Abstract:
Leadership development has emerged as an important theoretical and
practical stream of management. As an area of higher learning, leadership
draws from numerous academic fields and real life sources and therefore
requires integration of knowledge with experience. There is an implicit
assumption that leadership is important, that leaders make a difference,
and that positive group and organisational effects are produced by leaders
and the leadership process. To most people the importance of leadership
is self-evident no matter the setting. In organisations, effective leadership
facilitates higher-quality production with more efficient services; it
provides a sense of cohesiveness, personal development, and higher
levels of satisfaction among those conducting the work; and it provides
an overarching sense of direction and vision, an alignment with the
environment, a healthy mechanism for innovation and creativity, and a
resource for invigorating the organisational culture. This is no small order,
especially in contemporary times.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a vast country
endowed with huge natural and mineral resources. But for decades
the DRC has been through coups d’état, civil wars, rebellions, political turmoil and instability, and it also faced aggression from its neighbouring
countries in recent years. All these events have impacted negatively on
the state and have provoked the decay of public institutions, making
the country one of the notorious failed states of the world (Tshiyoyo
2011:104). Given the state’s failure in the DRC, creating a strong nation
should be a priority. The government in the DRC should strengthen the
organs of the state in order to tackle the socio-economic crisis that has paralysed many public institutions and impeded the proper functioning of
the state’s apparatus. This will require a new breed of leaders who will be
able to provide the stewardship needed to pave the way for the country
to be placed on the track of development. The DRC requires leaders who
are transformational or visionary given its particular context. In this article
the model that is suggested to enhance leadership development in the
DRC consists of three pillars, namely spirituality, emotional intelligence
and morality. However, the success of the proposed model will depend
on the kind of social order that prevails in the country and on the type of
political arrangements made by the country’s leaders.
