Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi Media Pengembangan Ilmu dan Praktek Administrasi Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 Vol.
22 No.
pp 196-213 A 2025
ISSN 1829 - 8974
e-ISSN 2614-2597
EFFECTIVE LOCAL LEADERSHIP AS AN INSTRUMENT AND
MODEL IN STUNTING HANDLING IN MONGPOK VILLAGE
SERANG REGENCY
1Ahmad Sururi, 2Ungku Khairunnisa bt Ungku Mohd Nurdin, 3Ieke Sartika Iriany, 4Rostiena Pasciana 1Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa.
Indonesia 2Universitas Teknologi.
Johor Bahru.
Malaysia 3,4Universitas Garut.
Indonesia 1ahmadsururi@untirta.
id,2ungkukhairunnisa@utm.
my,3Ieke_sartika@fisip.
pasciana@gmail.
ARTICLE
INFORMATION
Article history :
Submit:
16-04-2025
First Revision:
25-10-2025
Accepted:
15-12-2025
Keywords :
leadership, effectiveness, handling, stunting, model.
Indonesia A The Author.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.
International License.
ABSTRACT
Stunting is a significant health issue in most countries around the world, and various research evidence from different countries has shown that most of the success in tackling stunting is due to effective local leadership.
This study aims to discuss effective local leadership in addressing stunting in Mongpok Village.
Serang Regency.
Banten Province.
Indonesia, using four concepts or dimensions of leadership, namely transformational leadership, collaborative leadership, socio-cultural leadership, and shared leadership, as well as formulating an effective local leadership model.
The research used a qualitative descriptive approach through data collection techniques through interviews and observations.
The data were analyzed using systematic qualitative data analysis through classification .
, labeling, category preparation, and data classification.
The research results show that the four dimensions of leadership, namely transformational, collaborative, sociocultural, and shared leadership, contribute and complement each other in encouraging the success of effective local leadership in dealing with stunting.
The research findings show the importance of responsive leadership, collaborative leadership based on planning and openness, leadership oriented to local wisdom, leadership that positions the community as the leading actor, and effective local leadership model in handling stunting.
This research concludes that effective local leadership is evidence of successful stunting handling in Mongpok Village.
Indonesia.
INTRODUCTION
Globally, stunting remains a major public health issue (Nisbett et al.
, 2015.
Vonaesch et al.
, 2017.
Hoffman et al.
, 2.
, and children are a group that is potentially affected by stunting (Akram et al.
Zewdie Negash & Tsegaye, 2.
, it is estimated that nearly 165 million children under the age of five are stunted (Zewdie.
Negash and Tsegaye, 2.
Some of the causes of Stunting include inadequate nutritional intake in children, frequent infections, lack of psychosocial stimulation and Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 poor parenting (Putri & Rong, 2.
, poor nutritional status (Akram et al.
, 2.
, and food insecurity in the household (Zewdie.
Negash and Tsegaye, 2.
Most stunting occurs during the first 1,000 days of life (Allen, 2012.
Black et al.
, 2.
, stunting can adversely affect child development and, in the long term, negatively impact human resource competitiveness.
Most Stunting occurs during the first 1,000 days of life (Allen, 2012.
Black et al.
, 2.
, stunting is a manifestation of physical impairment, chronic malnutrition due to adverse cross-sectoral environmental conditions, severe physiological and cognitive and irreversible due to chronic malnutrition early in (Sullivan, 2016.
Endrinikapoulos et al.
, 2023.
Unicef-WHO-The World Bank: 2.
Improvements in children's health, nutrition, and Stunting stunting have been attributed to multilevel enabling factors such as poverty alleviation, secured food, and executed land and health reforms (Brar et al.
, 2.
Collectively, however, evidence suggests that the success of these enabling factors is mainly due to local leadership being an essential instrument in planning and setting the program agenda and formulating and implementing policies to stunt handling in various countriesAi Gutmann & Thompson .
state two crucial requirements for the foundation of leadership.
Namely, first, leaders Ensure long-term consistency in statements and action, in alignment with publicly stated Second, respecting freedom and dignity, leaders interact with their opposition.
Therefore, it is unsurprising that the call for effective leadership is to maintain momentum at the global level while encouraging stunting management policies in each country and then practicing them at the local leadership and government levels.
Regional capacity building and leadership is an effort to provide long-term impact (Wesley et al.
, 2.
so that it is expected to be able to improve specific nutrition sectors and nutrition-sensitive sectors for stunting reduction, especially in the fields of poverty alleviation, health, education, and sanitation (Conway et al.
, 2.
Several regions in Indonesia have demonstrated the importance of local leadership in stunting handling due to the high prevalence of stunting in Indonesia.
The stunting rate in Indonesia will reach 6% by 2023, the second highest rate in ASEAN after Timor Leste.
Stunting remains a major health Indonesia concern for Indonesia, and being in the top five of the 88 countries with the highest stunting rates according to UNICEF, thus Indonesia is among the developing countries with a high prevalence of stunting (Nareswari, 2.
