From workplace spirituality to knowledge sharing behavior: the mediating role of trust and the moderating role of perceived organizational politics

Purpose This study aims to investigate how workplace spirituality influences employees' knowledge sharing behavior. Specifically, it examines trust as the mediating mechanism linking workplace spirituality to knowledge sharing behavior and investigates whether perceived organizational politics conditions the direct and indirect effects of workplace spirituality on knowledge sharing behavior. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 306 employees from the Indian information technology (IT) industry using a structured questionnaire. The proposed moderated mediation model was examined through confirmatory factor analysis and regression-based moderated mediation analysis using AMOS and SPSS. Findings The findings reveal that workplace spirituality is positively associated with employees' knowledge sharing behavior. Trust partially mediates this relationship, indicating that spiritually enriched workplaces facilitate knowledge sharing by strengthening interpersonal trust. Furthermore, perceived organizational politics weakens both the direct relationship between workplace spirituality and knowledge sharing behavior and the indirect effect of workplace spirituality on knowledge sharing behavior through trust, suggesting that politically charged work environments constrain the effectiveness of spiritually grounded exchange relationships. Originality/value This study extends the workplace spirituality and knowledge management literature by integrating workplace spirituality, trust and perceived organizational politics within a moderated mediation framework. Grounded in social exchange theory, it explains how workplace spirituality promotes employees' knowledge sharing behavior through trust and identifies the organizational conditions under which these positive effects are strengthened or weakened. By providing empirical evidence from the Indian IT sector, the study contributes to the limited body of research on workplace spirituality and knowledge-related outcomes in South Asian and other non-Western organizational contexts.