Desired and problematic leadership in faith-based nonprofits: a grounded perspective from volunteers and staff

This study explores how leadership is experienced and evaluated by volunteers and frontline staff in faith-based nonprofit organizations (FBOs). Using a grounded, inductive approach, it examines how grassroots actors perceive desirable and problematic leadership behaviors. Drawing on 28 in-depth interviews in three Indonesian FBOs, the findings reveal two overarching domains: (1) desirable leadership traits and practices, including inspiration, relational communication, individualized care, fairness, and spiritual example; and (2) problematic leadership behaviors and patterns, such as lack of embeddedness in volunteer culture, symbolic absence, emotional neglect, and disruptive leadership turnover. Informed by relational leadership theory and organizational silence, the analysis shows how leadership legitimacy emerges in volunteers’ and staff’s accounts of leaders’ moral credibility, emotional presence, and responsiveness to communal values. Rather than passive acceptance, participant silence often reflects moral restraint and a longing for alignment between leadership and lived values.