Authentic Leadership Effect on Workplace Spirituality: A Quantitative Evaluation

December 3, 2025

Authentic Leadership Effect on Workplace Spirituality: A Quantitative Evaluation

Shirley Ann Suarez | 2019

Abstract

Organization leaders must contribute to the whole person. Therefore, this dissertation researched the impact of authentic leadership on workplace spirituality from the perspective of the employees by asking the following question: Does authentic leadership positively affect workplace spirituality? Based on Ashmos and Duchon’s (2000) Spirituality at Work Scale and Neider and Schriesheim’s (2011) Authentic Leadership Inventory, this researcher proposed that the constructs of an employee’s perception of authentic leadership (relational transparency, internal moral perspective, self-awareness, and balanced processing) were positively related to the constructs of an employee’s self-report of workplace spirituality (inner self, meaningful work, and sense of community and connectedness). SurveyMonkey was used to survey a random sampling of employees from the Augusta, GA area. A multiple regression analysis was conducted using a survey constructed from the Authentic Leadership Inventory and Workplace Spirituality scales. The questionnaires received 156 respondents with 118 completed results, meeting the reliability amount established by Hair, Black, Babin, and Anderson (2010), where they recommended studies should include 15 to 20 participants per variable for multiple regression. They stated that regression analysis was useful to most areas of business strategy and planning. The independent variables were relational transparency, internal moral perspective, self-awareness, and balanced processing, and the dependent variables used included inner self, meaningful work, and sense of community and connectedness with control variables of gender, age, and tenure. Gender was significant for all variables, and age for some. Although most of the hypotheses were rejected, these findings opened opportunities for more research and study into the subject. Two hypotheses showed a significance in an authentic leader’s self-awareness and internal moral perspective impact on the employee’s meaningful work factor in workplace spirituality. This dissertation adds to the literature and research to assist organizations in reflecting on the type of leadership that lends to an employee’s workplace spirituality.

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