Spiritual Intelligence: is it relevant to ethical leadership education at the strategic level of UK defence?

ii UK Student Disclaimer " The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UK Ministry of Defence, or any other department of Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom. Further, such views should not be considered as constituting an official endorsement of factual accuracy, opinion, conclusion or recommendation of the UK Ministry of Defence, or any other department of Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom ". Abstract This study has been sponsored by the Leadership and Management Division (LMD), a component part of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, with the intention of utilising the research findings to inform strategic leadership development and education interventions, such as the Defence Strategic Leadership Programme (DSLP). The aim of the study is to conduct exploratory research in to the possible value of the concept of Spiritual Intelligence (commonly abbreviated as SQ) within a Defence leadership education context, with the aim of utilising the research findings to inform strategic-level ethical leadership development and education interventions, such as the Defence Strategic Leadership Programme (DSLP), and as a foundation for further research. The research strategy for this exploratory study comprised a search and review of pertinent literature and a primary research to obtain qualitative data in response to the following research objectives: RO1 Conduct a Literature Search and a Literature Review of the relevant literature. RO2 From this, identify a conceptual framework for SQ to inform the study. RO3 Conduct primary research to: a. test the conceptual framework for relevance within a UK Defence strategic leadership context. b. identify the potential utility of the SQ framework for strategic-level ethical leadership education and development within UK Defence. c. state the limitations of the research. RO4 Draw conclusions. RO5 Make recommendations, including directions for further research. A research survey was conducted by face-to-face interview with nine senior leaders within UK Defence utilising King's (2008) model of SQ and Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique. Results were recorded, collated and analysed for thematic content. Limitations of the research were stated and recommendations made, including proposing directions for further research. The Literature Review identified reported benefits associated with a spiritually intelligent workplace. The suggested need for an ethical culture within UK Defence was supported by the research survey findings. However, the concept of SQ was found to be only partially relevant to the practice of ethical …