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Scholars have long argued that churches play a critical role in mobilizing communities marginal to the political process, primarily by pooling resources, disseminating information, and providing opportunities for members to develop community networks, leadership, and civic skills. However, recent research suggests that churches only serve as effective mobilizing institutions when they engage in direct political discussion and recruitment. Even so, churches may face economic, legal, and institutional barriers to entering the political sphere, and explicit political speech and action remain rare. Through an analysis of two years of ethnographic fieldwork following faith-based community organizers attempting to recruit Spanish speakers throughout a Catholic Archdiocese into a campaign for immigrant rights, this paper explores the institutional constraints on church political mobilization, and how these are overcome to mobilize one of the most politically marginal groups in the United States today: Hispanic undocumented immigrants and their allies. I argue that scholars of political engagement must look beyond the structural features of organizations to consider the effects of their institutionalized domains and practices. While churches do face institutional barriers to political mobilization, activists who specialize their recruitment strategy to match the institutional practices of the organizations they target can effectively overcome these barriers to mobilize politically alienated populations.

This paper uses social identity theory to investigate the sequential mediating effects of extrinsic religiosity and perceived role of religious leaders in the impact of consumers' intrinsic religiosity on perceived value of brands endorsed by religious leaders.

This paper comprises two survey-based studies with urban consumers in two emerging markets, India (N = 303) and Indonesia (N = 150).

Intrinsic religiosity has a direct positive effect on extrinsic religiosity, which in turn mediates the effect of intrinsic religiosity on the perceived value of the brands endorsed by religious leaders in both India and Indonesia. However, extrinsic religiosity has a significant positive effect on the perceived value of these brands through the perceived role of religious leaders in India but not in Indonesia.

Samples for both the studies are drawn from urban consumers in India and Indonesia, which also have large rural populations. Hence, future research may use both urban and rural samples from other countries to replicate our results.

The study findings may help both local and global brand managers in the emerging markets with religious societies, such as India and Indonesia, to understand how they may use endorsements by religious leaders to manage the differences in the impact of consumers' intrinsic versus extrinsic religiosity on their brand perceptions and evaluations.

This paper extends social identity theory to the international marketing context by showing that religious consumers in the emerging markets are likely to support the brands endorsed by religious leaders vis-à-vis other national or multinational brands. Thus, religious identification offers a unique sacred worldview and unlimited group membership, unlike other social groups, especially in the highly religious emerging markets.

The expansion of religious diversity in US workplaces increases the relevance of leaders' religious motivations and the impact on their organizations. This paper aims to investigate whether small company leaders' religious motivations predict their perceptions that their organization's values are directed to the welfare of others.

A survey was mailed to top executives of Midwestern US firms with 20 to 250 employees, measuring leaders' organizational values and religious motivation. The sample revealed itself to be mostly Christian.

Findings show that, as predicted, leaders higher in extrinsic religious motivation toward personal benefit were less likely than those lower in this type of religious motivation to perceive other‐directed organizational values. However, neither intrinsic religious motivation nor extrinsic religious motivation toward social ends predicted a tendency to perceive other‐directed organizational values.

Future research directions could assess the impact of beliefs associated with faith traditions on leader values and decision making. Further, a qualitative approach to data gathering may result in richer data. Limitations include a relatively low response rate and a sample skewed toward religiously motivated, mostly Christian small business leaders.

Just because small business leaders are religiously motivated does not mean that their perceived organizational values will be directed toward the welfare of others.

Little research exists about how small business leaders' religious motivations affect their organizational values. This research counters common assumptions that leaders' religious motivations will affect how they view their organizations' values.

The present study investigates the relationship between servant and authoritarian leadership, and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors in followers’ conflicts, thereby contributing to integrating knowledge on leadership styles and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors. This study aims to investigate leadership and conflict management in a context hardly studied: local religious communities or convents within a female religious organization.

The authors collected quantitative survey data from 453 religious sisters, measuring their perception of leaders’ behaviors. These religious sisters live in local religious communities within a Catholic Women Religious Institute based in Nigeria (West Africa) and in other countries across the globe.

