Abstract
D.Phil.
A society can be thriving if the communities within the society are healthy.
Communities are strongly influenced by their leaders. This study focuses on the
leaders of macro communities. Macro congregations were used as an example of a
macro community. The leader of a macro community is referred to as a macro
leader.
There is substantial evidence that macro leaders have difficulty with their personal
lives. One reads about it every now and then in the newspapers. As a result these
macro leaders often loose their leadership, their communities suffer and their
personal lives become unmanageable. Little or no research has been done and that
is why the question can be asked: "What could be done to accompany them?" The
purpose of this study is to develop a model for accompaniment of macro leaders to
promote wholeness.
A theory generative, qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research
design was used to conduct this study. The fieldwork was done by having semistructured
interviews with macro leaders. The results obtained were analysed and
categorised. The findings from all data were contextualised and a literature control
was carried out. In this way findings were validated.
The results obtained from the analysed data reflect the fact that macro leaders are
preoccupied with their work situation. The role as macro leader became the
dominant role that they fulfil and their identities are wrapped up in their role as macro
leaders. Macro leaders' leadership is all "out there".
As a result of their preoccupation with their work situation they suffer physically,
emotionally, relationally, mentally and/or spiritually. It is a painful experience for
macro leaders to experience public success and personal failure. For all the macro
leaders that participated in this research, wholeness was a dream. One can say that
they longed for holistic success.
Macro leaders are in desperate need of exercising self-leadership. A lot can be
done to facilitate self-leadership. The main concept of facilitation of self-leadership
can be defined as creating a safe space to assist, intervene, empower and motivate
to bring about self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-responsibility in order to
exercise self-leadership.
A model was developed as framework of reference to facilitate self-leadership. The
interrelated divisions were identified for the model of facilitation of self-leadership
namely imitation, cultivation and implementation. The unique factor about the model
of facilitating self-leadership is that macro leaders are facilitated in the process of
forming a more holistic perspective on their identity through self-awareness and then
accept that reality by taking responsibility for themselves by cultivating a lifestyle of
growing toward a new reality of wholeness.
Macro leaders can exercise self-leadership through self-awareness, self-acceptance
and self-responsibility. This thesis therefore proposes a model of facilitating self-
leadership on which guidelines can be operationalised. This will assist macro
leaders to exercise self-leadership in order to continue in the lifelong process of
growing towards wholeness.