One of the regions in Indonesia that emphasizes the importance of influential local leadership factors in stunting handling is Mongpok Village.
Serang Regency.
Banten Province, which is one of 326 villages in Banten Province that has been selected as one of the ten target villages for accelerating stunting reduction by the Serang Regency Stunting Reduction Acceleration Team through the Stunting Friday Movement through the Healthy Kitchen to Overcome Stunting (Dasha.
and the Quality Family Village Program.
One indicator of Mongpok Village's success in handling stunting in the context of local leadership is the achievement of the Head of Mongpok Village.
Serang Regency, who was awarded the best Village Stunting Reduction Acceleration Team Chief Executive at the Stunting Heroes Award 2022 Banten Province.
However, this does not mean that handling stunting in Mongpok Village.
Serang Regency, does not encounter obstacles and challenges.
Several problems, such as low public awareness of implementing healthy living behavior patterns, lack of public understanding of malnutrition and parenting in children, and the strengthening of cultural factors in the community that argue stunting is not caused by health factors, are some of the problems that must be faced and are not easy to solve.
Therefore, encouraging the capacity of transformational local leadership or the ability to make social system changes (Shields, 2.
, collaborative (Maalouf, 2019.
Shu and Wang, 2021.
Shaikh.
Lymsy and Heikkinen, 2.
local leadership or the village head as a role model to invite and provide awareness of healthy living and nutritional information to the community is a solution to solving these problems, and this is supported by sociocultural leadership and shared leadership (Tsait, 2011.
Vilas-Boas.
Davel and De Souza Bispo, 2018.
Lee and Kelly, 2019.
Muralidharan and Pathak, 2019.
Candarmaweni and Rahayu, 2020.
Shier and Handy, 2020.
Demir, 2.
However, despite the interest and various approaches to leadership, theoretically and practically, there is still minimal discussion about effective local leadership in handling stunting, especially in Indonesia.
In other words, it is essential to identify the role of effective local leadership as the main instrument in stunting cases in developing countries, how leadership functions, who they work with, the challenges faced, and what approaches make them practical so that they can become role models of influential local leaders in the future.
This research will answer these questions by utilizing interviews with 15 individuals identified as influential in stunting policy.
Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 This research aims to discuss how effective local leadership is in handling Stunting in Mongpok Village.
Indonesia, by using four concepts or dimensions of leadership, namely transformational leadership.
Collaborative leadership, sociocultural leadership, and shared leadership, and formulating an effective local leadership model.
The theoretical contribution of this research seeks to understand effective local leadership instruments in handling Stunting through the four dimensions of leadership and how effective local leadership models are so that it is hoped that it will be able to encourage the development of theoretical ideas for accelerating sustainable stunting reduction.
The literature on practical leadership is always evolving and seen from a variety.
Effective leadership is interpreted as the perception of followers based on an assessment of their leader's Such perceptions depend on how healthy leaders match what followers consider essential to task performance (Gyensare et al.
, 2.
On the other hand (Wellin, 2.
identifies three essential elements of effective leadership: establishing the course of action and conveying it to the team or individual within the organization.
fostering positive relationships between leaders and their followers .
o motivate them to take effective actio.
and, lastly, utilizing both hemispheres of the brain at the same time to stimulate logical thought as well as intuition, emotion, and creativity.
Previous studies in several countries have shown that local leadership has a practical impact on reducing the prevalence of stunting through a combination of factors ranging from sustained effective leadership, transformational leadership as a role model, collaborative and shared leadership as essential success factors including (Huicho et al.
, 2.
Mexico (Sepylveda et al.
, 2.
Indonesia (Candarmaweni and Rahayu, 2.
Columbia (Botero-Tovar.
Zuluaga and Varela, 2.
India (Avula et al.
, 2.
Amerika Latin.
Karibia (Grajeda et al.
, 2.
Afrika (Olufadewa et al.
, 2.
dan Cina (Wang and Jin, 2.
However, there are still some obstacles, such as low coordination between sectors due to non-integrated leadership and low political leadership, causing nutrition to be one of the low-priority areas, as happened in Pakistan (Waghmare.
Chauhan, and Sharma, 2.
and Afghanistan (Poole.
Echavez and Rowland, 2.
Strong leadership has been highlighted as a common element of success within countries that have made rapid progress in tackling child and maternal undernutrition (Nisbett et al.
, 2.
(Cunningham et al.
, 2.
, in addition effective local leadership in preventing malnutrition involves collaboration, community involvement and commitment (Juni et al.
, 2.
(Gillespie et al.
, 2.
, including understanding of the local context, an integrated approach, strong governance, and continuous monitoring (Bhutta et al.
, 2.
(Zuberi et al.
, 2.
This encourages overcoming obstacles and improving community readiness for the success of the programme.
By focusing on these elements, local leaders can make a significant contribution to reducing malnutrition and improving community health Since its debut over 40 years ago, transformational leadership has drawn a lot of scholarly attention and is still one of the most studied leadership models (Day, 2001.
