Assignement introduction Leadership Styles of U.S. Catholic.pdf

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

Introduction

Wilson and Scarpa (2015) defined child sexual abuse “as any form of sexual act

against children under 18 years old” (p. 164). The issue of child sexual abuse anywhere

in society cannot be taken lightly. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States and

around the world has suffered greatly due to the actions of some members of the clergy

abusing children and young people. In this study, I explored U.S. Catholic priests’

perceptions of the leadership styles of U.S. Catholic bishops in relation to how they

handled the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church. To document and analyze the

leadership styles exhibited by the bishops I focused on transformational, transactional,

charismatic, and servant leadership in this study.

The impact of individual leadership styles in affecting change is important to all

organizations in need of adapting to the changing dynamics and complexities of the

world. Understanding the best form of leadership style for a certain organizational setting

is among the challenges of leadership style in public and private sectors. The U.S.

Catholic bishops used their leadership authority in handling the child sexual abuse

scandal in an effort to make a positive change and to create a safe environment for young

people in the church. For organizations rooted in tradition, such as the Universal Catholic

Church, there are challenges associated with the leadership style used by their leaders.

Kwame (2012) remarked that “there are visible changes taking place every day; changes

that are redefining some very basic and fundamental laws and precepts that govern our

planet” (p. 15). In 2017, Catholic leadership can only speculate regarding the nature of

the changing world while trying its best to learn, understand, and promulgate policies that

will create and sustain a measurable change and safe environment for children, both now

and in the future.

Understanding these complexities regarding building, maintaining, and sustaining

a safe environment, free from child abuse, requires that Catholic leaders around the world

become continuous learners. Schein (2004) suggested that individuals, organizations, and

leaders become continuous learners, so as to be better positioned to learn and acquire the

leadership qualities they require to contribute positively to the world. The learning

process for organizations is not exclusively reserved for leaders and includes the

followers. One of the starting points for organizational learning and organizational

leadership is knowledge of self. Tabrizi and Terrell (2013) noted the importance of a

leader knowing their direction of change before being in the position to change the

perspectives and behavior of others.

In this chapter, I address the study background, problem statement, study purpose,

research questions, theoretical framework, and the nature of the study. I will also present

the types and sources of research data, the definitions of terms, study assumptions, scope

and delimitations, study limitations, and the significance of the study.

Background of the Study

Bass and Riggio (2006) reported that historians, political scientists, and

sociologists recognize the leadership that extends beyond the whim of social exchange

between leaders and followers. The study of leadership style has been optimized,

extolled, and supported by most social scientists as a way of exchanging and encouraging

relationships between leaders and their followers. Some researchers have exemplified the

relational rewards and benefits of such exchanges between leaders and followers. The

focus of this study was to interview Catholic priests in an effort to identify and document

their perceptions of U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child sexual

abuse scandal in the church. I focused on the behavioral characteristics of four leadership

styles: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and

servant leadership.

The study of transformational leadership within a religious organization, such as

the Catholic Church, is influenced by the religious and institutional values, beliefs,

doctrine, tradition, and culture of the organization. Tyssen, Wald, and Heidenreich (2014)

viewed the focus of transformational leadership similar to that of “transforming

members’ values and beliefs to achieve their organizational goals” (p. 378).

Transformational leaders provide change and motion in their organizations by trying to

vary the existing structure and to influence people to buy into new visions and

possibilities (Tucker & Russell, 2004).

In an effort to lead necessary organizational change, Tucker and Russell (2004)

highlighted that “transformational leaders do provide entirely new aspirations, directions,

and behaviors to their system” (p. 103). They engage their followers in creating a

connection that elevates the level of efforts and noble aspirations in both (Fry, 2003).

Engaging members as a way of bringing out the best in them, when employing

transformational leadership, is one of the things that separates the transformational

leadership concept from transactional leadership.

The transactional leadership theory described by Burns (1978) assumes that the

association between leaders and followers is a chain of interactions of gratification aimed

at maximizing organizational and individual gains (McCleskey, 2014). Although

transformational leadership may transcend the satisfaction of self-interest, the dynamics

of leadership-followership have most frequently been excused as a social exchange (Bass

& Stogdill, 1990). In this social exchange of transactional leadership, the leader’s interest

is for the potential benefit of the relationship between them and their followers. In the

transactional leadership relationship, the followers expect that the leader will enable them

to achieve a favorable outcome and believe the exchange to be fair if the rewards are

distributed equally (Bass & Stogdill, 1990). In the transactional leadership model, the

relationship between the leader and his or her followers is more of a business relationship

based on satisfying the leader’s self-interest, whereas the transformational leadership

model goes beyond satisfying self-interest.

Hussain, Talib, and Shah (2014) used data collected randomly through the survey

of 280 school staff members to examine the influence of transformational leadership on

the process and product innovation in higher education in Iraq. The authors concluded

that there are strong significant relationships between transformational leadership and the

process and product innovation (Hussain et al., 2014). Despite this conclusion, the

authors did not state in detail precisely how transformational leadership style impacts

product and process innovation.

In this study, I interviewed Catholic priests to explore how these priests perceived

the leadership styles of U.S. Catholic bishops in handling the child sexual abuse scandal

in the Church. The priests’ interviews included questions about the behavioral

characteristics of transformational, transactional, charismatic, and servant leadership

styles, focusing on the concept of transformational leadership, and the Catholic Church

child sexual abuse crisis. The literature materials relating to four leadership styles of this

study included Gandolfi (2012), who asked for deeper insights as a means of recognizing

the usefulness of a transformational leader within a multicultural context, while staying

centered on examining “the concepts of transformational leadership and intercultural

communication competence” (p. 522). Gandolfi extolled the effects of cultural orientation

and communication on the transformational leadership framework but did not outline a

solution for addressing this social bond that can influence a leadership model and implied

that different cultural models can only work within a cultural context. This article was

relevant to my study in examining how the Catholic leadership model impacts, contrasts,

or aligns with the concepts of transformational leadership.

There are lessons to be learn from the Catholic Church’s handling of the child

abuse scandal. Barth (2010) explored how the Catholic Church in the United States

handled cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and provided lessons for public

administrators. A long-term crisis management plan should have an organizational focus

in all crisis as a way of avoiding future poor crisis management (Barth, 2010). The

ideological stance of transformational leadership qualities makes it possible to determine

the fundamental and necessary needs to prevent a future crisis. Therefore, governmental

and nongovernmental organizations and their leaders need to become perpetual learners

to be better positioned in contributing positively to the commuting cosmos (Schein,

2004).

There are barriers to detecting child abuse. Louwers, Korfage, Affourtit, De

Koning, and Moll (2012) examined the barriers to identifying child abuse together with

the legal requirements for the ill-treatment of children screening in emergency

departments (EDs). They listed the lack of knowledge of child abuse, communication

with parents in the event of suspected abuse, and the lack of time for development of

policy and cases as barriers for ED staff in screening for child abuse (Louwers et al.,

2012). The authors emphasized the importance of training facilitators and promoting

screening for child abuse as a way to better identify it. The revised child abuse policy

document by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB; 2015b), the Charter for

the Protection of Children and Young People, outlined the progress that the Catholic

Church has made in handling child abuse. These advances were made through the

creation of different Catholic diocesan programs and the implementation of internal and

external auditing programs simultaneously (USCCB; 2015b).

Nevertheless, the complexity of the world calls for transformational leadership in

organizations. Warrick (2011) opined that there is an urgent need for transformational

leadership in organizations of all types and sizes, and to have transformational leaders

who possess the bravery and skills to reinvent and build institutions that can succeed in

today's times of dynamic change and limited resources. Although extolling the

characteristics of and the need for transformational leaders in the world, Warrick also

highlighted that the individual skills required to be a transformational leader are not

apparent. Warrick concluded by reiterating the fierce urgency of the need for

organizational change through the instrumentality of a transformational leader but did not

outline the possible individual skills required to be a transformational leader.

In this study, my goal was to use the interviews of Catholic priests to analyze the

U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse scandal in the

church. The results from this study are expected to help in affecting positive social

change by creating public awareness of the need to continue with the effort to build and

sustain a safe environment for young people while being open to dealing with the

challenges of child sex abuse in both governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

The findings will provide new information to policymakers and leaders to ensure the

sustainability and maintenance of the already promulgated and implemented child sexual

abuse policies and programs. Equally, it will provide materials for researchers who are

looking for ways to analyze the leadership styles of the Catholic bishops in handling the

child sexual abuse crisis based on opinions of the Catholic priests. The abuse of minors

and young people by some deacons, priests, religious men and women, and bishops and

the manner in which the Catholic Church addressed these crimes and sins has caused

tremendous pain, wrath, and confusion (USCCB, 2015b). Most people have directed their

anger and frustration at the Catholic Church leadership for lack of judgment, foresight,

and innovation in handling the child sexual abuse scandal.

Problem Statement

Despite the difficulty of responding in an effective manner to allegations of child

sexual abuse, the U.S. Catholic Church leadership is making a positive effort to change

the negative image of the Church brought about by this scandal (Rossetti, 2012). The

bishops have used their authority in addressing the child sexual abuse scandal, but no one

knows exactly the leadership styles that they used in handling it. The research problem

was that no one had yet evaluated the leadership styles exercised by the bishops in

handling the child sexual abuse scandal.

In this study, I revealed insights into how Catholic priests perceived the bishops’

leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse scandal. The interviews in this study

helped to provide understanding of the priests’ opinions and in analyzing the bishops’

leadership styles while handling the child sexual abuse scandal. In the interviews with

priests, I focused on the behavioral characteristics of the four leadership styles:

transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant

leadership.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research was to identify and document the perceptions of

Catholic priests on the leadership styles of Catholic bishops in the United States while

dealing with the aftermath of the child sexual abuse scandal. I used a qualitative approach

in collecting and analyzing the research data for this study by interviewing 11 Catholic

priests in the midwestern region of the United States. The choice of the research topic

was informed by the constant need to create and sustain awareness of child sexual abuse

in all organizations including, but not limited to, the Catholic Church.

Research Question

The following research question guided this study:

RQ: What leadership styles do Catholic priests think the bishops exhibited in

their handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church?

Theoretical Framework

There is no agreed on or set definition of leadership. Mumford (1906) viewed

leadership universally from two perspectives: “Firstly, leadership is a function common

to all the different stages of the social process and as a function in the expression of all

kinds of social interests” (p. 221). In this study, I used the theoretical framework of the

behavioral characteristics of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant

leadership, and charismatic leadership (Bass & Avolio, 1994; McCleskey, 2014; Sun,

2013; Yukl, 2014) in evaluating the leadership styles of the Catholic bishops in the

United States based on the opinions of the priests with respect to how they handled the

child sexual abuse scandal. Interviewing the Catholic priests required me to

methodologically, carefully, and thoroughly capture and describe their opinions on how

they perceived, explained, felt about, judged, remembered, and made sense of the topic

(see Patton, 2002). The use of transformational, transactional, charismatic, and servant

leadership behavioral framework helped me in understanding, analyzing, and describing

the Catholic priests’ opinions of the leadership styles of the bishops.

Nature of the Study

I employed a qualitative methodology for data gathering. The purpose of a

qualitative research methodology is to bring to light the lived experiences of participants

as identified by their words (Yin, 2016). I used the opinions of the Catholic priests in

analyzing the United States’ Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child

sexual abuse scandal in the Church. In my interviews with the priests, I focused on the

behavioral characteristics of four leadership styles of transformational leadership,

transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership. The use of

interviews allowed me to collect data on this important topic, and the accumulated data

allowed me to understand the meaning the priests’ constructed from it (see Seidman,

2013).

In this study, I employed a phenomenological research design. Roulston (2010)

asserted that phenomenological interviews are useful in distinguishing the private

experience of the participants. The collected interview data will help in constructing a

composite description of the priests’ opinions. In this study, I obtained primary data from

interviewing 11 Catholic priests in the midwestern region of the United States who had

been in the priesthood a minimum of 10 years. Priests of this tenure interacted with

bishops related to the child sexual abuse scandal.

Definitions of Terms

For clarity and understanding, I provided working definitions of the following

research terms:

Charismatic leadership: The term charismatic refers to the behavior trait that

defines a person’s way of doing things. Conger (2008) defined charismatic leadership “as

an exclusive power to attract and inspire followers through a compelling vision and

perceptions of extraordinary capabilities” (p. 96). Subjectively, it is a type of leadership

mostly associated with a person’s inspirational behavior based on their other personality

traits.

Child sexual abuse: Any form of sexual act against children under 18 years old

(Wilson & Scarpa, 2015). Child sexual abuse includes touching and non-touching sexual

acts with children that are inappropriate, together with sexual exploitation of children

(Wilson & Scarpa, 2015).

Crisis: An unstable or crucial time in which the result can be disastrous to an

individual, a family, community, or an entire society (Crisis, 2018). For example, an

economic crisis is the cause of a struggling economy which affects or adversely impacts

society. For this study, child sexual abuse by some members of the Catholic clergy is the

cause of the disastrous effect and the negative evaluation of the Catholic Church in the

United States.

Handling: The U.S. Catholic bishops’ past and present dealings with the abuses,

and accordingly establishing and implementing goals and desires today that could

positively impact the outcome of tomorrow as it relates to the child sexual abuse crisis.

Servant leadership: Subjectively, the act of serving people. Servant leadership

then is a type of leadership with a primary purpose of helping others. Greenleaf’s (2003)

described a servant leader as an individual who focuses on being a servant first rather

than being a leader.

Style: Subjectively, the manner of operation closely associated with an individual

or group (Style, 2018). In the context of this research, the reference on style applies to the

perceptions of Catholic priests in relation to their bishops’ leadership styles in handling

the child sexual abuse scandal in the church.

Transformational leadership: A form of leadership geared towards “helping

followers embrace a vision of a preferred future while inspiring to empower them to

achieve new levels of personal and corporate performance” (Herrington, Bonem, & Furr,

2000, p. 97). Transformational leadership refers to the act of responsibility in envisioning

and making changes within an organizational setting (Herrington, et al, 2000).

Transactional leadership: In a transactional leadership setting, “leaders exchange

promises of rewards and benefits to subordinates for the subordinates’ fulfillment of

agreements with the leader” (Bass & Strogdill, 1990, p. 53). This is a type of social

exchange between leaders and their followers for commercial purposes (McCleskey,

2014).

Assumptions

Assumptions can be defined as things that are relevant to a study that are

somehow out of the control of the researcher (Simon, 2011). For example, it is not

guaranteed that participants will answer truthfully; I had no control over how they would

answer the questions. It was my assumption that the Catholic bishops’ leadership style(s)

had a significant influence on how they handled child sexual abuse scandals in the

Church. Interviews can be nerve-wracking for many reasons; people may agree to be

interviewed or surveyed, only to hesitate when they discover the degree of self-revelation

required (Josselson, 2013). I used an informed consent form in this study to help in

assuring the confidentiality of the research data and anonymity of the participating

priests. Obtaining a letter of cooperation from the bishop of the diocesan locale also

allowed me to mitigate the fears that the priests may have had with participating in the

study.

I assumed that the Catholic priests in the midwestern region of the United States

would answer the interview questions honestly and without fear. However, there was no

certainty to what degree their opinions would relate to the leadership styles of the

Catholic bishops in their handling of the child sexual abuse scandals in the Church.

Furthermore, I had no certitude to the degree the Catholic priests’ opinions would affect

the leadership styles of the bishops in their role of ensuring healing and promoting

reconciliation between the victims of the child sexual abuse, the alleged perpetrators, and

the Church. There was also no certainty to what degree the Catholic priests perceived the

bishops’ leadership styles as playing a role in ensuring the credibility and accountability

of the audit process regarding the child sexual abuse crisis.

Scope and Delimitations

Delimitations can be defined as “those characteristics that limit the scope and

define the boundaries of a study” (Simon, 2011, p. 2). This is a reference to the things

that I could control in this study. For example, I controlled who to interview, the

theoretical framework, and the extent of the study. I focused on the Catholic priests in

one diocese in the midwestern region of the United States, although I could have

extended it to all the Catholic priests working in the United States. Expanding the

research to the opinions of all Catholic priests working in the United States would have

widened the scope of the research and provided more accurate results based on a broader

view. The issue of child sexual abuse is not limited to nonprofit organizations but equally

expands to both governmental and nongovernmental organizations; however, this study

was restricted only to the opinions of the Catholic priests living and working in the study

site diocese.

All data I collected, analyzed, and interpreted was limited to my interpretation.

Some of the potential participants may not have been familiar with the concepts of

transformational, charismatic, servant, and transactional leadership styles, further limiting

the study. The interview questions were drafted such that the answers helped in

determining the priests’ opinion of the bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child

sexual abuse without educating the participants about leadership styles. This research was

limited to and informed only by the responses given by the participating priests.

Limitations

Limitations can be defined as “potential weaknesses in a study and are out of the

researcher’s control” (Simon, 2011, p. 2). The main research limitation for this study was

my use of a qualitative research design since qualitative research design goal is different

from a quantitative research design goal. “Qualitative and quantitative research designs

have different strengths and logic and are often best used to address different kinds of

questions and goals” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 29). The purpose of a qualitative research

methodology is to note and report the lived experiences as described by the research

participant (Yin, 2016). There are more than 190 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses in

the Unites States; therefore, it would have been challenging and time-consuming to

interview all Catholic priests in the United States on the bishops’ leadership styles in

handling the child sexual abuse crisis in the church. My use of a qualitative research

methodology limited the research scope because I conducted interviews with 11 priests in

a midwestern diocese who had been in the priesthood a minimum of 10 years. The

research interview questions were limited to the opinions of the Catholic priests

describing the bishops’ leadership styles in the handling of the child sex abuse scandal.

