Servant Leadership in a Social Religious Organization: An Analysis of Work Engagement, Authenticity, and Spirituality at Work.

Religious organizations represent a main part of the third sector and the social economy. Social faith-based institutions have some unique features that, in some respects, differentiate them from other entities, as they are characterized and defined not only by the services they provide, but also by how they provide them. It is part of their mission to convey the values that prevail in their institutional culture while developing their activities, being attractive to those workers who identify with their values. From this point of view, a key element of these entities' success is that their employees feel identified with their work so that they are engaged in the institution and its values. The style of leadership exercised in such organizations is critical to fostering these attitudes and their long-term survival. This paper aims to study the link between perceived servant leadership by followers and work engagement, as well as the mediating role of authenticity and spirituality at work in this relationship. To this end, 270 workers from a Spanish Catholic organization in the social sector were surveyed. These data were processed by PLS (partial least squares). The results show that a servant leadership style by itself does not directly promote work engagement among employees of the target organization. The engagement of these workers comes through two mediating variables: authenticity and spirituality at work. This study covers a gap in the literature because although there are studies arguing that a strategy of servant leadership is critical to these organizations, to our knowledge, they do not finish demonstrating the fundamental roles that attitudes of authenticity and spirituality at work play in the perception of this type of leadership, achieving greater work engagement.

Palliative care awareness amongst religious leaders and seminarians: a Nigerian study.

INTRODUCTION: There exists scanty literature on the awareness of Nigerians towards palliative care. This study was conducted to determine the level of awareness of religious leaders and seminarians in Ibadan, Nigeria, on palliative care. METHODS: Data obtained from a cross-section of 302 religious leaders and seminarians in the metropolitan city of Ibadan, Nigeria, were used in this research. Study tool was a self-administered questionnaire which obtained information from the participants about their bio-data and knowledge of palliative care. Data analysis was done using the SPSS version 16 Software. RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 28.99 years, with 55.6% of them being within the age range of 21 to 30 years. The majority (94%) were males, 68.5% were single and 79.8% were seminarians. Only 31.8% have heard of palliative care before, 12.6% knew a health facility where palliative care is rendered in Nigeria, while 21.9% knew that chaplains are members of the palliative care team. CONCLUSION: The level of awareness of palliative care among religious leaders and seminarians in Ibadan, Nigeria, is low. There exists the need to educate Nigerian religious leaders and seminarians on palliative care.

Human milk banking and milk kinship: perspectives of religious officers in a Muslim country.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to determine the knowledge, attitudes and views of the Muslim religious officers regarding infant feeding, breast milk, wet nursing, milk kinship and human milk banks (HMBs). STUDY DESIGN: A total of 401 religious officers were included in the study. Participants included 355 community service religious officers and 46 faculty religious officers. RESULTS: Two hundred fifty-four (63.3%) participants were in favor of administering donor human milk when breast milk is not available from the mothers. To the question 'What kind of human milk bank would you approve as far as the religious sensitivity is concerned?' a majority of the religious officers (71.3%) responded that they would only approve if the milk pool contained a restricted HMB where a limited number of recipients were allowed to use the mixtures in these milk pools. Only 7 (1.7%) participants advocated initiating Western-style HMBs in Turkey. CONCLUSION: Turkish religious officers have revealed that they would only approve the establishment of an alternative HMB by a maximum three donors where up to three recipients whose identities are known by one another are allowed to use donor milk from each milk pool.

Can churches play a role in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic? A study of the attitudes of christian religious leaders in Madagascar.

INTRODUCTION: Churches occupy an important social and cultural position in Madagascar. The sexual transmission of HIV raises controversies about the role that Churches can play in preventing HIV/AIDS. This cross-sectional survey investigated recommendations by religious leaders for condom use and other preventive strategies in the context of international guidelines. METHODS: A questionnaire was self-administered to a random sample of religious leaders. The questions related to preventive methods against HIV/AIDS such as: condom use, marital fidelity, sexual abstinence before marriage, and HIV-testing. Associations with recommendations for condom use were evaluated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Of 231 religious leaders, 215 (93.1%) were willing to share their knowledge of HIV/AIDS with their congregations. The majority received their information from the media (N=136, 58.9%), a minority from their church (N=9, 3.9%), and 38 (16.4%) had received prior training on HIV. Nearly all (N=212, 91.8%) knew that HIV could be sexually transmitted though only a few (N=39, 16.9%) were aware of mother-to-child transmission or unsafe injections (N=56, 24.2%). A total of 91 (39.4%) were willing to, or had recommended (N=64, 27.7%), condom use, while 50 (21.6%) had undergone HIV testing. Only nine (3.9%) had ever cared for a person living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Multivariable logistic regression shows that condom use recommendations by religious leaders were negatively associated with tertiary level education (OR: 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.7), and positively associated with knowing a person at risk (OR: 16.2, 95% CI 3.2-80.2), knowing of an ART center (OR: 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-4.8), and receiving information about HIV at school (OR: 2.6, 95% CI 1.2-5.6). CONCLUSIONS: Malagasy church leaders could potentially become key players in HIV/AIDS prevention if they improved their knowledge of the illness, their commitment to international recommendations, and extended their interaction with people most at risk.