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RESEARCH PROFILE FOR A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN 1

A Research Profile for A Qualitative Research Design

Arnita Norman

School of Doctor of Education Christian Leadership/Ministry Leadership, Liberty University

Author Note

Arnita Norman

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to

Arnita Norman

Email: [email protected]

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Research Problem and Gap

Cultural intelligence is an important element for church leaders who administer in

multicultural environments. Van Dyne, Ang, and Livermore (2010) define cultural intelligence

as the ability to function effectively across various cultural contexts. Unless and until church

leadership becomes intentional in developing cross-cultural relationships and partnerships,

fostering diverse leadership, and elevating such leadership to platform positions, very little will

change in the life of the church. Drawing on the theory of multiple loci of intelligence by

Sternberg and Detterman (1986), the concept of cultural intelligence alongside the key

dimensions of CQ will be described in detail to understand the study area.

Literature Review

There appears to be a lack of understanding of C.Q. and its relationship to leadership

styles and leadership effectiveness (Brannen, 2016). In the absence of such understanding, it is

probable that, in this age of increased global and domestic cross-cultural exchanges, the church

community's selection of leaders may be detrimental to their enterprises. While some people are

born to be leaders in their own culture, leaders who can deal productively in cross-cultural

circumstances must be developed (Solomon & Steyn, 2017). The determination of required

talents, as repeated by leader C.Q., is still unknown.

Furthermore, churches must choose and nurture leaders who can capitalize on diverse

people's unique skills and competencies rather than strive to homogenize them. As a result, a

multicultural workforce provides benefits like improved customer service, greater decision-

making and innovation, and creative thinking and productivity gains (Aldhaheri, 2017). To this

aim, the performance of the workforce is a critical factor in determining whether a company is a

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success or a failure. As a result, affirm that managing talent is a top priority for executives all

over the world. It has a similar argument to make.

On the other hand, the research has primarily focused on managing cultural differences

rather than optimizing them, as evidenced by the scant attention paid to leader C.Q. Many

churches spend more than a third of their training budgets on leadership development, but the

upskilling of leaders to be effective in culturally diverse leadership positions remains

unsatisfactory, according to the report (Ahmad & Saidalavi 2019). This is concerning since

competent, culturally aware leaders are in great demand but scarce supply.

Improving Your C.Q. To Engage the Multicultural World (youth, family, and culture)

Christians must understand different cultures and communicate effectively between and

among them in twenty-first-century society (Holtbrügge & Engelhard, 2016). This new edition to

the Youth, Family, and Culture series builds on the bestselling Hurt: Inside the World of Today's

Teenagers by examining the much-needed talent of Cultural Intelligence (C.Q.), the capacity to

function effectively across national, ethnic, and even workplace cultures. Cultural Intelligence is

highly practical and accessible to broad readers, despite its good, scholarly research foundation.

It will assist both students and ministry leaders who want to improve their cultural awareness and

sensitivity (Livermore, 2009). Cultural Intelligence is jam-packed with evaluation tools,

simulations, case studies, and activities to help individuals and organizations become successful

intercultural communicators of the gospel.

Few things in life are more fundamental than showing love and respect to others who

look, think, believe, act, and see things differently than we do. We want to adapt to the plethora

of cultures surrounding us while staying loyal to ourselves (Puyod & Charoensukmongkol,

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2019). We want to be changed by the world to be a part of changing the world. And we want to

go from wanting to love across cultural divides to expressing our love for different individuals.

What it means to be human is to relate to our fellow humans lovingly. When it boils down to it,

Christian ministry is all about interacting with people of all kinds in ways that show them Jesus

in us. The billions of people that share our planet have a lot in common. Every one of us is born.

We are all going to die. We were all formed in God's likeness. We eat, sleep, and work.

Cultural Intelligence and Church Leadership

Cultural intelligence is becoming more widely regarded as a crucial skill for church

leaders who desire to serve in diverse congregations. "An individual's skill to function and

govern well in culturally varied environments" is defined as "cultural intelligence." Culturally

intelligent people must be able to switch across national contexts and learn new practices. To put

it another way, to lead a diverse church effectively, a person must confront their ethnocentrism,

prejudice, and bias. The culturally intelligent leader can suspend personal judgments that lead to

ethnocentrism, prejudice, and bias, allowing them to understand, relate to, and motivate people

from various social groups toward organizational goals, thereby mitigating intercultural social

integration challenges.

