a study on the workplace spirituality climate

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A STUDY ON THE WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY CLIMATE, COMMITMENT AND

PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT

As now a days employees spirituality in organizations are very important issues in the area of

management and organizations. Years ago people were wanted to put their spiritual existence

behind the door before entering the workplace, but nowadays, separating work life from spiritual

life reduces employees morale and these two cannot be separate and people like being with their

whole (physical, mental and spiritual) at their workplace. That is why spirituality is being

identified as an element in organization by researches. The available evidence from research done

in (IT) industry, the model was tested with a survey sample (n=200). This shows that the

employees perception of spiritual elements causes the prevalence of the level of commitment at

work. It shows how five dimensions of workplace spirituality (teams sense of community,

alignment with organizational values, sense of contribution to society, enjoyment at work, and

opportunities for inner life) predict affective, normative and continuance commitment, as well as

individual productivity.

INTRODUCTION

Spirituality in the workplace is about people who perceive themselves as spirited beings, whose

spirits desire and need to be energized through work. It is about experiencing real purpose and

meaning at work beyond paychecks and performance reviews. Spirituality is about people sharing

and experiencing some common attachment, attraction, and togetherness with each other within

their work unit and the organization as a whole. It is a continuing search for meaning and purpose

in life. The core of spirituality is about people sharing and experiencing some common attachment,

attraction, and togetherness within their work unit and the organization as a whole. The researchareas imply the necessity of incorporating spirituality into the workplace in order to enhance

worker motivation, organizational performance, and job satisfaction.


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NEED FOR THE STUDY

In this millennium, employees are questioning the relationship between spirituality and their

work and for this reason they are seeking work that is inspiring and meaningful. In addition, they

are searching for a way to connect their work lives with their spiritual life. It is that they are in a

challenging interaction with their jobs that sometimes adds no value to their lives spirituality or

otherwise It is observed that some employees are demoralized and experiencing spiritual

disorientation as a result of the downsizing, reengineering and layoffs that occurred in the last

two decades A growing number of companies are setting off on spiritual journey. Its not about

bringing religion into their workplace but, rather the spirituality movement in the organization is

an attempt to create a sense of meaning and purpose at work and connection between

organization and its employees.

On the other hand, for many years the concept of organizational commitment provided the

Means to develop theory in relation to organization employee relationships but more recently,

however, other types of work related commitments have been identified as having importance to

the organization employee relationship. As the contingent workforce grows, employee

commitment may be shifting from organization to profession. The ultimate goal of this research

was to examine the relationships of the variables that would lead to further growth in employee

development, increased job performance, lower and employee retention as they relate to

organizational goals and strategies.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Literature on workplace spiritually is prolific. However, empirical research on the topic

is still scarce. This paper aims to counter this scarcity. It shows how five

dimensions of workplace spirituality predict affective, normative and continuance

commitment, as well as individual productivity. The sample size of the survey is 200.

The findings show that the employees perceptions of spirituality in their

organization predict significant variance of commitment and productivity. Furthermore,

affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between spirituality and

productivity. The empirical evidence suggests that workplace spirituality is a pertinent


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construct to researchers and an important concern to be taken into account by managers.

It corroborates what is frequently presumed but rarely empirically tested: when

employees have the opportunity to perform meaningful work, they bring their entire

self to their organizations and tend to perform better.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To explore how spirituality at work place influences organizational commitment. 2. To research how the workplace commitment has impact on the employee performance.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Type of researchused for the study is the descriptive. The sample size is 200 and the technique

was based on the judgment sampling. The tool used for the data collection was structured

questionnaire. The measure of the variables were based on three dependant factors namely

Affective Commitment, Normative Commitment, Continuance Commitment and the five

independent factors namely Opportunities For Inner Life, Teams Sense Of Community, Sense Of

Enjoyment At Work, Sense Of Contribution to the Community, Alignment Between

Organizational And Individual Goals.

