MANAGING DURING CRISIS: DO WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY AND SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP MATTER?

Abstract

Due to the sharp decrease in coal price and the increase in covid pandemic, mining industries in Indonesia are forced to adjust management models to keep employees productive and innovative. Spiritual leadership as a new genre has been acknowledged as an important influencing factor in employees’ innovation across various industries. However, there is a lack of research linking spiritual leadership, workplace spirituality and innovation in highly stressful mining industries, specifically within a newly developed country like Indonesia. Therefore, during crisis time, it would be interesting to test the indirect effect of spiritual leadership on followers’ innovative work behaviour as mediated through followers’ perception of workplace spirituality. The current study is set to serve two purposes. The first purpose clears the confusion regarding the findings related to spiritual leadership’s influence on employee’s innovative work behaviour. The second purpose investigates the mediating role of workplace spirituality in explaining the relationship between spiritual leadership and innovative work behaviour. Employing structural equation modelling (SEM) on samples of 217 employees of mining companies in South Kalimantan, Indonesia, the results have revealed a positive and significant relationship between spiritual leadership and innovative work behaviour. These relationships were mediated by workplace spirituality. Within the specific milieu of respondents who consider that life is preordained and people cannot conquer nature, the management must enhance the workplace spirituality to keep employees remain innovative besides moulding inner motivation created through spiritual leadership. © 2021, Czestochowa University of Technology. All rights reserved.