Spiritual Wellbeing in Indian Banking Sector: Sustainable Leadership Practices

In the present business scenario, organisations grapple with continuous disruption driven by competition, technological advancements, geopolitical volatility and an increasingly informed consumer base. This evolving environment has shifted from the VUCA model (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) to the BANI framework (brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible). To navigate these challenges, resilience and agility have become crucial for organisations, necessitating the development of a supportive culture and competent workforce. Amidst newspaper reports of toxic leadership and toxic culture prevailing in Indian banking sector, employee wellbeing has become a significant aspect for better performance in recent times. As India aims to become $5 trillion economy by FY 2025–26, the Indian banking sector is expected to align itself with this objective and perform efficiently. In this backdrop, it can be argued that spiritual leadership may act as toxin handler and influence job engagement through spiritual wellbeing. This research study aims to explore the relationship between spiritual leadership, spiritual wellbeing and job engagement in the Indian banking sector. The proposed conceptual framework, derived from Fry’s (2005) Causal Model of Spiritual Leadership, indicates ‘vision’, ‘hope/faith’ and ‘altruistic love’ as components of spiritual leadership and ‘meaning/calling’ and ‘membership’ as components of spiritual wellbeing. The conceptual model is then tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling and the result confirms that spiritual wellbeing is a significant predictor of ‘job engagement’ in the Indian banking sector. Further, this study establishes the critical role of spiritual leadership in enhancing overall employee wellbeing. Leadership is a crucial factor in creating the right work environment and practicing spiritual leadership would help nurture an engaged workforce.