Do Leadership Styles Influence the Health Status of Leaders in a Religious Organisation in Central Jamaica?

Abstract

For centuries, the issues of health and leadership have been examined as two separate phenomena, which means that health was never a factor in leadership research. Leadership was conceptualized and studied within the constructivist paradigm, focusing on major leadership types—transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. However Avolio and Bass (1995) developed a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to examine the aforementioned leadership types quantitatively. Health, on the other hand, was initially measured from an objective perspective, which has been somewhat replaced by self-reported assessment as developed by RAND corporation—SF-36. This study is a response to the recommendations from researchers for studies to be undertaken in the area of the health of leaders, which would place health in the leadership discourse. The current study will examine the health status of leaders who serve in certain religious organizationsin Central Jamaica (St. Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester). Given the enormous responsibility of leaders in religious and educational institutions, an objective study of their health is critical to understanding and planning for these cohorts. This study seeks to provide empirical findings that will close the gaps in 1) the health status of leaders in Jamaica, 2) health status and its influence on leadership styles among a group of leaders in religious, and 3) whether leadership styles should be considered a potential social determinant of health. A standardized instrument using the MLQ, SF-36 and other items will be used to collect data, and these will be entered into the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences. The data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate analyses, and factor analysis.