Transformational Leadership In a Cross-Cultural Context: an Exploration of Pastors Who Started a Hispanic Church in an Anglo Church in the United States

Abstract

Anglo pastors often open Hispanic churches in their Anglo churches to reach the growing population of Latinos in the United States; however, this task presents various challenges. Although effort has been made to study this cross-cultural context, little has been done to apply a leadership theory to understand this specific context. Research has supported the effectiveness and universality of transformational leadership theory, but scant attention has been given to applying the theory to culturally dissimilar dyads, especially in the church context. This convergent mixed methods study explored transformational leadership theory in the cross-cultural context of pastors who started a Hispanic ministry in a U.S.-based Anglo-Pentecostal church. Ten Anglo and 10 Hispanic pastors of 10 different churches participated. The pastors completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Church and Participant Demographic questionnaire, and participated in interviews. The results of this study indicated the Anglo and Hispanic pastors had a transformational leadership orientation. The Anglo pastors in this study indicated a high level of inspirational motivation and individualized consideration, and the Anglo and Hispanic pastors indicated characteristics consistent with intellectual stimulation. The Anglo and Hispanic pastors scored high on idealized influence in their quantitative scores but scored lower in qualitative interviews. The results suggested Hispanic pastors saw the Anglo pastors as their leaders, who provided them with clear visions for the Hispanic church and acted as mentors to support them with necessary resources and values such as inclusion and adaptability. This study significantly adds to the field of transformational leadership in cross-cultural contexts.