FACTORS INFLUENCING WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY CLIMATE,

COMMITMENT AND PERFORMANCE

During the study many factors were influencing the workplace spirituality with

commitment and it is essential to consider these factors into account when studying the employee

attitude towards workplace commitment and spirituality.

1. Affective commitment (AC) 5. Alignment(AOI)

2. Normative commitment (NC) 6. Sense of contribution(SC)

3. Continuance commitment (CC) 7. Enjoyment at work(EW)

4. Sense of Community (SOC) 8. Opportunities for Inner Life (OIL)


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DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Respondents profile analyzed as per the demographic details

The demographic variables considered for the test were gender, age, income, education and

number of years for which the customers are with the bank. The results of the analysis are

exhibited in table 1

Table 1

Respondents profile

Interpretation

The data collection was done for 201 sample size comprising of male 124 and female 76,which

is of 62% of male respondent and 38% of female respondent .The frequency of the age groupcontains 95 respondents belonged to the age group 2030 years numbering the highest with 47.3 %

of the sample size, following the majority was the age group that belonged to 3040 years with 91

respondents accounting to 45.3 %. Respondents from the age group 40 -50 years and greater than 60

years summed up to 7.50 % of the sample size.

GENDER NO OF

RESPONDENT

PERCENTAGE

OF

RESPONDENT

AGE NO OF

RESPONDEN

T

PERCENTAGE

OF

RESPONDENT

Male 124 62 20-30 95 47.3

Female 76 38 30-40 91 45.3

Total 201 100 40-60 10 5.0

> 60 5 2.5

Total 201 100

TENURE NO OF RESPONDENT PERCENTAGE OF

RESPONDENT

< 3 YEARS 69 34.3

3-5YEARS 90 44.85-25 YEARS 32 15.9

> 25 YEARS 10 5.0

TOTAL 201 100


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With respect to tenure of the respondents, the sample was more or less equally distributed with the

organization were, less than 3 years 34.3 % from 3-5 years 44.8 % from 5-25 years 15.9 % and

greater than 25 years 5.0% of respondents were working with the organization.

To assess the correlation among the factors affecting commitment and spirituality

CORRELATION

TABLE 1

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Interpretation

From the above table it is evident that there is a very good correlation among the factorswith a Pearson correlation. The first highest correlation value of 0.455 is found between organization

and individual goals & team sense of community. The second highest correlation value of .441 is

found between normative commitment and affective commitment and the third highest correlation

value of.387 is found between sense of contribution to community and organizational and individual

goals. The lowest correlation value is observed between affective commitment and opportunities of

AC NC CC TSC OIG SOC SOE OIL

AC 1

NC .441**

1

CC -.033 .004 1

TSC .208**

.141*

-.185**

1

OIG .158*

.264**

-.141* .455

** 1

SOC .175*

.200**

-.103 .230**

.387**

1

SOE .065 .163*

-.116 .129 .157*

.323**

1

OIL -.348**

-.286**

.401**

-.027 -.094 -.208**

-.188**

1


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inner life. Overall there is high correlation in trust, and perceived ease of use. All the factors are

significant at 0.01 level.

REGRESSION

Prediction of Factors Influencing Affective Commitment towards Spirituality

Analysis of the following factors is exhibited in table 3

Dependent Variable Affective Commitment

Independent VariablesTeam Sense of Community, Organizational and Individual Goals,

Sense Of Community, Opportunities Of Inner Life, Sense Of Enjoyment At Work.

