Workplace spirituality and entrepreneurial behavior among employees in organizations: the role of psychological ownership

Purpose This study aims to understand the mechanisms through which workplace spirituality affects employees’ entrepreneurial behavior. It proposes and tests a mediation model in which psychological ownership (PO), a feeling of ownership regardless of legal ownership, mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’ entrepreneurial behavior. Design/methodology/approach An empirical analysis was conducted with survey data collected from 351 postgraduate students who were also currently working. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the study hypotheses using Mplus software. Findings Workplace spirituality is associated with employees’ entrepreneurial behavior, and PO fully mediates this relationship. The findings highlight that PO is the missing link that connects workplace spirituality and employees’ entrepreneurial behavior. Practical implications This study offers organizations a new insight by showing that PO plays a key role in contributing to the entrepreneurial behavior of employees who consider themselves spiritual. Originality/value The mechanism for the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’ entrepreneurial behavior is explained.