Future recommendations for addressing the study limitations have been notated at the end

of the study.

One of the ways to address the weaknesses of a qualitative study methodology is

by using member checking of the interview transcripts. The use of the member

verification or validation interview was helpful in “enhancing and preserving the

authenticity of the results, even if the participants separated by power, differentially

constructed the reality of the discussion” (Buchbinder, 2010, p. 108). I carried out

member checking of all participants. This entailed sending the interview data to the

interviewees asking them to confirm the correctness of the script. The verification of the

qualitative interview data as a way of addressing the research weakness was to ensure the

accurate representation of the participants’ view of the phenomenon.

The challenges related to the use of only a qualitative study design were due to

the evolving complexities of the nature of the issues addressed in this research. Since the

Universal Catholic Church also exists in the United States, there is a need to understand

how to reconcile the disparity of opinions between the Catholic priests and the public.

However, all Catholics in the United States and around the world are expected to abide

by the Canon law as the universal rule of the Church, in their spiritual practices while

exercising their civil liberties in their country of residence and citizenship (Canon 227). It

is important to be well informed of the norms, goals, missions, and policies of the

Universal Catholic Church together with the U.S. Catholic Church to be in a better

position to address the weaknesses previously mentioned. As a Catholic, there is a

tendency to lean towards favoring the bishops. Being objective in articulating the

research findings was helpful in addressing any researcher bias while making

recommendations for future research as a way of dealing with the research limitations.

Significance of the Study

The primary importance of this research study centered on the fact that few

researchers have used the perspectives of Catholic priests to analyze the U.S. Catholic

bishops’ leadership styles in their handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in the

Church. The concept of leadership styles is not limited to a nonprofit organization such as

the Catholic Church but also extends to government and nongovernmental organizations

in need of adapting to the complexities of the world. The leadership styles surrounding

the way the Catholic bishops in the United States handled the child sexual abuse crisis

should present an important lesson from which public administrators could learn.

The benefits of this study and possible contributions to the research field provided

a helpful resource for future studies, especially in areas related to the research topic. The

results of this study served as an excellent reference for any future research that aims to

interview Catholic priests in analyzing the U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in

handling the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church. This research also served as a

resource to the Catholic bishops of the United States or other countries by providing the

opinions of the priests on the bishops’ leadership styles in their agenda to create and

sustain a safe environment, free of child sexual abuse for the children in their

congregations. Providing a safe environment for children may sound utopian but not

making an honest effort to protect children from sexual abuse in the church or any other

environment is a disservice to humanity.

The results of this research are relevant to administrators of both public and

nonprofit governmental organizations as they may learn from the Catholic bishops’

experience how they can better sustain their existing policies with regards to child sexual

abuse. The phenomenon of the child sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in

the United States has shocked the Church more so than any previous issue of clergy

misbehavior (Shelton, 2012). The Catholic dioceses in the United States will benefit from

this study, along with other dioceses in the Universal Catholic Church due to the

transferability of the research based on the similarity of all Catholic dioceses throughout

the world. It is my hope that the USCCB will benefit from this research by using it as a

resource in their deliberations on the future of the Church with regards to child sexual

abuse by some members of the clergy. All future research pertaining to the impact of

transformational leadership on a religious organization would equally benefit.

The significance and uniqueness of this research in general and to the public

policy administration field, is that it fills a research gap by using the opinions of the

Catholic priests to analyze the U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the

child sexual abuse scandal in the Church. The results of this study will help in breaking

new grounds, providing research resources, and establishing a gauge for similar research

to follow as well as helping to create awareness for the need to continue in the efforts to

create and sustain a safe environment for children and young people in the Church.

Implications for Social Change

This research was critical as a way of creating awareness towards the need to

continue in the effort to build and sustain a safe environment for young people, while

being open in dealing with the challenges of the child sexual abuses in both governmental

and nongovernmental organizations. Studying the research topic also helped to provide

new information to ensure the sustainability and maintenance of the already promulgated

and implemented child sexual abuse programs and policies in the Church. This

information may also be used by policymakers and leaders to make changes in their

leadership styles to effect more positive results.

Summary

The complex nature of any organizational context is that it is not an easy task for

a person to learn every aspect of organizational life (Finkelstein et al., 2008). In this

study, using the opinions of the Catholic priests on the leadership styles of the Catholic

bishops in creating a safer environment for children in the Church, can have a positive

impact on the Catholic bishops in the United States. The USCCB (2011) struck the right

tone by recognizing the Church’s mistake in handling the crisis, and they apologized and

assumed responsibility for their part in not protecting the congregations confided to the

Church’s care. It is now time for the Catholic bishops to keep moving forward in

addressing people’s concerns by establishing a more sustained victim assistance program;

by educating parents and children on how to recognize, report, and prevent child abuse of

any kind; and by taking the measurable steps in sustaining their efforts.

In this chapter, I addressed the study background, problem statement, study

purpose, research questions, theoretical framework, and the nature of the study. I also

presented the types and sources of research data, the definitions of terms, study

assumptions, scope and delimitations, study limitations, and the study significance. In the

second chapter of this research study, I focused on reviewing the documented literature

related to the topic. I also focused on leadership, leadership theory foundation,

transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant

leadership, and how they relate to dealing with child sexual abuse allegations within the

Church. I examined the Vatican/Holy See leadership perspectives on child sexual abuse,

USCCB’s leadership policy on child sexual abuse, and USCCB’s research efforts on

clergy child sexual abuse.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

Child sexual abuse has been a major issue in the Universal Catholic Church. The

church’s world leadership is dedicated to addressing the child sexual abuse issue so as to

regain trust, sustain measurable gains, and reestablish integrity within the congregation

and the public (USCCB, 2011). The Catholic Church in the United States, as part of the

Universal Catholic Church, is under the leadership of Pope Francis I. In the early 2000s,

some clergy within the U.S. Catholic Church were discovered to have engaged in forms

of the sexual abuse of children (Landry, 2016). Upon this discovery, the USCCB (2015b)

tried to contain the crisis and reestablish trust among the people by acknowledging their

mistakes and role in the abuse and the agonies of the victims and apologizing and

accepting responsibility for failing the victims and the Catholic people in the past.

The purpose of this research was to analyze the U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership

styles in handling the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church through the perspectives

of Catholic priests. In interviews with the priests, I focused on the behavioral

characteristics of four leadership styles: transformational leadership, transactional

leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership. According to Tyson et al.

(2014), the need for transformational leadership is due to its focus on the transformation

of followers’ values and beliefs to attain the organization’s objective. A transformational

leader with a vision must believe in the idea and incite followers to trust in that vision,

while transactional leadership focuses more on the commercial benefit of the transaction

(Tyson et al. (2014).

The review of relevant literature on the impact of transformational leadership that

I conducted helped in understanding the necessity of this leadership model in

organizations. Although most researchers have taken the qualitative approach to this

topic, there are both qualitative and quantitative studies that have explored the impact of

transformational leadership in organizations. Hussain et al. (2014) studied the influence

of transformational leadership on process and product innovation in higher education in

Iraq, and the author reasoned that a substantial relationship exists between

transformational leadership and process innovation together with product innovation in

an organization. This study and its findings are relevant to my study it will help in

highlight the importance of transformational leadership style in organizational change.

Transformational leadership could be used as an instrument for shaping

organizational culture. Gandolfi (2012) postulated that there exists a deep and insightful

relationship between the concepts of transformational leadership and intercultural

communication competence. Gandolfi determined that the effects of cultural orientation

and communication were beneficial to the transformational leadership framework.

Warrick (2011) highlighted the importance of immediacy in keeping with the world’s

complexities and changes for transformational leaders in organizations. Leaders with

visionary qualities versus transactional qualities that focus more on personal benefits are

required to meet modern demands (Warrick, 2011).

On the other hand, according to Barth (2010), organizations in crisis must look for

long-term crisis management to determine fundamental structural and governance

changes needed to prevent poor crisis management in the future. The visionary quality

transformational leadership allows an organization to envisage long-term solutions and

strategies for managing a crisis (Barth, 2010). In handling the child sexual abuses in the

past, U.S. Catholic leadership lacked the visionary quality of transformational leadership

to create a preventative policy as a way of protecting children, young people, and the

Catholic faithful from clergy child sexual abuses. Landry (2011) wondered whether the

Pope, as the head of the Catholic Church, needed to be prosecuted by an international

court. Similarly, Groome’s (2011) examination of the Catholic Church’s child sexual

abuse crisis was to determine through the Ryan’s Commission report of May 2009,

whether the Church committed a crime against humanity. Groome’s finding was that the

failure of religious superior to report abuse might not constitute a form of violence

against children. But, “it does manifest criminally reckless and wanton disregard for the

crimes committed against the children and as such should form the basis of a crime

against humanity” (Groome, 2011, p. 503).

There is a need to train emergency personnel on how to identify child abuse.

Louwers et al.’s (2012) examination of the barriers to identifying child abuse during an

emergency screening of a child ended with a recommendation on the importance of

ensuring that facilitators are well trained to recognize and identify violations while

screening every child brought to the emergency room. To contain the child sexual abuse

crisis in 2002, the USCCB (2015b) promulgated a child abuse prevention policy, the

Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, that was later revised in 2011.

The 2011 revised charter outlined the progress made by the Catholic leadership in the

United States in handling the child sexual abuse scandal since the inception of the crisis

in 2002 (USCCB, 2011). However, the revised charter does not have specific measurable

and sustainable ways to ensure the effectiveness of the bishops’ recommended safe

environment programs and policies to protect children and young people in the Church

(USCCB, 2011).

In this literature review, I will focus on exploring the purpose of this study. In

Chapter 2, I will also outline the literature search strategy, analyzing related research in

the areas of leadership, leadership theory foundation, and transformational leadership.

This chapter will also contain a discussion of other leadership styles, such as the servant,

transactional, and charismatic leadership styles, while outlining the four essential

leadership characteristics, comparing transformational and transactional leadership, and

the research theoretical framework. In the final part of Chapter 2, I will review the

Vatican leadership perspectives on child sexual abuse, the USCCB’s leadership policy on

child sexual abuse, and the USCCB’s research efforts on child sexual abuse by clergy.

Literature Search Strategy

To search for extant literature to review, I accessed databases through Walden

University’s e-library with a focus on published peer-reviewed articles and journals

related to the research topic, focusing more on literature that was published in the last 5

years. The most accessed databases for this search were EBSCO, ProQuest Central, Sage

Premier, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, Thoreau Multi-Database Search,

Psychology Databases Simultaneous, PsycARTICLES, ProQuest Criminal Justice, and

the Vatican website. Searching with the term leadership yielded 21,604 peer-reviewed

materials from 2010 alone. Additional search terms included transformational

leadership, servant leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, United

States Conference of Catholic Bishops or USCCB, transformational leadership impact,

clergy child sexual abuse, child sexual maltreatment, Burn’s leadership theory, Bass

theory of transformational leadership, principles of the servant, transactional, and

charismatic leadership, Catholic penal law of child sexual abuse, Vatican and USCCB,

and leadership in crisis situations. The numerous research materials and reports on the

USCCB website were used to better understand the nature, history, and scope of the child

sexual abuse by clergy.

Leadership Theory Foundation

In examining leadership styles in general, it is important to note that different

expressions of leadership emerge. These expressions include elements such as

transactional, transformational, charismatic, moral, ethical, collaborative, contingent,

servant, and many others (Burns, 1978). Notably, moral leadership emerges from, and

always returns to, the basic wants and demands, aspirations, and values of the followers

(Burns, 1978). There is no agreed or set definition of leadership. Mumford (1906) viewed

leadership universally from two perspectives:

Firstly, leadership is a function common to all the different stages of the social

process, from its simplest and most primitive to its most complex highly

developed manifestations. Secondly, as a function in the expression of all kinds of

social interests, whether the interactions be inter-individual or inter-group (p.

221).

The commonality of the leadership function to the human social process is factored into

the human interactive and interdependent nature and the natural yearning for direction

and problem solving (Mumford (1906).

The primary need for leadership is mostly visible within the interrelated and

interactive human social process, whether it is within an individual or group association.

Van Vugt (2006) saw leadership as the result of a social process in which interacting

individuals coordinate their activities to accomplish shared goals. As a social being, the

interdependent human nature within a social process is such that no individual can exist

without the help of another (Van Vugt, 2006). Through this process of social process,

interactions, and interdependence, individuals shape, construct, and modify their

environment (Van Vugt, 2006). This shaping, reshaping, changing, and making of the

different cultural environment, within an interactive social setting, results in the

constructionist concept (Van Vugt, 2006).

Similarly, Spisak, O’Brien, Nicholson, and Van Vugt (2015) used Niche’s idea of

construction concept to portray a good example of how biological progression and

traditional progression interrelate to procure an integrative basis for new structural

leadership. The authors also highlighted how “leadership could regulate and balance the

tension between self-interest and group-interest” (p. 291). Individual choices, coupled

with interactive activities between one person and the whole community, solve a

common need, which may lead to entrusting leadership power to a person within a formal

setting (Spisak, et al, 2015).

Two major leadership approaches include those positioned to lead and those who

lead others through inspiration. Therefore, positional leaders are those who lead because

of the power vested in their position of authority, while inspirational leaders have a

driving force for their vision, purpose, and belief as they lead without reliance on

positional authority (Cooper, 2015). Positional leaders lead by the formal authority vested

in them by the people in a community, city, state, or a nation. Inspirational leadership, on

the other hand, does not have legal power to lead, but has the vision and passion for a

mission while inspiring others to believe in the idea. Leaders whose transformational

qualities exemplify both formal and informal leadership include leaders such as

Alexander the Great, Nelson, and Patton, to name a few (Cooper, 2015).

In this study, I used the theoretical framework of the behavioral characteristics of

transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership, and charismatic

leadership (see Bass & Avolio, 1994; McCleskey, 2014; Sun, 2013; Yukl, 2014) to

evaluate the leadership styles of the Catholic bishops in the United States. I also

evaluated how the bishops’ handled the child sexual abuse scandal based on the

perspectives of the priests. The use of transformational, transactional, charismatic, and

servant leadership behavioral framework helped my understanding, analyzing, and

describing the Catholic priests’ opinions of the leadership styles of the bishops in

handling the child sexual abuse scandal.

Transformational Leadership Theory

Although many scholars have defined transformational leadership in various

ways, there are common elements which are unique to its definition. An important

notation of the transformational leadership definition is that it “helps followers embrace a

vision of a preferred future, inspires and empowers them to achieve new levels of

personal and corporate performance while encouraging individuals and supporting

innovative ventures” (Herrington et al., 2000, p. 97). To promote and rally followers

towards a vision, it is important that a transformational leader also express a strong belief

in the vision, while creating a trusting relationship with the members. It is important to

examine transformational leadership theory from the perspective of Burns (1978) so as to

understand the origins of transformational leadership. Burns first conceptualized the

theory, and Bass (1985) later advanced the theory to new heights.

Transformational leadership theory origin. The theory of transformational

leadership can be traced back to Burns (1978) who viewed it from the perspective of

bridging a gap between the literature on leadership and followership. For him, the failure

in studying leadership hovers around the divergence between the literature on leadership

and the study on followership (Burns, 1978). He explored his leadership perspective from

a leader and the follower relational point of view and concluded that there are two

fundamental leadership types that express this relationship: transactional and

transformational. In transformational leadership, the leader’s interest is in the potential

motives of the members while seeking to placate their needs and to fully engage the

follower (Burns, 1978). Laconically, in a transactional leadership setting, a leader’s

interest is only for transactional purposes and does not go beyond it; a transformational

leadership’s interest extends beyond the temporal need, to the long-term self and societal

developmental needs.

An important notation is that, in a transactional form of relationship, leaders

approach followers with the intent of exchanging one thing for another such as jobs for

votes or subsidies for campaign contributions. While a transforming leader recognizes

and exploits an existing need or demands the follower's potential development (Burns,

1978). Therefore, a transactional leader is more interested in a commercial or business

type of relationship with the members, while a transformational leader is more interested

in improving followers’ characteristic and qualities and in elevating them to becoming

leaders themselves. Transformational leadership focuses on improving the members and

advancing them to bringing out their best individual qualities, which sometimes lead to

the members developing their own leadership qualities. The followers of transactional

leaders have an association that does not go beyond business and mutual personal gains,

which does not improve the supporters’ potential. Bass (1985) later advanced and built

upon Burns’ (1978) idea of transforming/transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership theory expansion. Bass (1985) advanced Burns’

(1978) conceptualized transforming or transformational and transactional leadership

model into what is currently known as transformational leadership. For Bass and

Strogdill (1990), Burns concluded that “transformational leadership and transactional

leadership are at the opposite ends of a continuum” (p. 220). Bass and Strogdill lean more

on transformational leadership augmenting the effects of transactional leadership. In

other words, the leader is more interested in ensuring that the subordinates or followers

are efficient and satisfied with their work while trying to improve their potential. The aim

of transformational leadership is followers’ self-improvement, self-satisfaction, and

possible development, and not the contingent or commercial reward of a transactional

leadership relationship.

Transactional leadership relationships hover around the promise of rewards and

benefits for the subordinate’s fulfillment of an agreement with the leader (Bass &

Strogdill, 1990; McCleskey, 2014). The transactional leadership style ends with the

fulfillment of the contract and the reception of rewards. On the other hand, Bass and

Strogdill (1990) noted,

The transformational leader asks followers to transcend their self-interest for the

benefit of the group, organization, or society by considering their long-term

needs, and developing themselves, rather than their immediate needs, becoming

more aware of what is important. (p. 53)

The key consideration here on the part of the followers of a transformational

leader is to think of building a beneficial relationship with a transformational leader in the

long run, rather than focusing on momentary satisfaction that adds nothing to their self-

worth. The strongest effect of transformational leadership seems to be on followers’

attitudes and their commitment to the leader and the organization (Bass & Riggio, 2006;

McCleskey, 2014). The performance of the members is positively affected due to their

dedication to the transformational leadership’s organizational goal or vision. Some of the

ways that a transformational leader can positively encourage followers towards an

organizational commitment are through the four I’s of transformational leadership:

individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational leadership, and

idealized influence (Bass & Avolio, 1994). The four transformational leadership

characteristics, their tenets, and their relationship to the study topic are further discussed

below.

