Can Spiritual and Knowledge Leadership Drive Evidence-Based Decision-Making in the Data Science Field?
Dr. Priscilla Gathoni, DM, MSc, MBA, GHMGC
CEO, Author, Board Advisor, Executive Leadership Coach and Trainer, Expert Facilitator and Educator, Voice Artist, Global Health Strategist, Inspirational and Motivational Speaker
A remark by a friend over dinner several months ago reminded me of the growing trend in hiring data scientists in many organizations. However, no such rigor has been placed on finding the right leaders in this newly emerging field. With the dawn of a new decade characterized by vast amounts of data and making data-driven decisions, there is an emerging and fast-rising force for organizational, societal, and individual change. From this intricate realization, spiritual and knowledge leadership are emerging paradigms that could provide a holistic understanding, inspiration, and intuitive practice of leadership in today’s data-driven world. This kind of spiritual and knowledge leadership is in short supply today.
The general problem is that in today’s data-driven world, scholar-practitioners may find it difficult to combine the concepts of “spirituality”, “knowledge”, and “evidence-based decision-making” to demonstrate that knowledge and spiritual leadership provide the synergetic relationship needed in data science when making evidence-based decision-making.?According to Zohar (2005), there is an accelerating call for spirituality intelligence quotient (SQ) that fulfills the spiritual capital gap by an individual having the ability to access higher meanings and thinking outside the box. Knowledge leadership uses the thought system and is the result of our ability to think. Why should any leader or yourself care about improving your knowledge leadership? Mabey, Kulich, and Lorenzi-Cioldi (2012) stated that a majority of our thinking is done by someone else, and successful innovation consistently points to the influence of leaders.
The purpose of this work is to provide a spiritual and knowledge approach to leadership by integrating the leader’s inner perspective as the foundation for driving evidence-based decisions in the data science field. But first, let us define the terms being used here to avoid any misinterpretation or any pre-conceived notions.
Spiritual Leadership
Spiritual leadership is leadership that offers inspiration, motivation, and empowers individuals and leaders with the ability to unleash the infinite potential within and without. Spiritual leadership provides the master key to understanding yourself, people around you, and the environment that you live in. Spiritual leadership has a unique and integral part with a higher power than ourselves that is not dependent on religion or spiritualism.
Knowledge Leadership
Knowledge leadership is a subset of Spiritual Leadership for without knowledge, the spiritual leader is incapable of understanding the deeper eternal meaning of leadership. Knowledge leadership creates a channel for right-mindedness in which creativity is enhanced that allows innovative solutions to transcend our thinking.
Evidence-Based Decision-Making
Evidence-based decision-making (often abbreviated as EBMgt) is the explicit and systematic use of scientific evidence, in combination with other sources of evidence, to inform decision-making. A science-based practice of management promotes better outcomes from management decisions and improved implementation. The practice of evidence-based decision-making involves using current information to make empirically supported decisions. EBMgt is a management practice that emphasizes a rational, objective and empirical approach to addressing business issues.
The mechanism through which spiritual and knowledge leadership (independent variables) causes the effect or outcomes (dependent variables), can be assessed and understood through a theory-based approach.?Theoretical frameworks are useful in the study of evidence-based management by framing both the understanding of management problems and our investigation of those problems (Bryman, 2007).
Theoretical Framework
The spiritual leadership theory by Fry (2003) states that learning organizations can be a source for spiritual survival and must primarily motivate workers intrinsically through vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love, task involvement, and goal identification. The relevance and applicability of spiritual leadership theory in explaining this research problem is its ability not only to be inclusive of other primary extant motivation-based theories of leadership, but that it is also more conceptually distinct, parsimonious, and less conceptually confounded. Spiritual leadership is necessary for the transformation and continued success of learning organizations.
The theory of evidence-based decision by Baba and HakemZadeh (2012), states that the strength of evidence is a function of its rigor and relevance manifested by methodological fit, relevance to the context, transparency of its findings, replicability of the evidence, and the degree of consensus within the decision community. The significance and applicability of this theory of evidence-based decision in explaining the research problem is that the integration of decision-making is the heart of management practice. This contributes to decision quality, the strength of evidence, and enables professionalization of management practice.??
Figure 1 shows the contextual, intervention, mechanism, outcomes, and theoretical framework used to frame the research problem, which seeks to answer the question: How does spiritual and knowledge leadership drive evidence-based decision-making in the data science field?
Methodology
The methodology used to assess the quality and trustworthiness of the outcomes shown here is a systematic literature review (SLR). Gough et al. (2012) state that an SLR is a systematic approach to evaluating, configuring, and aggregating findings from separate studies into a coherent framework to solve management problems or to make evidence-informed decisions. Twenty-three studies were included in this systematic review and the criteria examined data sources, data analysis, findings content, and research influence for the qualitative study.?Additionally, the criteria by Pluye et al. (2011) examined the methodological quality of the studies to judge their relevance, value, and trustworthiness. NVivo data analysis software, version 10.2.2.0 (Mac), was used to perform two cycles of coding in order to find common themes among the 23 studies.
