SPIRITUAL ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP: A SYNTHESIS OF INDIAN WISDOM, ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Abstract

The present study explored the concept of Spiritual Organisational Leadership by combining the Indian philosophical wisdom, ethical leadership, transformational leadership, and workplace spirituality. Today, organisations are facing problems like employee burnout, unethical issues, lack of meaningful work, leadership distrust, toxic work atmosphere, and emotional exhaustion. The challenges provide an illustration of the shortcomings of traditional leadership models that tend to emphasise organisational performance and profitability to the exclusion of other forms of human dimensions like emotional balance, ethical consciousness, self-mastery and collective welfare. The study was designed in a conceptual and analytical approach using qualitative theoretical analysis, Comparative Leadership Analysis and Interdisciplinary synthesis. The research involved the incorporation of concepts from the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Vivekananda, ethics in leadership, transformational leadership and literature on workplace spirituality. The philosophical notions like dharma, nishkama karma, samatvam, sthitaprajna and lokasangraha were analysed in the context of organisational leadership and challenges of contemporary management. The study created a framework of Spiritual Organisational Leadership which integrates ethical integrity, emotional balance, self-mastery, service orientation, transformational capability, human empowerment and collective welfare. The results indicated that a leadership grounded in spiritual values can make a substantial contribution to an ethical organisational culture, employee involvement, psychological health, meaningful work, leadership development and long-term growth of the organisation. The study found that Spiritual Organisational Leadership is a leadership framework that is organic, humanising, and value-oriented that can harmonise organisational efficiency with human welfare and social responsibility in the current organisational contexts.