Antonakis and House, 2.
Transformational leadership theory is one of the oldest psychological and methodological approaches used in understanding and interpreting leadership (Saad Alessa, 2.
, and as Burns and Peter Sange explained A leader who practices transformational leadership inspires people and modifies their behavior to meet obstacles, ultimately enabling them to take part in the process of organizational This process is associated with internal connections and values (Lin Tengi.
Mansor and Hashim, 2017.
Reid and Dold, 2018.
Saad Alessa, 2.
According to Bass & Riggio .
, transformational leadership consists of intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence.
Transformational leadership is a leadership influences follower positively.
Transformational leaders are known for their energy, enthusiasm, passion, and genuine concern for each group member's success (Bass and Riggio.
Cherry, 2.
In addition, in several studies, a strong emphasis on the vision and mission, competence, motivation, and attention to subordinates are the pillars of transformational leadership theory (Fitzgerald and Schutte, 2010.
Carton.
Murphy and Clark, 2014.
Khan et al.
, 2.
Collaborative leadership is the next dimension of effective leadership with a significant influence.
Maalouf .
argues from both the leader's and the organization's standpoint, collaborative leadership encompasses effective management of operational losses, future forecasting for sustainability, consensus building, and conflict management In his view, he outlines this to form the dimensions of collaborative leadership.
In addition.
Collaborative leadership promotes shared goals and a consistent framework for involvement (Archer & Cameron, 2.
Therefore, collaborative Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 leadership entails using influence by individuals to solicit valuable input from others and work together collectively to achieve a common goal.
Collaborative leadership can bring together the potential of diverse individuals in an organization so that leaders and followers increase each other's level of inspiration and responsibility, which then leads to interdependence among many parties and builds relationships that focus on organizational goals (Harris.
Barnier, and Sutton, 2012.
Archer & Cameron, 2.
On the other hand, to collaborate effectively, we must establish a trusting, respectful environment where shared goals inspire open and full contributions from everyone involved.
According to Ang'ana Chiroma .
When there is mutual respect, trust amongst people, shared goals, and environmental involvement, collaborative leadership can flourish.
Therefore, ideally, collaborative leadership requires the distribution of understanding, decision-making, and activities (Jiang, 2.
People that practice collaborative leadership cooperate and plan every action to accomplish shared objectives and resolve work-related issues (Raelin, 2.
This implies that people are not viewed as distinct entities but rather as members of a social site with a variety of relationships (Shaikh & Lymsy, 2.
In their research.
Lu & Smith .
concluded that leadership cultural factors significantly impact the evolution of leadership towards a more distributed model in hierarchical organizations.
The same opinion was expressed by Pembleton et al.
He claimed that because multicultural settings necessitate tailored communication and attention to followers' values, beliefs, and preferences, the study of sociocultural or cross-cultural leadership is becoming more and more significant.
Leadership literature shows that cultural beliefs and values strongly influence individual attitudes, behaviors, and decisions, which in turn reaffirms the importance of value alignment in leader-follower relationships, communication style, and social culture (Arrindell, 2003.
Brown and Treviyo, 2009.
Hanges et al.
, 2.
Exciting research conducted by Chen & Kao .
and McDonald .
Shows that confucian values, including paternalism, harmony, and collectivism, significantly distinguish Chinese leadership from western business practices.
This suggessts leadership behaviors need to be customized to meet the specific demands and culturally dominant values of each circumstance.
(Elenkov & Manev, 2.
On the other hand.
Zhou .
argues that authoritarianism, compassion, and morality are some of the traits of Asian leadership styles.
This style of leadership calls for the leader to create authority, impose control, and give guidance to his staff, who are then expected to politely obey him.
Despite similarities as a fellow Asian country, leadership in Indonesia tends to be paternalistic (Irawanto, 2009.
Suryani, 2.
Strong authority and discipline combined with paternalistic kindness and values is known as paternalistic leadership (Farh & Cheng, 2000.
Pellegrini Scandura, 2.
Three characteristics of paternalistic leadership, namely morality, compassion, and authoritarianism and the importance of encouraging a culture of collectivity (Aycan, 2006.
Pellegrini and Scandura, 2.
(Aycan.
Pellegrini and Scandura, 2.
In contrast, individualistic leadership is shared leadership, which is "a dynamic, interactive process of influence among individuals in a group whose purpose is to lead one another toward the achievement of group or organizational goals" (Conger & Pearce, 2.
Interactions between team members who use leadership influence collectively, carry out activities often reserved for formal leaders, and take part in decision-making processes are all elements of shared leadership (Wood and Fields, 2.
Whereas Abson et al.
according to their research, trust is the primary component of shared leadership.
In this situation, people need to develop both intragroup trustAibetween members of their project teamAiand intergroup trustAibetween the project team and the leadership On the other hand, in their research.
Scott-Young et al.
came to the conclusion that shared leadership is a complicated interaction process that was formed in a knowledge-based profession.
