How Spiritual Leadership Shapes Work Engagement: Examining the Roles of Spiritual Well-Being and Psychological Safety among Hospital Employees
Keywords:
spiritual leadership, spiritual well-being, psychological safety, work engagement, hospital employees
Abstract
Employee work engagement has become an important issue in the healthcare sector due to high job demands, emotional pressure, and continuous service responsibilities. This study aims to examine the effect of spiritual leadership on work engagement by considering the mediating role of spiritual well-being and the moderating role of psychological safety among hospital employees in Indonesia. This study employed a quantitative approach using a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 225 employees working in three hospitals through purposive sampling techniques. Data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The results indicate that spiritual leadership does not have a direct effect on work engagement. However, spiritual leadership significantly influences spiritual well-being, which subsequently enhances work engagement. The findings also reveal that spiritual well-being fully mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and work engagement. Psychological safety has a significant positive effect on work engagement, but it does not moderate the relationship between spiritual well-being and work engagement. These findings suggest that work engagement among hospital employees is primarily driven by internal psychological mechanisms related to meaning and connectedness at work rather than direct leadership influence. This study contributes to the integration of Spiritual Leadership Theory, Job Demands-Resources Theory, and Psychological Safety Theory in explaining employee engagement in the healthcare sector. Practically, hospital management should strengthen value-based leadership, foster employees’ sense of meaningful work, and create psychologically safe working environments.
References
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Huang, Y. (2022). Spiritual leadership and job engagement: The mediating role of emotion regulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.844991
Hunsaker, W. D., & Jeong, W. (2020). Engaging employees through spiritual leadership. Management Science Letters, 10(15), 3527–3536. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.6.042
Jim, E. L., Pio, R. J., Asaloei, S. I., Leba, S. M. R., Angelianawati, D., & Werang, B. R. (2024). Work-related stress, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of indonesian healthcare workers. International Journal of Religion, 5(5), 308–316. https://doi.org/10.61707/6fzykj38
Joseph F. Hair Jr., G. T. M. H. C. M. R. M. S. N. P. D. S. Ray. (2021). Classroom companion: Business partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using R AAWorkbook. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7
Knight, C., Patterson, M., & Dawson, J. (2019). Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(3), 348–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1588887
Liu, X., Huang, Y., Kim, J., & Na, S. (2023). How ethical leadership cultivates innovative work behaviors in employees? psychological safety, work engagement and openness to experience. Sustainability (Switzerland), 15(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043452
Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.01.001
Novitasari, E. A., & Jimad, H. (2024). The influence of psychological capital and spirituality leadership on work engagement with work meaningfulness as a mediator. 07(04), 2140–2149. https://doi.org/10.47191/jefms/v7-i4-37
Percillia Ma’rifatul Umairoh, J., Bagis, F., Widhiandono, H., & Fitriati, A. (2022). Job stress, ego depletion, and turnover intention: The buffering role of islamic spiritual well-being in the hospitality industry. Jurnal Manajemen Universitas Bung Hatta, 21(01). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.37301/jmubh.v21i1.29122
Petrov, S., Oprea, B., & Opariuc-Dan, C. (2023). Psychological safety and job performance: The mediating role of work engagement and job crafting. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 21(2), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v21i2.536
Piwowar-Sulej, K., & Iqbal, Q. (2024). A systematic literature review on spiritual leadership: antecedents, mechanism, moderators and outcomes. In Journal of Organizational Change Management (Vol. 37, Number 8, pp. 18–35). Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2023-0483
Preetham, R. S. (2025). Exploring the Influence of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Engagement across Startups in Karnataka. International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 13(10), 497–498. https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2025.74507
Rahmatika, A. N., Ma’arif, S., & Kholifah, S. (2022). The Effect of Spiritual Leadership and Psychological Empowerment on Employee Performance. Nidhomul Haq : Jurnal Manajemen Pendidikan Islam, 7(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.31538/ndh.v7i3.2678
Samul, J. (2024). Spiritual leadership and work engagement: a mediating role of spiritual well-being. Central European Management Journal, 32(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1108/CEMJ-05-2023-0223
