Spirituality in the Workplace: Review of Empirical Studies and Proposing Research Agendas

Abstract: Since the 2000s, scholarly interests in workplace spirituality have been growing, and many studies have attempted to conceptualize workplace spirituality and identify its outcomes (Houghton et al., 2016). In the competitive and materialized labor market, individual workers often experience a lack of meaning or purpose in their work and a feeling of isolation and unconnectedness (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Houghton et al., 2016). Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic led to dramatic changes in how people work and learn in the workplace and increased job insecurity in the labor market and employees’ anxiety and stress (Srivastava & Gupta, 2022; Yin & Mahrous, 2021). Such challenging experiences individuals encounter in the workplace and the recent changes due to the pandemic have accelerated the increasing interest in workplace spirituality.
Spirituality has been traditionally understood from the religious view as something far from the secular world, but it is now a more comprehensive concept beyond the religious concept (Houghton et al., 2016). Yet, there is still a disagreement in defining spirituality in the workplace from different perspectives. Krishnakumar and Neck (2002) addressed three different views on workplace spirituality: the intrinsic-origin view, the externalist view, and the religious view. The intrinsic-origin and the externalist views have been more commonly accepted in most research on workplace spirituality, while workplace spirituality is religion-specific from the religious view. From the intrinsic-origin perspective, spirituality refers to the inner feeling of completing or fulfilling oneself (Krishnakumar & Neck, 2002; Houghton et al., 2016). In the workplace, individual employees can feel connectedness or belongingness while working with others in groups or organizations. At the same time, an individual pursues to find meaning or purpose from their work beyond salaries or paychecks (Houghton et al., 2016). Taking the intrinsic and externalist views, Ashmos and Duchon (2000) conceptualize workplace spirituality with three dimensions - 1) inner life, 2) meaningful and purposeful work, and 3) a sense of connection and community - and at the different levels (e.g., individual, work unit, and organization levels) (Houghton et al., 2018). Based on the three components, Ashmos and Duchon (2000) developed measures of workplace spirituality, which have been widely used and revised in many empirical studies (e.g., Daniel, 2019; Iyer & Deshmukh, 2018; Otaye-Ebede et al., 2020). In this study, we also regard workplace spirituality as an integrative concept that comprises the whole development of a human being at work, taking the perspective of Ashmos and Duchon (2000).
The existing studies have identified empirical evidence to show the impact of workplace spirituality on individual and organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction (e.g., Belwalkar et al., 2018, Iyer & Deshmukh, 2018), employee well-being (e.g., Aboobaker, 2022), and job performance (e.g., Daniel, 2019), organizational citizenship behavior (e.g., Belwalkar et al., 2018), ethical climate (e.g., Nair & Sivakumar, 2018; Otaye-Ebede et al., 2020), and organizational commitment (e.g., Jeon & Choi, 2021). Although the existing studies have repetitively confirmed the significance of the workplace spirituality, there is limited research on it in the HRD field (e.g., Fenwick & Lange, 1998; Rahman et al., 2015). In addition, although several studies provided an integrative review of the current empirical studies, they generally focus on outcomes of workplace spirituality and sometimes research trends (e.g., Pandey, 2017; Vasconcelos, 2018).
Accordingly, this study aims to review the existing empirical studies on workplace spirituality and propose relevant research agendas from the HRD perspective. In pursuing this purpose, we will conduct a systemic literature review of the existing empirical studies about spirituality in the workplace. Next, we identify antecedents and predictors of workplace spirituality at individual and organizational levels from the current empirical studies. Lastly, we will propose research agendas on workplace spirituality based on our findings, especially from the HRD perspective. Our findings and proposed research agendas will help future research build a research model and reveal the relationships between other variables and the workplace. Also, this study will encourage HRD scholars to research from the HRD perspective by guiding them to build a research framework or research questions. Next, given the antecedents and predictors of the workplace, this study will help HRD practitioners and organizations develop more effective interventions and support for employees’ spirituality by identifying factors influencing workplace spirituality.