Workplace spirituality: empirical evidence revisited

An integrated model of workplace spirituality: The past, present and future - A systematic literature review

BACKGROUND

Because of the continually changing nature of work, workplace spirituality (WPS) has drawn more attention in recent years from studies, organizations, and both public and private sectors. Organizations strive to enhance employee well-being and general job satisfaction while developing a feeling of community inside the workplace through fostering WPS.

OBJECTIVE

The study aims to assess the literature on WPS in an attempt to provide a broader perspective on the impact of spirituality in the workplace to strengthen and comprehend how an individual or collective spirituality is integrated and manifested in the workplace.

METHODS

The literature was reviewed between 1994-2022 (including articles published online in 2023) and the deductive method was used.

RESULTS

As a new and significant contribution to knowledge in this study, maintaining a work environment of otherworldliness can help to advance work commitment (sympathy, mindfulness, significant work). Human resources practices should consider including care contemplation as an individual development program that results in increased empathy for others to support care and sympathy in the workplace. WPS centers around the humanistic idea of representatives in the work environment regarding how they experience a feeling of association, which means satisfaction and arrangement with the working environment. There are three ways to look at WPS: individual, authoritative, and intuitive.

CONCLUSION

This study has a significant contribution to knowledge enhancement and development. Such an approach to the development of a spirituality program within an organization can make a positive contribution to the improvement of business achievement and competitive gain. This model has some implications for organizational management where an internal spirituality program is desired. Future and additional research on model assessment under the same topic is strongly recommended.

Mehta N. A review of workplace spirituality: identifying present development and future research agenda

Purpose

This study aims to identify the present development of workplace spirituality (WPS) by synthesizing the findings from the WPS literature, identifying gaps and proposing a research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reviews 72 articles on WPS published in scholarly journals to review their findings on how it has developed over time.

Findings

This review reveals a dearth of qualitative studies like the phenomenological approach, ethnographic research, mixed methodology and experimental research. Besides, the findings reveal various dimensions of spirituality in regard to the workplace. The synthesis reveals a paucity of research to examine WPS at the level of mesospiritual. The findings reveal the scope for cross-cultural studies in WPS that could support and advance inclusion and diversity in the organization. Also, there is scope to examine the relationship of WPS with mental and behavioral health, mindset, innovative behavior, sustainable behavior and trust. Further, the findings reveal the scope of studying the darker side of spirituality in the workplace.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers significant implications to researchers, management and human resource management (HRM) practitioners by providing a holistic understanding of WPS. The literature review findings are limited to the analysis performed on seventy-two papers from Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar databases.

Practical implications

This study provides suggestions and future research directions for researchers, HRM and management practitioners for the inclusion of spirituality. The review findings suggest the implications for management and HRM practitioners by understanding the research done in cognitive science and neuroscience related to spirituality to humanize the workplace. HRM practitioners can draw on the insights offered in this analysis to develop learning and development interventions in support of WPS, e.g. training programs for cultivating mindset through spiritual mentoring.

Originality/value

The study provides WPS development over time. It also provides a comprehensive outlook on WPS that highlights its positive and negative sides. The study contributes to the literature by categorizing the literature and proposing a research agenda to guide future WPS research.

Karma Yoga: Scale development and studies of the impact on positive psychological outcomes at the workplace

Is achieving organizational performance and employee well-being a zero-sum game? Can cultural traditions provide an approach to realizing the spiritual aspects of ordinary vocations of life? We propose that the approach of Karm Yoga can answer these questions. This research presents the model of Karma Yoga derived from Vedantic tradition. We present three studies aimed at developing the construct and psychometric scale of Karma Yoga and examining its impact on workplace spirituality and positive psychological outcomes. Study 1 ( n = 459) is about the development of the construct and the scale of Karma Yoga and testing the reliability and validity of the same. Study 2 ( n = 337) is designed and carried out to examine the association of Karma Yoga on other widely studied indicators of workplace spirituality, i.e. mindfulness ( β = 0.44, p < .05) and self-transcendence. Further, in Study 3 ( n = 260), we investigate the hypothesis of a positive association of Karma Yoga with positive psychological outcomes like thriving, psychological capital, flourishing, and negative impact on job burnout. Empirical findings support these hypotheses. In this way, our research article presents the indigenous model of workplace spirituality by developing a theoretical framework and testing it empirically. Karma Yoga offers the ways and means to transcendence from an ego-centric approach of work to realizing the spirituality at work. This study also suggests that Karma Yoga reduces stress and leads to the path of well-being.

