Workplace Spirituality

Introduction

Workplace spirituality and employee engagement have been topics of interest for both academicians and practitioners for quite some time. This increased attention has been a result of many factors such as emerging ethical concerns, enlightened leadership theories, emphasis on the higher order needs of the employee, employees’ quest for meaningful work, an attitudinal shift toward wholeness and empowerment etc. Workplace spirituality though initially seen as a passing fad continues to gain acceptance as topic to study in business schools as well as among practicing managers. In the beginning, spirituality had been traditionally seen as an aspect of one’s religious life. However, in its recent usage spirituality is a contrast to

Besides, it has been defined in ways that overlap with other organizational behavior constructs such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (Saks 2006). Engagement involves the use of cognitive, emotional and behavioral energies at workplace while working in coherence with the organization’s objectives and strategies (Andrew & Sofian, 2011). Kahn was the first to define engagement in light of employees’ psychological presence while performing an organizational role. Researches show that there is a connection between engaged employees and business performance (Harter et al., 2002).Engaged employees display greater organizational commitment and low tendency to leave the organization (Schaufeli and Bakker

However, if one is to review the definitions and dimensions related to these two concepts, several commonalities can be found suggesting that these two might be connected to a great extent. Researchers have directly theorized the spirituality engagement connection and have called for further empirical investigation to explore the same (Saks, 2011; Poole, 2009).Despite the interest and theoretical arguments, the relationship between these two constructs has been under explored. Understanding how these constructs are related will offer new insights to counter declining levels of employee engagement which is a priority for organizations and leaders worldwide. Both of the constructs have proved to be immensely beneficial for organizations and promoting one might lead to the enhancement of other making the workplace more humanistic and meaningful.

Ensuring positive work outcomes is vital for overall organizational success. Higher levels of organizational commitment, intrinsic work satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior and job involvement result in a highly engaged and aligned work force which is imperative for any organization to achieve its