Does managers' motivation matter? Exploring the associations between motivation, transformational leadership, and innovation in a religious organization

• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Author: Tomas Jungert,Håvard Haug,Beate J. Løvaas,Anja Van den Broeck
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21405

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Does managers' motivation matter? Exploring

the associations between motivation,

transformational leadership, and innovation in

a religious organization

Beate J. Løvaas

1

| Tomas Jungert

2,3

|

Anja Van den Broeck

4,5

| Håvard Haug

6

1

VID Specialized University, Oslo,

Norway

2

Lund University, Lund, Sweden

3

Turin University, Turin, Italy

4

KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

5

Optentia, North West University,

Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

6

PGM AS, Maura, Norway

Correspondence

Beate J. Løvaas, VID Specialized

University, Oslo, Norway.

Email: beate.jelstad.lovaas@vid.no

Abstract

Religious organizations are social systems operating in a

complex and changing environment. By looking to an

authority beyond themselves, religious organizations

have comparatively little control over defining their own

goals. In this juggling between sticking to the ultimate

goal of an organization and adapting to complex chang-

ing environments, that is, in the juggling between tradi-

tion and renewal, transformational leadership seems to

play an important role in religious organizations. The

extensive body of literature on transformational leader-

ship has focused more on the outcomes of transforma-

tional leadership than on its antecedents. We extend the

existing literature by linking managers' motivation to

their transformational leadership behaviors in a religious

organization. More specifically, we examined the associa-

tions of intrinsic and prosocial motivation with transfor-

mational leadership, and we investigated the relationship

between transformational leadership and innovation

among 252 managers in the largest nonprofit organiza-

tion in Norway, the Church of Norway. Analyses in

structural equation modeling revealed a positive relation-

ship between intrinsic motivation and transformational

Received: 28 June 2018 Revised: 22 January 2020 Accepted: 24 January 2020

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21405

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and

distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

© 2020 The Authors. Nonprofit Management and Leadership published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2020;30:569–589. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nml 569

leadership, whereas the relationship between prosocial

motivation and transformational leadership was not sig-

nificant. Transformational leadership was positively asso-

ciated with innovation. Based on the results of the study,

we discuss practical implications regarding how to sup-

port intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership,

and innovation in religious organizations.

KEYWORDS

intrinsic motivation, innovation, prosocial motivation, religious

organizations, transformational leadership.

1|INTRODUCTION

Religious organizations are characterized as social systems operating in a complex and chang-

ing environment (Beckford, 1973). Whereas religious organizations such as congregations have

religious goals—e.g., gathering for worship—nonreligious organizations exist as a response to

perform desired activities in a market context. Furthermore, religious organizations look to an

authority beyond themselves and have comparatively little control over defining their own

goals. As such, the goals of religious organizations seem to fit in the category described by Scott

as “ultimate”(Scott, 1987, p. 47), and such goals cannot be challenged. However, congregations

will not survive unless they are able both to be a witness to proclaimed religious goals and to

meet the needs of the members who are living in environments that are constantly changing

(Harris, 1998).

In this juggling between sticking to the ultimate goal of an organization and adapting

to complex changing environments, that is, in the juggling between tradition and renewal, lead-

ership seems to play an important role in religious organizations, as stated by Beckford

(1973, p. 50): “The precise effects of environmental influence are mediated for religious

organizations by their leaders.”In order to ensure conditions of survival and reproduction of

religious organizations, management of human resources is critical (Zaleski & Zech, 1997).

Thus, the current study seeks to investigate and understand the processes of leadership in reli-

gious organizations.

Transformational leaders develop supportive relationships with employees who build com-

mitment to a common purpose (Riggio, Bass, & M og Orr, 2004), and such leadership behavior

seems to be an appropriate approach in religious organizations where meeting the needs of

their members is essential. In addition, the changing society in which religious organizations

operate requires leaders paying attention to these changes, and transformational leadership

behavior is seen as an important component of leading change (Bommer, Rubin, & Baldwin,

2004). Based on the arguments above, we argue that the transformational leadership theory is

suitable for guiding leadership efforts in religious organizations.

As pointed out by Avolio and Bass (1995), there is a need to systematically investigate how

leadership is embedded in different contexts that might facilitate or hinder transformational

leadership behavior. Taking into account that leadership studies are context and culture specific

(Askeland, 2016), we explore the link between managers' motivation, their transformational

570 LØVAAS ET AL.