The Relationship between Positive Leadership and Social Isolation with the Mediating Role of Spirituality at Work in the Pandemic of COVID-19 (Case Study: Teachers in Isfahan)

The pandemic of Coronavirus and its rapid spread over the past few months in the world and countries has led to a complex situation in all human communications. Due to the involvement of a large number of people in the community, as well as the very high rate of transmission and spread of the disease and, more importantly, the unfamiliarity of this virus, the exposure of various institutions to manage it was confused and undecided. Mirzaei (2020) writes in this regard that in the spread of the coronavirus, society has led to a situation that has shocked all aspects and infrastructures of social life and has put serious rethinking in all matters on the agenda of various institutions and organizations. Thus, the transformation of virtual education that is currently underway, especially in terms of severing human relationships between teachers, leads to weak, superficial, and unstable links between teachers, which provide the ground for social isolation of teachers and students. Facing any challenge requires having the right strategy to overcome it. Samadipour and Qardashi (2020) state that one of the most important and influential factors on people's behavior in situations such as the coronavirus epidemic is the type of management and people’s trust in controlling and solving problems caused by hazards. Therefore, it seems that one of the factors that can affect the social isolation of teachers and the leadership style of school principals.Donaldson believes that the present age is witnessing the growing importance of a positive leadership style. Positive leadership seeks to provide positive principles that stem from positive organizational knowledge and, by emphasizing positivism, bring extraordinary consequences for the individual and the organization (Cameron and Spreitzer, 2011). Gilbert (2012) believes that positive leaders foster openness, open relationships, cooperation, and a culture of dialogue among employees, and by their behavior provide a work environment and atmosphere based on peace and security of mind, and by creating a positive relationship, create a feeling of energy and happiness. However, other factors play a role in this regard. Shen et al. (2009) have pointed to the role of spirituality in the workplace. They believe that wherever employees work, they are looking for something beyond material rewards. People are usually looking for a meaningful, hopeful, and balanced job. In other words, spirituality at work ‌ describes the experience of employees whose work is satisfying, meaningful, and purposeful. The experience of spirituality at work is also associated with increased creativity, honesty, trust, and commitment at work, and an increased sense of personal development of employees (Shen et al., 2009: 1217). The present study seeks to investigate the relationship between positive leadership and teachers’ social isolation with the mediating role of spirituality in the workplace. In this regard, the following hypotheses were formulated:Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between positive leadership and social isolation.
Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between positive leadership and spirituality at work.
Hypothesis 3: There is a relationship between spirituality at work and social isolation.
Hypothesis 4: Spirituality at work plays a mediating role in the relationship between positive leadership and social isolation.

The research method was a survey. The statistical population included the teachers of the first secondary school of Isfahan in the academic year 2019-20, and 150 individuals out of 1876 subjects were selected using Sample Power software and stratified random sampling. Data collection tools were the Social Isolation Questionnaire from Zavalenta, Samuel, and Mills (2017), Aghababaei’s Positive Leadership Questionnaire (2013) based on Cameron's theory (2007), and spirituality in the work from Milliman et al. (2003). To ensure the validity of the assessment tool in this study, content validity and construct validity were used. The questionnaires were submitted to the researchers and experts to confirm face validity and content validity. Their reliability was estimated to be 0.79, 0.76, and 0.74, respectively. 

The test of the first hypothesis showed that there is a relationship between positive leadership and social isolation (internal and external). The value of the correlation coefficient between these two variables is negative and is equal to -0.41, which shows that these two variables have a good correlation intensity, so in general, it can be inferred that there is a negative, inverse, and significant relationship between positive leadership and social isolation of teachers in Isfahan. The second hypothesis showed that there is a relationship between positivist leadership and spirituality at work. That is, the value of the correlation coefficient between these two variables is positive and is equal to 0.56, which shows these two variables are highly correlated.The third hypothesis showed that there is a relationship between spirituality at work and social isolation. The value of the correlation coefficient between these two variables is negative and is equal to -0.38 which shows that these two variables are relatively correlated. So, in general, it can be inferred that there is a negative, inverse, and significant relationship between spirituality in work and social isolation of teachers in Isfahan. The test of the fourth hypothesis of the research also showed that spirituality in work has a mediating role in the relationship between positive leadership and social isolation. Finally, according to the results of this study, it can be said that the adoption of positive leadership by principals affects both increasing the work ethic and reducing the social isolation of school teachers. So, officials can provide training workshops for positive leadership. Also, managers who have adopted positive leadership through material and spiritual encouragement can encourage other managers in this field.