Self-serving spiritual leadership and adaptive performance: the role of resilience and ambivalence

Abstract

This study examines the paradoxical outcomes of spiritual leadership on employee ambivalence, employee resilience, and adaptive performance, drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. Using data from 428 software developers in Pakistan, the study employed PLS-SEM. We found that spiritual leadership can enhance employees' ambivalence and reduce their resilience, while self-serving leadership serves as a significant moderator of this effect. Moreover, spiritual leadership, when combined with self-serving leadership, enhances adaptive performance by increasing employees' resilience. We also found that both employees' resilience and employees' ambivalence are essential antecedents of adaptive performance. The present study offers important theoretical and practical insights, emphasizing the paradoxical effects of spiritual leadership in Pakistani software firms; therefore, it should be adopted with caution.