Abstract
Nowadays, flexibility and rapid changes, leaders care for the needs of the
individual, aim at commitment of individuals by addressing at their feelings and spirits,
share what they learn with their subordinates and encourages them to produce new ideas
and creative solutions, try to develop values like respect, love and altruism in the
organization (Shamir, 2001:112). So, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) isn‟t enough to be
successful in leadership. Successful leaders should have other qualities, too. One of them
is Spiritual Intelligence (SQ). Spiritual Intelligence ensures leaders to encourage the
employee towards organizational goals by observing their spirits, meeing their needs and
motivating them by showing meaningful and valuable things.
The aim of this study is to investigate “spiritual intelligence”. In the direction to
this aim, spiritual intelligence is defined, spiritual intellince in leadership is explained.
Also there is a field reseach in the study. Because of restricted studies on this topic
(Aydıntan, 2009), this study expected to contribute to the literature on spiritual
intelligence inTurkey. As a result leaders express that they own the characteristics of
spiritual intelligence. This research indicates the importance of spiritual intelligence in
leadership and provides knowledge for further studies
The first researchers of spiritual intelligence were Danah Zohar and Ian
Marshall. According to Zohar and Marshall (2000), although spiritual intelligence was a
sort of ability that is as old as the history of humanity, the mankind does not have much
knowledge about it since the science is not yet ready for the situations that cannot be
measured objectively.
Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) is a sort of intelligence which include IQ
(Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Inteligence) and it is beyond these
intelligences (Bozdağ, 2005: 18). There are two reasons for this: The first is, it ensures to
ask the question, “why”, and the second is, it is accepted as a connection for the other
types of intelligence.
According to Nasel (2004), Spiritual intelligence is the application of spiritual
abilities and resources to practice. People use spiritual intelligence to make meaningful
decisions, deliberate over existential issues, or attempt problem solving in daily life
(King, 2008: 46).
The spiritual intelligence mentions a “broad love” flows through the hearts. It
was found out after many studies and event analysis that, leaders easily use the word,
“love” in the management of their motivation. The word, “encourage” which is one of the
most significant functions of leaders originates from the word in Latin “heart”. Leaders
inspire others with courage when they encourage them by appreciation and celebration.
Researches have shown that the most successfully hidden secret of leaders is the “love”
(Kouzes and Posner, 1995:305).
Characteristics of spiritual intelligence are “self-consciousness,
spontaneousness, wholism, greeting differences, area independence, asking fundamental
questions (tendency to radical questioning), ability to redesign and modesty, affection”
(Zohar, 2004: 40-45).
Leadership is a deliberate choice that makes aiming at positive change. In this
choice leaders have the characteristic of self-consciousness of the spiritual intelligence. Leaders query themselves and their lives through the aid of their spiritual intelligence to
realize this change, and try to change the things they dislike (Bender, 2000:21).
Affection is one of the characteristics of the spiritual intelligence (Zohar, 2004:
40-45). According to Alexander Lucia, employees working in today‟s organizations want
to be more listened, understood and helped than ever, namely they need affection. Thus,
leaders must listen to employees and develop empathy to be more effective, in other
words, they must have “big ears and hearts” (Lucia, 1997:25).
Another characteristic of the spiritual intelligence is integrative thinking
(wholism) (Zohar, 2004: 40-45). Bender (2000: 34) separated the leadership into two as
internal and external leadership, and argued that internal leaders were more integrative
since they integrated the “heart” and the “mind”.
The leaders who appreciate the differences of the characteristics of employees
and welcome them can convert these differences to opportunities for the organization
(Acar, 2001:60). Thus, leaders practise the characteristic of greeting the differences of the
spiritual intelligence.
The characteristic of area independence of the spiritual intelligence is a
psychological term that means the individual knows his beliefs, lives with them, think
separately from the assumptions and beliefs of others and becomes aware of wrong beliefs
and it is described as the ability to stand against the crowded even if it causes isolation or
being unpopular (Zohar, 2004:40-45).
