Leading with spirit: cultivating knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behaviour

Purpose – This study aims to examine the impact of spiritual leadership on employees’ knowledge sharing through organizational citizenship behaviour. Additionally, it investigates whether individualistic-collectivist culture moderates the effect at the individual level. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 225 white-collar employees working in Turkey’s private and public sectors. Moderated mediation analyses were conducted using Hayes and Preacher’s (2013) Process macro to test the hypothesized relationships. The study is grounded in social exchange theory and social learning theory frameworks. Findings – The results indicate that spiritual leadership positively influences both organizational citizenship behaviour and knowledge sharing. Furthermore, organizational citizenship behaviour mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and knowledge sharing. However, contrary to expectations, employees’ individual-level collectivist cultural orientation did not moderate this mediated effect. Originality/value – This research contributes to the literature by showing how spiritual leadership affects organizational climate and employee behaviours, highlighting the limited impact of individual cultural tendencies. It suggests that spiritual leadership, through universal values, positively impacts organizational outcomes, offering a broader perspective on leadership. This study provides practical insights for organizations, managers and leadership development programs.