Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Leadership in Muslim cultures is underrepresented and relevant research is called for as a top priority area by scholars [1]. We introduce two new concepts from an Islamic perspective, to the field of spiritual leadership as an extension of Fry’s SLT model--- the connectedness to the Supreme-Being and spiritual motivation. The connectedness to the Supreme-Being is trans-personal connectedness to God or the higher power as an essential part of workplace spirituality in the Islamic society. Spiritual motivation is feelings as means of ascent to draw closer to God towards commendable rank. Spiritual motivation consists of sense of hope and sense of awe – two dimensions of intrinsic motivation from Islamic perspective. Results significantly support all research constructs and research hypotheses. Follower’s motivations – in this case the spiritual survival and spiritual motivation – mediate the relationship between spiritual leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. Most importantly, we prove the prominent influence of ―connectedness to the Supreme-Being‖ on the leadership variables in the SLT process. Religiosity seems to play its role in organizational behavior. Important contributions to spirituality and religion in the workplace (SRW) literature are discussed, as well as the opportunities for future research.