Conceptualisation and Validation of Multidimensional Measure of Workplace Spirituality

Abstract

Workplace spirituality (WPS) has gained acknowledgement as a significant discipline in the corporate world. The dynamic environment leaves all the organisations in a quandary as to how to manage and take relevant and ethical decisions at the same time. However, despite the unprecedented challenges, organisations need to continuously stay agile, innovate for self-development and growth, and ultimately augment the wealth of the nation. It is at this time that WPS acquires utmost importance for the leaders. The research article intends to develop a scale and add new dimensions to the literature for measuring WPS from the point of view of the existing bank employees. We conducted two studies for testing the scale. For conducting Study 1, we applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotation, and for Study 2, we applied second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Statistics were drawn from 406 employees from banks in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). The results showed that WPS has seven dimensions, namely, meaningfulness, compassion, gratitude, authenticity, embracing diversity, resilience and inner peace, and others’ orientation. It may be useful for managers to analyse these dimensions in detail in order to identify their impact on employee work attitudes and job outcomes. We believe that this is a pioneering wherein WPS has been represented as a second-order factor. The concluding part of this paper contains an incisive discussion on future developments in the spirituality domain.

Keywords

Workplace spirituality Indian context meaningfulness scale development second order CFA

Introduction

Considering the current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, the significance of organisational values is gaining recognition, which should be followed by each and every employee of the organisation (Gupta et al., 2014). The motto of traditional business was ‘lean and mean’, however, for the modern business, the motto has changed to ‘lean and meaningful’. In this unstable and constantly evolving economic climate, it is imperative to create a more humane workplace. And how can that be achieved? We propose that workplace spirituality (WPS) can act as an instrument for ensuring the success of organisations in the long run. Spirituality is creeping at work and allows employees to find meaning and balance out their inner selves, also build up positive associations with colleagues and community around. This eventually helps them achieve organisational goals (Singh, 2019). Modern employees look for a culture which harmonises with their spirituality and help them balance out personal needs along with the work demands (Bharadwaj & Jamal, 2020).

WPS is currently an exciting area of research due to its appropriateness for the well-being of employees in today’s tough and challenging times, with its associated benefits for both organisations and societies (Sheep, 2006). According to Matthieu (2017), much of the work done in this area is useful and mentally stimulating, but there is a need to disseminate it more widely and undertake more empirical studies to prevent the theories associated with the concept of spirituality from becoming obsolete. In view of the developing trend of WSP, it is imperative to consolidate the wave of spirituality. Further, a scientific inquiry into the concept may also open up new horizons and help expand organisational science (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003). In order to find out how WPS is assisting organisations attain their goals, it becomes imperative to analyse its measurement aspect, that is, assessing the dimensions of WPS. Surprisingly, despite its innumerable benefits, research catering to the development of scale to measure it is currently being carried out only sparingly in India. The application and impact of this concept in the work context has not been sufficiently theorised (Dirkx, 2013). Several researchers have worked on studies to add on to the theory and applicability of spirituality (Gamble & Beer, 2017). Scholars have still not come up with a significant yet comprehensive description of the concept so much, so that, the concept has not even been defined appropriately in the extant literature (Alas & Mousa, 2016; Hassan et al., 2016). In order to optimise the strength of WPS, there is an enormous need to build an authentic scale in academic research.

Significance of the Study

Spirituality has a contextual nature and differs from individual to individual and culture to culture. Several studies have identified dimensions of WPS (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2006; Milliman et al., 2003; Pandey et al., 2009; Petchsawanga & Duchon, 2009; Pradhan & Jena, 2016; Rego & Cunha, 2008). Most of them have limitations, which calls for development of a reliable and valid WPS scale. The scale developed by Ashmos and Duchon (2000) is the most implemented scale in the context of WPS. One of the intriguing observations is that several studies have been undertaken in the Western context (Petchsawanga & Duchon, 2009; Yadav & Maheshwari, 2019) and only a few have been conducted in the eastern context, with the first one among these having investigated spirituality in Thailand (Petchsawanga & Duchon, 2009), and the other two having explored spiritual orientation in the Indian context (Pandey et al., 2009; Singh & Premarajan, 2007). Thereby creating an opportunity for further exploration into the dimensions of WPS. Moreover, most of the existing scales focus majorly on organisational aspect of WPS, that is, how an organisation can facilitate spirituality, individual aspects have been found missing in several scales. In order to counter these limitations, an attempt has been made to bring forth WPS as a multilevel construct comprising individual- and collective-level facets. The focus of this study is on adding to the currently small corpus of studies on WPS by putting forth the dimensions of WPS explored using both inductive and deductive approaches. It also intends to provide a detailed reflection of the perceptions of employees not only in private and public sector banks, but also those in foreign banks, offering a broader perspective and promoting the generalisability of results.

The Indian banking sector has undergone profound transformations in last few years. As a result, there is need to employ new management practices for better performance. Employees in the banking sector have learnt about the necessity of going beyond exhibiting more than just basic the good behaviour towards customers (Manikyam, 2014). Engagement in spiritual activities, such as yoga, meditation, prayer meetings and so on are found to be less in high-profile banks (Belwalkar et al., 2018). This outlines the need to create a more meaningful and engaging environment for bank employees by designing spiritual activities, so that, they can work with greater dedication and involvement, becoming more innovative and productive in the process. In order to gain an in-depth perspective of the issue, the study begins with a conceptual background of spirituality at workplace, followed by an analysis of the perception of spirituality as conceptualised by Indian bank managers through the conduction of semi-structured interviews.