According to Salas-Vallina et al.
In order to improve employee performance and their ability to handle challenging situations, shared leadership aims to foster a culture of positive attitudes, such as enthusiasm at work.
This is consistent with the viewpoint of Ali et al.
who stress that shared leadership necessitates involvement and a social interaction process where team members lead and follow, as well as share authority and accountability to accomplish team objectives.
Based on the description of the literature above, the research conducted has similarities with this study, but research that discusses effective local leadership as an instrument and model in handling stunting has not been carried out adequately to answer the research question of how effective local leadership as an instrument and model in handling stunting in Mongpok Village Indonesia, this study Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 will use four dimensions of leadership, namely transformational leadership, collaborative, sociocultural and shared leadership as figure 1.
The conceptual framework is not designed to illustrate causal relationships.
Instead, it organizes the main components examined in the study and clarifies the analytical orientation.
The diagram should be read as a heuristic tool that guides interpretation, not as a causal model
Transformasional Effective Local
Leadership as An Instrument and Model in Stunting Handling Collaborative Socio-cultural Effective local
leadership can have a sustainable impact on stunting handling in Indonesia
Shared leadership
Source: Authors, 2024
Figure 1: Research Framework
METHOD
The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive.
In this study, the selection of informants is based on deliberate sampling, which is one of the fundamental components of qualitative research.
This is because the sampling process relies on the logic and power of sampling in selecting instances with a wealth of information to be thoroughly examined (Patton, 2.
The selection of the research location was carried out based on the assumption of a typical case (Yin, 2.
, and based on this.
Mongpok Village.
Cikeusal Sub-district.
Serang Regency was selected as one of the villages in Serang Regency chosen as the research location.
We interviewed 15 people consisting of governmental and non-governmental elements, including four Family Planning Field Instructors-Team of Family Facilitators (PLKB-TPK), three Serang District Local Government Organizations, four community and religious leaders representing communities affected by stunting, and four Mongpok Village Government representatives.
Data was collected through interviews with open-ended questions and lasted approximately 90 During the interview process, we took notes and recorded the informants' responses.
The key themes of the interviews focused on the issues stated in the research questions.
The methodical qualitative data analysis suggested by (Miles.
Huberman, and Saldaya, 2.
, was used to analyze the Data coding, or data classification, was used to examine the interviews.
This data classification process produced labeled findings.
We created categories and used the study questions that had been posed to informants as a guide for creating the data categorization procedure.
RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION
EFFECTIVE LOCAL LEADERSHIP INSTRUMENTS IN STUNTING HANDLING IN
INDONESIA
Effective leadership is generally understood as charismatic (House, 1.
, visionary (Bennis & Harper, 1.
, transformational (Bass, 1.
, authentic, and qualified (Luthans & Avolio, 2.
addition (Schuetz, 2.
indicates that in order to lead an organization to success, leaders need to possess exceptional skills and abilities like expertise, sensitivity, credibility, values, and charisma in addition to fervent followers.
Several studies (Avery et al.
, 2003.
De Cremer & van Knippenberg, 2004.
Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 Seibert et al.
, 2.
a leader's work history and the way they exhibit qualities like self-assurance and selflessness are important indicators of how effective their leadership style.
James McGregor Burns and Peter Sange first proposed the idea of the transformative leader forty years ago, and his theories still have a big influence on how we approach and use leadership theory today (Reid and Dold, 2018.
Siangchokyoo.
Klinger, and Campion, 2.
According to Gordon .
, there are five types of theories: trait, style, contingency .
, distributed leadership and new leadership .
ransactional, transformative, and culture-specifi.
The leadership of followers and leaders is dispersed throughout the community (Siangchokyoo.
Klinger, and Campion, 2.
Transformational Leadership The research findings show that the handling of stunting in Mongpok Indonesia Village carried out by the Village Head begins with providing an understanding of healthy living behaviour to the community, in this case the village head invites the community to be directly involved, provides motivation, awareness and fosters positive values about the importance of healthy living behaviour.
The findings of this study are consistent with the conclusion (Savovic, 2.
that one of the most important tasks of transformational leadership is to increase participation between leaders and followers in terms of motivation and values, while increasing followers' awareness of existing problems and providing support, encouragement, and experience.
Mongpok Village in Banten Province had a population of 6,503 people in 2023, with different levels of diversity in the community's social, economic, and educational conditions.
To reduce the prevalence rate of Stunting, the village head invites the community to change healthy living behavior through various approaches for each family and carry out the process of environmental adaptation.
The approach taken by the village head is done door-to-door or through visits to each resident's house.
the same time, the adaptation process is carried out through a family approach because not all residents can be invited to work together for healthy living behavior.
According to the author, these efforts further emphasize that the primary contributing factor in overcoming stunting is the critical role of local leadership from the Head of the Village.
One of the traits of successful transformational leadership is the ability to adjust to current environmental conditions using internal data, people and financial resources, or many external variables (Saad Alessa, 2.
