How Spiritual Leadership is Associated with Employee Performance: Sequential MediatingRoles of Workplace Spirituality and Work Engagement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33152/jmphss-10.4.6Keywords:
Spiritual leadership, Workplace spirituality, Work engagement, Employee performance, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG 8Abstract
This study examines the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee performance by investigating the serial mediating roles of workplace spirituality and work engagement. This quantitative cross-sectional study used data from 200 full-time employees of Baitul Maal wa Tamwil (BMT) Islamic microfinance cooperatives in Indonesia. We analyzed the data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4.0 and assessed hypothesis significance using bootstrapping with 10,000 resamples and bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals. The findings show that spiritual leadership does not directly influence employee performance (β = −0.032, t = 0.355, p = 0.723). However, spiritual leadership positively influences workplace spirituality (β = 0.737, p < 0.001) and work engagement (β = 0.156, p = 0.021). Workplace spirituality strongly predicts work engagement (β = 0.664, p < 0.001), which positively predicts employee performance (β = 0.445, p < 0.001). Work engagement significantly mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee performance (β = 0.069, p = 0.044), whereas workplace spirituality alone does not produce a = significant indirect effect (β = 0.043, p = 0.613). Notably, the serial indirect effect through workplace spirituality and work engagement is positive and significant (β = 0.218, t = 3.838, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.115, 0.338]). These findings indicate that spiritual leadership contributes to employee performance primarily through a sequential psychological mechanism in which workplace spirituality enhances work engagement. The study extends Spiritual Leadership Theory and Job Demands–Resources Theory and discusses implications for SDG 8 as a future research direction rather than a directly measured outcome.
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