The effect of spiritual leadership on proactive customer service performance: The roles of psychological empowerment and power distance

The study addresses how spiritual leadership influences frontline employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) in the hospitality industry, identifying both mechanisms and boundary conditions. Spiritual leadership—leaders’ values, attitudes, and behaviors that inspire through vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love—has been linked to numerous positive employee outcomes, yet its effects on PCSP remain underexplored. PCSP, defined as extra-role, self-starting, persistent service behaviors aimed at meeting and exceeding customer expectations, is a vital competitive advantage. Grounded in social cognitive theory, the authors propose psychological empowerment as a mediating mechanism explaining why spiritual leadership enhances PCSP, and power distance as a moderator clarifying when the effect is stronger or weaker. Research questions: (a) How does spiritual leadership improve PCSP in hospitality? (b) What mediates this relationship? (c) What moderates it? The study argues that spiritual leadership increases employees’ sense of control, meaning, and purpose (psychological empowerment), thereby promoting PCSP, and that lower power distance strengthens employees’ willingness to challenge norms and engage proactively, amplifying the leadership effect.

Theoretical framework: Using social cognitive theory, the paper posits that leader behaviors and socio-structural factors shape follower cognitions and behaviors via observational learning and self-efficacy. Spiritual leadership should bolster psychological empowerment (meaning, competence, self-determination, impact), which is associated with proactive behaviors. Cultural context, particularly power distance (the acceptance of unequal power), shapes self-efficacy, observational learning, and willingness to act proactively. In low power distance settings, employees feel safer to voice ideas and act autonomously; in high power distance settings, deference to authority can constrain proactivity. Prior research links spiritual leadership with well-being, engagement, self-efficacy, creativity, innovation, and performance across sectors, and suggests leadership can promote customer-oriented proactive behaviors. Yet mechanisms to PCSP are underexamined. Drawing from empowerment literature, the authors argue spiritual leadership’s vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love create meaningfulness and support, building empowerment that translates into PCSP. Power distance is expected to moderate the spiritual leadership–PCSP link: stronger under low power distance, weaker under high power distance due to hierarchy and centralized decision-making. Hypotheses: H1: Spiritual leadership is positively associated with PCSP. H2: Psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and PCSP. H3: Power distance moderates the relationship between spiritual leadership and PCSP such that the positive relationship is stronger when power distance is low.

Study setting and sampling: Data were collected from a four-star hotel chain in Xi’an and Wuhan, China, where diverse customer bases and Western management practices create a relevant context for PCSP. The HR department randomly selected 325 frontline employees and their 45 direct managers using employee number lists. Two matched questionnaires (manager- and employee-rated) were distributed via internal mail with unique IDs to link dyads, ensuring confidentiality and voluntary participation. Responses: 33 managers (73% response) and 270 employees (83% response) responded; after removing unmatched/incomplete cases, 263 matched manager–employee dyads were retained. Manager demographics: 33% male, 73% aged >36, 90% master’s degree, average 10 years organizational tenure. Employee demographics: 59% male, 70% aged 21–40, 95% master’s degree, most had 13–18 months with the same manager. Controls: employee age, education, experience, organizational tenure. Measures (7-point Likert, 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree; translated/back-translated to Chinese): - Spiritual leadership: 9 items (Pawar, 2014), employee-rated (α=0.97); sample: “My supervisor expresses his/her respect for our members’ values.” - Psychological empowerment: 12 items across four dimensions (meaning, competence, self-determination, impact) from Spreitzer (1995), employee-rated (α=0.76); samples: “The work I do is very important to me”; “I am confident about my ability to do my job”; “I have significant autonomy in determining how I do my job”; “My impact on what happens in my department is large.” - Power distance: 6 items (Begley et al., 2002; Dorfman & Howell, 1988), employee-rated (α=0.96); sample: “It is frequently necessary for a manager to use power and authority when dealing with subordinates.” - Proactive customer service performance: 7 items (Rank et al., 2007), manager-rated (α=0.96); sample: “This employee actively creates partnerships with other service representatives to better serve customers.” Analysis approach: Two-step procedure. Step 1: Validate measurement model via CFA. Fit indices indicated good fit: χ²=721.03, df=413, SRMR=0.04, AGFI=0.82, CFI=0.96, IFI=0.96, NNFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.05. Item loadings >0.70; composite reliability and Cronbach’s alpha >0.70; AVE above recommended thresholds; square roots of AVEs exceeded inter-construct correlations, supporting convergent and discriminant validity. Step 2: Hypothesis testing via PROCESS macro (OLS-based). Mediation tested with Model 4; moderation with Model 1; predictors and moderator mean-centered; indirect effects estimated with 20,000 bootstrap samples and 95% CIs.