Results show that servant leadership relates positively to leaders’ third-party problem-solving behavior and negatively to leaders’ avoiding and forcing. Moreover, authoritarian leadership relates positively to leaders’ third-party avoiding and forcing behaviors.

This study expands theory development and practices on leadership and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors. The authors associate servant and authoritarian leadership with leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors: avoiding, forcing and problem-solving, in followers’ conflicts. The authors offer practical recommendations for religious leaders on servant leadership and leaders’ third-party conflict behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and measure the relationship between a leader’s religion and religiosity (independent variables) and leadership practices (dependent variables) in the context of non-western Christian and Muslim organizational leaders.

The quantitative correlation study involved 384 organizational leaders (150 Christians and 234 Muslims) working in various industries in Lebanon. Organizational leaders supplied their religious affiliation and self-rated their religiosity and leadership practices.

Results were somewhat mixed, supporting some prior studies and contradicting others. Differences in the hypothesized relationship between the religious affiliation, religiosity, and leadership practices of organizational leaders were noted. The findings revealed that religion and religiosity both have an influence on the behavior and practices of organizational leaders; although the former is much more significant than the latter.

Organizational leaders reported their leadership practices and religiosity, hence self-rating bias. The data collection method allowed participant self-selection, thus potentially introducing self-selection bias in this study. Cultural response bias may be another possible limitation to this study. There were no controls for possible confounding factors (such as organizational, psychological, personal, or environmental variables) that may have influenced respondents.

This study confirmed that leadership practices were significantly complicated by the respondents’ religious affiliation and religiosity. Scholars and practitioners may use the results as guidelines to further understand leadership dynamics generally, and more particularly in a non-western context. Leaders may gain practical insight about how to meet organizational challenges in a religiously diverse workplace.

This study sheds new light on how leadership practices may be influenced by people’s religious affiliation and religiosity; and especially so in the Middle East where a paucity of empirical research on workplace issues exists.

Research investigating the association between religiosity and earnings management has concentrated on accruals-based earnings management, relying heavily on society’s religiosity, but it has neglected the interaction between religiosity and formal monitoring mechanisms. This study aims to examine how the religiosity and accounting expertise traits of top leaders are associated with real earnings management (REM) and how they interact to eliminate these practices.

Using a sample of 943 year-observations from more religious settings, this paper collects data for four measures of REM, and for religiosity and accounting expertise of audit committee (AC) chair and chief executive officer (CEO). Multivariate regression is used to test the study hypotheses.

The findings are consistent with the predictions that religious top leaders are not associated with lower REM, while top leaders with accounting expertise, in some cases, are associated with lower REM. This paper also finds that a leader with religious belief and accounting expertise dramatically lowers REM. These findings are robust under a battery of sensitive analyzes. In an additional analysis, this paper observes the interaction effect between these two traits is strengthened if the board chair is religious, and persists even for larger firms or those with a highly concentrated ownership structure.

The paper provides evidence that may serve a variety of decision-makers. It is the first to show that the interaction between religiosity and expertise is crucial in curbing REM. It also provides the first evidence for the role of the AC chair in relation to REM.

While the causes and effects of begging are well known, solutions on how to eradicate begging are still elusive in many parts of the developing world. The purpose of this study is to examine the different ways through which community leaders at the local level can contribute to the eradication of begging in one of Ghana’s most densely populated suburbs in the city of Accra.

This study was undertaken using the qualitative approach, and primary data was collected through interviews, participants observation and focus group discussions with beggars, community leaders and officials of non-governmental organisations at Nima, a suburb of Accra.

Begging in the suburb of Nima is increasingly becoming a business venture. It is no more an activity that is the preserve of only the weak, the poor, the elderly, the physically challenged, the needy and the marginalised in society. This paper argues that the eradication of begging requires multiple approaches and that community-based leaders must play a central role. This paper identified the provision of alternative sources of livelihood, the naming, shaming and condemnation of unjustified begging in the community, strict boarder control, returning foreign beggars to their home countries, the formulation and enforcement of community anti-begging by-laws and regular sensitisation programs on begging as crucial in reducing or eliminating begging.