When it comes to intercultural leadership, senior pastors in diversity-oriented churches

exemplify principles for diversity within the Church on observable factors (race, age, gender, and

ethnicity) and culture, ability, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class at every level. Leaders

of churches that value diversity are more likely to approach these issues from reconciliation and

justice. Leaders of homogeneous churches, on the other hand, may strive to stay away from them

entirely. According to Leander (2014), different findings relate to cultural intelligence to

effective leadership in diversity oriented-churches. Senior pastors in diversity-oriented

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congregations who expressed a greater desire to learn about other cultures and communicate with

people from other cultures than senior pastor’s inhomogeneous churches. Secondly, as the senior

pastor's cultural intelligence grew, the top-management team's receptivity to variety in diversity-

oriented churches (Hendrickson, 2016). As a result, the senior pastor's cultural intelligence was

positively associated with the ministry team's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. In addition, senior

pastors in diversity-oriented congregations influenced the corporate diversity climate by defining

a vision for diversity and integrating it with inclusive leadership practices.

As multiculturalism becomes more prevalent in the Church in many nations, there will be

a more significant demand for qualified intercultural pastors. Leaders of diversity-oriented

churches, like many other instances of outstanding leadership, must live and preach what they

believe about diversity to fulfill Christ's mission (Ang, Ng, & Rockstuhl, 2020). The good news

is that intercultural leadership competencies may be developed via ongoing self-reflection,

personal reconciliation, and purposeful, intimate interactions with a diverse group of people.

Effectiveness of servant leadership

Servant leadership is still one of the most effective leadership styles today. Principals that

represent this leadership paradigm support and enable teachers while also demonstrating a

willingness to foster a sense of community inside the school (Lanctot & Irving, 2010). Teachers

become more effective when they are honored and served by their principal, which has a

beneficial impact on students, colleagues, and parents. Servant leaders frequently prioritize

organizational needs before personal interests, and they value people over programs and politics.

Students benefit from this leadership strategy in the long run because their teachers learn to serve

them as people first, then confidently guide them into their learning (Schroeder, 2016).

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In their schools, principals who model servant leadership boost teacher effectiveness. To

optimize the servant leadership paradigm, principals must grasp the servant leadership function

of modeling a servant heart, enabling teachers to act, encouraging teachers' hearts, and

expressing a broader vision (McNeff & Irving, 2017). Servant leadership improves teacher

effectiveness through influencing their personal beliefs and values, interactions with coworkers,

classroom leadership and pedagogy, and desire and capacity to develop school communities. So

that an understandable perspective can be maintained throughout this paper. The concept of

servant leadership and the accompanying personal traits will be established, and incorrect

notions about it will be disclosed (McMahone, 2012). Servant leadership is multi-faceted, and

more principals need to comprehend it to see its potential to improve teacher effectiveness,

restructure schools, and satisfy organizational goals.

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References

Ahmad, S., & Saidalavi, K. (2019). Cultural intelligence and leadership effectiveness in global

workplaces. International Journal on Leadership, 7(1), 1.

Aldhaheri, A. (2017). Cultural intelligence and leadership style in the education

sector. International Journal of Educational Management.

Ang, S., Ng, K. Y., & Rockstuhl, T. (2020). Cultural intelligence.

Brannen, J. C. (2016). The relationship between cultural intelligence and transformational

leadership: A study of people leaders (Doctoral dissertation, The University of the

Rockies).

Hendrickson, C. S. (2016). Interpretive Leadership and Cultural Intelligence. In Pathways for

Ecclesial Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 101-114). Palgrave Macmillan, New

York.

Holtbrügge, D., & Engelhard, F. (2016). Study abroad programs: Individual motivations, cultural

intelligence, and the mediating role of cultural boundary spanning. Academy of

Management Learning & Education, 15(3), 435-455.

Lanctot, J. D., & Irving, J. A. (2010). Character and leadership: Situating servant leadership in a

proposed virtues framework. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 6(1), 28-50.

Leander, A. B. (2014). Intercultural leadership: A mixed-methods study of leader cultural

intelligence and leadership practices in diversity-oriented churches. Eastern University.

Livermore, D. A. (2009). Cultural intelligence (youth, family, and culture): Improving your

C.Q. to engage our multicultural world. Baker Academic.

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McMahone, M. (2012). Servant Leadership as a Teachable Ethical Concept. American Journal of

Business Education, 5(3), 339-346.

McNeff, M. E., & Irving, J. A. (2017). Job satisfaction and the priority of valuing people: A case

study of servant leadership practice in a network of family-owned companies. SAGE

Open, 7(1), 2158244016686813.

Puyod, J. V., & Charoensukmongkol, P. (2019). The contribution of cultural intelligence to the

interaction involvement and performance of call center agents in cross-cultural

communication: The moderating role of work experience. Management Research Review.

Schroeder, B. (2016). The effectiveness of servant leadership in schools from a Christian

perspective. B.U. Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, 8(2), 13-18.

Solomon, A., & Steyn, R. (2017). Leadership style and leadership effectiveness: Does cultural

intelligence moderate the relationship?. Acta Commercii, 17(1), 1-13.

Sternberg, R. J., & Detterman, D. K. (1979). Human intelligence.

Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., & Livermore, D. (2010). Cultural intelligence: A pathway for leading in

a rapidly globalizing world. Leading across differences, 4(2), 131-138.

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