Ethical leadership, workplace spirituality, and job satisfaction: moderating role of self-efficacy

Abstract

Purpose

In the 21st century, spirituality is becoming an interesting phenomenon in the workplace and has been discussed by academicians, researchers, and practitioners alike. This growing knowledge offers important insights and calls for conceptual and empirical studies on workplace spirituality. Accordingly, the current research aims to examine how ethical leadership (EL) helps to foster workplace spirituality and job satisfaction (JS) in the information technology (IT) industry. Additionally, it investigates the mediating role of workplace spirituality and moderating role of self-efficacy (SE) in the relationship between EL and JS.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a cross-sectional design, the data were collected from 268 employees in the IT industry and analyzed on SmartPLS 3.2 using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The findings indicated that EL promotes a sense of spirituality and increases JS. Additionally, results suggested that workplace spirituality partially mediates, and SE moderates the relationship between EL and JS.

Practical implications

The results suggest that the top executives should work on identifying and developing ethical qualities to promote a sense of meaningfulness (workplace spirituality) and increase JS.

Originality/value

The research provides an important contribution to the academic literature by exploring the role of EL in fostering spirituality among employees and the moderation of SE on the relationship between EL and JS in the services industry.

Citation

Aftab, J., Sarwar, H., Kiran, A., Qureshi, M.I., Ishaq, M.I., Ambreen, S. and Kayani, A.J. (2023), "Ethical leadership, workplace spirituality, and job satisfaction: moderating role of self-efficacy", International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. 18 No. 12, pp. 5880-5899. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2021-1121