the leader of Jews after Exile were all involved. And in the New

Testament there were believers in the Caesar‟s (a pagan king) household, which

probably was the civil service under Caesar (Philippians 4:22); and Erastus „the

chamberlain in the Roman Government (Romans 16:23). In Jeremiah 29: 4- 7, we are

told to work for peace in a secular state (like Babylon). The term peace in verse 7

means, Shalom, which has to do with welfare or Prosperity. This may refer to being in

Politics to achieve the same” Eidsmoe (1984: 54).

Thus we find the people in the Old and New Testaments getting involved in the

political affairs and holding positions of power in their nations. This scenario is

should thus be the case in religious organizations as long as it the people concerned

does not allow any situation to rob them of their religious faith in the process of


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instituting activities that are concerned with securing power and maintaining it

politically.

2.3.2 Governance in Religious Organizations

Governance is the manner in which power is exercised in the utilization of socio-

economic resources for sustainable human development. According to Wambui,

(2009), there are eight pillars of Governance. These are:

Consensus: All matters are best done when there is consensus and policies drawn

among the actors. Religious organizations are crumbling due to obscure consensus

among the members and their leaderships.

Effectiveness: Producing the Result that is wanted or intended; producing a successful

result. This is not seen in many religious organizations especially in the developing

countries.

Efficiency: This is the quality of doing things well with no waste of time or money.

Religious organizations all around the world are failures in the area of efficiency

(Joanna, 2010).

Participation: Every member of a religious organization or the stakeholder of such an

institution must participate in its governance processes.

Accountability: In a good, religious organization, everything, including time and

money must be accounted for. Many religious organizations in Kenya are not audited

due to resistance to accountability.

Responsiveness: What is the response rate say after some intelligence information

about any threat to a church split for instance? Failure by the bishop to take action on

demonic invasions in the church for instance can greatly inconvenience the ministry.

Rule of law: Rule of law is critical. It prevents injustices such as those mentioned in

the Torah, the prophets and the writings in the Old Testament scriptures


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Transparency: This deals with openness in all religious organizations and all

institutional set ups. Everything regarding the operations of an organization must be

clearly seen without obscurity.

2.4 Conclusion

Jesus recognized the government and its legitimate functions in terms of maintaining

order, collecting taxes, and adopting a monetary system. Paul sees the state as a God-

given institution, functioning to protect the good and restrain and evil doer. And since

the state is God‟s instrument to promote order and well-being, it is the consequent

duty of all people to support it by being good citizens, paying taxes and honoring

those in power, with acceptance and submission. However, if there is a bad rule from

the state, the church cannot embrace absolute submission for Christians must obey

God rather than men! This is because the primary duty of religious organizations to

the state is to be what they are; namely, to witness for their God, to propagate the

stipulations of their sacred scriptures, to confess the faith, to teach their members to

observe the sacred stipulations, and to serve the nation by proclaiming the will of their

God as the supreme standard of life.

On its part, the state has the duty to provide the essential conditions for the religious

organizations, to fulfill its functions to the fullest extent. Thus, religious

organizations should enjoy freedom to determine their faith and creed; freedom of

worship, preaching and teaching; from any imposition by the state of religious

ceremonies and forms of worship; freedom to determine the nature of its government

and the qualifications of its ministers and members and conversely, the freedom of the

individuals to join the religious organization to which he/she feels called; freedom to

control the education of its ministers, to give religious instruction to its people and

provide adequate development of missionary activity, both home and foreign;

freedom to co-operate with other churches; freedom to use such facilities, open to all

citizens or associations as will make possible the accomplishment of these ends, as

e.g. ownership of property and the collection of funds.

And as part of the citizenry, Religious Organizations have the duty to be intelligent, to

understand the nature and processes of government, participate in the selection of

public officials e.g. the MPs and the County representatives, the governors, the


22

senators, the president, and to participate in the formation of public policy. To achieve

a good government, we must choose individuals with the following qualifications: a

good character devoid of fraudulent backgrounds, Good academic qualifications with

civil righteousness, divine righteousness, and Party affiliations because his party

matter a lot, and his stand on issues.

