Title: The impact of leaders' spirituality at work and their reputation on teams' spiritual climate

Authors: Ashish Pandey; Debaprasad Chattopadhyay; Sucheta Bose

Addresses: Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) Bombay, Mumbai, India ' Globsyn Business School, New Campus, PS – Bishnupur, J.L. No. – 101, District – 24 Parganas (South), Kolkata – 743 503, India ' Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) Bombay, Mumbai, India

Abstract: Conceptual and empirical linkage between spiritual leadership and team climate or followers' attitudes, behaviours, and performance outcomes have not been fully developed. The focus of this article is to provide some initial foundation for the broader empirical evidences of how spirituality of leaders influence followers to co-create a spiritual climate. We argue that leaders' spirituality at work affects spiritual climate and a leader's reputation as a spiritual leader mediates this relationship. We draw from contemporary literature of spirituality in management and notion of swadharma and loksangrah (in Karm yoga in Bhagwad Gita) for development of instrument of spiritual climate at work. Interestingly, the findings did not reveal a direct effect of the spirituality of leaders' at work on spiritual climate, however leaders' reputation as spiritual showed strong association with to spiritual climate. The self-perception of leaders' spirituality at work does not relate to leaders reputation being spiritually connected to work.

Keywords: spiritual leadership; spiritual climate; team climate; identity; loksangrah; swardharma; karma yoga; leader reputation; teamwork; attitudes; behaviours; performance outcomes; spirituality; leaders reputation; work climate.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2015.072429

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2015 Vol.11 No.4, pp.473 - 495

Received: 14 Jul 2014
Accepted: 31 Aug 2014

Published online: 13 Oct 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article