Exploring the contribution of spiritual intelligence to leadership in the public sector

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore the contribution spiritual intelligence has made to leadership in the public sector; in an effort to encourage further debates about the legitimacy of spiritual intelligence in the workplace. The research design followed in this study is qualitative. The target population of this study were the leaders of the Free State Department of Education who have had self-acknowledged spiritual intelligence experience in their leadership context. The construct `spiritual intelligence` is a relatively complex phenomenon; hence the participants were recruited through a snowball sampling technique. The findings of this study revealed that spiritual intelligence contributes to leadership in the public sector. This study revealed that there is an association between leadership and spirituality and spiritual intelligence according to the subjective views of the participants. This suggests that researchers need to recognise the core component of internal development of leaders. The research attempted to bring about this type of awareness into the corporate world, and hopefully a valuable contribution will be made to future leadership attitudes, leadership styles, and working environment.