Table 3

AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT

MODEL SUMMARY

Model R R square Adjusted R

square

Std error of the

estimate

1 .408a

.167 .145 .513874

ANOVA

Model

Sum of

squares

Degrees of

freedom

Mean

square

F Significance

value

Regression 10.291 5 2.058 7.795 .000a

Residual 51.493 195 .264

Total 61.784 200

COEFFICIENTS

Model Unstandardized coefficients Standardized

coefficients

t Significance

value

B Std error Beta

1(Constant) 2.032 .233 8.710 .000

TSC .141 .059 .177 2.404 .017

OIG .027 .081 .026 .338 .736

SOC .062 .067 .070 .931 .353

SOE -.032 .048 -.047 -.676 .500


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OIL -.200 .040 -.335 -4.963 .000

Interpretation

In the above model is analyzed with affective commitment and spirituality variables. Based on

the value of R square it can be stated that the above model is .167 times reliable. The

significance of the model in the ANOVA table is less than 0.01 and this indicates that the model

is very good. It is observed from the model that highly influences the team sense of community

is 0.141 and least influential factor is opportunities of inner life is -0.200 when compared to the

influence of other factors.

Prediction of Factors Influencing Normative Commitment towards Spirituality


Dependent Variable Normative Commitment

Independent VariablesTeam Sense of Community, Organizational and Individual Goals,

Sense of Community, Opportunities of Inner Life, Sense of Enjoyment at Work.

Table 4

NORMATIVE COMMITMENT

MODEL SUMMARY

Model R R square Adjusted R square Std error of the

estimate

1 .383a

.147 .125 .712887

ANOVA

Model

Sum of

squares

Degrees of

freedom

Mean

square

F Significance

value

Regression 17.012 5 3.402 6.695 .000a

Residual 99.100 195 .508

Total 116.113 200

COEFFICIENTS

Model Un standardized coefficients Standardized

coefficients

t Significance

value


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B Std error Beta

1(Constant) 1.731 .324 5.347 .000

TSC .026 .081 .024 .318 .751

OIG .290 .113 .203 2.578 .011

SOC .053 .093 .043 .571 .569

SOE .064 .066 .068 .966 .335

OIL -.200 .056 -.244 -3.580 .000

Interpretation

In the above model is analyzed with normative commitment and spirituality variables. Based on


significance of the model in the ANOVA table is less than 0.01 and this indicates that the modelis very good. It is observed from the model that highly influence the normative commitment of

organization and individual goal is 0.290 and least influential factor of opportunities for inner

life is -0.200 when compared to the influence of other factors.

Prediction of Factors Influencing Normative Commitment towards Spirituality


Dependent Variable Normative Commitment

Independent VariablesTeam Sense of Community, Organizational and Individual Goals,Sense of Community, Opportunities of Inner Life, Sense of Enjoyment at Work.

Table 4

CONTINUANCE COMMITMENT

MODEL SUMMARY

Model R R square Adjusted R

square

Std error of the

estimate

1 .440a

.194 .173 .890613

ANOVA

Model

Sum of

squares

Degrees of

freedom

Mean

square

F Significance

value

Regression 37.196 5 7.439 9.379 .000a


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Interpretation

In the above model is analyzed with normative commitment and spirituality variables. Based on


significance of the model in the ANOVA table is less than 0.01 and this indicates that the model

is very good. It is observed from the model that highly influence the normative commitment of

opportunities for inner life is .417 and least influential factor of Team sense of community is -

.226 when compared to the influence of other factors.

