Spiritual Leadership, Autonomous Motivation and Employee Craftsmanship Spirit: The Cross-Level Moderating Effect of Caring Ethical Climate

PURPOSE: Whether in traditional manufacturing or modern intelligent manufacturing, craftsmen have always been the backbone of China’s manufacturing industry. Cultivating employee craftsmanship spirit has become one of the top tasks of human resource management in China’s manufacturing industry. The question is what kind of leadership style will promote employee craftsmanship spirit and how can it be promoted? To answer this question, based on self-determination theory and social exchange theory, this study focuses on the influence of spiritual leadership on employee craftsmanship spirit, as well as the moderating effect of having a caring ethical climate and the mediating effect of autonomous motivation between spiritual leadership and employee craftsmanship spirit. METHODS: The leaders and employees of 103 work teams from Chinese manufacturing enterprises were investigated, and 434 paired data points were obtained. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were conducted using data analysis software, such as HLM, SPSS, and AMOS. RESULTS: The results reveal that spiritual leadership can significantly positively predict employee craftsmanship spirit. Employee autonomous motivation plays a partial mediating role in the positive correlation between spiritual leadership and craftsmanship spirit. Additionally, caring ethical climate positively moderates the correlation between spiritual leadership and the autonomous motivation of employees. The greater the caring ethical climate of teams is, the stronger the positive correlation between spiritual leadership and the autonomous motivation of employees. CONCLUSION: Leadership plays an important role in the process of employees improving their skills, acquiring the status of craftsmen, and developing craftsmanship beliefs. Therefore, it is of great significance to understand how spiritual leadership style can effectively promote craftsmanship spirit among employees for high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. This study reveals the ways that spiritual leadership influences employee craftsmanship spirit from a new perspective and confirms the mediating effect of autonomous motivation as well as the moderating effect of caring ethical climate. The research conclusions can provide practical solutions for cultivating employee craftsmanship spirit.