For a transformational leader to exert individualized consideration, it is important

for them to show that they care for their followers’ individual needs for growth by

coaching and mentoring them. For Bass and Riggio (2006) the coaching and mentoring

provided to the members by a transformational leader provides them with a sense of

increased competence to carry out orders. Because of the individual differences, some

followers may learn faster than others. Therefore, it is important that transformational

leaders consider the members individually when creating opportunities for learning to

account for the differences in backgrounds. In other words, an effective leader must avoid

glossing over the different constraints faced by the members, their various career ladders,

the different bosses to whom they report, and their diverse needs (Bass & Avolio, 1994).

Nevertheless, there is current literature on transformational leadership which portrays its

multiple applications in research studies.

For a transformational leader to intellectually stimulate their followers, it is

important to provide them with opportunities for growth by supporting their innovative

and creative efforts without micro-managing them. For Bass and Riggio (2006), the

transformational leader increases commitment by employing intellectual stimulation.

Some of the ways that transformational leaders increase intellectual stimulation is by

ensuring that all assumptions are questioned, providing a new approach to issues, and

rephrasing questions as a way of stirring up the creative ingenuity of their followers. The

leaders applaud their supporters’ original ideas while trying not to criticize them publicly.

For a transformational leader to exert an inspirational motivation, it is important

that they promote their mission and vision by helping the followers understand them.

Transformational leaders use inspirational motivation to build the followers’ commitment

to the organizational mission or goal, while arousing their physical and emotional

excitement in the process and encouraging values, beliefs, and responsibilities (Bass &

Riggio, 2006; McCleskey, 2014). This kind of inspiration from the leader helps the

followers in transcending the immediate reward and thinking about the effects and

benefits of the job.

Similarly, inspirational motivation would be a valuable leadership quality

expected of the members of the Catholic clergy, especially the Catholic bishops of the

United States in their efforts to create a sustainable and safe environment, free of child

sexual abuse. A transformational leader, in contrast to transactional, charismatic, and

servant leader, needs to convince their followers that they have confidence in them. The

importance of a transformational leader showing trust in the members is that the

transformational leader reinforces the supporters' self-esteem through expressions of trust

in the followers (Bass & Riggio, 2006; McCleskey, 2014). The bishops need to work in

collaboration with the clergy and the religious staff to show that they have faith in them

as they work together in creating a safe environment for children in the Church.

Idealized influence is one of the natural leadership qualities from the office of the

Catholic bishops in the United States and around the world, which they can use positively

or negatively. For a transformational leader to ideally influence their followers, it is

important that they exert and establish an honest relationship with their members based

on good reputation and impeccable integrity. The effectiveness of transformational

leadership rests in providing, through an idealized influence, a role model for working

well with others of different opinions; the leader should be someone whom other

members will want to emulate (Bass & Avolio, 1994).

Therefore, in relating to the followers, a transformational leader needs to exude

the capacity to maintain integrity and a good reputation among the members. Under the

leadership of the diocesan bishops, this equally applies to the members of the clergy in

the Unites States. To explain the charisma of transformational leadership, Bass and

Strogdill’s (1990) assumption is that, since followers want to be the leader, they are

transformed by protecting the idealized leadership image they wish to emulate while

striving to become like that image. For the leader, the followers preserve the idealized

identity of the leader, and the followers develop a sense of who they are and what they

want to become by identifying with that image (Bass & Strogdill, 1990; McCleskey,

2014). It is from this explanation that we have a sense of what is currently known as the

idealized influence as part of the components of transformational leadership.

Transactional Leadership

Some leadership styles may transcend the whole idea of seeking only the interest

of the leader. It is important to note the emphasis on transactional leadership being

defined as a form of commercial exchange between leaders and followers (McCleskey,

2014). The nature of the social exchange between the leader and the follower is such that

both have something to benefit from in the relationship. It is noteworthy that “the leader

and the followers perceive each other as being potentially instrumental to the fulfillment

of each other’s needs, say, for the completion of a task” (Bass & Bernard, 1990, p. 319).

It is the leader who defines the specifics and conditions of the transaction with the

followers, which hovers around the self-satisfaction of the leader’s need. Corrective

actions in the form of punishment may be the effect of non-satisfaction of the leader’s

needs.

The leader’s relationship with the followers in the transactional leadership is more

of a commercial type of relationship. Still, followers expect their leaders to provide them

with an opportunity to yield promising results and to receive just rewards (Bass &

Bernard, 1990). The inflexible and rigorous nature of transactional leadership is such that

the leader lays down the rules and regulates the social exchange between themselves and

their followers. The person leading in this context becomes the executive, judicial, and

legislative entity while exercising their authority in rewarding, punishing, and accessing

the job performance of the followers.

A major criticism of transactional leadership is its strict nature to the extent that

the leader applies rules and regulations for the members to follow. Importantly, the goal

of transactional leadership is to increase the organization’s productivity by providing

opportunity geared towards a follower’s self-interest free of workplace anxiety with focus

on strong organizational goals (McCleskey, 2014). Transactional leadership style gives

emphasis to the behavior of the leader rather than their character, whereas

transformational leadership addresses both nature and any individual differences. In a

changing society that is becoming more and more multicultural, it is becoming vitally

necessary that leadership styles be a good fit, meeting the needs and desired goals and

outcomes of the followers. Notably, McCleskey (2014) and Bryant (2003, outlined the

key features of transactional leadership as responding to self-interest and rewards

members while ensuring promised benefits and rewards to those who met their goals.

Some of the operational notations of the transactional leadership include the emphasis on

rewards, promise, and self-interest relating to the follower's efforts, meeting their goals,

or getting the work done (McCleskey, 2014; Bryant, 2003).

Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leadership is a style of enchantment and charm. It takes a leader’s

charisma to get the followers excited about the organizational vision. Importantly, the

“scholarly usage of the term charisma came through the works of the German sociologist

Max Weber from 1864 to 1920” (Charisma, 1986). In a general sense, the term charisma

refers to the endearing features and ability ascribed to the personality of an extraordinary

leader by the follower (Charisma, 1986). The charismatic leader studies his or her

audience, their behavior, body language, facial expressions, mood, etc., and knows how

to charm the followers into believing his or her rhetoric. Importantly, Yang and Zhu

(2016) highlight the connection between the charismatic’s leadership behavior and the

leader’s effectiveness in relating with followers. Through persuasion and mystique, the

charismatic leader can goad individuals into a feeling of superiority. Horn, Mathis,

Robinson, and Randle (2015), see the ability to greatly motivate followers as an

outstanding attribute of charismatic leadership. Charismatic leaders motivate their

followers through their eloquence and behavior.

The member’s perception of a leader is crucial. For Conger (2008), Max Weber’s

explanation of charismatic leadership determination hovers on the opinion of the

followers that the outstanding nature of an individual makes him or her worthy to lead.

The influence, power, and authority of charismatic leaders are not based on a political

ballot. The charismatic leader’s magnetic and exceptional qualities set them apart to the

extent that their members select them based on their rhetoric and the charisma to entice

and motivate others via persuasive ideas (Conger, 2008). Consequently, it is the members

that determine whether a leader is charismatic or not based off his or her exhibited

leadership qualities and behaviors.

A combination of one leadership model with another in a leader may be the

solution to tackling the complexities of our times. Mumford and Strange (2002) state that

“the concept of charismatic and transformational leadership represents a truly successful

attempt to identify the characteristics of outstanding leaders” (p. 127). However, a

combination of both transformational and charismatic leadership in one person would

yield an impressive result. Some of the outstanding charismatic leader’s behavioral

features attributable to charismatic leadership include desire for changing the current

situation, removing obstacles for change, making possible new attractive ideas, stressing

on organizational identity and interest, being unafraid to take personal risks and to

sacrifice self for the organization (Kwak, 2012; Yukl, 2014). The charismatic leader’s

behavior and charisma complement each other to the extent that without either, the

charismatic leader could not merit the name.

Servant Leadership

The idea of servant leadership is not new and has been noted in the lives of

individuals such as Jesus Christ, Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi. In

examining the origin of the term servant leadership, it is important to note that in 1970,

Greenleaf (1977) came up with the term servant leadership, which he applied to both

educational and business settings in his seminal essay. After more than four decades after

its discovery, this leadership style continues to be relevant and applies importantly to

organizational management and administration. The fundamental question that Greenleaf

wanted to examine in 1970 was can “the roles of servant and leader be fused in one

person of all levels of status or call and can that person be productive?” (Greenleaf, 2003,

p.1). His conclusion after a careful examination of the question mentioned above was a

resounding “yes.” Greenleaf (2003) explains his affirmation by stating that servant

leadership is powerful and transformative especially in the turbulent changes of the new

century for which it is particularly well-suited. The individual behavior of the servant

leader is equally a key factor that affects their relationship with the followers.

Subsequently, a significant notation patterning to the servant leadership is the

result of the leader’s behavior on the supporters. Servant leadership flourishes more

within a serving culture. Notably, a serving culture is a key mechanism through which

servant leadership behavior affects individual and unit outcomes (Wayne, et al., 2014).

While serving others, the servant leader’s behavior positions them in such a way that the

followers strive to emulate or mirror his or her serving behavior. The servant leadership

behavioral characteristics of the servant leader are different from other leadership styles.

One of the fundamental and identifying behavioral features of servant leadership

is the desire to serve first and not to lead. For Greenleaf (2003) the servant leader is a

servant first and begins with the natural feeling that he or she wants to serve while

consciously aspiring to lead. It is important to highlight that the first desire of the servant

leader is to be a servant first, not a leader; the leadership position may be the side effect

of the servant leader's service. In serving others, the servant leader is improving and

bettering the lives of the people he or she is serving.

For the servant leaders to improve the lives of their members, it is important that

they possess the leadership characteristics associated with this leadership model. The

characteristic traits of servant leadership are: paying attention to people; being

compassionate, healing, and conscientious; have a commitment to the growth of others,

persuasion, building community, conceptualization, far-sightedness, and stewardship

(Greenleaf, 2003; Sun, 2013). In prioritizing service to others, it is important that the

Catholic leadership depends not only on using the characteristics of this leadership

model, but also considers incorporating it with the transformational leadership

characteristics.

Transformational Theoretical Application

Transformational leadership was used in McKnight’s (2013) research to examine

transformational leadership within an organizational change. McKnight’s research was a

literature review with an interest in examining transformational leadership and change

management theories to identify traits that are beneficial to continuous change and

radical, punctuated change. He used an appreciative research strategy to show that

organizational change has some residual impacts, the most obvious of which are

uncertainty and turbulence (McKnight, 2013). My research went beyond using literature

and document reviews and included the use of qualitative research methodology by

interviewing 11 Catholic priests in a midwestern state. McKnight’s research finding was

that punctuated change within an organization requires increased flexibility and

responsiveness amongst members, particularly if the modification will result in the

transformation of the organization’s structure, product, and service.

Research Theoretical Framework

In this research, I focused on using the theoretical framework of transformational

leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership as

defined by Kwak (2012); McCleskey (2014); Sun (2013); Yukl (2014). I used each

leadership framework in analyzing the Catholic priests’ opinions of the leadership styles

of their bishops in handling the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church. Figure 1

contains the summary of all the characteristics of the leadership styles as defined by Bass

and Avolio (1994); Greenleaf (2003); Kwak (2012); Bryant (2003). The research study

areas are leadership, transformational leadership, transformational leadership in crisis

situations, child sexual abuse, Holy See/Vatican leadership perspectives on child sexual

abuse, and the USCCB’s policy on child sexual abuse. Additional research study areas

include the USCCB’s research study on clergy child sexual abuse.

Figure 1. Characteristics of four leadership styles. ABass and Strogdill (1990);

McCleskey, (2014); B Bryant (2003); McCleskey (2014). CKwak (2012); Yukl (2014).

DSun (2013); Greenleaf (2003).

Leadership

Despite the subjective perceptions on leadership phenomenon in both humans and

animals, the phenomenon of leadership is more visible in humans than in animals. The

origin of leadership can be traced back to the biblical era. Various scholars have defined

the concept of leadership in recent history as a study spanning more than a century

(McCleskey, 2014). Mumford (1906) defined leadership as the universal function of

association standard in every social process expressed in every social interest. Bass and

Strogdill (1990) took a more biblical and classic view: Egyptian hieroglyphics and early

Chinese writings have traces of leadership. There are traces of leadership descriptions in

the early Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek, and Chinese classics and much more. For

example, “Chinese classics, written as early as the sixth century B.C., are filled with

hortatory advice to the country’s leaders about their responsibilities to the people” (Bass,

1990, p. 103). Most of the thoughts expressed in the Greek, Latin, and Chinese classics

are still utilized today and have formed the foundations on the leadership descriptions in

our time.

The concept of leadership is closely tied and associated with the notion of

followership. Leadership is only as effective as the results of devoted followers. Khuong

and Hoang (2015) investigated what effect leadership styles have on employee

motivation. The study’s purpose was to find out the role of leadership styles in employee

motivation in auditing companies. The leadership style that used reward and

compensation was considered a valuable and efficient behavioral tool for achieving job

satisfaction. Importantly, the findings indicated a close association between employee

motivation and leadership styles. Without followers, there would be no one for the

leaders to lead, since it is followership that gives meaning to the concept of leadership.

No one knows the leadership style exercised by the Catholic bishops in handling the child

abuse scandal.

Spisak et al.’s (2015) application of the leadership concept is entirely different.

They used individual social interactions as a modifying factor in the biological and

cultural foundations of the modern idea of leadership in organizations; the adaptive

results of these evolutionary interactions are formal structures that facilitate coordination

of large, post-agrarian organizational networks (Spisak et al., 2015). The interactive

social settings become an important factor towards the realization of this sense of the

modern idea of leadership without which the conception and evolution of leadership

would be practically impossible. To explain and predict the development of current

leadership, Spisak et al. highlighted the balancing act between self-interests and group

interests in organizations and showed how leadership must regulate this tension to

maintain organizational fitness. The emergence and evolution of leadership hovers

around finding regulatory and balancing acts within the individual’s social interacting

pressures. Transformational leadership qualities would be helpful in creating progressive,

regulatory, and balancing actions of the people in perceived and existing tensions within

interactive social environs.

Transformational leadership theory. The concept of transformational

leadership can be traced back to Burns (1978) who focused on the mutual association

between leadership and followership. For him, the person entrusted with leadership looks

for possible motivation in the members while seeking ways to fully engage them (Burns,

1978). This mutual engagement between leaders and followers can either be transactional

or transformational. Transactional leadership is only interested in the here and now gains

between the leader and the followers, to the extent that the self-worth, self-development,

self-improvement, and self-satisfaction qualities noted in a transformational leadership

are lacking. Bass (1990) took the notion of transformational leadership to a whole new

level while emphasizing that self-interest transcends the nature of transformational

leadership to the extent that the followers’ interests hover only around the societal,

organizational, and long-term satisfaction, together with the followers’ self-development,

self-improvement, and self-satisfaction.

On the other hand, the onus to create a safe environment for members is one of

the responsibilities of those in a leadership position in any organization, including the

Catholic Church, to the extent that safety procedures need to be clearly and concisely

communicated to organizational members or followers. Kelloway, Mullen, and Francis

(2006) noted that far fewer studies had examined the potential impact of passive or

ineffective leadership on workplace safety, while arguing that leaders may not be actively

involved in the promotion of safety. This noninvolvement leadership is not surprising

since some leaders are not familiar with the details of their organizational security

procedures. Kelloway et al. examined the role of transformational and passive leadership

in promoting workplace safety. His examination predictably demonstrated via

confirmatory factor analysis that safety-specific transformational leadership and safety-

specific passive leadership are empirically distinct constructs. Importantly, there is a

diametrically opposing relationship between transformational and passive leadership on

safety consciousness, and the climate in which safety events and injuries are predictable.

There is no doubt that, transformational servant leadership in contrast to

transactional or charismatic leadership would be very effective in any organizational and

religious setting, including the Catholic Church, in line with her organizational mission

and objectives, in dealing with the clergy child sexual abuse crisis. The relevance of

transformational leadership in religious settings is undebatable. Scarborough (2010) used

semantic critique of the core features of influence, strategizing ability, and persuasion to

define Christian transformational leadership. The capacity to strategize is not without

heavy demand on the leader, especially emotionally. The transformational leaders’

behavior and emotions need to exude inspiration always. There are many Catholics in the

United States and around the world that derive great inspiration for emotional stability

from, and place a high moral expectation on, the clergy, especially bishops. It is

imperative that Catholic bishops continue in their effort to live up to the high

expectations of the faithful, by ensuring and sustaining a safe environment for all

Catholics. This kind of change, within the confines of the organizational mission, goals,

and visions, as expressed in Canon Law, requires the transformational servant leadership

qualities to succeed.

Transformational leadership is a helpful tool for maintaining high performance,

production, and ethical standards, as well as maintaining trust relationships within the

organization. Schwepker and Good (2010) conducted a study of 345 business-to-business

salespeople and found that transformational leadership had an indirect effect on moral

judgment, as well as direct effects on supervisory capability orientation and the seller’s

trust in the manager. This indirect effect means that transformational leadership becomes

a vital component of managerial success and effectiveness. Managers can employ

coaching, mentoring, and other inspirational qualities as useful tools in establishing the

success of the employees or followers.

