Inventing higher purpose through suffering: The transformation of the transformational leader

The article is an empirical study of how 10 transformational leaders of global social change invented their higher purpose. The inductively developed propositions capture the dynamic interplay of individual consciousness and external phenomena, and reveal processes apparently crucial to the construction of their higher purpose. The development of their higher purpose is elucidated by four propositions that demonstrate how the leaders awakened from entranced consciousness by (a) reframing personal suffering in the light of perceived eternal truths, (b) referencing inspiring standards of others in reflecting upon suffering, (c) reinforcing their identification with others in suffering, (d) reorienting themselves toward serving others in suffering by invoking their perceived eternal truths. The construct of trance, an unreflective consciousness from which individuals emit pat responses to the demands of everyday living, serves as the theoretical foil to interpret the processes involved in inventing higher purpose. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.