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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS

Effect of Spirituality in workplace on Job Performance

Article · January 2013

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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS VOL 5, NO 2

Effect of Spirituality in workplace on Job Performance

MalikehBeheshtifar
Management Department, Rafsanjan Branch, Islamic AZAD University, Iran
Elham Zare
Management Department, Rafsanjan Branch, Islamic AZAD University, Iran

Abstract
Scholars report a steady increase of interest in spirituality at work issues among management
researchers and practitioners. Although the concept of spirituality in the workplace has
increasingly gained popularity in the past few years nevertheless, this literature review
recognizes that the term spirituality means different things to many people. Spirituality
defines as expressing our desires to find meaning and purpose in our lives and is a process of
living out one’s set of deeply held personal values. Workplace spirituality involves the effort
to find one’s ultimate purpose in life, to develop a strong connection to coworkers and other
people associated with work, and to have consistency or alignment between one’s core beliefs
and values of their organization. The spirituality at work field by integrating three different
perspectives on how spirituality enables or leads to organizational performance: Human
resources perspective: Spirituality enhances employee well-being and quality of life;
Philosophical perspective: Spirituality provides employees a sense of purpose and meaning at
work; Interpersonal perspective: Spirituality provides employees a sense of inter-
connectedness and community. Indeed, it has been suggested that organizations that
encourage spirituality experiences improved their organizational performance and
profitability.
Keywords: spirituality, spirituality in workplace, performance
Introduction
A number of scholars mention a paradigm shift in organizational sciences, management
theory and practice in the past two decades (Giacalone and Dafna, 2000)
These changes in management include a shift from an economic focus to a balance of profits,
quality of life, spirituality, and social responsibility concerns (Walsh, et al., 2003).
The term “spirituality” has its roots in 17th century France, where it described a form of
contemplation favored by the quietist movement. By the 19th century, it had become
associated with mysticism and piety (Wright, 2004). The term “spirituality” comes from the
Latin word “spiritus” or “spiritualis” that means breathing, breath, air or wind (Merriam-
Webster). Spiritus is defined as “an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical
organisms” (Merriam-Webster). This implies spirit is the life force that inhabits us when we
are alive and breathing (Garcia-Zamor, 2003). Gibbons (2000) discusses spirituality in the
context of deeply held values.
Over the last decade, scholars report a steady increase of interest in spirituality at work issues
among management researchers and practitioners (Cavanagh, 1999). Spirituality, spiritual
practices, and spiritual values, have been noticeably absent as variables in organizational
research, yet they may be among the most powerful variables related to personal, team, and
organizational effectiveness (Heermann, 1997). Although the literature and interest on
spirituality at work is growing rapidly; there is confusion around how spirituality influences
organizational performance.
There are more than seventy definitions of spirituality at work, and still, there is no widely
accepted definition of spirituality (Markow and Klenke, 2005). Laabs (1995) points out that
“defining spirituality in the workplace is like capturing an angel - it's ethereal and beautiful,
but perplexing” (p.63).
Although the concept of “spirituality in the workplace” has increasingly gained popularity in
the past few years nevertheless, this literature review recognizes that the term spirituality

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means different things to many people. Dr. Judy Neal, founder and president of the
Association for Spirit at Work, found that managers often confuse spirituality with religion
(Brandt, 1996).
There is growing evidence in spirituality research that workplace spirituality programs result
in positive individual level outcomes for employees such as increased joy, serenity, job
satisfaction and commitment (Reave, 2005).
Research performed by University of Southern California’s Marshall Graduate School of
Business Professor Ian Mitroff (Mitroff, 1999) indicates that organizations which identify
themselves as spiritual have employees who:
1) are less fearful of their organizations;
2) are less likely to compromise their basic beliefs and values in the workplace;
3) perceive their organizations as being significantly more profitable; and,
4) report that they can bring significantly more of their complete selves to work, especially
their creativity and intelligence.
Many studies have indicated that what gives individuals the most meaning and purpose in
their job is the ability to realize their full potential as a person (McCoy, 2001).

