Interpretive leadership skill in meaning-making by nonprofit leaders

Nonprofit leaders are instrumental in constructing and managing organizational reality. They thus need to possess skills to make meaning about various activities, interests, and organizational values, especially when mission and service contexts are in flux. Scholars recognize the sector-distinct leadership role in social construction. Nevertheless, research has yet to articulate clearly how meaning-making by nonprofit leaders develops leadership. This article fills this knowledge gap. We illuminate meaning-making leadership in nonprofits. We identify interpretive leadership skill as an essential executive competency for configuring a shared reality of the nonprofit and guiding others to that reality. Interpretive leadership skill is composed of three meaning-making capabilities: contextual astuteness, coordination capacity, and self-reflective capacity. We theorize that interpretive leadership skill develops from the cognitive and identity development processes of the leader in social interactions. A constructive-developmental approach to leadership underlies our theory building. Theoretical and practical utility of this conceptualization is discussed, as are directions for future research.