The practice of Islamic spiritual leadership in Bangladeshi organizations: A qualitative inquiry

Background Islamic spirituality can shape leadership practice, yet qualitative evidence explains how Islamic spiritual values are experienced and negotiated within organizational systems, particularly in emerging economies. Objective This study explores how Islamic spirituality is experienced and practiced in leadership within Bangladeshi organizations and examines how leaders negotiate spiritual values under organizational conditions. Methods Drawing on Spiritual Leadership Theory, Islamic management scholarship, and Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenology, the study used 63 semi-structured interviews with leaders across five organizational sectors. Data were analyzed through epoché, horizonalization, reduction and elimination, individual textural and structural description, and composite synthesis. Amanah (trustworthiness), taqwa (God-consciousness), shura (consultation), and adl (justice) were specified as sensitizing domains, while institutional contestation emerged as a cross-cutting pattern. Results Findings show that Islamic spiritual commitments are experienced and enacted through trustworthiness, God-consciousness, consultation, and justice, but their organizational expression varies with institutional contexts. Leaders negotiated tensions between personal spiritual commitments and organizational expectations. The study proposes the Contested Islamic Spiritual Leadership (CISL) Model as a provisional post-analysis conceptual synthesis rather than a validated causal model. Conclusions Islamic spiritual leadership is shaped by leaders’ spiritual commitments and organizational conditions. The study contributes qualitative evidence to spiritual leadership, Islamic management, and human systems research.