This requires local leaders to focus on the capabilities and conditions of the community to inspire them and provide them with the support they need to face the challenges of change, ultimately increasing their commitment to healthy behavior change to reduce the prevalence of stunting.
Evidence of successful local leadership shows that Mongpok Village has succeeded in lowering the prevalence of stunting within four years or from 2020-2023, as presented in Figure 2 below:
0,63
39,70%
17,10%
15,40%
9,04%
5,07%
2,30% 0,63%
0,79%
Stunting 0,20% 0,20% Undernourished Poor Nutrition 2023 FEB Source: Electronic Data for Community Based Nutrition Reporting Cikeusal Sub-district, 2023.
Figure 2: Prevalence of Stunting.
Undernutrition, and Malnutrition in Mongpok Village Indonesia 2020-2023 .
s of February 2.
Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 Figure 2 above explains that the rate of decline in Stunting, undernutrition, and malnutrition in Mongpok Village.
Indonesia, has experienced a significant decrease from 2020 to February 2023, especially in terms of the prevalence rate of Stunting.
In 2020, the Prevalence of Stunting reached 55% and decreased in 2021 by 39.
then, in 2022, there was another decrease of 17.
10%, and in February 2023, there was a decrease of 15%.
The achievement of the success of reducing Stunting is not only evidence of local leadership but also inseparable from the commitment and achievements that have been made from various programs, such as the implementation of the Quality Family Village program through a strategic innovation movement in improving the quality of human resources, empowering and strengthening family institutions in each village, the Healthy Kitchen Overcoming Stunting (Dasha.
Ownership of My Data House and the Family Empowerment and Welfare Movement Team.
This aligns with research by Almaududi Ausat et al.
which concluded to the conclusion that work performance and organizational commitment are greatly impacted by transformational leadership.
The findings of this study also show that village heads have the idea of a door-to-door approach and environmental adaptation process in handling stunting as a responsive leadership effort that focuses on the will and concern for the community directly without bureaucratic and hierarchical restrictions so that it can become an example of effective and ideal local leadership.
The results of this study support the idea of transformational leadership, which demonstrates medium to large impact sizes on a range of organizational, team, and individual outcomes.
In general, companiesAior in this instance, local institutionsAican gain from allocating their resources to transformational leadership development as opposed to contemporary leadership fads (Deng et al.
Evidence of the success of effective local leadership through responsive Leadership is evidenced by the achievement of an award for the Mongpok Village Head as the best stunting Leadership or Chief Executive of the Village Stunting Reduction Acceleration Team at the 2022 Stunting Heroes Award event in Banten Province.
Indonesia.
Evidence of the award shows that the village head has met basic needs and produced positive changes in accordance with the concept of transformational leadership (Bader.
Gielnik, and Bledow, 2.
Additionally, this is consistent with research findings (Siangchokyoo et al.
, .
which demonstrate the beneficial influence of transformational leadership on individuals, groups, and organizations caused by transformational approaches is specific and longlasting.
In addition, the local leadership of the Mongpok Village head in different aspects is shown through adequate work such as providing socialization and understanding of the dangers and impacts of stunting on families and communities so that awareness of healthy living behavior and motivation in family and community life grows.
Through their clear pronunciation, transformational leaders have the most significant influence on the sentiments of their followers by fostering feelings of success and proficiency in themselves (Khan et al.
, 2.
This is because transformational leadership can guide, encourage, and provide attention through vision, awareness, and consideration of subordinates on the importance of values, goals, and organizational performance by market needs while focusing on developing human resources and creating modifications (Ghasabeh.
Soosay and Reaiche, 2018.
Jensen and Bro, 2.
Collaborative Leadership The research findings show that the collaboration between community leaders and religious leaders in socialising stunting is an important point of local leadership in Mongpok Indonesia Village.
This is inseparable from the fact that it develops in the community, and people will more readily believe and tend to follow the invitation if it comes from individuals who have religious influence and become community role models.
In the general public's environment, power and authority move horizontally toward leaders who can articulate and coordinate teamwork, increase the autonomy of citizens, and move away from dominance positions to combat subordinates (Schweigert, 2.
and confirmed by Harris et al.
, .
which emphasizes the importance of consensus collaboration.
Various local leadership collaborations of the Mongpok Village Head that have been carried out include determining the Families at Risk of Stunting target, verifying and validating target families by Puskesmas Nutritionists.
Dashat program teams, and Quality Family Officers.
In collaboration efforts, the village head conducts planning to determine the parties invited to collaborate.
It uses the principle of openness by involving the community in the collaboration process, including providing Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 collaboration assistance and transparency to the parties invited to collaborate.
Collaboration activities between Mongpok Village and several stakeholders include the National Family Planning Coordinating Board Center.
Regional Government Organizations of Banten Province, the Amil Zakat Agency of Serang Regency and Banten Province, and the Cikeusal District Government.
