Workplace spirituality and organizational commitment: an integrative model

Abstract

In this article, the model of spiritual leadership of Fry and colleagues is built on to envision how spiritual leaders can influence employee commitment in the workplace, and ultimately job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, retention, and psychological well-being. The model presented proposes sense of calling and sense of membership as mediators of the effects of spiritual leadership on four components of commitment (affective, normative, continuance-sacrifices, and continuance-alternatives). Three moderators of spiritual leadership are proposed: climate for spirituality, personal spirituality, and materialism. Based on recent research on commitment and its meaning with regard to spirituality, I derive a number of testable propositions that can guide further research on spiritual leadership and commitment. Finally, I discuss levels of analysis and generalizability of the model as key issues that research should address in the future.

Keywords:

• spiritual leadership
• organizational commitment
• climate for spirituality
• personal spirituality
• materialism
• performance
• organizational citizenship behaviors
• turnover
• well-being