TITLE:
Description of the Leadership Experiences of Alumni of the Christian Bilingual University of Congo in the Workplace
AUTHORS:
Marc Salama Asobee, Tariku Fufa Gemechu
KEYWORDS:
Holistic Leadership, Leadership Development, Leadership Experiences, Workplace, Phenomenological Study
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.11 No.3,
September
27,
2022
ABSTRACT: This
study investigated the leadership experiences of alumni of the Christian
Bilingual University of Congo (UCBC) in the workplace, using a holistic
leadership approach as a context, with the aim to learn the nature and
challenges of their leadership practices and identify areas of need for
leadership development in order to enhance their leadership effectiveness in a
challenging work environment. Leadership experiences in the workplace represent
both a daily challenge and a developmental opportunity that many leaders face
and fail to handle in the current Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous
global context. Inaptitude in leadership has been almost always associated with
Africa’s current miserable and underdevelopment state. In the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, poor leadership and mismanagement have been paralyzing the whole
nation in the last several decades since independence in 1960. This alarming
situation has been translated through ineffective political leadership, lack of
economic development, social crisis and chronic instability, corruption,
injustice, greed, selfishness, duplicity, pride and many more vices that continue
to describe leadership practices at all levels. A qualitative study using
phenomenological research design described lived leadership experiences of 13
purposefully selected UCBC alumni in the workplace. Data were collected through
one to two hours of in-depth interviews and analyzed through qualitative content analysis
procedures. Findings revealed nine major themes that emerged through
first-cycle and second-cycle coding processes. The themes were discussed along
with literature reviews and recommendations made for contemporary practitioners
and future research.