Religious organizations should also endeavor to work for the extension of justice,

freedom and equality to all citizens, regardless of race, color or creed. The tribalism

found in Kenya is an abomination to God and those promoting it will not go

unpunished! They should serve in places of political leadership, for which one is

qualified, regardless of the criticism, which may be forthcoming, challenge and

criticize any force in the society which tends to deny basic human rights or to run

counter to the claims of God and align themselves with any other organization which

seek to strengthen and spiritual and moral fiber of the individual and the nation


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CHAPTER THREE

LEADERSHIP IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

3.1 Leadership in various organizations

It is critical to note that policy formulation requires proper leadership, for without

such, an organization cannot have sound internal policies to govern itself and to be in

a position to implement public policies affecting it.

3.1.1 The Concept of Leadership

Due to its intricacy, „leadership‟ is one of the most overt but least understood

phenomena on earth. It confuses scholars on whether all it pertains is mobilization,

goal setting, inspiration, or just influencing followers to attain goals. Leadership as a

social phenomenon is found in all places, including schools, colleges, universities,

homes, public and private entities, religious organizations, and in many other places.

Leadership may exist both formally or informally, based on various premises.

Several people have defined leadership in various ways: Frances Hesselbein (2002)

described leadership as a matter of „how to be‟ and „not how to do‟; because many a

times we spend much time learning how to do things, instead of how to be and as a

result we fail to do things right because of our entangling character. This is why it is

critical to have ethics entrenched on the issues of doing things. Corruption is thriving

in Kenyan leadership for instance, because its leadership is not based on „how to be‟

but „how to do‟. Former United States president Harry Truman (1884–1972) defined

leadership as the ability to get people do things that they otherwise never liked and

still like and do it (Alan, 2004). Peter Northouse (2012) defined leadership as the

process of influencing people to do things in order to achieve a common goal. Heifetz

et al. (2009) described leadership as the ability to make people to adapt to various

changes, by mobilizing them through various activities.

By looking at the above definitions, one has to not that Leadership is an elusive

concept, difficult of define. Sometimes the term is used to refer to the attributes of a

person, other times the term may refer to social dimensions that involve influencing

followers. Sometimes leadership also may refer to interactions between the influencer

and the influenced, agreeing to move on a certain direction in order to achieve their


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desired goals as seen in democratic governments. In religious organizations and in

business, a leadership style called „transformational leadership‟ is often the most

effective approach to use. Transformational leaders have integrity, they inspire people

with a shared vision of the future, they set clear goals and motivate people towards

them, they manage delivery, and they communicate well with their teams. However,

leadership is not „one size fits all‟ thing; often, one must adapt his style according to a

situation or the group being led. Thus a thorough understanding of other leadership

styles is critical for a serious leader.

All styles of leadership may involve the definition of a leader which I posit here as

follows: Leadership is a discipline that deliberately exerts ethically fit influences to

followers within an entity, in order to move them toward goals of beneficial

permanence that fulfills that entity‟s real needs.

3.1.2 The evolving view of Leadership

Leadership has evolved over time, with notable stages marked as the personality era,

the influence era and the transformational era:

The Personality Era: Van and Field (1990), two leadership scholars made an analysis

on how leadership theories have evolved over time from 19th

century. They divided

the theories into phases of „Great man Period‟ and „Trait period‟. The Great man

period focuses on great leaders in history and their personalities based on the

assumption that the way to becoming a great leader is to study the lives of those great

men and consequently emulate them. The only problem with this great man approach

is that these great leaders such as Churchill and Gandhi had very different dispositions

and secondly, studying a person‟s personality and being able to copy it is also another

thing together. Scholars have however failed to establish the link between effective

leadership and any trait or traits. This notwithstanding, this approach is still copied by

many business executives.

The Influence Era: This posits the notion that leadership is best understood by looking

at relationships between individuals and that it is never understood by just studying

leader. The influence era is further subdivided into two periods namely the power

relations period and the persuasion period. In the power relations period, explanations


25

are interrogated and where power comes from and how it gets used, and in the

persuasion period, explanation is sought on how the leader ascends to power through

the exercise of persuasion skills. The third phase goes to a different angle by studying

what leaders actually do by looking at a particular leader‟s behaviour pattern and the

differences in behaviours that there are between effective and ineffective leaders.

