Happiness at work through spiritual leadership: a self-determination perspective
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2021-0342 |
| Published date | 07 March 2022 |
| Date | 07 March 2022 |
| Pages | 972-992 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Shalini Srivastava,Aparna Mendiratta,Prabhat Pankaj,Richa Misra,Rajat Mendiratta |
Happiness at work through
spiritual leadership:
a self-determination perspective
Shalini Srivastava
Department of Management, Jaipuria Institute of Management Noida, Noida, India
Aparna Mendiratta
Department of HR/OB, Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur, Jaipur, India
Prabhat Pankaj
Department of Economics, Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur, Jaipur, India
Richa Misra
Department of General Management, Jaipuria Institute of Management Noida,
Noida, India, and
Rajat Mendiratta
Department of Marketing, Apex Institute of Management and Science, Jaipur, India
Abstract
Purpose –Upholding congruency with self-determination theory (SDT), the study intends to analyze the
impact of spiritual leadership (SL) on happiness at work (HAW) via affective commitment (AC) and prosocial
behavior (PSB) in the Indian service sector.
Design/methodology/approach –The data were collected from 324 employees belonging to the service
sector of north India. The study utilized AMOS and PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) to test the hypothesized model.
Findings –The findings provided considerable support for the hypothesized relationships between SL, AC,
PSB and HAW. The findings advocate the positive association between SL and HAW routing through
mediators such as AC and PSB.
Research limitations/implications–Future research studies have the potential to dwell on the topic from a
leader’s perspective, i.e. the benefits derived through practicing spirituality. The present work in this field is
focused on quantitative tools; more studies can be conducted through qualitative analysis. Future works can
attempt to compare the differences amongst cultures and sectors concerning SL and its outcomes.
Practical implications –The paper provides some relevant inputs for the Indian service sector to
comprehend the criticality of SL in building long-lasting relationships amongst peers leading to creating
sustainable and happy workplaces.
Originality/value –The study explores the relationship between SL and HAW which has neither been
explored theoretically nor tested empirically.
Keywords Service sector, Quantitative, Spiritual leadership, Affective commitment, Prosocial behavior,
Happiness at work
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The growing uncertainties and new business challenges faced by today’s organizations
require bounteous focus on building effective cultures, inspiring employees and leading them
well to gain competitive advantage and making the businesses sustainable (Chen and Li,
2013), especially service sector as it involves intense human interactions (Rao, 2016). This
brings into question the element that plays a critical role in building and maintaining an
effective company culture, and the answer is effective leaders, whose basic assumptions
transform into shared values (Fry and Cohen, 2009;Lanaj et al., 2021). The global exposure of
businesses entails a dire need for holistic leadership that assimilates four basic fields of
human existence, i.e. mind, body, heart and spirit (Fry, 2003;Moxley, 2000). In recent times,
ER
44,4
972
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 8 August 2021
Revised 20 December 2021
1 February 2022
Accepted 4 February 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 44 No. 4, 2022
pp. 972-992
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-08-2021-0342
the concept of leadership has taken huge twists and turns routing through the paths of
servant leadership, ethical leadership and conscious leadership to name a few. But, the
concept of leadership is seen driving not only the outer pursuits of organization and followers
but also the inner and higher-order pursuits engraving inner achievements and spiritual
pursuits. One such value-based and one of the most critical though less discovered is the
notion of spiritual leadership (SL), though the concept established is not new but the resilient
and turbulent times have emphasized the dire need of dwelling deep into this construct.
Contemporary organizations are thriving to touch upon the intrinsic motivation of
employees, as it is everlasting and leads to improved work environments (Yuan and
Woodman, 2010;Yang et al., 2020). A very critical aspect worth investigating is exploring the
existent factor that leads to instigating the intrinsic motivation of employees. Recent thrust in
this domain has focused on the concepts of SL, workplace spirituality, performance outcomes,
well-being and quality of work-life (Avolio et al., 2009). Today’s employees are not just
working for the sake of it, but are motivated to work effectively if they find meaning in their
work, thus making the role of the leader more perplexing. More than ever before, leaders
would agree that comprehending and managing employee motivation and commitment is a
widespread issue faced by organizations. The leadership styles have always been associated
with affective commitment (AC) “the emotional attachment of employees with work and
organization”(Meyer and Allen, 1984), as the leaders are thought to be influenced in such a
manner that aids in stirring the loyalty and commitment of followers towards the
organization. Prosocial behaviors (PSBs) or “the extra-role behaviors such as the acts of
volunteering and supporting colleagues”(Brief and Motowidlo, 1986) are also linked in the
past literature with SL and AC (Fry et al., 2010;Benefiel, 2005). In a recent study, Robinson
et al. (2021) suggested that there exist synergies among mindfulness and emotional
intelligence in supporting positive effects (and strongly reducing negative affect) and social
engagement. However, the research studies have paved the way to understand the
underpinnings and mechanisms of SL exclusively on individual elements, but there is a
dearth of study in the field of connecting SL with happiness at work (HAW). HAW is the
pleasurable and affirmative feelings experienced by employees at work (Uchida et al., 2004).
While exploring the enablers of happiness in individual life and the workplace, Anand (2018)
holds that happiness is an outcome of the constant interaction of the inner and the outer
theater in an individual’s life. The enablers of happiness such as leadership, credible work
climate, person-organization work fit and meaningfulness in work help in enhancing the
HAW (Dahiya and Raghuvanshi, 2021). The interaction between the outer theater and inner
theater produces stress or joy. Being prosocial is fundamental to how the outer theater is
likely to work while being mindful would hold key to the inner theater. The present study is
guided by two basic research questions:
RQ1. What is the influence of SL on HAW?
RQ2. Do AC and PSB accentuate and conduce the relationship between SL and HAW?
The research results are consistent with idea that SL helps in intrinsically motivating
employees which further brings AC and PSB leading to HAW. The relationship between SL
and HAW is a unique proposition advanced by this research.The present work dwells deep in
the service sector primarily for two reasons; first, the caveat that only happy employees can
serve happilyto customers and keep them contended(Rao, 2016), thus HAW is very criticalto
this sector. Second, AC and PSB can help in turning companies into high-performance work
systems (HPWSs) (Zhang et al., 2014) which can further help them in becoming resilient and
agile organizations (Van Dam, 2021),which are capable of sailing throughthe turbulent times.
This study contributes to the SL literature in various ways. The first contribution is to
provide a new direction for research linking the relationship between SL and HAW which is a
The impact of
spiritual
leadership
973
To continue reading
Request your trial