Spirituality in workplace
Wagner-Marsh and Conley (1999) suggested that there has been “an organizational fourth
wave”, referring to an aftermath of Toffler’s (1980) technological third wave and they called
this “the spiritually based firm” (p.292). The terms spiritual and spirituality relate to the spirit,
the unseen makeup of humans (Garrett, 2004).
Bruce (2000) surveyed members of the American Society for Public Administration
regarding their views about spirituality in the workplace and found that 70% of members
defined themselves as spiritual, nearly 60% of respondents felt that their career choice, that of
public service, was a spiritual calling, 56% did not believe it was “appropriate to talk about
spirituality” in the workplace.
Neck and Milliman (1994, p. 9) define spirituality as “expressing our desires to find meaning
and purpose in our lives and is a process of living out one’s set of deeply held personal
values”. Therefore, spirituality is generally viewed as some “internal substance”, “a value,
belief, attitude, or emotion”, “that affects people’s behavior” (Moore & Casper, 2006, p. 109-
110).
Also, Neck and Milliman (1994) defined spirituality in business organizations and suggested
how it can affect employee and organizational performance. They discussed how a new
leadership theory, thought self-leadership, can assist employees in influencing or leading
themselves towards experiencing more spirituality in their work. They argued that spirituality
involves an individual's search to fulfill their potential for greater meaning and life purpose in
their work, alongside a strong sense of community and need to contribute to the betterment of
society. The goal of spirituality is typically to reach a highly evolved personal state or
attainment of one's highest potential, which in turn can lead to greater employee creativity,
motivation, and organizational commitment.
The components of spirituality appear to have some link to the debate as to whether
spirituality and religion are related. For example, MacDonald (2000) found five dimensions of
spirituality:
1) beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions;
2) transcendental experiences;
3) sense of meaning for existence;
4)belief in the paranormal; and
5) religious behavior and practice.

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On the other hand, Burack (1999) defined workplace spirituality by using three concepts of
spirituality in the workplace as his working definition:
• Spiritual growth and advancement of the human experience involve mental growth –
problem solving and individual learning will often be the main vehicles of individual
development.
• Spiritual growth reflects the gratification of individual needs especially “belonging” and
those of higher order such as a sense of achievement. The individual’s context for these is
broad encompassing work-family connections and work-place settings.
• Spirituality in the workplace is communicated and reinforced through the institution’s
leaders, organizational culture, policies and work design among other factors. Sensitivity to
interest in the person (employee) must be common to all approaches (p. 281).
Also, workplace spirituality has been defined as “a framework of organizational values
evidenced in the culture that promote employees’ experience of transcendence through the
work process, facilitating their sense of being connected to others in a way that provides
feelings of completeness and joy' (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2004, p.129).
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 (Harrington, 2004).
Workplace spirituality involves the effort to find one’s ultimate purpose in life, to develop a
strong connection to coworkers and other people associated with work, and to have
consistency or alignment between one’s core beliefs and values of their organization (Mitroff
and Denton, 1999).

Dimensions of Workplace Spirituality

Kinjerski & Skrypnek’s (2006) conceptualization of individual spirituality at work has three
of the four dimensions as follows: engaging work (meaningful work), sense of community,
and spiritual connection (inner life).
Another model suggested the following dimensions:
1. Team Sense of Community
This item involves having a deep connection to or relationship with others which has been
articulated as a sense of community. This dimension occurs at the group level of human
behaviors and concerns interactions between employees and co-workers.
1. Alignment Between Organizational and Individuals Values
It includes items representing the congruence between the organizational values and the inner
life of individuals. Also this descriptor may seem semantically different from the others, it is
likely that it means that people feel more aligned/ comfortable when they feel like working in
organizations whose leaders seek the social good of the community and not just the selfish
interest s of the organization and or/of shareholders. Alignment means that individuals believe
that managers and employees in their organization have appropriate values, have a strong
conscience and are concerned about the welfare of its employees and community.
2. Sense of Contribution to the Community
This aggregates items meaning that work done by the individual is congruent with his/
her personal life values and is helpful for the community. It is similar to the “meaningful
work” dimension proposed by Milliman et al and Ashmos and Duchon.
3. Sense of Enjoyment at Work
It comprises items related to the sense of joy and pleasure at work. It is a sub-dimension of the
larger dimension identified by Milliman et al and Ashmos and Duchon as “meaningful work”.
It represents a different way to achieve meaning at work.

