IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP STYLES ON CHURCH MEMBERS’ COMMITMENT IN SOME CHARISMATIC CHURCHES IN KUMASI

Abstract

Leadership has always been an administrative issue in management, service and academia and also in organizational behaviour. Leadership, the process whereby one individual influences other group members towards the attainment of a defined goal, or organizational goals needs to be effective. In the Charismatic churches, effective leadership is needed to sustain church members‟ spiritual growth. This research evaluates the impact of leadership styles on church members‟ commitment in some Charismatic Churches in Kumasi. The underlying problem is that a lot of research works relating to leadership styles on employees‟ performance have been conducted by various researchers but there has been little research work on the impact of leadership styles on church members‟ commitment, especially in the Charismatic Churches. Most members in the Charismatic Church do not understand the convolution or difficulty of their leaders‟ leadership styles. The Senior Pastors of the two selected churches as well as the Associate Pastors were interviewed. Questionnaires were also administered to the Associate Pastors as well as the church members to elicit data on the impact of leadership styles on church members‟ commitment within the selected Charismatic Churches in the Kumasi metropolis, questionnaires and interviews were used. Data obtained from each of the research instruments were then analyzed. From the study, it was found out that church members need effective leaders in order to be committed to God and church activities; also that there is no specific leadership style which impacts on church members‟ commitment. However, through cross tabulations, pie charts and figures, servant leadership came out as the best form of leading God‟s flock. It is being recommended that churches should adopt servant and democratic leadership styles if they want leadership to have impact on Church members.