Reinvigorating the nexus between spiritual leadership and employee happiness: evidence from the indian hospitality context

The Indian hospitality industry has experienced significant growth following the pandemic. Hospitality means providing services to the guests, and the burden of providing such exceptional services is on the frontline employees (FLE). As a result, while keeping their guests happy, FLE have ignored to be happy themselves. Although being hospitable is ingrained in Indian culture, the challenging work situations, stress, and poor earnings have negatively impacted FLE’s quality of life. It is imperative that hoteliers and policy makers look at ways to cherish and engage their human capital. Therefore, this study proposes a framework for revitalising the Indian hospitality industry by investigating the direct and indirect ways to promote FLE happiness through spiritual leadership (SL), meaningful work and sense of community, based on the conservation of resources (COR) and cognitive appraisal theories. Survey data was gathered from 362 FLE across India, and data was analysed using SEM and PROCESS macro V4.1. Results indicate that SL contributed greatly to improving the beneficial effects of meaningful work and sense of community on FLE happiness through serial mediation paths. Additionally, however, the findings also revealed a curvilinear relationship between SL and FLE happiness, indicating that too much of SL was not always beneficial, and suggesting new lines of inquiry. This study shed light on theoretical and managerial implications from a service industry context, thus reinvigorating research in the hospitality industry.