Servant leadership and employee creativity: The influence of workplace spirituality

This thesis examines the mediating role of workplace spirituality in the effect of servant leadership on employee creativity. Data were obtained from a total of 220 participants working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the manufacturing sector in Guatemala. Hypothesis tests were conducted using structural equation modelling and bootstrapping method. The findings showed that servant leadership has a significant and positive effect on employee creativity. In addition, three dimensions of workplace spirituality (inner life, meaningful work, sense of community) were found to have a mediating role in the effect of servant leadership on employee creativity. This thesis contributes to the existing literature by providing new empirical evidence on the relationship between servant leadership, workplace spirituality and employee behavior by examining the predictive effect of servant leadership on employee creativity as well as the mediating role of workplace spirituality in this relationship on a sample of SMEs in Guatemala. However, because this study uses a cross-sectional research design and collects data only from employees, inferences about causality between the variables cannot be made. Keywords - Servant leadership, workplace spirituality, employee creativity, SME, Guatemala.