Spiritual Leadership, Workplace Spirituality, and Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Islamic Work Ethic in an Islamic Boarding School

Abstract

Work engagement remains a persistent concern for many organizations, including nonprofit religious institutions such as Islamic boarding schools (pondok pesantren) whose operations depend heavily on staff dedication. This study examines the effect of spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality on work engagement, both directly and through the mediation of Islamic work ethic, among employees of an Islamic boarding school for orphaned and underprivileged children in Singosari, Malang Regency, Indonesia. A quantitative explanatory design was applied to the entire population of 45 active employees using a census (total) sampling technique. Data were collected through a five point Likert scale questionnaire and analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS software. The results indicate that spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality each have a positive and significant effect on work engagement and on Islamic work ethic. Islamic work ethic also has a positive and significant effect on work engagement and partially mediates the effect of both spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality on work engagement. These findings suggest that cultivating spiritually grounded leadership and a meaningful, value congruent work climate strengthens employee engagement in faith-based social organizations, with Islamic work ethic serving as an important psychological bridge between spiritual values and engaged work behavior.