Regarding the inspirational motivation of transformational leadership, McCleskey

(2014) states that leaders use their inspirational motivation as a tool to challenge

followers to higher organizational values by being open-minded without critiquing their

every action but aim to increase their self-confidence. Such behavior is an excellent

performance motivator and an effective way of problem-solving and increasing

followers’ self-efficacy. Inspirational motivation is one of three major components of

transformational leadership. For Caillier (2015), in organizations, transformational

leaders motivate employees through several practices. First, they provide inspirational

motivation by articulating a clear, stimulating vision. With regards to the current research

topic, the Catholic bishops of the United States are better positioned as diocesan leaders

through inspirational motivation, to ensure that they are creating a sustainable, safe

environment for the congregation. Transformational leadership would be helpful in

guiding the church’s efforts to ensure the safety of all children from sexual abuse.

Carmeli, Sheaffer, Binyamin, Reiter-Palmon, and Shimoni (2014) see the

transformational leadership concept as a valuable tool for creating a pathway through

which employees can develop their problem-solving ability. For them, being flexible and

creating a non-critical atmosphere are among the ways that transformational leaders

enhance the problem-solving capacity of their members. It does not mean that employees

who are great problem solvers have leaders with transformational leadership style

(Carmeli et al., 2014). Consequently, it is important that the Catholic bishops in the

United States give priority to the human and professional development of all church

employees and the congregation by empowering them to be problem solvers. Using

transformational leadership qualities will help to empower the Catholic faithful to be

problem solvers.

Moreover, Balyer (2012) purposively sampled 30 teachers from six different

schools, determined to have equal gender variables in the 2011/2012 academic year in

İstanbul, Turkey. The purpose of the research study was to analyze the transformational

leadership behaviors exhibited by the principals in their daily duties. In fact, the research

results show that school principals demonstrated high levels of transformational

leadership characteristics concerning idealized influence, inspirational motivation,

individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation behaviors. Therefore, the result

of the research showed the relevance of transformational leadership characteristics or

components on the effectiveness of school principals. The relevance to the current

research is that it was helpful in using the opinions of the Catholic priests in analyzing the

United States Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse

scandal in the church. The priests’ interviews focused on using the behavioral

characteristics of four leadership styles known as transformational leadership,

transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership.

Sarlak, Javadein, Esfahany, and Veiseh’s (2012) study used a qualitative

interview to gain in-depth knowledge while investigating the applicability of

transformational leadership in a spiritually oriented organizational setting. Importantly,

Sarlak et al. assumed that the transformational leadership style helps with the creation of

spiritual space by (a) fulfilling long-term objectives, (b) developing successful programs,

These underlying assumptions need to apply not only in spiritual or religious

organizations such as the Catholic Church but also in public institutional developments.

Notably, Mitchell, et al., (2014) examined the role of transformational

leadership’s diverse team effectiveness and suggested that efficiency is enhanced in inter-

professional teams when transformational leaders engender dynamics characterized by

inter-professional motivation and openness to diversity. The nature of transformational

leadership on team effectiveness, whether in a clinical, vocational, educational, public,

non-profit, or other organizational setting, cannot be dismissed. The findings from a

survey-based study of 75 healthcare teams, support the utility of this model (Mitchell et

al., 2014). Similarly, in this study, I used the opinions of the Catholic priests in analyzing

the United States Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse

scandal in the Church. The priests’ interviews focused on using the behavioral

characteristics of four leadership styles: transformational leadership, transactional

leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership.

Transformational leadership in crisis situations. The positive impact and

effectiveness of transformational leadership in various walks of life is such that it is

fitting to assume the transferability and usefulness of its effectiveness in organizational

crisis situations such as the clergy child sexual abuse crisis in the United States and

around the world. Most institutional crisis situations end with the quest for a new

beginning, change in old “modus operandi,” strategic planning, and a call for innovation.

The assumption of this research hovered around the conception of transformational

leadership being positioned to redirect or reorganize any organization in need of

innovation, change, or in crisis.

Coldwell, Joosub, and Papageorgiou (2012) examined the public perception of

South African businesses in crisis. For the authors, transformational leadership used

responsibly in an industry crisis could restore stability faster than any other leadership

quality. For organizations to move forward towards positively realizing innovation or

change, transformational leadership qualities need to be directly or indirectly employed.

Importantly, Coldwell et al.’s findings suggest that a strategy of prescriptive remedial

steps in conformance to a structured, plotted-out procedure may allow companies to

minimize post-crisis damage and to share price values. The article’s strength is that it

relates to the current research study due to the prescriptive steps taken by the Catholic

bishops in 2002 at the beginning of the child sexual abuse crisis to find a remedy through

the promulgation of the policy on protecting young people, which is currently in use

throughout the Catholic dioceses in the United States. The article did not specifically

exact the importance of followership in crisis.

Singh (2014) puts the role of transformational leadership in a crisis in perspective

by examining its role in transformational collegial leadership (TCL). Singh defined TCL

as a collective action resulting from individual empowerment through transformational

leadership process of institutional or business knowledge. Since the leader cannot engage

in effecting change alone, there is a need to involve everyone in the organization and to

see change or innovation as a collective effort and not just the leader’s effort. On the

extent of TCL’s effect on human resources development in a primary education

environment, one of Singh’s research findings is that the more that change characterizes

the workplace, the more the leaders must motivate their employees to provide leadership

as well (Singh, 2014). The article’s strength is that it extols the need to develop the

individual skills and leadership in organizations through motivation, but everyone cannot

be a leader.

Change can cause anxiety or fear of the unknown; therefore, organizational

innovation during times of change requires the transformational leadership qualities to

impact individuals in the organization positively, to the extent of motivating and inspiring

them to perform efficiently, even in crises. Odetunde (2013) collected data from 106

employees in eight Nigerian service organizations while investigating the effects of

transformational and transactional leadership styles and leaders’ gender on organizational

conflict management behavior. Among his research findings is the importance of using

the transformational leadership’s individual consideration and intellectual stimulation.

For Odetunde, integrative problem-solving, rather than competitive (win-lose)

relationships, equally advance the transformational factor of intellectual stimulation, a

quality acquirable through leadership training. One of the benefits of mentoring and the

encouragement of employees in finding a solution to an organizational conflict is that it is

helpful in reducing anxiety, fear of the unknown, while giving the employees a sense of

ownership which would be useful for ensuring employee effectiveness. Since everyone

cannot be a leader, it is imperative that the Catholic bishops are aware of the leadership

styles that they exhibited in their handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in the church

based on the opinions of the Catholic priests.

Child Sexual Abuse

Reviewing child sexual abuse literature was a difficult task, and it is hard to

imagine that such an epidemic even exists. Unfortunately, there is varying research

pointing to its existence and nature. Notably:

There are many forms of child sexual abuse, including but not limited to rape,

inappropriate relations, sexual exploitation, and much more. In some

circumstance, child sexual abuse is a form of child sexual cruelty that entails

emotional and physical neglect (National Sexual Violence Resource Center,

2012).

Sexual abuse of a child may entail inappropriate touching and no touching sexual actions

with a minor that is inappropriate, together with sexual exploitation of children.

Child sexual abuse is defined as any form of sexual act against children under 18

years old (Wilson & Scarpa, 2015). This sexual act entails forcing, coercing or

threatening a child to have any form of sexual contact or to engage in any sexual activity

at the perpetrator’s direction. Many governments of the world and professional and

religious organizations have legislatively provided grievous measures to protect children

from child sexual abuse. The United States’ Catholic bishops have promulgated a child

abuse protection policy known as the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young

People (USCCB, 2015b).

Formicola (2016) examined the complex political drama surrounding the clergy

sexual abuse. The focus of his study was on understanding the bishops’ policy response

as individuals, members of the United States bishops’ conference, canonically, and as

Vatican representatives in their various dioceses. The importance of his research is such

that it provides materials for understanding the politics surrounding the complexity of the

bishops’ response. Besides, it is important that the church has a way of early detection

and prevention of child sexual abuse in the Church. The importance of detecting child

sexual abuse at an early stage is that the earlier it is discovered or identified, the less

psychological damage it will have on a person. In this study, Formicola advocated for the

pastoral care of the offenders as well but did not provide concrete steps for their care.

Pazdera, McWey, Mullis, and Carbonell (2013) examined the connection between

maternal parenting indicator risks, child sexual abuse, and maternal depression, together

with self-perceived parenting competence relationship influence. The examination

research data was extracted from the Parenting Among Women Sexually Abused in

Childhood (PAWSAIC) dataset (Pazdera et al., 2013). PAWSAIC data were examined to

determine whether maternal depression and high-risk parenting are associable with child

sexual abuse. The results of the research were contrary to the hypothesis that mothers

with a history of child sexual abuse would have significantly higher levels of parenting

stress and maltreatment behaviors than parents without child sexual abuse histories. This

discovery is a source of hope for both maternal child sexual abuse survivors and those

who treat survivors of child sexual abuse (Pazdera et al., 2013). This research finding is

encouraging for mothers with child sexual abuse records, together with clinical

interventionists because it provides them new ground to focus on in correcting this

erroneous belief system.

Centered in the United States, Faller (2015) used qualitative research

methodology interview documents in reviewing and analyzing forty years of forensic

interviewing of children suspected of being victims of sexual abuse, from 1974-2014, to

determine whether there was an occurrence of child sexual abuse. It is enormously

challenging to use forensic interviews as a way of determining whether a child was

sexual abused or not. According to Faller, it is also necessary to develop a balance

between interview strategies that correctly identify sexually abused children (sensitivity)

and correctly exclude children who have not been sexually abused (specificity).

Therefore, it is important to note that whenever interviewers fail to use their forensic

interview training skills appropriately, the false readings and results will do more harm

than good to the child.

“Holy See” perspective on child sexual abuse. The “Holy See” or the

“Apostolic See” of the Roman Catholic Church is “the seat of the central administration

of the worldwide Catholic Church” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2000, p. 882).

For Cardinal Lajolo (2008), the term “Holy See” refers to the “Chair of Peter,” a sign of

the authority given to Simon Peter by Jesus Christ, of whom the Popes drive the source of

their Apostolic Succession. The term “Holy See” currently applies to the pontifical see of

more than one billion Catholics throughout the whole world. The Holy See is the

pontifical see of the Holy Father, the Pope, as the bishop of Rome and the head of the

universal Catholic Church. For Cardinal Lajolo, the United Nations recognize the Vatican

City as the smallest independent state in the world which enjoys diplomatic relations with

most countries of the world as a sovereign state. In other words, understanding the Holy

See’s perspective on the child sexual abuse of minors by some members of the Catholic

clergy in the United States and around the world is important, since the United States

Catholic Church is part of the universal Catholic Church. Some of the literature and

materials examined on the Holy See’s role in the wake of the clergy child sexual abuse

crisis has shown the anger and bitterness of most governments, organizations, the media,

and the public. This anger is in response to the way some bishops’ conferences, religious

superiors, and diocesan bishops handled the clergy sexual abuses in various dioceses of

the world and the United States in particular. There is an atmosphere of mistrust hovering

around the Catholic Church’s leadership to the extent that there are some who question

the Holy See’s leadership style.

As the highest authority in the Catholic Church, it is also important to examine

the Pope's view on the clergy child sexual abuse. During his homily at Domus Sanctae

Marthae, while celebrating Mass with a group of people from around the world who had

experienced sexual abuse by some members of the Catholic clergy, Pope Francis I, struck

a reconciliatory tone, and condemned the clergy child sexual abuse in a strong manner.

The reconciliatory tone by Pope Francis I emphasized the need to protect children by

creating a safe environment, calling for accountability on all clergy and calling all

Catholic bishops around the world to carry out their pastoral duties with regards to this

issue. The Holy Father's reconciliatory tone seems to summarize the ways that the Holy

See is currently handling the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Some works of literature have

questioned the Holy See’s leadership role and sovereign immunity and called for proper

accountability and responsibility on the Holy See’s administration’s handling of the

clergy child sexual abuses around the world. Formicola (2016) examined the complex

political drama surrounding the clergy sexual abuse and various roles of the Catholic

hierarchy in religious, legal, and diplomatic responses. Formicola’s opinions seem to lean

more on the Church’s interest in protecting her autonomy than protecting children from

child sexual abuse.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI invited various diocesan bishops and other religious

superiors to Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome for a symposium to determine ways

to heal and renew child sexual abuse victims. The prefect of the Congregation for the

Doctrine and Faith who has the responsibility of helping the universal Catholic bishops in

dealing with the child sexual abuse crisis through guideline developments did explain the

bishop's responsibility. Cardinal Levada (2012) stated:

The important responsibilities of the Diocesan bishop are his task of assuring the

common good of the faithful. This work extends to the protection of children and

of the young in his duty to give an appropriate response to the cases of sexual

abuse of minors by clerics in his diocese. (p. xiii)

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine and Faith went on to emphasize

the responsibilities of the bishops and the religious superiors, urging them to use and

apply the guidelines appropriately. When explaining the bishops’ and superiors’

responsibilities, Cardinal Levada states that in case “an accusation seems true, the bishop

or major superior, or a delegate, ought to carry out the preliminary investigation in accord

with Codex Iuris Canonici (CIC) can. 1717, Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium

(CCEO) can. 1468, and SST art. 16” (p. xvi). The stated canonical procedures are a

summary of the guidelines by the Catholic Church in dealing with probable cases of child

sexual abuse but did not encourage working with law enforcement officers in various

countries. To understand the nature and meaning of SST, Cardinal Levada stated:

On 30th April 2001, Pope John Paul II promulgated the motu proprio

Sacramentorum sanctitatis (SST). Sexual abuse of minors under eighteen years of

age, committed by a cleric, was included in the list of more grave crimes (delicta

graviora) reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine and Faith (Cardinal

Levada, 2012, p. XVI).

The Congregation for the Doctrine and Faith in Rome is responsible for the proper

adjudication of all credible complaints or cases of child sexual abuse by any member of

the clergy. All bishops’ conference’s child sexual abuse protection guidelines must

follow proper procedures laid down by the Congregation for the Doctrine and Faith in

Rome.

USCCB policy on child sexual abuse. Canon 449 §1 shows the responsibility of the

Pope regarding the establishment of Episcopal Conference of Bishops in every nation of

the world. The Pope is the only legitimate authority in the Catholic Church vested with

the power to approve the establishment of any Catholic conference of bishops around the

world. The Pope is the supreme authority of the universal Catholic Church. The

conference of bishops in every nation exercises the spiritual care and promotion of the

Church's mission for humanity which is in line with the mission of Jesus Christ. The

bishops foster the Catholic Church mission by making use of their ecclesiastical authority

in establishing programs to foster the apostolic task of the church for humanity.

The USCCB as part of the universal Catholic Church is still under the Pope as the

head of the Church. In 1966, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the United States

established a combined conference with the Bishops National Conference, which is

currently known as the Bishops’ Conference in the United States, officially coming into

being on July 1, 2001 (USCCB, 2015). The newly established USCCB has a purpose in

line with the universal law of the church, to foster the mission of Jesus Christ for the

good of humanity in the case of the church ministry and apostolate.

The bishops, in 2002, at the peak of the child sexual abuse crisis in the United

States, exercised their leadership position under the confines of the Code of Canon law

by promulgating the child abuse protection policy. The child abuse protection policy of

the USCCB, which is known as the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young

People, was developed by the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Sexual Abuse” (USCCB,

2015b). The developed charter was not only approved by the bishops at their general

assembly in 2005, but it also received “recognitio” by the Roman leadership in the

following year. The original charter was enacted in 2001 and updated in 2011. It provides

guidelines for all Catholic dioceses and Religious communities in the United States and

the Virgin Islands on the necessary steps and measures required to prevent clergy sexual

abuse of minors. The efforts, on the Catholic bishops’ part, to ensure the protection of the

faithful in the future was visible in articles 12 – 17 of the charter.

For the future welfare of the faithful, Article 13 encourages the diocesan bishops

to make use of appropriate means in screening prospective candidates for ordinations

(USCCB, 2015b). The charter contained in detail, the guidelines for all the Catholic

Dioceses in the United States and the Virgin Islands, indicating ways to handle the child

sexual abuse crisis. It extols reconciling with those who suffered sexual abuses, assures

efficiently addressing allegations of child abuse, ensures church’s procedures are

accounted for while protecting church members from future abuses (USCCB, 2015b)

from clergy sexual abuse. Among other recommendations of the charter towards creating

a safe environment for children in the church are using agencies and law enforcement

resources to check all employee background. All priests, religious, deacons, and

volunteers working in various diocesan ministries need to be background checked

(USCCB, 2015b). The practice of evaluating the backgrounds of all church employees

and volunteers in the Catholic Church seems to be an ongoing effort.

One of the significant and commendable aspects of USCCB’s Charter was that the

bishops acknowledged their mistakes and are currently working to heal the church

(USCCB, 2015b). The bishops’ commendable acts notwithstanding, one of the significant

gaps in examining the charter was the lack of recommending measurable and sustainable

ways to ensure and maintain a safe environment in the Church. Without external auditors

to physically observe and verify the program’s implementation efforts in the parishes,

anyone could write anything in his or her required and necessary reports. Hopefully, this

research will help in creating awareness of the need to continue the efforts in creating a

safe environment for all in the Catholic Church, while highlighting the need to find ways

to fill the gaps mentioned above in the USCCB’s child protection policy.

USCCB’S research efforts on clergy child sexual abuse. The USCCB’s website

contains detailed reports and studies by the Catholic bishops’ in the United States in a

quest to understand the nature, scope, and reason for the clergy sexual abuse of minors.

