Mediating effect of psychological capital on the relationship between spiritual leadership and performance

Abstract

The challenging and changing business life of the 21st century has resulted in a stressful and negative work atmosphere that negatively charges and demoralizes people. Accordingly, nowadays business life necessitates a more positive approach in handling issues regarding leadership and management. This change in focus has contributed to the fame of spiritual leadership which is a holistic leadership approach that can integrate the minds and souls of people and integrates the four main components of human existence: body, mind, heart, and spirit. Spiritual leadership draws from an inner life nourished by spiritual practices that contribute to the development of values, attitudes, and behaviors that are necessary to intrinsically motivate one's self and result in a sense of spiritual well-being. Spiritual leadership creates the sense that life is purposeful and meaningful; thus, under spiritual leaders, followers feel themselves to be more capable and they show continuous growth and self-realization. In our study, we proposed that spiritual leadership would have a positive effect on the psychological capital of followers, which is a human capacity focusing on the strengths of humans rather than weaknesses; i.e., positivity rather than negativity. Also, we supported the idea that spiritual leadership has a positive effect on performance due to its positive effects on cognitive capabilities of leaders' followers and due to the meaningful and alluring vision that entices followers to perform at their best. We expected that the psychological capacity of followers may have a mediator effect in this relationship. We conducted face-to-face and online surveys with 736 white-collar workers in Turkey and we analyzed our data using SEM. Results of the study confirmed our expectations.