ONE WAY ANOVA

Table 5

Prediction of factors influencing through Age

ANOVA

Model Sum of

squares

Degrees

of

freedom

Mean square F Significance

value

Affective

Commitment

Between Groups 4.843 3 1.614 5.586 .001

Within Groups 56.941 197 .289

Residual 154.672 195 .793

Total 191.868 200

COEFFICIENTS

Model Unstandardized coefficients Standardized

coefficients

t Significance

value

B Std error Beta

1(Constant) 2.464 .404 6.094 .000

TSC -.226 .102 -.161 -

2.222

.027

OIG -.078 .141 -.043 -.557 .578

SOC .065 .116 .041 .561 .575

SOE -.033 .082 -.027 -.395 .693

OIL .417 .070 .396 5.976 .000


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Total 61.784 200

Normative

Commitment

Between Groups 1.611 3 .537 .924 .430


Total 116.113 200

Continuance

Commitment

Between Groups 3.493 3 1.164 1.217 .305


Total 191.868 200

Teams Sense of

Community

Between Groups 1.533 3 .511 1.045 .374


Total 97.842 200

Alignment between

organizational and

Individual Goals

Between Groups 1.068 3 .356 1.262 .289


Total 56.644 200

Sense of

Contribution to the

community

Between Groups 8.756 3 2.919 8.372 .000


Total 77.434 200

Sense of

Enjoyment at Work

Between Groups 2.424 3 .808 1.218 .304


Total 133.090 200

Opportunities for

inner Life

Between Groups 7.436 3 2.479 2.949 .034



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Total 173.040 200

Interpretation

In the above table, the relationship between age and the other factors has been predicted. It

indicates that the factors affective commitment, sense of contribution to the community and

opportunities for inner life shows there is a relationship with age. It also anticipates that the

factors normative commitment, continuance commitment, team sense of community, alignment

between organizational and individual goals and sense of enjoyment at work have no relationship

towards age.

Table 6

Prediction of factors influencing through Tenure

ANOVA

Model Sum of

squares

Degrees

of

freedom

Mean square F Significance

value

Affective

Commitment

Between Groups 4.462 3 1.487 5.112 .002


Total 61.784 200

Normative

Commitment

Between Groups 3.873 3 1.291 2.266 .082


Total 116.113 200

Continuance

Commitment

Between Groups 5.825 3 1.942 2.056 .107


Total 191.868 200

Teams Sense of Between Groups 4.141 3 1.380 2.902 .036


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Community Within Groups 93.701 197 .476

Total 97.842 200

Alignment between

organizational and

Individual Goals

Between Groups 1.137 3 .379 1.345 .261


Total 56.644 200

Sense of

Contribution to the

community

Between Groups 5.727 3 1.909 5.245 .002


Total 77.434 200

Sense of

Enjoyment at Work

Between Groups 5.945 3 1.982 3.070 .029


Total 133.090 200

Opportunities for

inner Life

Between Groups 2.948 3 .983 1.138 .335


Total 173.040 200

Interpretation

In the above table, the relationship between tenure and the other factors has been predicted. It

indicates that the factors affective commitment, sense of contribution to the community, team

sense of community,and sense of enjoyment at work shows there is a relationship with age. Italso anticipates that the factors normative commitment, continuance commitment, alignment

between organizational and individual goals, opportunities for inner life has no relationship

towards Tenure.


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Findings and Discussions

The correlation among the constructs in the spirituality at workplace model is found to be very

high. The regression analysis can be inferred briefly as follows

TSC OIG SOC SOE OILAC YES NO YES NO NO

NC NO YES NO YES NO

CC NO NO YES NO YES

In the above table, Yes signifies that the variables influences the model and No refers that

the variables have very meager or no influence on the model.

The first model predicts the factor Affective commitment and it is observed that the factorsteam sense of community and sense of contribution to the community have more influence on

the model.

In the second model the extended spirituality at workplace variables are used to predict the

factor Normative commitment. It is observed that the factors alignment between

organizational and individual goals and sense of enjoyment at work have more influence on

the model

In the third model the extended spirituality at workplace variables are used to predict the

factor Continuance commitment. It is observed that the factors sense of contribution to the

community and opportunities for inner life have more influence on the model.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that workplace spirituality relevant for the organizational functioning, effective

commitment and productivity of employees. This research shows that people in a higher or lower

degree have spiritual needs and want to reach success through their work, also they wish to be

treated with respect and dignity, and to share their existence with other people. If work provides

meaning for their lives, it is likely that their work becomes a calling, rather than a mere job.

This research may help practitioners by identifying organizational and leadership practices that

nourish the employees search for meaning and how such nourishment promotes personal growth

and happiness, and makes them more committed and productive. This research has contributed to

understanding the degree to which some organizational climates, rich or poor in spirituality can

promote organizational commitment and productivity.


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a study on the workplace spirituality climate

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