The following are the collaborative interventions between the Mongpok Village Head and various stakeholders from both government and non-government elements, as presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Cross-sector collaboration interventions in handling accelerated Stunting in Mongpok Village Local Government Intervention and Collaboration Sector/Agency/Organization Banten Province Marine and Fisheries Provision of 3,000 catfish seeds for Families Service at Risk of Stunting Health Office Counseling Clean Healthy Living Behavior (P.
and assistance in building healthy latrines for Families at Risk of Stunting Office of Women's Empowerment and Providing Child Protection of Serang Regency counseling, coaching Cikeusal Religious Affairs Office Collaborating in counseling for teenagers and Catin .
rospective bride.
Amil Zakat Agency of Serang Regency Providing financial assistance of 20 million for stunting targets Amil Zakat Agency of Serang Regency of Providing three qurban animals for families Banten Province at risk of Stunting Siliwangi military district command .
Providing uninhabitable houses for families at risk of Stunting Cikeusal District (District Secretar.
and Foster father for Stunting Banten 10 Cikeusal Sub-district Funding Assistance for Families at Risk of Stunting 11 Serang Regency Housing and Settlement Bathing and washing toilet assistance Office 12 Provider XL Health supplement assistance for 20 families at risk of Stunting 13 Serang Regency Agriculture Office Nutritional Rice, chili Seeds to Improve the Family Economy Source: Author Observation, 2023 Table 1 above describes the research findings on collaboration based on planning and openness between the Mongpok Village Head and various Local Government Organisations (OPD.
The findings of this study are consistent with (Turowska et al.
, 2.
, which says it is essential for every government agency to collaborate across sectors both horizontally and vertically effectively.
cooperative strategy with different religious, youth, and community leaders is also the best course of action since leaders need to be able to manage disagreement, form bonds with others, and delegate authority in order to promote productive collaboration where it is most required.
Effective collaboration requires collaborative leaders to be able to assess their own strengths and shortcomings (Archer & Cameron, 2.
Collaboration based on planning and openness has been effective in providing various impacts and benefits that can be felt directly by the community, namely changes in health status in the community and increased positive performance of village officials such as growing trust, good village administration, and independence.
Maalouf .
in his research results, leaders can use a collaborative leadership style to boost organizational performance, stay competitive, and have an impact on the entire business.
He also found a favorable correlation between collaborative leadership Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 and performance.
Goman .
in (Angana & Kilika, 2.
describes five essential elements to enhance comprehension of collaborative leadership: administration, governance, independence or autonomy, mutual trust, and mutual benefit.
According to Ang'ana & Chiroma .
, three main dimensions of collaborative Leadership are critical in the context of collaboration and partnership namely .
Self-leadership, which emphasizes that even if collaborative leadership entails greater power sharing among all members of the group, self-awareness as a leader is an essential component of self-leadership.
Genuine interaction, emphasizing that teamwork entails building and sustaining connections.
Teaching "we" that collaborative leadership should also entail creating and fostering an atmosphere where team members are more concerned with the group's or team's advantages.
Sociocultural Leadership The research findings show that one of the approaches taken to handling stunting is through a socio-cultural approach based on local community wisdom such as riungan and mauludan activities.
In some of these activities, the Mongpok Village Head conducted socialisation and provided public awareness about the dangers and negative impacts of stunting on the sustainability of children's lives.
This is inseparable from various challenges such as the understanding in the community that stunting is not caused by low health factors but factors outside health such as heredity and hereditary heritage.
Pakistan and China are some countries that seek to utilize local wisdom and sociocultural traditions in local leadership.
The local Otaq tradition, similar to that in Pakistan, relates to how leadership is understood in organizational life and permits the development of a useful and inclusive leadership model to train collaboration in leadership.
however, this tradition also keeps some groups from cooperating, including female employees and members of the organization with particular backgrounds (Shaikh and Lymsy, 2.
China's culture of Confucianism, paternalism, harmony, and collectivism strongly influences leadership in China and is not found in leadership practices in Western countries (Chen & Kao, 2009.
McDonald, 2.
In addition to local wisdom in the form of Riungan and Mauludan, socialization of the dangers and negative impacts of stunting is also carried out by the village head through religious forum activities, namely recitation and religious lectures by inviting kya or ustadz.
The attractiveness of religious forums attended by religious leaders such as kai or ustadz has made the community willing to come.
In addition to giving religious lectures, kyai or ustadz also convey messages about the dangers of stunting to the community, the importance of maintaining environmental health, clean and healthy living behaviors, and the willingness of the community to accept stunting handling programs so as to create harmony between the village head and the community through religious forum mediation.
stated by Lu & Smith .
in interpersonal relationships, harmony is achieved by maintaining harmonious relationships with others, promoting social relationships, avoiding conflict and confrontation, having a group mentality, and promoting collegiality and reinforced by research findings (McDonald, 2.
integrating leadership derived from local wisdom is an effort to achieve adequate local leadership.
