Sociology

Business

Alienation

Work (physics)

Social alienation

Service (business)

Social science

Psychotherapist

Feeling

Association (psychology)

Engineering

Marketing

Political science

Psychology

Public relations

Tertiary sector of the economy

Social capital

Social psychology

Mechanical engineering

Service Industries Journal

In the present study, we propose a negative association between spiritual leadership and work alienation. We also propose service employee social capital as a mediator of the spiritual leadership-work alienation link and political skill as a boundary condition of the direct association between spiritual leadership and social capital and the indirect association between spiritual leadership and work alienation. Time-lagged (three rounds, three weeks apart) survey data collected from 283 service sector employees supported our proposed hypotheses. Despite the prevalence of work alienation in service organizations and the recognition that it can lead to several negative outcomes, little is known about how managers can address service employees’ feelings of work alienation. We address this crucial theoretical gap and offer several practical implications that can help managers in service organizations enhance employees’ social capital and undermine their feelings of alienation at work.

Spiritual leadership and work alienation: analysis of mechanisms and constraints