The Impact of Spiritual Leadership on Creativity : The Mediating Role of Job Crafting and Psychological Entitlement

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Against the background of digital transformation, organizational uncertainty, and increasing demands for employee creativity, leadership has become an important contextual factor in shaping how employees generate new ideas and transform them into creative outcomes. Spiritual leadership is a value-based leadership style that emphasizes vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love. It can provide employees with meaning, membership, and psychological support. However, its influence on creativity may not operate through a single positive path. While spiritual leadership may encourage employees to actively reshape their work, it may also strengthen employees’ expectations of deserving more recognition, resources, and special treatment. Therefore, this dissertation examines how spiritual leadership affects employee creativity through two parallel mediating mechanisms: job crafting and psychological entitlement. This study also considers the boundary role of work-to-family conflict. In this dissertation, work-family conflict specifically refers to the extent to which work demands interfere with family life. When employees experience stronger work-to-family conflict, the resources provided by spiritual leadership may be less easily converted into proactive work adjustment and creative engagement. Thus, the study examines whether work-to-family conflict changes the strength of the relationships between spiritual leadership, the mediating variables, and creativity. Data were collected from employees in manufacturing and service enterprises in Henan and Shandong provinces, China. A total of 480 questionnaires were distributed, 457 were returned, and 427 valid responses were retained for analysis. SPSS 27.0 was used for descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and preliminary validity checks. M-plus was used for confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrap tests of indirect effects. Hierarchical regression was used to test the moderating effects of work-to-family conflict. The empirical results show that spiritual leadership has a significant positive effect on employee creativity. Job crafting plays a significant mediating role in this relationship, indicating that spiritual leadership can encourage employees to actively adjust their work tasks, relationships, and cognitive boundaries, thereby improving creative outcomes. Psychological entitlement also serves as a significant mediating mechanism, suggesting that spiritual leadership may shape employees’ self-focused expectations and influence their creative behavior through a different psychological route. In addition, work-to-family conflict weakens the effect of spiritual leadership on job crafting. This result indicates that the positive influence of spiritual leadership is more likely to be translated into proactive work behavior when employees face lower interference from work to family life. This dissertation contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it explains the relationship between spiritual leadership and creativity from a dual-path perspective by introducing both job crafting and psychological entitlement. Second, it extends research on spiritual leadership by showing that its effects are not limited to positive motivational mechanisms but may also involve self-focused psychological responses. Third, it clarifies the boundary condition under which spiritual leadership is more or less effective by examining the moderating role of work-to-family conflict. The findings provide practical implications for organizations seeking to improve employee creativity through value-based leadership, proactive job design, and better work-family boundary management.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CHAPTER 1. Introduction 1
• 1.1 Research Background 1
• 1.2 Research Purpose and Significance 4
• 1.2.1 Research Purpose 4
• 1.2.2 Research Significance 5
• 1.3 Research Content and Chapter 7
• 1.4 Research Methods 9
• 1.5 Research Innovations 10
• CHAPTER 2. Theoretical Foundations and Literature Review 11
• 2.1 Theoretical Foundations 11
• 2.1.1 Self-Determination Theory 11
• 2.1.2 Social Comparison Theory 14
• 2.1.3 Conservation of Resources Theory 16
• 2.2 Spiritual Leadership 18
• 2.2.1 Overview of Spiritual Leadership 18
• 2.2.2 Dimensions and Measurement of Spiritual Leadership 26
• 2.2.3 Antecedents and Outcomes of Spiritual Leadership 28
• 2.3 Job Crafting 33
• 2.3.1 Overview of Job Crafting 33
• 2.3.2 Dimensions and Measurement of Job Crafting 39
• 2.3.3 Antecedents and Outcomes of Job Crafting 42
• 2.4 Psychological Entitlement 47
• 2.4.1 Overview of Psychological Entitlement 47
• 2.4.2 Dimensions and Measurement of Psychological Entitlement 50
• 2.4.3 Antecedents and Outcomes of Psychological Entitlement 51
• 2.5 Creativity 56
• 2.5.1 Overview of Creativity 57
• 2.5.2 Dimensions and Measurement of Creativity 61
• 2.5.3 Antecedents and Outcomes of Creativity 63
• 2.6 Work–Family Conflict 69
• 2.6.1 Overview of Work–Family Conflict 69
• 2.6.2 Dimensions and Measurement of Work–Family Conflict 72
• 2.6.3 Antecedents and Outcomes of Work–Family Conflict 74
• 2.7 Summary and Research Gap 79
• 2.7.1 Spiritual Leadership 79
• 2.7.2 Job Crafting 81
• 2.7.3 Psychological Entitlement 84
• 2.7.4 Creativity 86
• 2.7.5 Work-family Conflict 88
• CHAPTER 3. Research Hypotheses and Model 92
• 3.1 Research Hypotheses 92
• 3.1.1 Spiritual leadership and Job Crafting 92
• 3.1.2 Spiritual leadership and Psychological Entitlement 93
• 3.1.3 Spiritual leadership and Creativity 95
• 3.1.4 Job Crafting and Creativity 97
• 3.1.5 Psychological Entitlement and Creativity 99
• 3.1.6 Mediating Role of Job Crafting 103
• 3.1.7 Mediating Role of Psychological Entitlement 107
• 3.1.8 Moderating Role of Work-family Conflict 111
• 3.2 Research Model 122
• CHAPTER 4. Research Design 122
• 4.1 Variable Measurement 122
• 4.2 Measurement Scales 123
• 4.2.1 Measurement of Spiritual Leadership 124
• 4.2.2 Measurement of Job Crafting 126
• 4.2.3 Measurement of Psychological Entitlement 127
• 4.2.4 Measurement of Creativity 128
• 4.2.5 Measurement of Work–Family Conflict 128
• 4.2.6 Control Variables 129
• CHAPTER 5. Data Analysis 130
• 5.1 Sample Structure 130
• 5.2 Descriptive Statistics 132
• 5.3 Common Method Bias 133
• 5.4 Exploratory Factor Analyses 134
• 5.5 Confirmatory Factor Analysis 136
• 5.6 Reliability Analysis 141
• 5.7 Correlation Analysis 142
• CHAPTER 6. Hypothesis Testing 144
• 6.1 Structural Equation Model Analysis 144
• 6.2 Mediation Effect 147
• 6.3 Moderation Effect 149
• 6.3.1 Moderation Effect of Work-Family Conflict on the Relationship Between Spiritual Leadership and Job Crafting 149
• 6.3.2 Moderation Effect of Work-Family Conflict on the Relationship Between Spiritual Leadership and Psychological Entitlement 151
• 6.3.3 Moderation Effect of Work-Family Conflict on the Relationship Between Spiritual Leadership and Creativity 153
• 6.4 Summary of Hypothesis Testing 155
• CHAPTER 7. Research Conclusions and Prospects 156
• 7.1 Research Conclusions 156
• 7.2 Research Implications 160
• 7.2.1 Theoretical Contributions 160
• 7.2.2 Practical Implications 164
• 7.3 Limitations and Future Research 168
• Reference 176