Modesty being another characteristic of the spiritual intelligence is described as
a concept that awakens the feeling of a deep gratitude to the ones who help people or the
life itself (Zohar, 2004:40-45).
The success of the leader does not arise from his theoretic investigation of
management, but also from his success in his instinctive humanistic talent (Alder, 2002:
182). This situation shows similar characteristic with the spontaneousness characteristic
of spiritual intelligence.
Additionally, the spiritual intelligence is explained as a type of intelligence that
provides leaders with the ability of taking lesson from failures and convert problems into
opportunity. This situation shows similar characteristics with the characteristic of asking
fundamental questions and ability to redesign of spiritual intelligence
The aim of this research is to evaluate the spiritual intelligence of leaders and
provide knowledge to academicians and practitioners that “what extent today‟s leaders
agree with the considerations about the spiritual intelligence”. In the direction of this aim,
a research that includes the leaders of 11 organizations which are registered in Kayseri
Chamber of Commerce takes place in this part of the study. The study will be carried out
on 100 leaders who work in different levels of management/leadership in the
organizations that operate in Kayseri Industrial Zone. The reason why the research was
conducted in Kayseri is that Kayseri is one of the most significant industrial cities in
Turkey.
A survey was applied on the leaders to collect the data for the study in line with
the aim. The results of the survey were analyzed through SPSS (Statistical Package for
Social Sciences) packaged software.
It is observed that most of the leaders response as, “I agree” with the
judgements about the characteristics of the spiritual intelligence in Table 1. “I absolutely
agree”, on the other hand, is the second popular answer. This situation indicates the
significance of the spiritual intelligence in the leadership, and shows that the participant leaders think that they are spiritually intelligent. Spiritual intelligence is a recently studied
concept. Thus, studies on this subject are inadequate yet, it is understood from the
answers of the survey that, leaders are sensitive to spiritual intelligence.
Leaders should meet emotional and spiritual needs of their employees as well as
their physical needs so that they can lead them to synchronize their goals with the goals of
the organization. Leaders must have the abilities of spiritual intelligence, besides
intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence to achieve these goals. Spiritual
intelligence is a type of intelligence that can help leaders to establish the goals of the
organization by looking through the point of view of spiritual intelligence, and address to
the soul of the “human” that is the most important factor in organizations.
Spiritual intelligence of leaders must be developed so that they can realize an
efficient leadership style in their organizations. Leaders must know the characteristics of
the spiritual intelligence and carry the applications that develop themselves to their
organizations.
Abstract
Günümüzdeki esneklik, hareketlilik ve hızlı değişimler, liderlikte başarı için zihinsel zekanın (IQ) yetmeyeceği ve başarılı liderlerin başka birtakım yeteneklere sahip olması gerektiği fikrini ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu yeteneklerden bir tanesi de ruhsal zeka (SQ)’dır. Ruhsal zeka, liderlerin, çalışanları örgütsel amaçların gerçekleştirilmesi yönünde teşvik edebilmeleri için onların ruh hallerini gözlemleyip, ruhsal ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilmelerini ve onlara anlamlı ve değerli olan şeyleri göstererek motive olmalarını sağlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada, liderlikte ruhsal zeka kavramsal olarak incelenmiş ve liderlerin ruhsal zeka özellikleri ile ilgili bir alan araştırması yapılmıştır. Araştırma bulgularına göre liderler ruhsal zeka ile ilgili yargılara genellikle katılmaktadırlar. Bu bulgular, liderlikte ruhsal zekanın önemine işaret etmekte, ilerde yapılacak araştırmalar için bilgi sağlamaktadır.
Keywords
Details
| Other ID | JA68NB63MP |
|---|---|
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | December 1, 2013 |
| Submission Date | December 1, 2013 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2013 Volume: 13 Issue: 26 |
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