The Educational Leadership of Mother Teresa

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the principles of the educational leadership of Mother Teresa, which has exerted influence around the world as a religious dedication to the poorest, and the process of implementing her leadership. For this purpose, first of all, I reviewed life and mission of Mother Teresa who received the vocation from God. One day 18 years after Mother Teresa joined a convent, she received the ‘call within a call’ to “go serve the poorest of the poor,” and lived her whole life in a slum and devoted herself to her calling. As people who were impressed by her unwavering followership to her mission gathered one by one, her leadership became influential. Secondly, the leadership of Mother Teresa is analyzed in detail based on the three dimensions of interest in modern leadership, which is differentiated from traditional leadership, the nature and intrinsic dimensions of a leader, the relationship between a leader and followers, and the community created by a leader and followers. As a result, in Mother Teresa s leadership, the principles that modern leadership are commonly interested in, viz., the leader s self-identity, moral authority, intrinsic and moral motivation, an example of ethical life, personal trusting relationships, sharing of values ​and vision, building a community, and building a culture of collaboration were all found. Finally, we looked at the process of the leadership of Mother Teresa. The process of implementing leadership by Mother Teresa consists of three steps. At the beginning, two principles were clearly revealed: ‘building a followership for values’ and ‘an example of an ethical life.’ In the realization step, four principles were implemented: ‘building personal trusting relationships’, ‘moral authority’, ‘sharing followership for values’, and ‘building a culture of collaboration.’ In the settlement step, two principles were established: ‘building a motivational factor’ and ‘building a community of love.’