Source: Author Observation, 2023 Figure 3: Local Wisdom and Religious Activities in Mongpok Village Indonesia Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 Such an understanding of leadership also suggests that cultural values, self-concepts, and situational factors can, and often do, influence leader-follower communication and the leader's ability to shape individual attitudes, motives, and behaviors (Pembleton.
Friend and He, 2.
, in this sense, as Bligh & Kohles .
put it, leadership can be understood as "a socially constructed interactional phenomenon in which particular individuals attempt to frame, define, or influence the reality of other individuals in different contexts.
One of the advantages of the leadership of the Mongpok Village Head is the homogeneous culture of the community, which facilitates the sociocultural approach taken.
When the followers are comparatively culturally homogeneous, the results of this study align with the findings of (Hanges et , 2.
on the function of cross-cultural leadership, which unequivocally demonstrate that community culture affects leader behavior and the efficacy of various leadership philosophies.
Value congruence between followers and socialized charismatic leaders is linked to the socialized charismatic leadership style (Brown & Trevino2.
As described in the previous section, leadership in Indonesia tends to be paternalistic, which is a leadership style that combines discipline and strong authority with fatherly virtues and moral integrity.
The local leadership of the Mongpok Village Head in leadership practice seeks to integrate local wisdom values as the main principle due to the strength of traditional values embraced by the This has proven to improve the community's health status while showing leadership behavior that can adjust the demands and dominant sociocultural values in each situation.
Thus, ideally, effective local leadership in the sociocultural context applied by the Mongpok Village Head is the ability to understand the cultural values of the community based on local wisdom integrated with the capacity of the village head to provide impact and change.
this is by research findings (Farh and Cheng, 2.
The type of leadership involves balancing religious beliefs and while addressing the needs of contemporary organizations.
Shared Leadership The research findings show that the village head's efforts to utilise food potential in the village environment, the involvement of health extension workers, the provision of facilities and infrastructure for urination and defecation, and the provision of scholarships for children who drop out of school to continue their primary and secondary education.
This study's findings are in line with the recommendations of (Tasic et al.
, 2.
which state that programs and policies aimed at reducing stunting focus on increasing the amount of time spent on physical activity to improve pangan health, desentralizing the health system, encouraging healthy behavior to increase access to health services and reduce air pollution, multisector kemiskinan strategy, and commitment to enhancing the education of children.
education of a child or woman.
Implementing shared leadership duties and responsibilities within the team has a favorable impact on team member performance and satisfaction, and shared leadership is favorably correlated with team member job satisfaction (Wood and Fields, 2.
Therefore, a critical leadership practice of the Mongpok Village Head in handling Stunting is positioning the community as the leading actor in handling Stunting or involving direct community participation so that the community can independently change their behavior to be healthy.
The relationship between the village head and the community is synergistic, and the interaction is built and based on trust, commitment, and The Mongpok Village Head, within certain limits, gives trust to the community, including the commitment of the village apparatus, and vice versa.
The community voluntarily gives trust and commitment to participate in every stunting handling activity by following the invitation and goals of the village head.
This study's results align with Abson et al.
, which shows that shared leadership is facilitated based on trust between the leader and each team member.
Therefore, creating trusting relationships throughout the organization is the cornerstone of effective participation in shared On the other hand, the village head applies the approach to communities such as housewives, youth, and farmer groups.
Schweigert .
asserts that the community leadership strategy is marketed as a means of enforcing the public interest through authoritative citizen engagement.
Second, the unique dynamics of community engagement create an environment that necessitates leadership and establishes the leadership learning pattern.
Third, leadership development should place less Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 emphasis on the personal traits of leaders since leadership is based on the authority and power of The various leadership approaches of Mongpok village heads, as described above, are an important form of political leadership, targeting various determinants and improving the stunting implementation system (Avula et al.
, 2.
Meanwhile, research results by Palutturi et al.
, .
say that there is a strong relationship between government political support or commitment and the incidence of stunting in children.
State and local leadership should pay attention to handling Stunting, and this commitment is shown in programs and funding related to nutritional intake, supplementation, improving environmental sanitation, and improving maternal and child health.
Tangible results of shared leadership applied by the Mongpok Indonesia Village Head can be seen in the data comparing the number of target families with families at risk of stunting based on villages in Cikeusal Sub-district.
Serang Regency, presented in Figure 4 below:
CILAYANG
GUHA
SUKARAJA
MONGPOK
PANOSOGAN
SUKARAME
HARUNDANG
SUKARATU
BANTAR
PANJANG
Number of Targets .
-PPBGM) GANDAYASA
PANYABRANG
CIMAUNG
KATULISAN
DAHU
CIKEUSAL
SUKAMENAK
CILAYANG
SUKAMAJU
Stunting Risk Family Validation Verification Source: Electronic Data for Community Based Nutrition Reporting Cikeusal Sub-district, 2023 Figure 4: Comparison of the Number of Target Families with Families at Risk of Stunting in Cikeusal District.
Serang Regency (Updating.