Schaufeli, W. (2021). Engaging Leadership: How to Promote Work Engagement? In Frontiers in Psychology (Vol. 12). Frontiers Media S.A. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.754556
Sheikh, A. A., Inam, A., Rubab, A., Najam, U., Rana, N. A., & Awan, H. M. (2019). The Spiritual Role of a Leader in Sustaining Work Engagement: A Teacher-Perceived Paradigm. SAGE Open, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019863567
Sjöblom, K., Juutinen, S., & Mäkikangas, A. (2022). The Importance of Self-Leadership Strategies and Psychological Safety for Well-Being in the Context of Enforced Remote Work. Challenges, 13(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe13010014
Sugiyono. (2023). METODE PENELITIAN KUANTITATIF, KUALITATIF, DAN R&D. www.cvalfabeta.com ISBN 978-602-289-533-6
Triharjanti, D., & Tjahjono, H. K. (2023). The influence of spiritual leadership on work engagement. 5(2), 107–116. https://doi.org/10.20885/AJIM.vol5.iss2.art2
Vedula, S. B., & Agrawal, R. K. (2024). Mapping Spiritual Leadership: A Bibliometric Analysis and Synthesis of Past Milestones and Future Research Agenda. Journal of Business Ethics, 189(2), 301–328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05346-8
Yasin, R., Yang, S., Huseynova, A., & Atif, M. (2023). Spiritual leadership and intellectual capital: mediating role of psychological safety and knowledge sharing. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 24(4), 1025–1046. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-03-2022-0067
Bagis, F., Adawiyah, W. R., Purnomo, R., & Sudjadi, A. (2024). Exploring islamic spiritual well-being: Conceptualization and validation of a measurement scale. Islamic Guidance and Counseling Journal, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.25217/0020247473500
Bagis, F., Adawiyah, W. R., & Sudjadi, A. (2026). Examining the role of spiritual leadership and islamic spiritual well-being in mitigating workplace deviant behaviour. Qubahan Academic Journal, 6(1), 395–408. https://doi.org/10.48161/qaj.v6n1a1860
Bagis, F., Rabiatul Adawqiyah, W., Purnomo, R., Pradipta Setyanto, R., Author, C., Akhmad Dahlan, J. K., & Box, P. (2025). The power of islamic spirituality in diminishing darkness of job stress, ego depletion and cyberloafing diversion in the islamic workplace culture. In Management and accounting review (Vol. 24). http://doi.org/10.24191/MAR.V24i03-11
Bakker, A. B., & de Vries, J. D. (2021a). Job demands–resources theory and self-regulation: New explanations and remedies for job burnout. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 34(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2020.1797695
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands-resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056
Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. (2026). Annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior job demands-resources theory: Ten years later. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav. 2023, 10, 24. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920
Bayighomog, S. W., & Arasli, H. (2022). Reviving employees’ essence of hospitality through spiritual wellbeing, spiritual leadership, and emotional intelligence. Tourism Management, 89, 104406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104406
Chang, C. L., & Arisanti, I. (2022). How does spiritual leadership influences employee well-being? Findings from PLS-SEM and FsQCA. Emerging Science Journal, 6(6), 1358–1374. https://doi.org/10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-06-09
Chen, L., Wen, T., Wang, J., & Gao, H. (2022). The impact of spiritual leadership on employee’s work engagement–A study based on the mediating effect of goal self-concordance and self-efficacy. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 24(1), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2022.018932
Chen, S., Jiang, W., Zhang, G., & Chu, F. (2019). Spiritual leadership on proactive workplace behavior : The role of organizational identification and psychological safety. 10(May), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01206
Edmondson, A. C., & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 23–43. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305
Fry, L. W. (2003). Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(6), 693–727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001
Fry, L. W., Vitucci, S., & Cedillo, M. (2005). Spiritual leadership and army transformation: Theory, measurement, and establishing a baseline. Leadership Quarterly, 16(5), 835–862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.07.012
Ghozali. (2021). Aplikasi analisis multivariate dengan program IBM SPSS 26 IBM" SPSS" Statistics ». ISBN 979-704-051-1
Gonelimali, F. D., Lin, J., Miao, W., Xuan, J., Charles, F., Chen, M., & Hatab, S. R. (2018). Antimicrobial properties and mechanism of action of some plant extracts against food pathogens and spoilage microorganisms. Frontiers in Microbiology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01639
Henderson, D. A. G., Donaghy, E., Dozier, M., Guthrie, B., Huang, H., Pickersgill, M., Stewart, E., Thompson, A., Wang, H. H. X., & Mercer, S. W. (2023). Understanding primary care transformation and implications for ageing populations and health inequalities: a systematic scoping review of new models of primary health care in OECD countries and China. BMC Medicine, 21(1), 319. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-03033-z