Various studies reviewing literature related to child sexual abuse indicated a myriad of

theories ranging from behavioral, psychological, psychodynamics, attachment, iterated,

cognitive-behavioral, to abuse by clergy approaches. The theories on abuse by the clergy

do not however, reveal the reason for the abuse (Terry & Tallon, 2013). Despite the lack

of consensus regarding the grounds for child sexual abuse by some clergy, the controlling

position of authority on the part of the clergy, together with its privileges, was among the

contributing factors. The literature review determined that the Church also engages in

neutralization tactics and did not report or collaborate with civil authority in reporting the

child abuses. Importantly, the use of the expression ‘the church’ as an inclusive term

would not only be a fallacy of overgeneralization but would also be too harsh and

undermining of the number of the Catholic clergy and religious institutions that are not

involved in the child sexual abuse of minors.

Since lawyers were opening doors for victims to come forth and state their cases,

the USCCB employed the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to delve into the matter

and provide a detailed account of charges against some Catholic clergy and religious

members who committed sexually abusive acts against minors. To prepare for the

research study, John Jay College of Criminal Justice put together a team of experts from

various areas and walks of life (John Jay Report, 2004). Their effort seems very broad

regarding the scope and nature of the research. In fact, the John Jay research study which

spanned 11 months beginning March 2003 to February 2004, contained information

gathered from surveys provided by 195 dioceses, representing 98% of all diocesan priests

in the United States. The report also includes 140 religious communities, representing

approximately 60% of religious communities and 80% of all religious priests (John Jay

Report, 2004). Great care and detail was taken to preserve and protect the identities of

both victims and the accused. Profile analyses of all parties, including the churches and

the dioceses, were also considered in the study. The research also included an account of

the number of allegations against priests, religious leaders, and deacons within churches

of the dioceses as well as information contained in any police reports.

The research and data provided in the 2004 document, contained the nature and

scope of the study. Since then, the John Jay College Research Team has revisited that

report and conducted yet another research study which was made available to the USCCB

in 2006. The 2004 report showed results that were descriptive in nature and addressed

only critical information sought by the Church (John Jay College, 2011). Consequently,

the research team deemed it necessary to conduct multivariate analysis on topics such as

reporting of the abuse and the distribution of offenses, comparison of diocesan and

religious priests, church response to the abuse, priests with single and multiple

allegations, treatment, and regional differences (John Jay College, 2011). Although the

quantitative nature of their research deviated from the qualitative character of the

proposed research, it provides a better picture of the scope of the clergy child sexual

abuse crisis in the United States.

After the USCCB had enacted and promulgated the Charter for protecting

children in 2002, there was a need to employ independent auditors to examine any issue

associated with the charter. In 2008, the Gavin Group, Inc. conducted audits to ascertain

diocesan/eparchial compliance with the bishops’ Charter for Protection of Children and

Young People. These reviews began a three-year auditing cycle; the Gavin Group divided

all the dioceses in the United States into three groups. Each year, members of the Gavin

audit committee conduct a site visit of the one-third of the dioceses/eparchies, and the

remaining two-thirds of the dioceses/eparchies participate in the collection, compilation,

and review of their policy compliance data collection requirements. The goal is to have

every diocese/eparchy receive at least one full on-site audit every 3 years (USCCB,

2013). The Gavin Group diocesan parish visit is limited to only select parishes.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolates’ website contains helpful

information for understanding the nature and scope of the clergy child sexual allegations.

The surveys and questionnaires on the website are designed to survey dioceses and

eparchies about credible accusations of abuse and the costs of dealing with these claims.

The results will be used to demonstrate progress in implementing the Charter for the

Protection of Children and Young People and reducing the incidence of sexual abuse

within the Church (USCCB, 2013). While the report itself was shocking, members of the

John Jay College are genuinely hoping to better understand the issue to reduce and

prevent child abuse in the future (John Jay Report, 2004). The John Jay report provided

Catholic bishops in the United States with the means to understand the nature and scope

of the clergy abuse crisis and was a helpful tool for knowing how and where to

effectively channel their efforts to create a safe environment for children and young

people in their dioceses.

Summary and Conclusions

This literature review focused on outlining the literature search strategy by

analyzing the related research in the areas of leadership, leadership theory foundation,

and transformational leadership. This chapter also examined other leadership styles such

as transformational, servant, transactional, and charismatic leadership while outlining

their essential characteristics, and the research theoretical framework. The narrowing

down of child sexual abuse literature reviews include the perspectives of the “Holy See”

on child sexual abuse, the USCCB’s policy on child sexual abuse, and the USCCB’s

research efforts on clergy child sexual abuse in relation to their nature, reason, and scope.

It is important to note that, despite the many kinds of literature reviewed, no one

knows the leadership styles exhibited by the bishops in handling the child abuse scandal.

The materials do not reveal the cause of the abuse by some clergy (Terry & Tallon,

2013). What the review revealed instead was that some in the church’s leadership

engaged in neutralization tactics and did not report or collaborate with civil authority in

reporting the child abuse. In turn, this gives the pedophiles approval from superiors to

continue offending and establishes an environment in which the behavior can persist. The

Catholic leadership in the United States through the USCCB had accepted the

responsibility for their mistakes and is currently making efforts to protect their members

from child sexual abuse, promote reconciliation with victims of child sexual abuse, and

create a safe environment for children and young people in the church. An important

notation is that almost all reviewed literature did not emphasize the need to use the

position of the clergy as a source of good through educating them on the qualities and

application of transformational leadership.

In this study, I sought to add to the existing literature on Catholic clergy child

sexual abuse by outlining the leadership styles exhibited by the Catholic bishops in

handling the child sexual abuse scandal based on the priests' opinions. It is important for

me to create awareness of the need for continuous effort in discovering new ways to

create and sustain a safe environment for children and young people in the Catholic

Church through a better understanding of the bishops’ leadership styles. There is a need

to understand the leadership’s behavioral patterns exhibited by the Catholic bishops in

their effort to affect positive change in the church. Transformational leadership among

other leadership styles focuses on the transformation of followers’ values and beliefs, to

attain the organization’s objectives (Tyssen, et al., 2014). In line with exploring the

research methodology, the focus in Chapter 3 is to understand the research design, the

researcher's role, and the methodology section which include the exploration of the data

collection and analysis instrumentation, participant’s selection, recruitment, participation,

and ethical procedures.

Chapter 3: Research Method

Introduction

In this study, I sought to identify and document the perceptions of a sample of

Catholic priests in a midwestern diocese regarding the U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership

styles in handling the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church. In the interviews I

conducted with priests, I focused on the behavioral characteristics of the four leadership

styles: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and

servant leadership. An understanding of which behavioral pattern of the four leadership

styles best defines the Catholic bishops’ leadership style was useful in filling a research

gap in the field. I used a qualitative research approach in collecting and then analyzing

research data by interviewing 11 Catholic priests in a midwestern diocese.

Importantly, “transformational leadership focuses on the transformation of

followers’ values and beliefs to attain the organization’s objectives” (Tyssen et al., 2014,

p. 378). In line with exploring the research methodology, my focus in this chapter will be

to discuss the research design; the researcher's role; and the study methodology. I also

discussed data collection and analysis instrumentation; participant selection, recruitment,

and participation; and ethical procedures.

Research Design and Rationale

I used a phenomenological, qualitative research design to explore the U.S.

Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse scandal based on

the perspectives of the priests. Making use of the qualitative methodology helped me to

explore and describe the lived experiences of participants as represented by their words

(see Yin, 2016). Interviews were used to collect the research data as it related to

generating opinions concerning experiences based on the participants’ responses to the

phenomenon under investigation (see Roulston, 2010). I analyzed the data collected from

the Catholic priest interviews to determine the U.S. Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in

handling the child sexual abuse scandal in the Church.

Research Question

The following research question guided this study:

RQ: What leadership styles do Catholic priests think their bishops exhibited in

their handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in the church?

Role of the Researcher

My role as the researcher in this study was to collect data, and this was facilitated

through my use of qualitative interviews with open-ended questions (see Yin, 2016). The

use of qualitative interviews to collect research data helped me in understanding the

perceptions of U.S. Catholic priests as they related to the research topic. interviewed

Catholic priests from a diocese in the midwestern region of the United States. The use of

qualitative research interviews allowed to collect data while being objective and open-

minded and without coercing the priests, since I did not have supervisory authority over

them.

My responsibility as the researcher was to be objective, concise, and clear in

communicating the research purpose and details to all the participating priests and

making sure to obtain signed informed consent letters from them. I also assured the

participants of the confidential nature of the research, which alleviated any confidentiality

issues and allowed the priests to relax while taking part in the research. Explaining the

importance and benefit of the research to the Catholic Church in the United States and the

Universal Catholic Church also helped in gaining interview participants and their

informed consent.

Methodology

The methodological approach I took in this study was to use the qualitative

phenomenology in relating the participants’ lived experience together with the meaning

they constructed of that experience (see Seidman, 2013). I interviewed 11 priests in a

midwestern diocese who had been in the priesthood a minimum of 10 years because in

that timeframe, these priests interacted with bishops related to the child sexual abuse

scandal. In the interviews, I focused on the behavioral characteristics of four leadership

styles: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and

servant leadership.

I collected data using interview questionnaires while noting that a qualitative

research interview is more than collecting data; it is a way of seeing the world and

learning from it (see Rubin & Rubin, 2012). I was able to obtain participants’ information

from a midwestern diocesan picture directory. I sent the participants an invitation to

participate along with the informed consent form (with the interview procedures and

assurance of their information confidentiality and how to protect their privacy). Because

there are more than 170 dioceses in the United States and it would have been difficult to

interview every priest in every diocese, I focused on interviewing priests in just this one

midwestern diocese.

Instrumentation

For this study, I used interviews to collect research data from Catholic priests

working in a midwestern diocese. I gathered data through taking notes and audio

recording interviews. After transcribing the audio, I stored the interviews on a flash drive.

I ensured that the interview questions were available to the participants before

interviewing them via Skype or face-to-face. Making the interview questions available to

the participants helped to ensure that the participants were well prepared for the

interview. Significantly, a qualitative researcher’s emphasis is more in understanding the

peculiar makeup of people and organizations (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). I, as the researcher,

was the primary and essential data-collecting instrument for this study.

Data Collection and Sampling Procedures

I randomly sampled a purposeful sample of 11 Catholic priests working in a

midwestern diocese. Each of the priests were required to have been in the priesthood for a

minimum of 10 years to ensure that they had significant interaction with bishops related

to the child sexual abuse scandal in the sense that the priests work closely with and

answer to the bishop. I used face-to-face and Skype interviews in collecting my research

data. By offering participants the choice of face-to-face or Skype interviews, I hoped that

they would be more comfortable participating. All interviews were audio taped to provide

an opportunity for me to create a transcript of each interview. Most interviews lasted 45

minutes. Within 35 days, I interviewed each participant face-to-face and did not question

any participant via Skype. I interviewed participants using the interview protocol outlined

in Appendix A of this study. The interview procedures for all participants included:

• Review the invitation to participate and the interview questions, which was

mailed or e-mailed to them 2 weeks before the interview.

• Accept the invitation to participate in the research.

• Read and understand the informed consent form.

• Sign the consent form giving their consent to be interviewed.

• By giving their consent, agree to be interviewed for 45 to 60 minutes as part

of this study.

• Verbally answer four to five sections of interview questions that relate to the

research.

• Be interviewed only once while keeping in mind that they are free to exit the

interview at any time.

• Provide their e-mail for follow-up questions should the need arise and for

member checking.

Sampling. I interviewed 11 Catholic priests in a midwestern diocese for

collecting research data as it related to the research topic. The use of qualitative sampling

helped in providing the necessary data even in a relatively small sample, selected

purposefully since qualitative methods depend on larger samples if selected randomly

(see Patton, 2002). Upon examining the various reasons for using qualitative sampling,

random sampling was the best option for data collection, rather than purposeful sampling

or other sampling approaches. Significantly, the logic and power of random sampling

derives from statistical probability theory while purposeful sampling relies more on using

information-rich cases (Patton, 2002).

Sampling types. Different types of qualitative sampling can be either extreme,

deviant case, intensity, maximum variation, or heterogeneity, and cases that are typical,

snowball, and much more (Patton, 2002). It could also be theory-based, operational

construct, theoretical, confirming and disconfirming, stratified, opportunistic or

emergent, purposeful random, sampling politically important cases, and convenience

sampling (Patton, 2002). I will be using purposeful sampling in this study.

I chose to use purposeful sampling because a purposeful sampling strategy does

not automatically eliminate any possibility for random selection of cases (see Patton,

2002). Therefore, I used a purposeful random sampling selection of various Catholic

priests in a midwestern diocese because of the large number of the priests in the country

in addition to limited resources at my disposal and time constraints with regards to

interviewing all the Catholic priests in the United States. The interviews each had four to

five section questions. I explained the 45 minutes interview procedure to the participants

before obtaining their consent to take notes and begin the interview. Obtaining a signed

informed consent form from the participants and communicating detailed research

information and interview procedures were priorities. In situations where a face-to-face

meeting was not possible, I used Skype interviews.

Population Size

There are more than 190 Catholic dioceses in the United States and its environs,

with a population of over 78 million people. Considering limited resources, fiscal

constraints, and limited time together with the same type of services provided by the

priests of these dioceses, the researcher plans to collect interview data from 11 Catholic

priests in a midwestern diocese. The interview protocol focused on eliciting the opinions

of the Catholic priests related to the U.S Catholic bishops’ leadership styles in handling

the child sexual abuse scandal in the church. The priests’ interviews focused on the

behavioral characteristics of the four leadership styles known as transformational

leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership. I have

drafted the interview questions in such a way that the priests’ answers will determine the

bishops’ leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse based on the opinions of the

priests.

The choice of the four leadership styles was informed by the transformational

leadership style being considered the most useful in organizational change, while

transactional leadership is the opposite style of transformational leadership. An important

notation is that the randomly sampled collected information will help in providing

credibility to the research. Notably, the credibility of systematic and randomly selected

data examples is considerably greater than the personal, ad hoc selection of data selected

and reported after outcomes are known (Patton, 2002). Therefore, the use of the

purposeful random sampling is to establish research credibility.

Participant Recruitment

This phenomenological research entails the use of purposeful random sampling to

select 11 Catholic priests in a midwestern diocese entrusted with the responsibility of

implementing the safe environment programs in their parishes. The use of purposeful

sampling best fits this research since for many audiences, random sampling, even of

small samples, will substantially increase the credibility of the results (Patton, 2002). A

participant has to be a Catholic priest working in a midwestern region of the United

States, and in good standing with the Church, and thus is in communion with his bishop. I

have the bishop’s permission to do this research in a midwestern diocese. I plan to

contact the priests via e-mail, letters, or phone calls, explaining in detail the research

purpose and goal, together with the interview procedures, before sending informed

consent forms to be signed by the priests who are willing to participate. Maintaining the

confidentiality of the collected data using a password-protected, locked safe will be

explained to the participants.

Data Analysis Plan

A qualitative interview study begins with decisions regarding the sample to be

interviewed, followed by data collection, and concludes with data analysis (Weiss, 1994).

I will employ NVivo qualitative data analysis software in the study which I will use as a

management tool. The first step in analyzing data is preparing a transcribed word-for-

word interview with a complete and accurate version of the interview responses (Rubin &

Rubin, 2012). Despite the use of NVivo qualitative research software, it is important to

highlight that as a researcher, I am the primary instrument for collecting and

analyzing the research data.

I plan on reading and rereading the collected data to fully understand and gain

insight into how to organize them into themes and patterns. A starting point for this

analysis will follow the preliminary coding framework (see Table 1).

Table 1

Preliminary Coding Framework

Theory

Primary Code

Secondary

Code

Interview Question

Transformational

Leadership

Individual

Consideration

Intellectual

stimulation

Inspirational

motivation

Idealized influence

Vision

Motivation

Inspiration

In what ways do you

perceive that the

bishops display or did

not display effective

leadership vision and

skills in handling the

child sexual abuse

crisis?

Transactional

Leadership

Team work/clear

goals

Rewards, promises,

Incentive

Meeting

follower’s self-

interest

Motivational

strategies

What incentive and

motivational strategies

do you perceive that the

bishops exhibited or did

not exhibit in their

handling of the child

sexual abuse scandal in

the church?

Charismatic

Leadership

Charisma to convince,

Desire for change

Removing

obstructions to change

Self-sacrifice

Risk taking

Protecting

organizational

identity.

The power,

eloquence, and

charm to

convince other

to buy into a

vision

In what ways do you

think that the bishops’

exhibit or did not

exhibit compelling

leadership actions in

handling of the child

sexual abuse scandal?

Servant

Leadership

Listening

Empathy

Stewardship

Service

Awareness

Commitment

to growing the

people and the

community

In what ways do you

think that the bishops

exhibit/exhibited or

do/did not exhibit the

ability to put others first

in handling of their

child sexual abuse

scandal?

I used NVivo qualitative research software to help in managing the collected data and

organizing them into essential themes and patterns (Casey, Eime, Payne, & Harvey,

2009). I did not experience any discrepancy of information but triangulated and used

member checking as a way of addressing any discrepancy.

Issues of Trustworthiness

With regards to trustworthiness, “the test of any display is what it helps you

understand and how trustworthy that understanding is” (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña,

2014, p. 117). Since any research studies in a social setting can have substantial effects

on people’s lives, the researcher needs to be trustworthy in rendering the accounts of the

study. Therefore, to ensure trustworthiness, quality, transferability, credibility,

dependability, and the conformability of this research, I used member checking as a way

of confirming the accuracy of the collected data.

