Servant/Authoritarian Leadership in Convents, Team Trust, Engagement and Commitment

Abstract

Leadership plays a crucial role in building trust and followers' wellbeing in organizations. This study explores the relationship between servant and authoritarian leadership, team trust, and follower engagement and affective commitment in local religious communities or convents, within a Catholic Women Religious Institute in Nigeria. Structural equation modeling was applied to investigate these relationships with quantitative data comprising 453 followers. We complement our quantitative data using exploratory findings from qualitative content analysis; looking into archival documents to further explain the observed relations. Findings show that servant leadership in convents stimulates followers' engagement and affective commitment through team trust (followers' trust in each other) that leaders promote among followers. Authoritarian leadership in contrast, was found to hinder followers' engagement and affective commitment since there is less fostering of team trust among followers. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.