The effects of spiritual expression at work during the COVID-19 crisis: evidence from a private hospital

Purpose

This paper aims to explain the effects of spirituality at work on organizational commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic. In detail, it investigates whether the active part of spirituality at work, called spiritual expression, has a positive influence on organizational commitment in a hierarchically organized private hospital. In addition, it explores whether the sense of belonging at work mediates spiritual expressions and a person’s commitment toward the employer during times of severe crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tests the hypotheses on a range of health-care personnel, including doctors, nurses, physicians, administrators, managers and cleaning staff. This study draws on quantitative data of more than one third of the employees of that private Austrian hospital (n = 96) and on insights from 12 qualitative interviews conducted over a period of four months during spring 2021.

Findings

This study finds strong evidence that spiritual expression at work is directly related to belonging and indirectly related to organizational commitment through belonging. This study extracts eight concurrent themes impacting the effectiveness of spirituality at work in the hospital.

Originality/value

This study provides insights on how to facilitate spiritual expression at work to increase flexibility and resilience in the health-care sector. All in all, spirituality at work is better understood as a “multi-authored” process, in which all participants, including the patients, co-create its meaning and implications.

Benefits of workplace spirituality on real estate agents’ work outcomes: the mediating role of person-Job fit

Purpose

This study aims to apply the person-environment fit theory to examine the effect of workplace spirituality on real estate agents’ person-job (P-J) fit. Moreover, P-J was proposed as a mediator to explain the effect of workplace spirituality on customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (CO-OCB) and job performance that real estate agents demonstrate.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 398 agents was obtained from 60 brokerage firms in Bangkok, Thailand. The data were collected through an online questionnaire survey. Data analysis was performed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The analysis supported the positive association between workplace spirituality and P-J fit. In addition, the mediating effect analysis showed that P-J fit mediated the association between workplace spirituality and CO-OCB in part, but mediated the association between workplace spirituality and job performance fully.

Originality/value

The findings overall clarify the theoretical mechanism by which workplace spirituality motivates real estate agents to demonstrate positive work behavior and enhanced performance.

At the intersection of workplace spirituality and Buddhist psychology: a critical summary of literature

Purpose

This paper aims to contribute or rekindle internal and external dialogues about the interactions, decisions and behaviour in the work environments; while also consider some critical overarching values that can help workforce members cope with the stress and pressure, which augment as the speed of life increases.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used in this project is an integrative literature review, supported by, findings and reflections from two doctoral dissertations: one in workplace spirituality and one in Buddhist psychology; and the researcher’s analysis and joint application of these two streams over the past decade.

Findings

Workplace spirituality and Buddhist psychology share overlapping, multi-interpretable traits, with as the main discrepancies that workplace spirituality is a relatively new concept, while Buddhist psychology has been around for more than 2,500 years; and workplace spirituality focusses only on the workplace, while Buddhist psychology focusses on every area of the life. Yet, the overarching notion of doing right while respecting and accepting others and aiming for an overarching better quality of life remains a strong driver in both realms.

Research limitations/implications

This paper will hopefully entice future researchers to engage in additional studies on spiritual intersections to expand on such databases and enhance awareness, acceptance and implementation amongst scholars and practitioners in business settings.

Practical implications

Exploring intersections of behavioural disciplines such as workplace spirituality and Buddhist psychology addresses an important need within workforce members and therewith also those within their social circles, as they evoke deeper and consistent contemplation on the aspects that connect us together and can enhance overall well-being and happiness at a greater magnitude than, this study experiences it today.

Social implications

The study aims to deliver a contribution to the database of awareness-enhancing literature, in an effort to help spawn dialogue and critical thinking about the attitudes and behaviours towards ourselves, others and the future.

Originality/value

This paper presents an overview of themes in two psychological streams, both focussing on living and acting with greater consciousness, to make more mindful decisions, improve the overall experience of cooperating towards a common good and understand the responsibility towards creating a future that will be sustainable rather than destroyed.

Spirituality, Symbolism and Storytelling in Twentyfirst-Century Organizations: Understanding and addressing the crisis of imagination

This article introduces the Special Issue concerned with organizational spirituality, symbolism and storytelling. Stressing the growing scholarly interest in these topics, the article makes a two-fold contribution. First, it critically assesses their development over time while identifying the emerging trends and new ways in which spirituality, symbolism and storytelling are taken up in management and organization studies. We make a case for utilizing their promise to transcend the epistemic boundaries and extend the scope of our academic practice beyond self-referential approaches or ‘fashionable’ topics. Second, it links them to what we term the current crises of imagination, calling into question extant institutional and organizational paradigms, as well as the theoretical frames we rely on in our teaching and research. The multiple crises we face – economic, financial, food, water, energy, climate, migration and security – we suggest, are partly due to the fragmentation of meaning that bedevils our scholarship and, implicitly, the failure of our collective imagination. Reaching across foundational disciplines and core methodologies, we bring into the conversation the interlocking fields of spirituality, symbolism and storytelling, highlighting their potential for addressing the cardinal challenges we face as citizens of this world as much as organizational scholars.