Credibility

The credibility of research is essential in determining its validity. As a way of

ensuring the validity and credibility of the research, I engaged in member checking, data

triangulation, and use of a high-quality tape recorder. Triangulation is “the use of several

different research methods to test the same finding” (Babbie, 2014, p. 121). Using

member checking helped to confirm the accuracy of the collected data. After collecting

and transcribing the interviews, I e-mailed the participants to confirm the accuracy of the

collected data. In addition, as the primary instrument of this research, I triangulated the

primary data by combining manual coding and NVivo qualitative software coding.

Triangulating the collected data ensures the robustness of conclusions regarding the

research topic.

Transferability

I gathered detailed, thick descriptions of the participants’ perceptions of bishops’

leadership styles when handling child sexual abuse scandals to ensure transferability of

the data. A detailed description of the organizational context includes the setting and tone

of the meeting (i.e., whether it was tense, mild, with or without laughter, or relaxed;

Rubin & Rubin, 2012). Rubin and Rubin (2012) explained that thick description requires

the researcher explain the phenomenon in a detailed and sufficient manner so other

researchers can replicate it in a similar setting. This research was a resourceful material

for other researchers who want to examine similar phenomena. The interview questions

made it possible for me to obtain thick descriptive information from the research data.

The transferability for similar research is such that obtaining thick descriptive

information helped in exhausting the details of the phenomenon and providing adequate

information for any research.

Dependability

To ensure dependability, I purposively selected the participants in a random

manner protecting their confidentiality through numerical numbering of the interviews

without using their names. The use of a purposive sampling strategy did not

automatically eliminate any possibility for random selection of participants or cases

(Patton, 2002). Using purposive sampling, I randomly selected the interview participants.

After transcription and manual coding, I used NVivo software coding to reduce the data

to patterns that reflected various leadership styles and behavioral characteristics in line

with the research topic. I engaged in an inquiry audit by discussing the data with my

peers without breaking participants’ confidentiality. Using purposive sampling ensured

dependability since the participants have experience and expertise in the field of this

research.

Confirmability

To ensure confirmability, I uploaded the transcribed interview data into NVivo

qualitative software to code and reduce data to patterns and themes. I engaged in

meticulous data management, used a quality recorder in capturing the interview data, and

took notes while maintaining accurate records of participants’ interviews. I provided a

verbatim transcription of the interviews, reduced and narrowed data into patterns and

themes. I ensured that the research findings confirmed with the research questions and

topic since it helped in determining the predominant leadership styles of the US Catholic

bishops when handling the child sexual abuse scandal based on the opinions of the priests

who report to them.

Ethical Procedures

There are ethical standards attached to qualitative research methods which I

carefully implemented. Since research integrity carries significance in qualitative

research, it is important to demonstrate that I went to great lengths to conduct the

research accurately (Yin, 2016). As a priest ordained for a midwestern diocese of the

United States, I obtained participants information from a diocesan picture directory. I also

acquired a Letter of Cooperation containing the bishop’s permission to conduct the

research within the midwestern diocese. I sent the participants an invitation to participate

together with the informed consent form with the interview procedures and assurance of

their information confidentiality and how to protect their privacy. I ensured to apply what

I learned prior to obtaining the Human Subject Protection certificate. Ethically, I had the

responsibility to apprise the participants of the nature of the research and all that it

entailed before having them sign a consent form. I did not allow personal bias to

influence or coerce my thoughts or behaviors when drawing research conclusions.

Therefore, I did not select participants based on personal relationships through work,

church, or employment, to give credence to a more reliable outcome. I guaranteed the

participants’ anonymity and protected their identity by tightly securing all collected

research data. The collected research data were protected via lock, password, and code,

and stored in a safe place, accessible only to me. Notably, in accordance with federal,

state and local law together with my role as a Catholic priest, and the limits of my

conscience, I am mandated to report any information related to an abuse of minor/elderly

or criminal activity.

Besides, when selecting interviewees for the study, I informed the participants of

the nature of the study in addition to the methods and procedures involved in obtaining

research data. It is important that the participants signed consent forms before the

interview. When engaging participants in the studies, careful and due consideration was

implemented. In this study, the research participants were limited only to Catholic priests

working in a midwestern region of the United States. Importantly, Walden University

Institutional Review Board’s (IRB) approval number for this study is 08-04-17-0381433

and it expires on August 3rd, 2018. I gave participants a copy of the consent form to keep.

The study validity and authenticity would have been compromised if I tried in any

way to influence the priests’ responses. Notably, the participants may not have

progressed to a conscious determination to participate at the start of the subject area but

gave their consent to participate when well informed (Josselson, 2013). I was ethically

bound to avoid selecting interviewees based on personal relationships to prevent any

suspicion or accusations of tampering with the research data and results, which could

ultimately discredit all efforts. It would have been unethical to allow personal bias to

influence the research in any way; therefore, I was objective in the research process.

Notably, there was no repercussion for failing to participate since participants were free

to exit the interview at any time.

Summary

Qualitative studies tend to generalize their findings and seek transferability to

other situations based on analytic claims (Yin, 2016). In Chapter 3, I documented the

research purpose, examined the rationale for the study design, described the role of the

researcher, and explained in detail the research methodology as it related to participant

recruitment, instruments, data collection, and data analysis procedures. Furthermore,

research trustworthiness issues as they relate to research credibility, transferability,

dependability, and conformability, together with the ethical procedures were explored.

In this research, I collected data related to the research questions while keeping in

line with the research topic. The study purpose was to use the opinions of Catholic priests

to analyze the U.S Catholic bishop’s leadership styles in handling the child sexual abuse

scandal in the church. The priests’ interviews focused on using the behavioral

characteristics of four leadership styles including transformational leadership,

transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership. The primary

focus was the Catholic priests in a midwestern region of the United States. I obtained a

letter of cooperation from the bishop to ease the tension and difficulty of obtaining

interviews from any of the priests. The bishop’s letter provided permission to conduct

research within the midwestern diocese.

Once I had the IRB approval to proceed with the research data collection, research

participation requests were sent to the prospective participants. I interviewed Catholic

priests who agreed to participate in the study. I was responsible for assuring anonymity

and protecting confidential information once the interview was completed (Josselson,

2013). Communicating this important step to the participants helped in easing tensions

and eradicating any concerns the participants may have had including protecting the

participants’ information during data collection. In Chapter 4, I presented the study’s

setting, participant demographics, data collection, and evidence of the research

trustworthiness while documenting the results.

Chapter 4: Results

Introduction

The goal of this qualitative phenomenological study was to identify and document

the perceptions of Catholic priests regarding Catholic bishops’ leadership styles when

handling child sexual abuse scandals in the Church. Interviews with 11 Catholic priests

living and working in a midwestern diocese revealed their perceptions of the behavioral

characteristics of four leadership styles: transformational leadership, transactional

leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership. I assigned the participants

numbers from P.1 to P.11 as a way of maintaining their confidentiality. The research

topic emerged due to the continuous need to create awareness of child sexual abuse in the

Catholic Church and to assess the leadership efforts exhibited by Catholic bishops in

addressing this issue. There was one primary research question for this study: What

leadership styles do Catholic priests think the bishops exhibit in their handling of the

child sexual abuse scandal in the church? In this chapter, I will present the study’s

setting, participant demographics, data collection, and evidence of the research

trustworthiness while documenting the results.

Setting

This study took place in a midwestern diocese, and the participants included

Catholic priests working in the priesthood for at least 10 years. I completed face-to-face

interviews with the participants using interview questions that they reviewed in advance.

There were no known organizational or personal conditions that influenced participants’

perceptions or interpretations of the collected data. I conducted the interviews in a

relaxed atmosphere (i.e., homes, convocation venue, or offices of the participants). I

transcribed all the collected interview data on my home computer. I live alone, and the

atmosphere was conducive to listening to the audio-taped interviews repeatedly for

transcription. I studied the data to understand participants’ perceptions prior to organizing

them into patterns and themes.

Demographics

The study participants worked at various geographical locations in the midwestern

Catholic diocese. I kept the age of participants confidential to protect their identities.

Their years in priesthood ranged from 20 to 40 or more years. All participants were male

because only males may serve as Catholic priests. Table 2 shows demographics including

years in priesthood, gender, and ethnicity.

Table 2

Participant Demographic Information

Participant Years in Priesthood Gender Ethnicity Job Position

Participant #1 20–25 Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #2 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #3 25+ Male Other Other

Participant #4 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #5 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #6 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #7 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #8 20–25 Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #9 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Participant #10 15–20 Male Other Other

Participant #11 25+ Male Caucasian Pastor

Data Collection

The Walden IRB committee approved my proposal (Approval No. 08-04-17-

0381433) on August 4, 2017. Immediately after approval, I began the data collection

process following the details of the approval. I followed every detail of my IRB

application throughout the data collection process, including for inviting participants and

obtaining informed consent, while trying as much as possible to be “acquainted with the

fieldwork process” (Yin, 2016, p. 116). My plan was to interview 11 Catholic priests in a

midwestern diocese; therefore, I started the purposeful sampling by perusing the diocesan

directory to obtain potential participants’ contact information.

I sent potential participants an invitation to participate letter and informed consent

forms that detailed the interview procedures and provided assurance of their

confidentiality and privacy throughout the research process. The participants’ invitation

letter contained a self-introduction, explanation of the research topic, invitation to

participate, estimate of an interview duration of 45 to 60 minutes, and confidentiality

assurance. The informed consent form contained the interview protocol and options for

participants to consent to participate in the study.

The drive to my primary data collection location was long, and I met with the

participants only once each at agreed times and locations (e.g., homes, offices, and the

diocesan convocation location). I met one participant at the diocesan convocation

location and all others at their homes and offices. I sent invitation letters to 32 candidates,

but only 13 candidates agreed to participate and signed the informed consent form. Of the

13 candidates who agreed to participate, only 11 participants met the informed consent

requirements according to the IRB application stipulations.

After receiving participant approval, I audio-taped, transcribed, and saved

interviews in a numbered format to protect participants’ identities. I e-mailed the

transcribed interview data to all but two participants to verify the accuracy of the

collected data. I did not member check those two participants because they gave me

typed out answers to the interview questions during their face-to-face interviews, so there

was no need to member check their responses since they did not waiver from their typed

response in our face-to-face interview. I also e-mailed the transcribed interviews data to

my dissertation supervisory committee for feedback. My committee suggested I look for

patterns and themes in the transcribed data.

A surprising observation I made during recruitment was that younger priests with

between 10 to 20 years in the priesthood seemed reluctant to participate or be on record. I

observed that most non-American priests were afraid to participate. After discussing this

with some of them, I observed that they were afraid of the church’s hierarchy. Some said

they did not have enough confidence and experience to discuss the topic and so were

excluded from the interview.

Data Analysis

Qualitative researchers usually use an inductive approach but can employ a

deductive approach under certain circumstances because “without some initial concepts

or theories, you might spend an unending amount of time not knowing what you are

looking for but waiting for behavioral pattern and concepts to emerge” (Yin, 2016, p.

101). I employed NVivo qualitative data analysis software as a management tool in this

study. The data analysis process for this study involved various steps. The first step in

analyzing data was preparing a word-for-word transcription of complete and accurate

interview responses (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). Despite the use of NVivo qualitative

research software, it is important to highlight that as the researcher, I was the primary

instrument for collecting and analyzing the research data.

I assigned the participants numbers ranging from P.1 to P.11 as a way of

maintaining their confidentiality. As the primary instrument for data analysis, I tried to

replicate verbatim what I audio taped during the interview process while methodically

gathering and organizing data into a database form (see Yin, 2016). Despite using more

than one device to ensure dependable recording of the primary data, I carefully listened to

recorded data to ensure the accuracy of the transcribed materials. Notably, “the key

process in the analysis of qualitative social research data is coding which involves

classifying or categorizing individual pieces of data” (Babbie, 2014, p. 409). I read and

re-read the collected data to gain insight into how to organize responses into patterns and

themes. Using the behavioral characteristics of the four leadership styles of servant,

charismatic, transaction, and transformational leadership, I tried to create patterns and

theme in line with the research topic.

In addition to manual coding, I uploaded the transcribed interview data into the

NVivo 11 qualitative analysis software. Importantly, “the process of coding and

reorganizing codes into categories is a creative one in which the analyst plays with the

data and tries out different ways of think about the data might be understood” (Roulston,

2010, p. 153). Using NVivo, I ran a word frequency query on all uploaded interview data

to determine the strengths and weakness of the common words. Figure 2 is the result of

the word frequency query in NVIVO for all my interviews.

Figure 2. NVIVO word frequency query result.

The NVIVO word frequency query result is quite broad and did not align with the

research topic or research question. Using the result of the NVIVO word frequency query

along with manual coding, I created codes that fit into patterns and themes of the

behavioral characteristics of the four leadership styles. I then used the software to

categorize the substantial data relating to the research question while aligning it with the

preliminary coding framework draft (see Figure 2).

After uploading the transcribed data into NVivo 11, I used the preliminary coding

framework draft (see Figure 2) as a guide to organize data according to themes (the four

leadership styles) and patterns (behavioral characteristics of the four leadership styles)

(see Yin, 2016). In this study, I relied on the perceptions of Catholic priests to determine

the leadership styles exhibited by the bishops handling of child sexual abuse scandals.

The interview questions aligned with this research purpose; so, it was easy for me to

determine the themes and patterns within various leadership style categories.

Using the preliminary coding framework draft (see Figure 2) to create nodes and

sub-nodes in NVivo 11, I started coding the interview data. I reviewed every line of every

interview and highlighted codes that applied to the four leadership behavioral

characteristics. Using the NVivo 11, I highlighted relevant sentences and phrases in the

participants’ descriptions pertaining to the behavioral characteristics of the four

leadership styles. Table 3 contains the frequency table for all the coded data.

Table 3

Data Coding Frequency

Servant

Leadership

Charismatic Leadership

Transformational

Leadership

Transactional

Leadership

Listening

(f = 5)

Charisma to convince

(f = 0)

Individual

consideration (f = 7)

Team work

(f = 6)

Empathy

(f = 1)

Desire for change (f = 5)

Intellectual stimulation

(f = 9)

Clear goal

(f = 7)

Awareness

(f = 3)

Removing Obstacle to

change (f = 4)

Inspirational

motivation (f = 3)

Incentive

(f = 1)

Service

(f = 7)

Self-sacrifice (f = 4)

Idealized influence

(f = 1)

Stewardship

(f = 6)

Risk-taking (f = 2)

Protect organizational

identity (f = 5)

Total:

(f = 22)

(f = 20)

(f = 14)

The leadership styles of servant leadership, charismatic leadership, transactional

leadership, and the transformational leadership were the primary codes that I used as

themes. I used the characteristics of the four leadership styles as listed on the preliminary

coding framework (see Figure 2) as the secondary codes (pattern). Since I already had

existing themes and patterns, there was no need to create a new one. An example of

specific patterns from the coding of the first interview question included forced to listen,

more interested in protecting the church, bishops’ paid remunerations to victims, legal

leadership approach, and psychological leadership approach. These patterns extend

existing literature on behavioral characteristics of Catholic bishops in the context of

servant leadership. Even if they felt forced to put others first, bishops exercised servant

leadership as the most predominant leadership styles when handling the child sexual

abuse scandal.

Evidence of Trustworthiness

The purpose of this research was to identify and document the perceptions of

Catholic priests in analyzing the leadership styles of Catholic bishops in the United States

while dealing with the aftermath of the child sexual abuse scandal. The priests’

interviews focused on using the behavioral characteristics of four leadership styles:

transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant

leadership. I ensured trustworthiness in collecting, transcribing, and analyzing data. I

attempted to render research results without bias. To ensure the trustworthiness and the

validity of this research, I used the following techniques to confirm credibility,

dependability, transferability, and confirmability.

Credibility

The credibility of research is essential in determining its validity. As a way of

ensuring the validity and credibility of the research, I engaged in member checking, data

triangulation, and use of a high-quality tape recorder. Triangulation is “the use of several

different research methods to test the same finding” (Babbie, 2014, p. 121). I used

member checking to confirm the accuracy of the collected data. After collecting and

transcribing the interviews, I emailed the participants to confirm the accuracy of the data

excerpt two participants that gave me a typed-out response during my face-to-face

interview with them. In addition, as the primary instrument of this research, I triangulated

the primary data by combining manual coding and NVivo qualitative software coding.

Triangulating the collected data ensures the robustness of conclusions regarding the

research topic. Using a quality tape recorder and taking notes while collecting data helped

me ensure that I captured detailed information during the interview process.

Transferability

I gathered detailed, thick descriptions of the participants’ perceptions of bishops’

leadership styles when handling child sexual abuse scandals to ensure transferability of

the data. A detailed description of the organizational context includes the setting and tone

of the meeting (i.e., whether it was tense, mild, with or without laughter, or relaxed;

Rubin & Rubin, 2012). Rubin and Rubin (2012) explained that thick description requires

the researcher explain the phenomenon in a detailed and sufficient manner so other

researchers can replicate it in a similar setting. This research is resource material for other

researchers who want to examine similar phenomena. The interview questions made it

possible for me to obtain thick descriptive information from the research data. The

transferability for similar research is such that obtaining thick descriptive information

would be helpful in exhausting the details of the phenomenon and providing adequate

information for any research.

Dependability

To ensure dependability, I purposively selected the participants in a random

manner and protected their confidentiality through numerical numbering of the interviews

without using their names. The use of a purposive sampling strategy does not

automatically eliminate any possibility for random selection of participants or cases

(Patton, 2002). Using purposive sampling, I randomly selected the participants. After

transcription and manual coding, I used NVivo software coding to reduce the data to

patterns that reflected various leadership styles and behavioral characteristics in line with

the research topic. I engaged in an inquiry audit by discussing the data with my peers

without breaking participants’ confidentiality. Using purposive sampling ensure

dependability since the participants have experience and expertise in the field of this

research.