The Transformational Era: Van Seters and Field describe the transformational era as

the most recent and the most promising era in the evolutionary theory. This era

describes the leader‟s behaviour during the organizational transitional period and the

crafting of the desired future state of the organization and procuring the change

commitment from employees.

The transformational era is subdivided into Charisma Period and the Self Fulfilling

Prophecy Period. Charisma period focuses into a strong executive leadership which

creates vision and empowers the followers to execute it. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Period focuses in the manner in which effective transformational leadership creates

the building of positive expectations.

3.1.3 Leadership Approaches in religious organizations

There are several approaches to leadership, depending on what the organization is

doing, the inside and outside circumstances under which the organization is existing,

and the character of the followers:

People Oriented/Relation-Oriented leadership approach: This type of leadership is

basically focused on the welfare of people and motivating teams. The leader regards

the interests of the teams highly. The advantage of this method of leadership is that

there is high performance because people feel a sense of belonging and are willing to

take business risks because they know that the leader and fellow team members care.

The downside of this approach is that the tasks performance may delay because the

religious leaders is for the welfare of his „members‟ for instance, instead of focusing

on the tasks of the religious organization.

Task Oriented leadership approach: In this leadership approach, the leader is only

interested in the task being performed and doesn‟t have much with the implementing


26

team. This approach is quite beneficial such that it can always meet deadlines. The

disadvantage of this method is that it is not staff focused and thus it can cause massive

demotivation because it may omit the welfare of the staff in its equation.

Bureaucratic leadership approach: Bureaucratic leadership works strictly by the laid

down strategies of policy implementation. The stipulations must be adhered to

without question or flexibility. This kind of leadership is best suited in situations

where people work with machines for instance in the manufacturing industry and in

scenarios where large amounts of money are in use. The mainstream religious

organizations have some form of bureaucratic leadership in their conduct of liturgies

and sacrifices. This method is good where rectification of mistakes is time consuming

and expensive. The upside down of this method is that it negates creativity and

flexibility due to its conservative nature.

Transactional leadership approach: In transaction leadership, people make

„transactions‟ aimed at obeying their leaders for some reward. When they obey, they

are rewarded and if they disobey they get punished. This approach may be critical in

achieving certain unique goals. Some religious organizations such as Islam have this

kind of approach whereby stipulations are kept according to their religious traditions

and everyone has to follow the stipulations. This has the advantage of preserving

Islam unlike Christianity where everyone wants to do whatever they want without

being questioned. However, these kinds of stipulations makes this leadership

approach look like a management endeavor because the leader cannot creatively come

up with new policies apart from implementing the ones agreed upon with the

followers.

Autocratic leadership approach: Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of

transactional leadership where the leaders have great power over their followers. The

followers implement the policies drawn by an autocrat without much questioning.

Most of the many religious organizations especially the Pentecostals and the

charismatics have their founders embracing this approach. The main advantage of this

approach is that it sees a very quick achievement of the organizations‟ goals and

objectives but leaves the followers demoralized due to lack of consultations among all

stakeholders.


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Charismatic leadership approach: Charismatic leadership has some relations with the

autocratic leadership such that the leader, an aggressive one, works it all through,

leading with a lot of enthusiasm to attain certain goals within the policies of an

organization. Charismatic leaders are non-transformative to their teams and instead

focus on themselves only. Many company CEOs are of this type and can achieve a lot

within a short time. The downside of this kind of leadership is that the organization

can easily collapse in the absence of this self-styled leader.

Democratic/Participative leadership approach: This may be the best type of

leadership. It ensures that everyone is involved in policy formulation and

implementation. People feel a sense of belonging and are generally satisfied, because

all decisions are made by them. The downside part of this approach is that decisions

can be delayed because of the peoples‟ failure to make meetings quorums or failure to

agree due to differences in their ideologies.