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4. Opportunities for Inner Life

Vail refers to inner life it as” the feeling individuals have about the fundamental meaning of
who they are, what they are doing and the contributions they are making”. This includes
descriptors concerning the way the organization respects the spirituality and spiritual values
of the individuals. It represents the absence/presence of the “ blocks to spirituality” identified
by Ashmos and Duchon.
5. Sense of God Supervision
In Islamic thought, god is supervising all our manners and deeds both large and tiny ones,
thus and no one can be hidden from his sight and supervision. There is a belief that god even
dominates on human’s thought, as Qoran commands: “God is aware of treachery in people’s
eyes and hidden ideas in their hearts.” Hence, preventing God 's punishments and rendering
accounts in resurrection day , the real Muslim tries not to
do illegal and wrong actions. Unlike non –Islamic societies, this is point for Islamic managers
that employers and people know god present and supervisor on their actions
(Khanifar, 2010)
Spirituality in workplace and Job Performance
The anti-materialist characteristic of spirituality may pose important challenges in the
scientific investigation of its links to financial performance (Fornaciari and Lund Dean,
2001). Some researchers supporting this position point out to the fact that there may indeed be
ethical pitfalls and moral concerns in the research question of whether enabling or
incorporating spirituality at work results in better organizational performance or profitability
(Dent, et al., 2005).
Milliman (1994) claim spirituality values have positive effects on both personal well-being
and job performance. So, Harrington et al. (2001) suggested that the more congruent
employees' values and spiritual aspirations are with the organization, the greater the
possibility that employees will find true meaning at work. Spirituality and its components
must be understood with greater precision to allow businesses to adopt policies and programs
that energize the spiritual nature of their employees.
Karakas (2009) reviewed about 140 articles on workplace spirituality and introduced:
(a) Spirituality enhances employee well being and quality of life;
(b) Spirituality provides employees a sense of purpose and meaning at work;
(c) Spirituality provides employees a sense of interconnectedness and community.
Fry and Matherly (2006) identified spiritual internalized general regulative ideal, based on
four common aspects of spirituality: self-transcendence, interconnectedness, meaning and
one's ultimate concern, that governs what individuals perceive and value and how they act.
These moral values practiced over time become virtues. Spiritually virtuous individuals
contribute significant benefits to organizations.
Harrington et al. (2001) suggested that the more congruent employees' values and spiritual
aspirations are with the organization, the greater the possibility that employees will find true
meaning at work. Spirituality and its components must be understood with greater precision to
allow businesses to adopt policies and programs that energize the spiritual nature of their
employees.
Fry and Matherly (2006) identified spiritual leadership theory (SLT) as a causal theory for
organizational transformation designed to create an intrinsically motivated, learning
organization. They argued that employee commitment may be a universal performance
dimension in all strategic scorecards and its generalizability along with the proposition that
spiritual leadership is a major driver should be investigated in future research.

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The spirituality at work field by integrating three different perspectives on how spirituality
enables or leads to organizational performance:
a) Human resources perspective: Spirituality enhances employee well-being and
quality of life;
b) Philosophical perspective: Spirituality provides employees a sense of purpose and
meaning at work;
c) Interpersonal perspective: Spirituality provides employees a sense of inter-connectedness
and community.
Additional research reveals that organizations that have voluntary spirituality programs have
had higher profits and success (Dehler and Welsh, 1994

Conclusion
Some scholars argue that spirituality can be used to improve organizational performance
(Garcia-Zamor, 2003). Spirituality is an essential part of an individual’s holistic health and
well-being. Here are five key concepts based upon research conducted by Martsolf and
Mickley (1998):
• Meaning- significance of life; making sense of situation; deriving purpose.
• Values- beliefs, standards and ethics that are cherished.
•Transcendence- experience, awareness, and appreciation of a “transcendent dimension” to
life beyond self.
• Connecting- increased awareness of a connection with self, others, God/Spirit/Divine, and
nature.
• Becoming- an unfolding of life that demands reflection and experience; includes a sense of
who is and how one knows. (p. 2)
Research suggests that the encouragement of spirituality in the workplace can lead to benefits
in the areas of creativity, process improvement, customer service, honesty and trust, personal
fulfillments, and commitment, which will ultimately lead to increased organizational
performance (Krishnakumaret al., 2002).
Indeed, it has been suggested that organizations that encourage spirituality experiences
improved their organizational performance and profitability. Employees and managers
increasingly need to reflect on the ways of incorporating spirituality in workplace as a factor
to promote job performance.

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