Confirmability

To ensure confirmability, I uploaded the transcribed interview data into NVivo 11

qualitative software to code and reduce data to patterns and themes. I engaged in

meticulous data management, used a quality recorder in recording the interview data, and

took notes while maintaining accurate records of participants’ interviews. I provided a

verbatim transcription of the interviews, reduced and narrowed patterns into themes, and

separating data into categories in line with the research topic. The research findings

confirmed with the research questions and topic since it determined the predominance of

the servant leadership in the US Catholic bishops handling of the child sexual abuse

scandal.

Results

Research Question

The research question guiding this study was: What leadership styles do Catholic

priests think the bishops exhibited in their handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in

the church? The result of examining participants’ collected interview data was that

Catholic priests perceive bishops as using servant leadership when handling child sexual

abuse scandals in the church. I used a deductive approach to create codes within the

patterns and themes of the behavioral characteristics of the four leadership styles: servant,

charismatic, transactional, and transformational leadership. I assigned participants’

perceptions to various leadership styles based on the behavioral characteristics they

mentioned while answering the interview questions. Most participants’ perceptions were

very critical of bishops’ leadership techniques when handling child sexual abuse

scandals. Details of participants’ views that informed the coding patterns and category

choices appear in the following sections.

Servant Leadership

The first interview question addressed servant leadership and had three sub

questions regarding whether bishops listened receptively to victims and the accused, were

aware of traumatic experiences, and attempted healing while being responsible and

committed in formatting a future prevention plan. The result of data coding frequency

shows five participants expressed that the bishops did listen to complaints on issues of

child sexual abuse. Seven participants revealed that the bishops exhibited service. six

participants expressed that the bishops expressed good stewardship while three

participants showed that the bishops displayed awareness.

Participant 1 (P.1) shared that, “when there were so many voices to be heard and there

were organizations that were forming, like SNAP and I think they began listening only

when they were forced to.”

One of the participant’s perceptions of whether bishops listened was that the

“victims were listened to in an open way for the most part. And, the accused are given

their opportunity to respond to the accusations” (P.11). “I think in the wake of the 2002

scandals, a number of bishops did do what I thought was a courageous thing and meet

face to face and listened” (P.8). Again, “I think that when it was made aware to them, this

was about 2000. I think they did listened” (P.9). These responses provided insights into

participants’ perceptions of whether bishops listened receptively to the accused and the

victims of the child sexual abuse scandal.

Three participants portrayed bishops’ awareness of the pain of victims and/or the

accused. Bishops provided services to the victims most often and sometimes to the

accused and showed good stewardship. “There was some remuneration to each of the

victims/families and the offer I believe was made to them for ongoing therapy” (P.5).

Another participant’s perception was that, the bishops “did the best they could under the

circumstances given the advice that they had at the time from the experts” (P.6). Bishops

“were definitely responsible” in handling the child sexual abuse scandal (P.9).

The leadership styles of servant leadership, charismatic leadership, transactional

leadership, and the transformational leadership were the primary codes that I used as

themes. I used the characteristics of the four leadership styles as listed on the preliminary

coding framework (Figure 2) as the secondary codes (pattern). Since I already have

existing themes and patterns, there was no need creating a new one. The participants were

assigned numbers (from P.I to P.11) as a way of maintaining their confidentiality. Figure

4 shows results of participants’ perceptions as coding references in the servant leadership

style.

Figure 3. Servant leadership participants’ coding results.

Figure 3 shows the number of coding reference in NVivo 11 of the participants’

perceptions related to the servant leadership style (f = 22). The perceptions of P.11, P.9,

P.5, and P.1 portray answers in affirmation of the three interview questions on servant

leadership styles. P.7, P.2, P.10, and P.8 answered in affirmation of 2 of the 3 questions

on patterning to the behavioral characteristics of servant leadership. P.6 and P.4 answered

in affirmation of one of the three questions on patterning to the behavioral characteristics

of servant leadership. P.3 did not report that bishops exercised any behavioral

characteristics of servant leadership. Servant leadership (22 references) has the highest

number of references of all the leadership styles in this research.

Charismatic Leadership

The second interview question had three sub-questions regarding whether bishops

allow exposure of sexual offenses and offenders to create vigilance and prevent further

abuses against children. Did the bishops’ compromise Catholic identity, exhibit interest

in the future, and seem willing to sacrifice themselves to bring about healing? There were

varying perceptions from the participants. P.1 stated, “I think there was a bit of exposure

and a bit of action of trying to surface the names of those who were convicted and rightly

so.” P.11 suggested that “the bishops are public now with the offenses and what the

responses are to the abuses. This does, hopefully, deter future abuses.” P.3 responded to

the question differently. The bishops “were trying to rev up the troops and protect the

church, almost at the expense of the victims” (P.3).

P.2 said, “I really do think they compromised pastoral care and that was to protect

Catholic identity.” P.2 believed bishops did not compromise Catholic identity but

compromised pastoral care in the process of trying to protect the church from scandal. P.3

did not think that the bishops compromised Catholic identity and interest. P.4 suggested

that protecting children fits with Catholic identity and does not think bishops

compromised Catholic identity in their handling of the child sexual abuse scandal.

The result of data coding frequency shows five participants revealed that the

bishops exhibited the desire for change in handling the child abuse scandal. Four

participants expressed that the bishops exhibited the charismatic leadership

characteristics of removing obstacles to change. Four participants revealed that the

bishops sacrificed themselves in handling the child abuse scandal. Two participants

expressed that the bishops exhibited the charismatic leadership characteristic of risk-

taking in managing the child abuse scandal while five participants showed that the

bishops protected the church’s identity. None of the participants expressed that the

bishops’ exhibited the charismatic leadership characteristics of having the charisma to

convince.

Figure 4. Charismatic leadership participants’ coding results.

Figure 4 shows the number of coding reference in NVivo 11 of the participants’

perceptions related to charismatic leadership (f = 20). P.4 and P.6 perceived that bishops

exercised all three interview questions (Appendix A) relating to behavioral characteristics

of charismatic leadership. P.1, P.11, P.9, P.8, and P.7 reported that bishops exercised two

of the three interview questions (Appendix F) relating to behavioral characteristics of

charismatic leadership. P.3, P.2, P.5, and P.10’s perceptions shows bishops only

exercising one behavioral characteristic of charismatic leadership. All participants

believed the bishops exercised at least one behavioral characteristic of charismatic

leadership.

Transactional Leadership

The third interview question had three sub-questions regarding whether bishops

worked together with the clergy, religious, and laity to create and implement child abuse

prevention policies, reward systems for parishes in compliance with the policy, and

support for Catholic parents’ efforts to protect their children from child sexual abuse. The

result of data coding frequency shows six participants expressed that the bishops

exhibited teamwork in handling the child abuse scandal. Seven participants revealed that

the bishops exhibited clear goal in managing the child abuse scandal. Only one

participant expressed that the bishops used incentive and rewarded compliant parishes

and the protecting God’s children/virtus program facilitators. P.10’s perception was that

bishops collaborated with the faithful since “it’s the faithful who have committed

themselves in teaching those programs. So, I’m sure they are working together with the

faithful to make sure that the church redeems its image.” Another participant stated that,

“maybe on the diocesan level the bishops’ are working together with people who are

psychologists and social workers and that’s probably good and even on the national level,

that’s probably great” (P.2).

There are varying perceptions of whether bishops implemented a rewards system

for the parishes in their dioceses based on compliance with the child abuse prevention

policy. Bishops may not understand the need for a reward system since as Christians “we

believe that out reward is in heaven” (P.10). Most participants’ perceptions were that

bishops supported the Catholic church members’ efforts to protect their children from

sexual abuse. “I think the bishops’ response that was given, the mandate of terms, having

Protecting God’s Children’ in place was an attempt to help the parents protect their

children” (P.4). P.11, P.3, and P.10 suggested that the bishops and the entire church

supported Catholic parents’ efforts through numerous initiatives. Figure 6 shows relevant

statistic results of the participants’ perceptions via numbered coding of references to

transactional leadership.

Figure 5. Transactional leadership participants’ coding results.

Figure 5 shows the number of coding reference in NVivo 11 of the participants’

perceptions related to charismatic leadership (f = 14). P.3, P.11, P.10, and P.2 portrayed

that bishops exercised two of the three interview questions (Appendix A) relating to

behavioral characteristics of transactional leadership in their handling of the child sexual

abuse scandal in the church. P.4, P.5, P.8, P.6, P.9, and P. 1 answered in affirmation with

only one example of behavioral characteristics of transactional leadership style. P.7 did

not perceive that bishops exercised any behavioral characteristics of transactional

leadership. The total references for all participants under transactional leadership

behavioral characteristics was 14.

Transformational Leadership

The fourth interview question had three sub-questions regarding whether bishops

paid adequate attention to the needs of all parties in the child abuse scandal, organized

programs to educate their members, and genuinely encouraged the faithful to buy into

their prevention policy via inspirational and intellectually stimulating motivational

techniques. The result of data coding frequency shows seven participants expressed that

the bishops exhibited intellectual consideration in handling the child abuse scandal. Nine

participants revealed that the bishops exhibited the transformational leadership

characteristic of intellectual stimulation and three participants expressed that the bishops

showed inspirational motivation. Only one participant expressed that the bishops

exhibited the transformational leadership characteristic of idealized influence in handling

the child abuse scandal. P.1’s perception was that, “for those who have been justly

accused, there has been due diligence listening.”

I’m sure they paid attention to all of them. I’m presupposing that some of the

priests might be questioned about what they do and 2) there were interactions

between the bishop and the victim, some of them requested for settlements. I’m

sure there was some dialogue. (P.10)

Most of the participants’ perceptions focused on the bishops’ adequate attention for the

victims, not the accused. P.11 stated,

The PGC program has been very successful in the area of education on the child

abuse sex scandal. Those taking the program learn the signs of an abuser, what

they can do to alert the proper authorities if they suspect abuse, etc.

Most participants believed bishops organized a program to protect God’s children to

educate their members to recognize, report, and prevent child sexual abuse. P.5’s varying

perception was that, “PGC (Protecting God’s Children) seems like a good program, but I

am not sure that it has prevented any more abuse.” “Anybody that volunteers with kids

has to do that and I agree that’s what needs to be done because it’s more educational

more than it is anything” (P.9). This opinion is a sharp deviation from other participants’

views. Due to the nature and severity of child abuse, bishops mandated PGC programs

for anyone who wants to volunteer in any parish or diocesan activities within the United

States. Figure 6 shows the relevant statistical results of the participants’ perceptions via

numbered coding of references to transformational leadership.

Figure 6. Transformational leadership relevant to participants’ statistical results.

Figure 6 shows the number of coding reference in NVivo 11 of the participants’

perceptions related to transformational leadership (f = 20). P.10, P.11, and P.3 answered

in affirmation to all three interview questions (Appendix A) relating to behavioral

characteristics of transformational leadership in their handling of the child sexual abuse

scandal in the church. P.4, P.9, P.8, P.5, and P.1 perceived that bishops only exercised

only two of the three interview questions (Appendix A) relating to behavioral

characteristics of transformational leadership in their handling of the child sexual abuse

scandal in the church. P.6 was the only participant with the perception that bishops

exercised only one behavioral characteristic of transformational leadership in their

handling of the child sexual abuse scandal in the church. P.3, P.7, and P.11 did not

believe bishops exercised any behavioral characteristics of transformational leadership.

The Catholic priests’ perceptions of bishops’ handing of the child sexual abuse scandal

shows servant leadership (22 references) was the dominant leadership style of Catholic

bishops. Table 4 summarizes the coding references and shows the result.

Table 4

Leadership Style Coding References

Leadership Styles Number of Participants Total Number of

Referenced References

Servant leadership 10 22

Charismatic leadership 11 20

Transactional leadership 10 14

Transformational leadership 9 20

Table 4 shows that, the priests reported combinations of various leadership styles

of servant, charismatic, transactional, and transformational leadership. Servant leadership

had 22 references. Charismatic and transformational leadership had 20 references each,

and transactional leadership had 14 references. Servant leadership had the highest number

of coding references in Catholic priests’ perceptions of the research topic. The dominant

leadership style of Catholic bishops is servant leadership, according to priests. Most

participants were very critical of bishops’ leadership in handling the child sexual abuse

scandal. Table 4 shows an overview of the manual coding of data for this research.

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Nonconforming Data

Most participants’ perceptions were very critical of bishops’ leadership when

handling the child sexual abuse scandal. This research only includes codes related to

behavioral patterns of the four leadership styles. There was additional interview data with

valid points, but the data was nonconforming because participants shifted the discussion

to his own leadership rather than bishops’ leadership.

Now, thinking as a pastor, I don’t know that I’ve ever said ‘thank you’ to people

who have attended the workshops. My gut hunch is that in typical American

fashion, when there is a law, we don’t reward people for obeying the law.

However, this might be a case where we might want to step away from the law

and regulation mentality and remember that we want people to be a part of this

and be a part of the solution. (P.8)

The participant made a point regarding the need to express gratitude to the PGC

workshop attendees. However, he was talking about himself, which makes this data

nonconforming to research on bishops’ leadership styles.

Summary

Qualitative researchers document a detailed report of their experience to recreate

a phenomenon (Roulston, 2010). In Chapter 4, I discussed the research setting, sample

demographics, data collection process, and analysis of the findings. I discussed the

evidence of trustworthiness of this research according to its credibility, transferability,

dependability, and confirmability. I gathered details to address the research question by

using NVivo 11 to code the collected interview data into themes and patterns.

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An examination of these themes and patters as they relate to the research question

confirmed servant leadership as the dominant leadership style of bishops handling the

child sexual abuse scandal, according to Catholic priests’ perceptions. The priests

reported combinations of various leadership styles of servant, charismatic, transactional,

and transformational leadership. Despite most of the participants being critical of

bishops’ leadership when handling the child sexual abuse scandal, the priests commended

bishops for their efforts to protect the church, provide PGC programs, and listen to the

victims and their families. Most participants’ perceived bishops shifted blame to priests

and not the bishops’ lack of empathy on the accused or charisma to convince their

congregation on the relevance of the PGC/virtus programs prior to volunteering in any

church event.

During his homily on July 7, 2014 at Domus Sanctae Marthae celebrating Mass

with a group of people from around the world who experienced sexual abuse by some

members of the catholic clergy, Pope Francis I asked forgiveness on behalf of the church

and condemned child sexual abuse in the strongest way. Importantly, “all bishops must

carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care to help foster the protection of

minors, and they will be held accountable” (Pope Francis I, 2014). Being accountable

includes reporting cases to both local civil authorities and the church authority in Rome

and creating a sustainable and measurable child sexual abuse protection policy for the

protection of children and adolescents in the church. In Chapter 5, I will present the

interpretation of the research findings and the theoretical framework of servant

leadership, charismatic leadership, transactional leadership, and transformational

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leadership. I will document the limitations of the study, research recommendations,

implications of the study, and the research conclusion.

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Chapter 5: Documentation, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Introduction

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative research was to identify and

document the perceptions of Catholic priests of the leadership styles of Catholic bishops

in the United States after the child sexual abuse scandal. The priests’ responses focused

on behavioral characteristics of four leadership styles: servant leadership, charismatic

leadership, transactional leadership, and transformational leadership. I interviewed 11

Catholic priests working in a midwestern diocese who had been in the priesthood for no

less than 10 years. My choice of research topic was the result of the constant need to

create and sustain awareness of child sexual abuse in all organizations, including the

Catholic Church. Awareness sustains the effort to maintain safe environments for young

people while openly addressing the challenges of child sexual abuse in government and

nongovernment organizations.

The priests reported that bishops displayed various combinations of the leadership

styles of servant, charismatic, transactional, and transformational leadership. The priests

were both critical and supportive of bishops’ leadership during and after the child sexual

abuse scandal. The results of the interview data coding shows servant leadership style as

the predominant leadership style exercised by the U.S. Catholic bishops’ in handling of

the child sexual abuse scandal.

Interpretation of the Findings

I obtained participants’ data via face-to-face interviews and organized them into

codes using NVIVO 11 qualitative software and manual coding. The research findings

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reflected the four leadership styles. I compared the findings to those of past researchers in

the peer-reviewed literature and described ways the findings confirmed, denied, or

extended knowledge in the discipline.

Theme 1: Servant Leadership (f = 22)

The perceptions of the priests showed that bishops exhibited most of the

behavioral characteristics of servant leadership when handling the child sexual abuse

scandal. Greenleaf (2003) posited whether “the roles of servant and leader be fused in

one-real person of all levels of status or call and can that person be productive” (p. 1).

Greenleaf concluded in the affirmative, noting the powerful transformational nature of

servant leadership during tempestuous vicissitudes of the new century.

Objectively, Catholic leadership culture is the epitome of service to others in

imitation of Jesus Christ who washed his apostles’ feet (John 13: 1–17; Luke 22: 24–27;

Matthew 26: 14–39). Servant leadership is idyllic and flourishes within a serving ethos

(Wayne et al., 2014). The priests perceived that bishops used servant leadership styles in

their meeting with victims, listened to their stories, and offered them remunerations after

the abuse. The priests’ perceptions also showed the bishops’ stewardship by sending

victims to counseling services and offering them remunerations to ease the crisis. The

negative implication of the bishops’ behavioral leadership is that the actions may have

been ways of protecting themselves.

Participants also confirmed the effects of servant leadership behaviors on

individual outcomes. Most participants believed bishops’ interests were to protect the

church and themselves. Some participants suggested that the bishops put others first in

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handling the child sexual abuse because various media outlets (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, Fox

News); legal actions against the diocese; and organizations forced them to act. A serving

culture is a key mechanism through which servant leadership behavior affects individual

and unit outcomes (Wayne et al., 2014). The participants reported that the behavior of the

bishops affected the outcomes of the child sexual abuse scandal.

