Impact of Workplace Spirituality on Organizational Commitment – A Study in an Emerging Economy

Abstract

Workplace spirituality has emerged as one of the effective mechanisms to induce organizational commitment, job involvement, creativity, innovation and to reduce employee turnover intentions. This has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide, and there have been several studies on the components and effect of workplace spirituality on employee performance in Western nations. The Covid 19 pandemic has led to job losses and pay cuts across industries, leading to an alarming Increase in stress, depression and alcohol and substance abuse among employees. However, hardly any studies have been conducted on workplace spirituality in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, leaving a gap in the literature. This study investigates the impact of four dimensions of workplace spirituality namely, meaningful work, inner life, organizational values and sense of community on the organizational commitment of employees working in various organizations in Oman during Covid-19. The study employs survey data collected from 117 respondents across various managerial levels using a structured questionnaire having 20 items. The data has been analyzed using SmartPLS 3 software. The results reveal the impact of the chosen dimensions of workplace spirituality on the organizational
commitment of employees. The findings of the study suggest that meaningful work has the highest impact on organizational commitment, followed by inner life and sense of community. Organizational values have been found not to have a significant effect on organizational commitment. Workplace spirituality can have a profound impact on the mental health and wellbeing of employees in these troubled times.