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Feeling Energized: A Multilevel Model of Spiritual Leadership, Leader Integrity, Relational Energy, and Job Performance

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Abstract

Past research suggests that spiritual leadership plays a pivotal role in enhancing employee job performance, yet we have little understanding of how and when spiritual leadership enhances employee job performance. The present study explores how and when spiritual leadership promotes job performance by examining relational energy as a mediator and leader integrity and relational energy differentiation as boundary conditions. We tested the theoretical model with data gathered across three phases over 12 months from 497 employees and their supervisors in 108 groups. Results showed that the positive relationship between spiritual leadership and job performance was mediated by relational energy. Moreover, we found that leader integrity amplified the mediated relationship between spiritual leadership and employee job performance via relational energy. In contrast, relational energy differentiation weakened this mediated relationship.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Project ID: 71502141 and 71602163) and Young Scientists Fund from the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Sciences Project in China (Grant No. 16YJC630171). We thank Professor Xiao-yun Xie for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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  1. School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Fu Yang

  2. School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Jun Liu

  3. School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Zhen Wang

  4. School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjing, 300131, China

    Yucheng Zhang

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  1. Fu Yang
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Yang, F., Liu, J., Wang, Z. et al. Feeling Energized: A Multilevel Model of Spiritual Leadership, Leader Integrity, Relational Energy, and Job Performance. J Bus Ethics 158, 983–997 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3713-1

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