Huang, Y. (2022). Spiritual leadership and job engagement: The mediating role of emotion regulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.844991
Hunsaker, W. D., & Jeong, W. (2020). Engaging employees through spiritual leadership. Management Science Letters, 10(15), 3527–3536. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.6.042
Jim, E. L., Pio, R. J., Asaloei, S. I., Leba, S. M. R., Angelianawati, D., & Werang, B. R. (2024). Work-related stress, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of indonesian healthcare workers. International Journal of Religion, 5(5), 308–316. https://doi.org/10.61707/6fzykj38
Joseph F. Hair Jr., G. T. M. H. C. M. R. M. S. N. P. D. S. Ray. (2021). Classroom companion: Business partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using R AAWorkbook. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7
Knight, C., Patterson, M., & Dawson, J. (2019). Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(3), 348–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1588887
Liu, X., Huang, Y., Kim, J., & Na, S. (2023). How ethical leadership cultivates innovative work behaviors in employees? psychological safety, work engagement and openness to experience. Sustainability (Switzerland), 15(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043452
Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.01.001
Novitasari, E. A., & Jimad, H. (2024). The influence of psychological capital and spirituality leadership on work engagement with work meaningfulness as a mediator. 07(04), 2140–2149. https://doi.org/10.47191/jefms/v7-i4-37
Percillia Ma’rifatul Umairoh, J., Bagis, F., Widhiandono, H., & Fitriati, A. (2022). Job stress, ego depletion, and turnover intention: The buffering role of islamic spiritual well-being in the hospitality industry. Jurnal Manajemen Universitas Bung Hatta, 21(01). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.37301/jmubh.v21i1.29122
Petrov, S., Oprea, B., & Opariuc-Dan, C. (2023). Psychological safety and job performance: The mediating role of work engagement and job crafting. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 21(2), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v21i2.536
Piwowar-Sulej, K., & Iqbal, Q. (2024). A systematic literature review on spiritual leadership: antecedents, mechanism, moderators and outcomes. In Journal of Organizational Change Management (Vol. 37, Number 8, pp. 18–35). Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2023-0483
Preetham, R. S. (2025). Exploring the Influence of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Engagement across Startups in Karnataka. International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 13(10), 497–498. https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2025.74507
Rahmatika, A. N., Ma’arif, S., & Kholifah, S. (2022). The Effect of Spiritual Leadership and Psychological Empowerment on Employee Performance. Nidhomul Haq : Jurnal Manajemen Pendidikan Islam, 7(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.31538/ndh.v7i3.2678
Samul, J. (2024). Spiritual leadership and work engagement: a mediating role of spiritual well-being. Central European Management Journal, 32(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1108/CEMJ-05-2023-0223
Schaufeli, W. (2021). Engaging Leadership: How to Promote Work Engagement? In Frontiers in Psychology (Vol. 12). Frontiers Media S.A. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.754556
Sheikh, A. A., Inam, A., Rubab, A., Najam, U., Rana, N. A., & Awan, H. M. (2019). The Spiritual Role of a Leader in Sustaining Work Engagement: A Teacher-Perceived Paradigm. SAGE Open, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019863567
Sjöblom, K., Juutinen, S., & Mäkikangas, A. (2022). The Importance of Self-Leadership Strategies and Psychological Safety for Well-Being in the Context of Enforced Remote Work. Challenges, 13(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe13010014
Sugiyono. (2023). METODE PENELITIAN KUANTITATIF, KUALITATIF, DAN R&D. www.cvalfabeta.com ISBN 978-602-289-533-6
Triharjanti, D., & Tjahjono, H. K. (2023). The influence of spiritual leadership on work engagement. 5(2), 107–116. https://doi.org/10.20885/AJIM.vol5.iss2.art2
Vedula, S. B., & Agrawal, R. K. (2024). Mapping Spiritual Leadership: A Bibliometric Analysis and Synthesis of Past Milestones and Future Research Agenda. Journal of Business Ethics, 189(2), 301–328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05346-8
Yasin, R., Yang, S., Huseynova, A., & Atif, M. (2023). Spiritual leadership and intellectual capital: mediating role of psychological safety and knowledge sharing. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 24(4), 1025–1046. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-03-2022-0067
Published
2026-07-20
How to Cite
Yuan Rika Arini, & Fatmah Bagis. (2026). How Spiritual Leadership Shapes Work Engagement: Examining the Roles of Spiritual Well-Being and Psychological Safety among Hospital Employees. International Journal of Education, Vocational and Social Science , 5(03), 5653-5671. https://doi.org/10.63922/ijevss.v5i03.5382
Contact Person +6282139474255
Email : ijevss@citakonsultindo.or.id / editor.ijevss@gmail.com
