Identifying and Elaborating the Components of Humble Leadership in Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations in Afghanistan: A Mixed Exploratory Study
Keywords:
Humble leadership, nongovernmental organizations, Afghanistan, exploratory factor analysis, Delphi techniqueAbstract
Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan operate within a context characterized by political insecurity, resource scarcity, and intense occupational pressures—conditions that highlight the critical need for leadership models that are humane, accountable, and capable of strengthening team cohesion. In the international literature, humble leadership has been introduced as one of the emerging positive leadership approaches; however, its behavioral dimensions have not yet been systematically articulated in a manner consistent with the cultural and organizational context of Afghanistan. The present study aimed to identify and contextualize the components and dimensions of humble leadership in Afghan NGOs. To this end, the research adopted a mixed exploratory design and was conducted in three stages: first, a systematic review of 32 scholarly articles and the extraction of 18 behavioral subcomponents; second, localization and refinement of these components through two rounds of the Delphi technique involving 15 experts, resulting in the addition of three new indicators—“community responsiveness,” “service orientation,” and “cultural humility”—and the confirmation of a total of 21 indicators; and third, the implementation of exploratory factor analysis on data collected from 295 NGO employees. The findings revealed that humble leadership in the studied context comprises five principal dimensions: “self-awareness and openness to correction,” “other-orientation and appreciation,” “respectful relationship orientation,” “authenticity and modest role modeling,” and “socio-cultural accountability.” The final dimension, which underscores the linkage between leader humility and social commitment as well as cultural sensitivity, represents the most significant indigenous innovation of the proposed model. This five-dimensional structure can serve as a foundation for the development of humble leadership measurement instruments and for the design of training interventions, as well as for the selection and evaluation of leaders in Afghan NGOs.
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