While focusing on one Muslim-dominated suburb in Accra ensures a detailed discussion of strategies of eliminating begging from a cultural and religious perspective, the findings of this study may not be applicable to non-Islamic settings and communities where cultural or religious leadership structures do not exist.

This study has demonstrated that the eradication of begging in society cannot have one-size-fit all solution. This paper shows that in societies where cultural and religious leadership structures exist, they must play important roles in the design and implementation of strategies that seek to reduce or eliminate religious begging in society. This implies that formal government agencies and their associated laws alone will not be enough to eradicate or reduce begging under such contexts.

Measures to eradicate begging have often ignored the role of community leaders. This paper contributes to our understanding on this by specifically examining the phenomenon of begging at the micro level and exploring the different ways community leaders can contribute to the eradication of begging in society.

This chapter provides a cross-cultural look at the intersection of religion and the state with a focus on social control, social movements, political authority, and legitimacy. To better understand the complexities of governance, this chapter examines state social control of religion with a specific focus on the effects of that control on society. State leaders often seek to control and use the power of religion to gain legitimacy, authority, and control over citizens. Conversely, religious leaders sometimes seek to engage and even control the power of the state. This chapter highlights some of what happens when religious leaders directly engage in politics and challenge the social control mechanisms of political authority.

At times religious majorities seek not only to participate in the public square, to make policy, but also to exercise complete control of political and cultural institutions. In many nations, from Christians in the United States to Buddhists in Myanmar, some religious and government leaders share the goal of complete religious control over their societies. What happens to the religions and to the society when these religious and government leaders are successful? What happens to the religion when a state controls, supports, and promotes that religion? This chapter uses the case histories of the repression of the Muslim minority by the Buddhists nationalists in Myanmar and the desires of the United States Christian Dominionists goals to illustrate and highlight the way that the twin powers of the state and religion serve as direct agents of social control by transmitting values of each institution through law, policy, and by punishing those who deviate.

A growing religious-environmental movement is working to reconcile environmental thought and practice with the mission and ministry of religious organizations. We examine two leading interfaith social change organizations and identify key strategies they routinely employ to create shared meaning and alignment between environmentalism and faith. They reframe stewardship in religious organizations by (1) highlighting and interpreting environmental themes in sacred texts and scriptures, (2) celebrating and fostering mutual awareness of environmental action by faith-based organizations, and (3) providing resources and creating linkages between clergy and lay leaders across religious congregations. By emphasizing moral and spiritual rationales for the adoption of resource-saving products and behaviors at both the congregational and household level, these networked organizations help shift the perception of global climate change from an insurmountable problem to one that is being addressed in cooperation with similar others. Our investigation reveals organizational actors deeply engaged in growing moral calls for political action to address climate change and underscores the need for more socially realistic models of technology adoption and behavior change.

The purpose of this study is to examine the changing political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community towards Islamic political parties in general elections; to analyze the factors that influenced the political orientation of Air Tiris community in general elections; and to realize the political rights of the society including Air Tiris community.

The subject in this study is the political orientation of the Air Tiris community in the 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 general elections with a period of research from 2009 to 2016. This qualitative research method consists of sources, data collection, informants, data collection techniques, data analysis and processing and writing systematics.

The results of the research indicate that there are three dominant factors affecting the change in the political orientation of the Air Tiris community towards Islamic political parties characterized by the deterioration of vote acquisition for Islamic political parties in Air Tiris village in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 general elections. The weakening of the link between religious identity and voting behaviour, as well as the weakening of political movement. The identification or loyalty of the santri community towards Islamic parties has faded.

The originality of this research lies in the analysis of the political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community, in general, elections towards Islamic political parties. Traditionally, this community has more political orientation on religious/Islamic political parties but such orientation experiences developments and changes that lead to non-Islamic parties. This research contains new information about the analysis of the political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community in the general election of Islamic political parties.