A multidimensional analysis of spiritual leadership, affective commitment and employees' creativity in South Korea

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationships between three dimensions – vision, hope/faith and altruistic love – of spiritual leadership and employees' creativity and to verify the mediating role of affective commitment in such relationships.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 462 South Korean employees in diverse industries through self-reported questionnaires, and hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis.FindingsThe authors found that vision, hope/faith and altruistic love were positively related to employees' creativity, while their affective commitment mediated such relationships. The authors also verified that the multidimensional structure of spiritual leadership was valid in the context of South Korea.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that leaders need to understand the importance of vision, hope/faith and altruistic love toward employees in formulating employees' affective commitment and stimulating creativity. Thus, organizations need to establish and operate leadership training programs for promoting leaders' behaviors that are based on spirituality.Originality/valueThis study contributes to broadening the variety of spiritual leadership's outcomes by providing an initial evidence of how spiritual leadership is associated with employees' creativity. Extending the verification of multidimensional structure of spiritual leadership so that it can be applied in South Korea has also been considered.

How does Spiritual Leadership Influences Employee Well-Being? Findings from PLS-SEM and FsQCA

“…Hypothesis 2 and 3: Spiritual leadership has positive and significant effects on affective commitment and work engagement. These findings correlate with previous research by Jeon and Choi [72], they found a link between spiritual leadership and employee creativity. Their analysis found that employees' affective commitment is positively related to vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love.…”

The Influence of Spiritual Leadership and Employee Engagement toward Employee Performance: The Role of Organizational Commitmen

“…The study's results align with (Fry et al, 2005) research regarding the causal model of spiritual leadership theory, which revealed a positive relationship between the quality of spiritual leadership and spiritual survival with organizational outcomes, consisting of commitment and productivity. The same results were also uncovered by (Mansor et al, 2013), (Baykal, 2019), (Tsui et al, 2019), (Jeon & Choi, 2020), (Rumangkit, 2020), (Djaelani et al, 2021) that a significantly positive influence of spiritual leadership toward organizational commitment occured.…”

The Effect of Spiritual Leadership and Psychological Empowerment on Employee Performance

“…If leaders and employees have good spiritual leadership, it will have a good effect on employee performance. This variable is based on previous research conducted by Ki Seok Jeon and Byoung Kwon Choi with the research title "Multidimensional Analysis of Spiritual Leadership, Affective Commitment and Employee Creativity in South Korea" (Jeon & Choi, 2020). Then based on previous research conducted by Jie Yang, Mingchao Chang, Zhihong Chen, Lulu Zhou and Jiangjiang Zhang with the research title "The Mediation Effect of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Innovative Behavior" (Yang et al, 2021).…”

“…Based on previous research by Ki Seok Jeon and Byoung Kwon Choi (2020), vision, hope/belief, and selfless love are positively related to employees. In comparison, the practical implications of these findings indicate that leaders need to understand the importance of vision, hope or belief and altruistic love for employees in formulating employee affective commitment and stimulating creativity (Jeon & Choi, 2020). Then Spiritual Leadership has a positive impact on employee behaviour innovation.…”