Verification and Validation Result.
Based on Figure 4 above, when compared to other villages in Cikuesal Sub-district.
Serang Regency, the target number of Families at Risk of Stunting in Mongpok Village reached 275 and after verification and validation (Verva.
the number of reached 254, so the number of families not at risk reached 21 or the comparison between the target number and the results of verbal.
Complementing the discussion on shared leadership.
Scott-Young et al.
, .
explain that future empirical models of shared leadership should go hand in hand with multilevel concepts and approaches and their various elements in various contexts.
This is related to the local leadership of the Mongpok Village Head in Indonesia, which still tends to use traditional participatory concepts by only directly involving the community and has not implemented a participatory approach that empowers or enhances the creativity and capacity of the community.
Salas-Vallina et al.
state that shared leadership can be linked to team and individual outcomes through team-level morale rather than individual-level morale.
However, in their research.
Ali et al.
verified that there is a strong correlation between shared leadership and participatory leadership in teams, and that relationship is favorably correlated with team creativity.
EFFECTIVE LOCAL LEADERSHIP MODELS IN HANDLING STUNTING IN INDONESIA
According to McDonald .
Western academics are interested in a number of Asian leadership studies in the context of leadership paradigms.
Second, an era of notable economic transition and growth has been facilitated in large part by the corporate leaders of Asia.
They are therefore excellent and deserving of case study instruction.
Third, there are variances in Asian leadership methods, and these distinctions are primarily the result of ideological influences.
In Serang Regency, namely.
Mongpok Village, several determinants of effective leadership in stunting handling efforts include the importance of responsive leadership, which is the development of transformational leadership.
collaboration based on planning and openness, which is the Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 development of collaborative leadership, a local wisdom approach which is the development of sociocultural leadership, and positioning the community as the leading actor in handling Stunting which is the development of shared leadership.
The four research findings can be an effective local leadership model in handling Stunting in Indonesia as well as inputs and processes that have an impact on outputs and outcomes, namely patterns of change in community behavior, increasing degrees of public health, and handling the acceleration of quality stunting reduction as presented in Figure 5 Collaboration based on planning and transparant Responsive Leadership Effective local Quality Acceleration of Local Leadership that positions the community as the main actor Input and Process Increased degree of public health Changes in community behavior Output dan Outcome Source: Authors, 2023 Figure 5: Effective Local Leadership Model in handling Stunting In the Indonesian culture, leaders are portrayed as fathers .
, mothers .
ccepting ideal.
, friends .
olerant, gregarious, and receptive to conversatio.
, teachers .
, pastors .
odel moral behavio.
, and pioneers .
ntellectual and innovativ.
Many virtues include being inspiring, honest, motivated, passionate, ambitious, and determined (Gani, 2.
In contrast.
Ga, ni (Irawanto, 2.
and (Suryani, 2.
describe leadership in Indonesia as tending to be paternalistic, a leadership style that combines discipline and strong authority with fatherly virtues and moral integrity.
Research on leadership in overcoming stunting problems conducted by Olufadewa et al.
and Nisbett & Barnett .
determined that it is critical to support political commitment, leadership styles, and more funding for nutrition intervention initiatives in a number of African Furthermore, research results by Avula et al.
, .
highlight how political leadership commitment in handling Stunting is one of the keys to success, while Nisbett & Barnett .
conclude the importance of combining innovative ways of leadership and system capacity that focuses on areas with a high burden of Stunting.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATION
This research concludes that effective local leadership is a key driver of successful stunting management in Mongpok Village.
Indonesia.
The results indicate that four dimensions of leadershipAi transformational, collaborative, sociocultural, and sharedAicontribute to effective instruments and models for successful stunting management in Mongpok Village.
Serang Regency.
Furthermore, the model developed encompasses diverse values, with a focus on effective local leadership in addressing stunting in Indonesia.
Volume 22 | Number 2 | December 2025 The research findings demonstrate the importance of promoting responsive leadership, collaborative leadership based on planning and openness, leadership oriented toward local wisdom, and leadership that positions the community as the primary actor in stunting management, all of which serve as models for effective local leadership.
This study has limitations in the form of inevitable subjective interpretations of the collected data and issues related to informant selection.
However, we have attempted to mitigate these through rigorous data collection and analysis, informant checking, and validation of findings to correct for bias.
Although our interpretive position and stance as researchers are unavoidable, these mitigation efforts have not been successful.
This study does not fully address the factors that lead to someone being elected as village head within the context of local-level leadership and how local leadership operates within various programs.
Therefore, we recommend further exploration of these issues in future research.
Specifically, a mixedmethods approach could help address methodological limitations such as the limited timeframe and the length of engagement with the village head and community in Mongpok Village, the focus of this These research recommendations can help policymakers implement responsive leadership, collaborative leadership based on planning and openness, leadership oriented toward local wisdom, and leadership that positions the community as the primary actor in stunting management within the context of local leadership in stunting management in local government in Indonesia
REFERENCE