Resilience and spirituality: a mixed methods exploration of executive stress

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to explore the relationships between spirituality, leader resiliency and life satisfaction/well-being. Design/methodology/approach Using an explanatory sequential design, the authors tested three research hypotheses to explore the relationships between the participants’ spiritual practices and level of resiliency, life satisfaction and sense of well-being. Data were collected from 101 executive MBA alumni of a US-based university. Following the quantitative analysis of the survey results, interviews were conducted with 25 executives who scored high in the frequency of spiritual practice to further explore how they applied their spirituality in stressful work situations. Findings The results found positive relationships between spirituality, resilience and overall life satisfaction. Participants who engaged in meditative practices had a significantly higher overall resilience score than non-meditators. Research limitations/implications Key limitations are sample size and the risk of common method variance. Though numerous procedural steps were taken to control for these issues, future research with a larger and more diverse sample is needed. Practical implications Organizational stress is pervasive and executive burnout is a risk factor for leaders and their organizations. This research offers practical suggestions for ways that human resource managers and organization development practitioners can provide prevention resources to their executives. Originality/value This research contributes to the literature by providing support for mindfulness/meditation training for executives. It also demonstrates the value of mixed methods research for a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of the participants.

Double-Sided Perspective of Business Resilience: Leading SME Rationally and Irrationally During COVID-19

“…Beside rational things, business resilience can be leveraged by intensifying workplace spirituality as an irrational approach. It supports the previous studies (Shelton, Hein, & Phipps, 2019;Esievo, Oshi, Hettey, &Tende, 2019), Although it is perceived as indirect and illogical, this study proved that spiritual activities at workplace can affect directly, positively, and significantly on business resilience. For further elaboration, the research model is extended by adding more other relationships among variables.…”

“…Previous studies have proved that there is a relationship between spirituality and resilience. Shelton, Hein, and Phipps (2019) concluded that people who are involved in meditative practices as spirituality development had a significantly better resilience score than non-meditators. Esievo, Oshi, Hettey, and Tende (2019) found a strong positive correlation between organizational resilience and workplace spirituality.…”

Employee burnout and positive dimensions of well-being: A latent workplace spirituality profile analysis

“…As stated previously, research highlighted the positive role of workplace spirituality in the promotion of employee well-being [34][35][36][59][60][61]. However, very few studies considered its effects on burnout [41,42,[62][63][64][65].…”

Linking work, occupational identity and burnout: the case of managers

“…The main cause of this burnout is occupational stress. Managers often face a high level of stress in the workplace (Sharma and Cooper, 2016;Shelton et al, 2019;Petru and Jarosova, 2019;Debus et al, 2019;Gilbert et al, 2019;Guedes et al, 2017),which is likely to drain their energy, weakening them psychologically and putting them at risk of burnout (Sahu and Yadav, 2013;Sharma and Cooper, 2016).…”