Exploring the Influence of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Engagement across Startups in Karnataka

Abstract

This study explores the role of spiritual leadership in enhancing employee engagement within startups in Karnataka. Using qualitative interviews with founders and quantitative survey analysis, it examines how empathy, vision, ethical behavior, and hope foster motivated and committed teams. Results reveal a significant positive relationship between spiritual leadership practices and employee engagement, supported by strong reliability and validity. The findings underline the importance of integrating spiritual leadership principles in startups, where cultivating purpose and well-being can drive success. Practical insights are offered for founders and HR professionals to build supportive workplace cultures through purpose-driven leadership. Limitations include the regional scope and cross-sectional design, suggesting future research across diverse contexts and longitudinal studies. This work contributes to workplace spirituality by providing empirical evidence from an underexplored entrepreneurial setting.

Introduction

This thesis explores how spiritual leadership—rooted in values like empathy, vision, hope, and ethics—influences employee engagement in startups based in Karnataka. While India's startup ecosystem is expanding rapidly, human-centered leadership approaches that nurture motivation and commitment remain under-researched. Using both qualitative interviews with founders and quantitative surveys with employees, the study finds that spiritual leadership significantly enhances engagement, well-being, and performance in fast-paced, resource-constrained startup environments.

???? Problem Statement & Objectives

Startups often face high stress, fast change, and limited resources, making it difficult to sustain employee engagement. Traditional leadership models often ignore the spiritual and ethical needs of employees.

Objectives:

1. Understand how startup founders perceive and apply spiritual leadership.

2. Assess how spiritual leadership influences employee engagement in startup settings.

???? Methodology

A two-phase, mixed-methods approach:

• Qualitative Phase:
  Semi-structured interviews with startup founders to explore their views and practices of spiritual leadership. Academic literature guided question design.

• Quantitative Phase:
  Structured employee surveys analyzed with:

  • Smart PLS, SPSS, and Google Forms

  • Reliability testing (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.836)

  • Factor analysis (KMO = 0.934, Bartlett’s test significant)

  • Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to assess impact

???? Key Results

• Spiritual leadership has a strong positive influence on employee engagement.

• SEM results: Path coefficient = 0.775, explaining 83.7% of the variance in engagement.

• Employees responded positively to leadership qualities like vision, altruistic love, hope, and ethical behavior.

• The results validate that spiritual leadership fosters emotionally and psychologically supportive work environments that boost motivation and performance.

???? Implications

• Practical: Startup founders and leaders should integrate purpose-driven and values-based leadership to improve employee retention, morale, and productivity.

• Theoretical: Reinforces spiritual leadership as a credible framework for driving engagement in entrepreneurial contexts.

???? Future Research Directions

• Wider Geographies: Extend study beyond Karnataka to other Indian or global regions.

• Sectoral Comparison: Examine spiritual leadership in corporates, non-profits, or public institutions.

• Longitudinal Studies: Observe how spiritual leadership evolves over time.

• New Variables: Explore mediators like organizational culture, psychological safety, and remote work dynamics.

• Intervention-Based Research: Test the impact of leadership development programs and study links with outcomes like innovation and retention.

Conclusion

The research affirms that spiritual leadership significantly influences employee engagement, with a strong positive correlation confirmed through structural analysis. The evidence indicates that organizations practicing spiritual leadership see higher levels of employee motivation and emotional attachment. Valid measures such as high Cronbach’s alpha and KMO values support the findings\' robustness.

References

[1] Joanna Samul. (2024). Spiritual leadership and work engagement: a mediating role of spiritual well-being. Central European Management Journal, 32(3), 421–435. [2] Garg, N., & Punia, B. (2022). Spiritual leadership and well-being in the context of the modern workplace Spirituality in Modern Workplaces (pp. 170–185). IGI Global. [3] Gotsis, G., & Grimani, K. (2017). Workplace spirituality and spiritual leadership: A critical review. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(7), 1122–1140. [4] Gotsis, G., & Grimani, K. (2017). Workplace spirituality and spiritual leadership: A critical review. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(7), 1122–1140. [5] Saripudin, W., & Rosari, R. (2019). Does spiritual leadership model enhance work engagement? Journal of Leadership in Organizations, 1(2), 112–133.

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Rahul S Preetham, Dr. Chanchala Srivatsava . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.