Whether bishops listened willingly or by force, circumstances led them to

exercise most of the behavioral characteristics of servant leadership: paying attention to

people; being compassionate, healing, and conscientious; having commitment to the

growth of others; persuasion; building community; conceptualization; far-sightedness;

and stewardship (see Greenleaf, 2003; Sun, 2013). Noticeable patterns from the coding of

the first interview question included forced to listen, more interested in protecting the

church, bishops’ paid remunerations to victims, legal leadership approach, and

psychological leadership approach. These patterns extend existing literature on

behavioral characteristics of Catholic bishops in the context of servant leadership. Even if

they felt forced to put others first, bishops exercised servant leadership as the most

predominant leadership styles when handling the child sexual abuse scandal.

Theme 2: Charismatic Leadership (f = 20)

Participants’ perceptions showed that bishops exhibited some of the behavioral

characteristics of charismatic leadership when handling the child sexual abuse scandal

including the desire to change the current situation, removing obstacles for change,

making new attractive ideas possible, stressing organizational identity and interest, and

taking personal risks for the organization (see Kwak, 2012; Yukl, 2014). Noticeable

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patterns from manually coding of the second interview question included compromised

pastoral care, protected Catholic identity, exposed child abuse offenses, and

unwillingness to sacrifice themselves. These patterns add to existing literature on the

behavioral characteristics of Catholic bishops in the context of charismatic leadership.

Charismatic leadership behaviors affected bishops’ relationships with their

followers. Spisak et al. (2015) used “Niche’s idea of construction concept to highlight

how leadership could regulate and balance the tension between self-interest and group-

interest” (p. 291). The participants believed bishops balanced their self-interest with that

of the church only to the extent of protecting themselves and the church. Most

participants suggested bishops shifted blame to the priests.

The priests’ perceptions showed that bishops exhibited compelling charismatic

leadership actions by expressing desire to change and removing obstacles to change

through their openness in exposing child abuse offenses (see Table 3). Yan and Zhu

(2016) noted the connection between charismatic leadership behaviors and the leader’s

effectiveness in relating with followers. Most participants thought bishops protected the

organizational identity through their legal actions to protect Catholic identity by seeking

professional advice. For some participants, the bishops’ effort to protect the Catholic

organizational identity ended in compromised pastoral care.

Bishops did not exhibit all behavioral characteristics of charismatic leadership.

The participants’ perceptions showed that the bishops did not exhibit charisma to

convince, which is an important behavioral characteristic of charismatic leadership (see

Table 3). Through persuasion and mystique, charismatic leaders can goad individuals into

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a feeling of self-worth (Charisma, 1986). Horn et al. (2015) described the ability to

convince and motivate followers through eloquence and behavior as an outstanding

attribute of charismatic leadership. Notably, “charisma is about building rapport,

enhancing cooperation and connecting to other people” (Nongard, 2014, p. 37). The

priests reported that the bishops’ leadership when handling the child sexual abuse scandal

lacked charisma.

The bishops did not put themselves in the leadership position; the church’s

highest hierarchy (i.e., the Holy See under the leadership of the Pope) appointed them.

The Holy See or Apostolic See of the Roman Catholic Church is “the seat of the central

administration of the worldwide Catholic Church” (Catechism of the Catholic Church,

2000, p. 882). Positional leaders lead because of the power of their position of authority;

inspirational leaders have a driving force for their vision, purpose, and belief and lead

without reliance on positional authority (Cooper, 2015). Organizational members

determine whether a leader is charismatic based on leadership qualities and behaviors.

The participants reported that the church’s highest hierarchy determines the appointment

of bishop in the Catholic Church.

Theme 3: Transactional Leadership (f = 14)

The perceptions of the priests showed that bishops exhibited some of the

behavioral characteristics of transactional leadership when handling the child sexual

abuse scandal. I used the behavioral features of transactional leadership to formulate the

third interview question regarding incentives and motivational strategies exhibited by

bishops handling the child sexual abuse scandal. Most participants’ perceptions showed

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that the bishops exhibited teamwork when working with experts on a child sexual abuse

prevention policy, Promise to Protect Pledge to Heal (USCCB, 2011). The team aspect of

working with the clergy, religious, and faithful was only in the implementation process of

the bishops’ child abuse prevention programs. Most participants mentioned that the

bishops trained facilitators from parishes to help implement the Virtus Program, as the

prevention policy recommended.

Transactional leadership is a form of commercial exchange between leaders and

followers (McCleskey, 2014). The participants’ perceptions showed that bishops lacked

the commercial behavioral characteristics of transactional leadership. Most participants

believed bishops did not establish a reward system for the child abuse prevention policy.

The bishops worked with parishes to train facilitators of the prevention policy, but

participants perceived that there was no Virtus or PGC facilitator encouragement and

reward system. Participants emphasized that there was no punishment system for

noncompliant parishes.

Participants reported that the bishops imposed their prevention policy on parishes

and did not work with the clergy to create the policy. Some participants highlighted that

the bishops used the advice of experts to create the policy and commended their work

with facilitators to implement the child sexual abuse prevention policy. The nature of the

social exchange between the leader and the follower is such that both benefit from the

relationship as Bass and Bernard (1990) posited, “the leader and the followers perceive

each other as being potentially instrumental to the fulfillment of each other’s needs, say,

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for the completion of a task” (p. 319). The bishops benefited from training the facilitators

and facilitators gained a reward in heaven, according to one of the participants.

Transactional leadership relationships involve the promise of rewards and benefits

for the subordinate’s fulfillment of an agreement with the leader (Bass & Strogdill, 1990;

McCleskey, 2014). Most participants’ perceptions were that there was no reward for

compliant parishes and facilitators after fulfilling the requirements of the bishops’

prevention policy. Khuong and Hoang (2015) found that leadership using reward and

compensation was a valuable and efficient behavioral tool for achieving job satisfaction.

The participants highlighted the use of remunerations only to the victims; bishops

neglected the accused. Noticeable patterns from manual coding of the third interview

question included bishops collaborated in PGC programs, supported parents’ effort to

protect their children, lack of compliance reward system, and no PGC facilitator

encouragement system. These patterns add to existing literature on the behavioral

characteristics of Catholic bishops in the context of transactional leadership.

Theme 4: Transformational Leadership (f = 20)

Participants’ perceptions showed that the bishops exhibited some behavioral

characteristics of transformational leadership when handling the child sexual abuse

scandal. McKnight (2013) explained that change in an organization due to

transformational leadership requires flexibility and responsiveness from members,

particularly if the modification will result in the transformation of the organization’s

structure, product, and service. The participants reported that the Catholic faithful were

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flexible and responded overwhelmingly to the bishops’ child abuse prevention policy

requirements to create safe environments for children.

Most Catholics in the midwestern diocese participated in the Virtus/PGC

programs after clearing background checks prior to volunteering. The Virtus/PGC

program and background checks were among the requirements for volunteering in any

Catholic Church activity. Transformational leaders use inspirational motivational as a

tool to challenge followers to higher organizational values by being open-minded without

critiquing every action to increase follower confidence (McCleskey, 2014). This

description was inconsistent with participants’ perceptions because most priests believed

bishops criticized and passed blame to priests to protect themselves. Three of the 11

participants perceived that bishops inspirationally motivated the faithful through parish

visits and diocesan newspaper writings.

Transformational leadership characteristics positively impact individuals during

times of change who experience fear of the unknown and anxiety; transformational

leaders motivate organizational employees via inspirational motivation by articulating a

clear, stimulating vision (Caillier, 2015). Most participants commended the safe

environment vision that bishops initially articulated regarding the child sexual abuse

scandal but stated that the initial zeal dissipated. The participants’ perceptions showed

that bishops used individual consideration and intellectual stimulation behavioral

characteristics of transformational leadership (see Table 3). Odetunde (2013) investigated

the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles and leaders’ gender on

organizational conflict management and noted the importance of individual consideration

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and intellectual stimulation. The priests’ perception did not involve gender, but the

findings were consistent with Odetunde’s research.

Without employees, organizational leaders have no one to lead; employees give

meaning to the concept of organizational leadership. Khuong and Hoang (2015)

investigated the effects of leadership style on employee motivation and found that using

reward and compensation was a valuable behavioral tool for achieving job satisfaction.

However, participants in this study reported that bishops did not use a reward system to

motivate the faithful. Bishops motivated members by writing articles in diocesan

newspapers and through pastoral visits.

Carmeli, et al., (2014) described transformational leadership as a valuable tool for

creating a pathway through which employees can develop problem-solving skills. The

idea of employees developing problem-solving abilities is consistent with the current

study’s research finding. Participants highlighted the PGC as a tool to help people

recognize situations and signs of child abuse. Some participants did not recognize the

relevance of the PGC as a tool for church members to help solve the child sexual abuse

problem. Singh (2014) examined transformational leadership in collegial crisis and found

that the more that change characterizes the workplace, the more the leaders must motivate

their employees. The research findings did not show that the bishops inspirationally

motivated the faithful enough to buy into their vision for creating a safe environment.

Most people took the Virtus/PGC programs because it was a requirement for volunteering

in any church activity. Noticeable patterns from manually coding of the fourth interview

question included: adequate attention to victims, inadequate attention to the accused,

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lacks sustainable vision for the future, need for sustainable child sexual abuse prevention

policy, and need for sustainable PGC program. These patterns add to existing literature

on the behavioral characteristics of Catholic bishops in the context of transformational

leadership.

Theoretical Framework

This analysis of the research findings relied on the theoretical framework of

transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant

leadership as McCleskey (2014), Sun (2013), Kwak (2012), and Yukl (2014) defined

them. The researcher used these leadership theoretical framework to identify and

document the perceptions of Catholic priests of Catholic bishops’ leadership styles when

handling the child sexual abuse scandal (see Figure 1; Bass & Avolio, 1994; Greenleaf,

2003; Kwak, 2012; Bryant, 2003). The participants’ perceptions showed the

predominance of servant leadership behavioral characteristics as exhibited by the

bishops’ in their handling of child sexual abuse scandal.

Limitations of the Study

Research limitation is the “potential weaknesses in a study and are out of your

control” (Simon, 2011, p. 2). This research is limited to the perceptions of the

participants. Participants must have been in the priesthood for at least 10 years and work

in a midwestern diocese. An important limitation of trustworthiness is the generalization

to other dioceses in the United States. Participants were not diverse within the vicinity of

this study. The initial research sampling scope was 10 to 12 interviews with priests in a

midwestern diocese. I assumed these priests interacted with bishops regarding the child

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sexual abuse scandal. Younger priests and most foreign-born Catholic priests were

reluctant to participate and declined the researcher’s invitation. Foreign priests stated that

they were afraid of repercussions even if the researcher ensured confidentiality. I

recruited enough participants (11 priests) for this study and contacted more potential

participants for future study. I avoided coercion of the participants and followed IRB

requirements to maintaining research trustworthiness.

The participants cooperated during the data collection. After transcribing recorded

interview data, I engaged in member checking with the participants to avoid

methodological weakness and ensure trustworthiness. Participants confirmed that the data

accurately represented their points of view. Member verification of interview data was

helpful in “enhancing and preserving the authenticity of the results” (Buchbinder, 2010,

p. 108). Generalization of the findings is difficult due to worldwide complexities of the

Catholic Church. Other research methodologies and populations, including religious men

and women and church members, would expand this study. Most participants were

critical of the bishops’ leadership during the child abuse sexual. The analysis of the data,

however, was objective. Objective articulating the research findings was helpful in

addressing any bias while making recommendations for future research.

Delimitations of this research included the use of qualitative research rather than

mixed or quantitative research methods. The purpose of a qualitative research

methodology is to note, and report lived experiences that research participants describe

(Yin, 2016). Delimitations of the interview questions are that they only gather the

opinions of U.S. Catholic priests. A Delimitation of this study is that the researcher only

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collected opinions of the Catholic priests within this vicinity. So, the opinions of the

public and other members of the Catholic Church regarding bishops’ leadership during

the child sexual abuse scandal are unknown.

Recommendations

The issues of child sexual abuse are global and not only within the Catholic

Church. Governments and nongovernmental organizations must protect children and

collaborate to create sustainable child abuse prevention policies. Catholic leaders need to

task every bishop conference with ensuring a robust child abuse prevention policy.

Particularly, the bishops need to collaborate with clergy, the religious, and the faithful to

address leadership concerns that participants in this study identified. The participants’

perceptions showed that U.S. Catholic bishops predominantly used servant leadership to

handle the child sexual abuse scandal, but that leadership style lacks empathy. Catholic

bishops should employ more empathy to address concerns of victims and the accused.

Bishops should learn from these research findings to encourage and fund similar research

evaluating their leadership styles.

I recommend the use of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies to

explore Catholic priests’ perceptions of bishops’ leadership styles during child sexual

abuse or any other crisis or scandal in the church. The participant sample should include

religious men and women, priests, deacons, and the faithful (laity) especially those in

critical leadership positions like school teachers, catechists, Eucharistic ministers.

Bishops combined the leadership behavioral characteristics of transformational and

servant leadership styles to address societal complexities and organizational change.

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Therefore, my recommendation is that the U.S. Catholic bishops must listen to the

opinions of the clergy, religious, and faithful (laity) regarding their leadership styles. The

bishops need to explore the combination of transformational-servant-transactional-

charismatic (TSTC) leadership theories if they want to remain relevant in a complex

world. TSTC leadership theory is a leadership theory that combines the behavioral

characteristics of TSTC leadership theories.

Every Catholic diocese within the United States needs to act justly in dealing with

the victims and the accused. There is a serious need to respects the accused right of

innocent till proven guilty while collaborating with law enforcement officials as a way of

ensuring transparency and maintaining the integrity of the process. There is a need to

create a balance of protection for both the victims and the accused. Most participants’

perceptions were that bishops favored victims, not the accused, even when the accused

were in fact innocent. When diocesan investigators in collaboration with law enforcement

officers or the court of law finds an accused person to be innocent, a healing process

should begin immediately. It will be difficult, but the church can start by: (a) rendering a

sincere apology; (b) offering paid sabbatical; (c) suggesting one of the months of

sabbatical be in a monastery. Bishops should create a system for accused remuneration in

cases of false accusation. Justice demands serious prosecution of false accusers and those

who are guilty of abusing children in any way.

Bishops’ leadership actions when handling child sexual abuse needs to include

publishing parish compliance audits in diocesan newspapers, intellectually stimulating

church members through writing about the child sexual abuse and creating a reward

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system for compliant parishes. It may take as little as a thank you during pastoral visits or

parish confirmations while identifying noncompliant parishes in diocesan newspapers.

Due to the seriousness of child sexual abuse, bishops and priests whose dioceses and

parishes are noncompliant for more than 3 years should receive training or stop presiding

over a diocese.

There is a need for independent auditors to annually evaluate every Catholic

diocese, religious congregations, and eparchy in the United States. Independent auditors

should train every diocesan office member on how to do the auditing. The independent

audit company would complete the final evaluation of dioceses. Dioceses with

compliance issues should have 30 days to comply with independent audit requirements

prior to auditors’ diocesan visits. If the diocese is still noncompliant, they will receive

noncompliant result for that year. Bishops should listen receptively to the complaints of

victims and the accused, protect them in an equal manner, pay remunerations to victims

and the falsely accused, and employ pastoral approaches. The bishops must sacrifice

themselves for the church by acknowledging mistakes and collaborating with clergy,

religious, and laity to employ experts to reevaluate the Virtus/PGC programs while

including an encouragement system in their leadership style.

Study Implications

The implications for social change within this study include the creation of an

awareness for individuals, families, government, and nongovernment organizations of the

need to continue to build sustainable safe environments for children and young people.

The study findings may help the Catholic Church, in general, and U.S. Catholic bishops

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to develop a robust, sustainable child abuse prevention policy. The findings may reignite

church awareness and societal sensitivity to the need for the Holy See and the Catholic

bishops’ conferences as policymakers together with the lawmakers to enact stronger

policies and laws to protect children from abuse. The findings also seem to reach beyond

the church and into nonprofit, this study could impact nongovernmental organization,

university settings, hospitals and any organization that is responsible for the safety and

welfare of children. The research findings provide bishops with information regarding the

effectiveness of current child sexual abuse programs and policies.

This qualitative phenomenological information may be useful to Catholic bishops

who would like to know their leadership style to make leadership behavioral changes, if

necessary. This research may ignite debates in the Catholic Church regarding application

of transformational-servant leadership theory in the complex, modern world. The goal of

this research was to highlight the importance of mutual responsibility of the clergy and

the Catholic faithful to build and sustain environments that are safe for children in the

Catholic Church. This research highlighted bishops’ servant leadership when handling

the child sexual abuse scandal, and I recommend a transformational-servant leadership

style.

Conclusion

The concept of leadership is very relevant to the notion of followership.

Leadership is only as effective as the hard work of devoted followers. Spisak et al. (2015)

highlighted the balancing act between self-interest and group interests in organizations;

leaders must regulate this tension to maintain organizational fitness. Government and

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non-government leaders must prioritize laws to protect the most vulnerable members of

society (i.e., children and young people). Particularly, Catholic leadership must prioritize

and sustain policies to protect children from abuse within the church. Child abuse is not

only an issue for the universal Catholic Church or the Catholic Church in the United

States. It is an endemic issue that extends to every facet of modern society. Catholic

leaders should lead the effort to sustain awareness to recognize, prevent, and reduce child

sexual abuse. Catholic leadership must listen to the opinions of the clergy, religious, and

the faithful (laity) regarding their leadership styles and should incorporate

transformational-servant leadership theory for the best results.

Assignement introduction Leadership Styles of U.S. Catholic.pdf

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