Research & Publications
Research and scholarship are an important part of the work of Emmaus Road Ministries, particularly in understanding how culture shapes leadership, authority, and the development of Christian communities.
Dr. David L. Becker's academic research draws on extensive engagement with African societies, especially the Bemba of northern Zambia. His work examines the relationship between social structures, cultural understandings of authority, and the ways leadership is recognized and exercised.
This page provides access to published research and other scholarly contributions.
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
The Prior Question: Kinship, Authority, and a Persistent Disconnect in Leadership Theory
David L. Becker, PhD
Leadership, SAGE Publications (2026)
About the Article
Who is eligible to lead before anyone begins demonstrating leadership ability?
Drawing on ethnographic research among the matrilineal Bemba of northern Zambia, this article examines how kinship structures establish eligibility for legitimate authority.
The research identifies a limitation in prevailing leadership recognition theories, particularly Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT). While these theories explain how individuals come to be recognized as leaders, they have paid insufficient attention to the social structures that determine who may be considered for leadership in the first place.
The article argues that understanding these prior conditions is essential to developing leadership theories capable of accounting for different forms of social organization.
Publication DOI: 10.1177/17427150261504087
The downloadable PDF is the author-accepted manuscript of the article published in Leadership. The final published version is available through SAGE Journals.
CONFERENCE PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS
The Prior Question; Beyond the Individual: Kinship, Eligibility, and the Limits of Leadership Theory
David L. Becker, PhD
International Studying Leadership Conference (ISLC 2026)
Ashridge House, United Kingdom
December 7–8, 2026
About the Conference Paper
What can contemporary leadership scholarship learn from societies whose understandings of legitimate authority developed outside Western institutional traditions?
Prepared for the 2026 International Studying Leadership Conference, this paper examines how inherited kinship relationships and cosmological understandings shape legitimate authority among the Bemba of Zambia.
Building on the theoretical concerns developed in the author's published research, the paper considers what these findings mean for leadership scholarship and development. It raises questions about leadership programs that emphasize individual competence and training without adequately considering the social structures through which communities recognize legitimate authority.