Workplace Spirituality In The Workplace

WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY’S IMPACT ON THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

How does spirituality in the workplace relate to the bottom line of a business? Recent publications and studies have focused on the relationship between workplace spirituality and organizational performance (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003). Earlier studies showed a strong correlation between corporate culture/core values and profitability. A Harvard Business School study examined ten companies with strong corporate culture and ten with weak corporate culture, drawn from a list of 200 leading companies. Researchers in this study not only found a dramatic correlation between an organization‘s spiritual culture and its profitability; but, also found that, in some cases, the more spiritual

Some of the empirical studies provide the clues for relation of organizational performance with variables included in our key construct of spirituality in a work organization. Fortune magazine in its analysis of ‘Best Places to Work’ in the US, though it does not use the word spirituality, writes that these are places where people find a purpose to work other than their pay cheques (Colving 2006). Nur (2003) found in his study that organizations managed by spiritual values (MBV’s) earned better returns within a period of five years. Meta-analysis by Dent et al. (2005) showed the positive association of spirituality with productivity. The effect of spirituality at the workplace can spill over into employees’ home life, marriage, social interaction, and so on, which in turn, positively affects their work performance (Bromet et al. 1990; Jurkiewicz and Giacalone 2004). Marques (2005) suggest that spirituality results in a unified pleasant performance and quality orientation of the workforce which in turn results in excellent output and community orientation. The literature correlating workplace spirituality related factors with performance can be shown to converge into three areas; motivation, commitment and adaptability (Jurkiewicz and Giacalone

In the organizations with high levels of workplace spirituality, the employees were more flexible when encountering changes, they would usually not resist new ideas and they could manage the reforms (Salzmann, 1997; Adams et. al, 2003). Therefore, when the environment significantly changes, organizational reform would become regular with workplace spirituality, and the employees would adapt to the changes, which increased organizational efficiency and profits. In addition to the influences of individual positive factors on unit or organization efficacy (Neck & Milliman, 1994; Gawain, 2000; Krishna Kumar & Neck, 2002), many researchers demonstrated that workplace spirituality could enhance the employees’ family life, including their satisfaction with families and marriage, recreation and social activities, and even overall family economy. With the reduction of influences from family factors, work performance would be developed and the individuals thus had better work performance (Emmons,