- Direct effect (H1): Spiritual leadership positively predicted proactive customer service performance (PCSP): B=0.19, p<0.01. - Path to mediator: Spiritual leadership positively predicted psychological empowerment: B=0.31, p<0.001. - Mediator to outcome: Psychological empowerment positively predicted PCSP: B=0.20, p<0.01. - Indirect effect (H2): Bootstrapped indirect effect of spiritual leadership on PCSP via psychological empowerment was 0.06 (SE=0.03), 95% CI [0.02, 0.12] (excludes zero), supporting mediation. - Moderation (H3): Interaction spiritual leadership × power distance was significant: B=-0.11, p<0.05, indicating the positive SL→PCSP relationship weakens as power distance increases. - Simple slopes: At low power distance, SL→PCSP strongest (B=0.43, p<0.001); at mean PD (B=0.32, p<0.001); at high PD, weaker but still positive (B=0.21, p<0.01). - Sample: 263 matched manager–employee dyads from a Chinese hotel chain; robust measurement validity and reliability established.

Findings align with social cognitive theory: spiritual leadership enhances employees’ psychological empowerment (meaning, competence, autonomy, impact), which in turn motivates extra-role, self-starting service behaviors. Employees likely learn proactive norms via leaders’ modeled encouragement and bolstered self-efficacy. The moderating results show cultural context matters: low power distance climates amplify the translation of spiritual leadership into PCSP by fostering participation safety, voice, and autonomy; high power distance can constrain initiative due to deference to hierarchy and centralized decision-making, attenuating but not eliminating the positive effect. The study contributes by (1) explicating psychological empowerment as a mechanism linking spiritual leadership to customer-facing proactivity, and (2) identifying power distance as a boundary condition, answering calls to integrate cultural values into leadership–outcome models in hospitality. Practically, fostering empowering climates and reducing power distance norms can strengthen leaders’ spiritual behaviors’ impact on proactive service.

Using social cognitive theory, the study demonstrates that spiritual leadership increases psychological empowerment, which enhances proactive customer service performance among hospitality frontline employees. Moreover, lower power distance strengthens these relationships, indicating that cultural context shapes how effectively spiritual leadership translates into proactive service behavior. The research advances understanding of leadership effects on employee and customer-related outcomes in hospitality and highlights the value of empowering, low power distance environments for cultivating proactive service.

- Cultural and sample scope: Data from Chinese hospitality employees only; cultural uniqueness limits generalizability. Replication in Western and varied cultural contexts is encouraged. - Sample size: Although typical for similar studies, relatively modest size may raise normality concerns; bootstrapping mitigated this, but larger samples are recommended. - Design: Cross-sectional survey limits causal inference; future experimental or longitudinal designs are suggested to test mediation mechanisms. - Omitted variables: Organizational structure, climate, and culture may influence empowerment and PCSP; future work should incorporate these. - Measurement: Consider alternative measures of spiritual leadership (e.g., Spiritual Leadership Inventory) and PCSP (e.g., different forms of proactive service, divergent thinking) to capture nuanced effects. - Additional mechanisms and moderators: Explore psychological capital, core self-evaluations, voice behavior, mindfulness, resilience, job satisfaction, job enrichment, and individual differences as mediators/moderators. - Downstream outcomes: Examine how employee PCSP affects customer satisfaction and organizational performance.