Transformational leadership approach: Transformational leadership is basically the

best to use in most of the business premises. Transformational leadership aims at the

best from the teams and the leaders themselves. This gives rise to high performance

within teams. But as the teams are highly motivated, the leader may lack someone to

motivate him. So this method may best be used together with another one such as the

transactional leadership.

Servant leadership approach: Servant leadership involves the art of the leader

meeting the needs of the team as he leads them. He democratically involves all

people in decision making and is generous. The servant leader often leads „from

behind‟ and allows the followers allow them to gain recognition for their

achievements. This can create high morale among team members but the downside of

it is that unfit decisions can be made by the teams without the intervention of the

servant leader. Servant leaders can also be left behind by leaders using other

approaches.

Laissez Faire leadership Approach: The term Laissez Faire is French in meaning and

it implies a „leave it be‟ approach. In this approach, leaders leave their followers a

lone to perform independently and offer advice only when it is absolutely needed.


28

This type of approach is good when the people under the leaders are substantially

experienced in the policy implementation. This approach is good in the sense that it

motivates the people under the leader to be highly productive, but it can be very

disadvantageous if the staff has no skills or is inexperienced. Religious organizations

may not variously embrace this form of leadership because of poor diversity in skills

and experience. If this approach is embraced there may be a disadvantage of these

organizations becoming lawless and cultic.

3.2 Leadership Theories and Frameworks

Many researchers have done research on various aspects of leadership. Yukl (1994:

11-15) identifies aspects of leadership research in terms of basically four theories:

(i) The power-influence theory

(ii) The behavior theory

(iii)The trait theory

(iv) The situational theory

The power influence theory: Power is the ability to exert force in order to accomplish

a set purpose. Power can best be practiced when one is in leadership. How is power

used to sway others, not only the followers but also the peers? The power influence

approach looks at how much a leader could influence followers based on the power he

possesses. Yukl, 1994 says: “This approach searches to explain leadership

effectiveness in terms of the amount and kind of power possessed by the leader and

how that power is exercised” (Yukl 1994; 13)

People who are in power have little problems in influencing people to follow them

and act on a task, including making the people accept policies with ease. Social

psychologists French & Raven (1959) identified five forms of power as follows:

(i) Legitimate: This emanates from the fact that a person has the right to make

demand because he is in power and expect obedience from the

subordinates.

(ii) Reward: This emanates from the notion of reinforcing the obedience

behaviour.

(iii) Expert: This power is acquired through one attaining superior skills,

knowledge and experience.


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(iv) Referent This form of power is derived from the notion of one‟s right to

be respected and obeyed.

(v) Coercive This is based on the premise that the leader can punish

those who don‟t comply

All these forms of power fall under the theory of power influence approach. We hear

of African leaders clinging to power even after their term is over. This is because of

the influence power has. Even in Religious organizations, leaders cling to power

because of the influence they command and thus privileges.

Behavioral theory: Researchers started in-depth studies in behaviorism in the subject

of psychology. Behaviours such as autocratic or democratic could be seen in

individuals. Others could be seen with laissez-faire inclinations. They associated

one‟s leadership with his behaviour. In Kenya, an administrative location‟s chief

could be very fitting if he/she had the autocratic behaviour in dealing with areas prone

to illicit brews. Democratic leaders could do best in religious organizations.

The trait Approach theory: This theory argues that leaders are what they are because

of their individual traits such as aggressiveness, physical vitality, intelligence and

judgment-in-action, competence, skills when dealing with people, ability to motivate,

courage and many other traits. This of course has truth to certain great extents,

because such individuals are easily trained and oriented into leadership. Religious

organizations leaders who sustain their organizations could be having certain type „A‟

traits that makes them hold on despite hardships in those organizations.

The situational –Contingency theory: According to A. K. Korman (1966) who

reviewed more than 25 top management and leadership studies that existed in his

time, no one leadership theory or approach can effectively serve in leadership because

leadership type must keep sufficing according to situation. This suggests, according to

Hersey et al, (1995 p148) that since situations change, so must leadership styles and

approaches. Yukl (1994 pp. 13-14) says that the situation approach is brought about

by several factors including the type of work an organization does, the external and

internal circumstances under which such work is executed, and the disposition or

character of the followers. This is true for religious organizations too.