Findings
The major findings and outcomes from these included studies were categorized into four themes: (a) competitive advantage, (b) innovative solutions, (c) critical and creative thinking, and (d) self-awareness. Additionally, these themes were further categorized as organizational and individual outcomes (Figure 2). Figure 2 shows a conceptual and practical framework for spiritual and knowledge leadership in driving evidence-based decision-making.
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Explanation of Conceptual Framework
The framework or model in Figure 2 shows the relationship between the four themes. The model posits that:
1.????Competitive advantage is an organizational outcome impacted by evidence-based decision-making.
2.????Spiritual and knowledge leadership can have a positive impact on innovative solutions in the data science field.
3.????Creative and critical thinking are individual factors influenced by spiritual and knowledge leadership in the decision-making process.
4.????Self-awareness is an individual antecedent that can be developed in a data-driven organizational culture.
Summary
This conceptual framework shows that spiritual and knowledge leaders can be promoters of the data science field, and even exchange the scepter for the trowel, by having the wisdom necessary to plan masterfully and execute decisions fearlessly. Additionally, the conceptual framework is a useful tool for leaders to generate informed and intelligent perspectives, decisions, and strategies as they lead an organization. Incorporating this conceptual framework into the decision-making process, decision-makers can determine risk, weigh outcomes, and quantify costs and benefits associated with decisions from an organizational and individual perspective.?
References
Baba, V. V., & HakemZadeh, F. (2012). Toward a theory of evidence-based decision-making. Management Decision, 50(5), 832–867. doi: 10.1108//00251741211227546
Bryman, A. (2007). The research question in social research: What is its role? International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 10(1), 5–20. doi: 10.1080/13645570600655282
Fry, L. W., & Cohen, M. P. (2008). Spiritual leadership as a paradigm for organizational transformation and recovery from extended work hours cultures. Journal of Business Ethics, 84(S2), 265–278. doi:10.1007/s10551-008-9695-2
Gough, D., Thomas, J., & Oliver, S. (2012). Clarifying differences between review designs and methods.?Systematic Reviews, 1(28), 1–19. doi: 10.1186/2046-4053-1-28
Mabey, C., Kulich, C., & Lorenzi-Cioldi, F. (2012). Knowledge leadership in global scientific research. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(12), 2450–2467. doi:10.1080/09585192.2012.668386
Pluye, P., Robert, E., Cargo, M., Bartlett, G., O’Cathain, A., Griffiths, F., Boardman, F., Gagnon, M.P., & Rousseau, M.C. (2011). Proposal: A mixed methods appraisal tool for systematic mixed studies reviews. McGill University. Retrieved from https://mixedmethodsappraisaltoolpublic.pbworks.com partnership quality in Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises. International Journal of Production Research, 48(2), 453–475. doi:10.1080/00207540903174965
Zohar, D. (2005). Spiritually intelligent leadership. Leader to Leader, 2005(38), 45–51. doi:10.1002/ltl.153
About the Author
Priscilla Gathoni?is an author, coach, mentor, skilled facilitator, inspirational, and motivational speaker. As an author, her papers have been featured in the PharmaSUG, SESUG, and CDISC global conferences.?Priscilla holds a Doctor of Management/Business Administration degree from the University of Maryland, Global Campus (UMGC). Her research interests include evidence-based decision-making, organizational culture, spiritual leadership, and knowledge leadership..
?Priscilla Gathoni.?This article is available under the ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4410-5205. This ORCID permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.?
Cybersecurity Professional and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Maryland Global Campus
4 年Right-on Priscilla, sometimes all an organization needs is a little Jesus in their lives!
This is refreshing!
Fulbright Association National Board of Directors/Past Chancellor Ivy Tech Community College/AGB Institute for Leadership and Governance in Higher Ed Fellow/Fulbright Recipient-Amman Jordan/Air Force Veteran
4 年Priscilla, Thanks for sharing this research.? In alignment with Zohar's work "SQ fulfilling the? spiritual capital gap by an individual having the ability to access higher meanings and thinking outside the box", I also think spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence integrated can drive evidence based decision making across various industries/practices.? For example, in my book "How to Use Emotional, Cultural and Spiritual Intelligence to Mentor Doctoral Learners, I demonstrate how faculty members who use all three quotients in their pedagogical approaches, through evidence, tend to have higher retention and graduation rates.?? From Zohar's 12 principles, I think "self-awareness" is a great indicator to driving evidence based decision making as this principle means (in a spiritual context) to recognize what one cares about, what one lives for, and what one would die for.? It means living true to oneself while respecting others.? It would be interesting to see future research relative to examining how spiritual and knowledge leadership drives evidence based decision making in the data science field compared to how SQ, EQ and CQ drives evidenced decision making in the data science field. Great work!? Very interested in seeing where your research takes you!
We incorporate many of the concepts of spiritual leadership calling the leaders "Positive Opinion Leaders" however, I think it would be better rephrased as spiritual leaders.? I've heard you speak and say that spiritual leadership is not religion.? Do you think that the tie in people's minds keeps them away from discussing spiritual leadership in some workplaces??