Spiritual leadership and employee work behaviours of state owned enterprises in Ghana

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of spiritual leadership on employee work behaviour of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to assess the effect of spiritual leadership on innovative behaviour through the role of joy and the moderating role of self-expression; spiritual leadership on employee loyalty through the role of meaningful work and the moderating role of trust; and, spiritual leadership on duty orientation through the role of employee well-being and the moderating role of self-efficacy. The study employed the post-positivist philosophical paradigm, quantitative research approach, explanatory research design and a cross-sectional study design. A structured self-administered questionnaire was utilised for data collection. From a population of 44,747, a sample 500 staff was randomly drawn using simple random sampling. The analysis of data was done using the partial least squared-structural equation modelling statistic. It was found that spiritual leadership significantly affected all employee behaviours employed in the study. However only meaningful work significantly but partially mediated the spiritual leadership- employee loyalty nexus, with no moderating path being significant. It was therefore recommended that spiritual leadership be engrained and adopted as the most robust leadership style in influencing positive employee work behaviour in State Owned Enterprises in Ghana.