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3.4 Human Resource Management in Religious Organizations

3.4.1 The concept of Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management, according to Bowin & Harvey (2001) can be defined

as the management of activities undertaken to attract, develop, motivate and maintain

a high performing work force within an organization.

It is the people who produce goods and services, market the same and carry out the

duties of selling. They do all this in these turbulent times where everything is

changing and many emerging issues occurring. That is why human resource

management is critical if an organization will want to aim to be relevant.

3.4.2 History of Human Resource Management

The 1st stage of HR management started with a few employers and philanthropists

who were driven by the desire to motivate their employees through incentives and

better working environments.

The 2nd

stage of HRM development came about during the 1st world war. There was

an acute labor shortage./ For the purpose of enhancing industrial staffing , the

governments of Europe and USA started laying more emphasis on employer-

employee relations. This led to better approaches and understanding of the roles of

HR managers.

The 3rd

stage came about as a result of the 1930s and 40s development of various

management theories. This was so especially because these theories were

amalgamated into social sciences.

By 1960s, human Resource Management had fully sufficed as an independent

discipline. This discipline therefore had to demand a full attention by specialized

managers. Company procedures Human resource planning, job analysis, recruitment

and selection, employment, orientation, training, salary skills, industrial relations, etc.

were put in place. The accelerating changes, especially in the 1980s and 90s have

continued to refine HRM as an entity. The HRM fire has even the more been

aggregated by the hyper turbulent environments of the 21st century.


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3.4.3 Functions of Human Resource Management

Human resource management deals with four broad functions as follows, according to

Decenzo & Robbins (1999:22):

HR acquisition: HR acquisition basically involves human resource planning, job

analysis, recruitment and selection. HR acquisition is normally considered as

concluded, when the selected job applicants are finally settled and adapted to the

organization‟s work environment and culture

HR Development: Some employees have only the minimum qualifications when they

enter an organization. And even those competent, will not remain competent forever.

Others, with the hyper turbulent environment full of accelerating changes, find their

prowess obsolete with time. HR development function thus deals with the employee

training, management development and career development.

HR Motivation: Ability and motivation are the two ingredients of high performance.

Many employees have high skills but they do not necessarily apply them to the

organization unless the motivation factor suffices. Therefore the employee intrinsic

factors such as achievement, recognition and responsibility from their work should be

in place. Extrinsically, factors such job design, working conditions and job security

must be seen as satisfactory. Other factors of motivation include the performance

appraisal outcomes. The rewards or punishments that emanate from the performance

appraisal play a big part in increasing or decreasing motivation. HR motivation aims

at attaining high performance through requisite motivation of the personnel

HR maintenance: The objective of this last function is to retain the performers. This

entails safe and healthful working conditions and satisfactory labor relations. If all

this is done we can expect to have employees who can stay and be satisfied with their

jobs.

3.5 Legal issues & Ethical considerations in Religious organizations

In organizations, rules governing values and ethics are normally put in place, in order

to ensure that the organization is smoothly offering goods and/or services. People are

oriented to these rules on their entry to the organization and any breach to any of them

results into disciplinary action. Integrity and honesty are to be embraced by any


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follower in an organization and everyone is normally required to account for their

actions:

3.6 Transparency & Accountability in Religious organizations

Transparency deals with openness in all institutional set ups, while accountability

implies that everything including time and money must be monitored and put into

good use. Accountability has to do with the mutual obligation between the leader and

the follower. Many organizations fail because they can account for their materials,

finances, time and staff. Formulation of policies and implementation vide strategic

plans and tactics with clear budgets helps a lot to monitor the components of

transparency and accountability.

3.7 Conclusion

Leadership as a social phenomenon is found in all places, including schools, colleges,

universities, homes, public and private entities, religious organizations, and in many

other places. Leadership has evolved over time, and that is what makes any of its

definitions definition to be inadequate. Leadership can assume any approach/style

depending on its theoretical framework. But whatever approach or theory adopted in

leadership under whatever circumstance, human resource must be acquired,

developed, motivated and maintained to ensure for the ethically and legally smooth

running under proper transparent and accountability mechanisms.


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