In the light of the above discussion, this study mainly focusses on:

Building and advancing the understanding of spirituality in the workplace as a significant concept, by adding new dimensions to the literature and

Developing a higher-order measurement model and testing it empirically to determine the nature of the relationship between the comprehensive WPS concept and its multiple dimensions.

Literature Review

Theoretical Background of Spirituality

Whenever we talk about WPS, the first question that comes to mind is—what do you mean by spirituality? Sadly, there is no simple answer to this question. Although many attempts have been made to explain the concept of spirituality, there is no ‘one size fits all’ definition for it. Spirituality is considered to be an intricate and multidimensional concept (George et al., 2000; Moberg, 2002). Talking about spirituality in terms of empirical testing, the area was literally quite unexplained, before the 1980s. People have come up with their own meanings (for their own purposes) regarding spirituality, they were not really worried about obtaining any universal acceptance or like mindedness for their ‘personal’ frame of reference and beliefs (Ratnakar & Nair, 2012). Spirituality is something which is innate in an individual just like self-identity and self- esteem. However, the level of self-awareness about spirituality differs from individual to individual (Singh & Premarajan, 2007). There is difference in individuals’ ability to practice spirituality as well.

Despite a large number of studies on spirituality, there is no single and worldwide accepted operational definition of spirituality (Badrinarayanan & Madhavaram, 2008). In fact, Zohar (2000) said that in actuality, it may be so difficult to define spirituality that it may seem next to impossible. Due to the complex nature of spirituality, a large number of dimensions have come up and it is difficult to conclude to any one distinct concept. It is imperative that contextually appropriate definitions be used and operationalised for defining spirituality. It is about research ethics.

Spirituality and Religion

The notion of spirituality has been related and explained with its similarity or dissimilarity from religiousness. In terms of similarity, spirituality has often been used interchangeably with religiousness (Slater et al., 2001), however, some consider it a broader concept than spirituality (Hill & Pargament, 2003). When viewed in terms of dissimilarity, there are several viewpoints, such as religiousness is very dogmatic, organised, institutional, more observable and more behaviour-oriented, lays more emphasis on community focussed and observable practices (Iannello et al., 2019) and is considered inappropriate to be discussed in the workplace. Spirituality on the other hand is very personal connection with transcendent realities, and for interconnectedness with humanity (Benson & Roehlkepartain, 2008; Worthington et al., 2011; Zinnbauer et al., 1999), very subjective, informal, universal, inwardly directed, less visible, emotionally oriented and appropriate to be demonstrated at the workplace (Hyman & Handal, 2006; Mitroff & Denton, 1999). Both the concepts are overlapping, multidimensional, related, but not identical. Often both are examined as supplementary concepts by many researchers (Gall & Guirguis-Younger, 2013; Paloutzian & Park, 2013). Contemporary researchers have often examined spirituality and religion concepts together considering religious facets like prayer, service attendance and religious behaviour (Gall & Guirguis-Younger, 2013). Generally speaking, spirituality has been viewed as a religious process in the exploration of the sacred or a humanistic approach with no religious implications. With reference to the past, spirituality was embedded in religious beliefs, and this viewpoint calls for powerful support (Cavanagh, 1999). Keeping this in view, the authors have conceptualised the concept of spirituality as apprehended by four different yet interrelated dimensions: interconnection with self, interconnection with human beings, interconnection with natural environment and interconnection with a supreme power or God.

Workplace Spirituality

In recent years, there have been major explorations of spirituality and its rising significance in the workplace. The concept of WPS is also distinct from the traditional idea of spirituality, in that, it portrays an employee as a spiritual entity looking to attain spiritual well-being through meaningful work and a sense of community at work (Gupta et al., 2014). WPS is all about compassion, authenticity, helping society and loving one’s own values at work. It is related to employees who look job for finding meaning and a source of inspiration. It is also about looking at work as an opportunity to contribute to the society through service and welfare (Srirangarajan & Bhaskar, 2011). There are two vital components of spirituality at work—organisation and individuals. The policies and practices form part of organisation while individuals are the ones who put those policies into practice, thus, it is essential to understand what makes the employees accept and promote spirituality at work (Singh & Premarajan, 2007). The five dimensions identified of WPS were team’s sense of community, alignment with organisational values, sense of contribution to society, enjoyment at work and opportunities for inner life (Rego & Cunha, 2008). Research ethics mandates that contextually appropriate definitions be used and operationalised for defining WPS. Table 1 delineates the key dimensions of WPS in literature.

Table 1.

Key Dimensions of WPS Identified from Literature.

Authors & Sources	Proposed Dimensions
Ashmos and Duchon (2000)	Meaningful work, sense of community, alignment of values
Caroline and Peter (2001)	Interconnection with a higher power, interconnection with human beings, interconnection with nature and all living things
Dehler and Welsh (1994)	Search for meaning, deeper self-knowledge and transcendence of self
Milliman et al. (2003)	Work meaningful dimensions, community sense dimensions, coherent of organisational value dimensions
Sheep (2004)	Self-workplace integration, meaningful work, transcendence of self and personal growth and development
Duchon and Plowman (2005)	Community, meaning at work, inner life, work unit community, work unit and meaningful work
Kinjerski and Skrypnek (2006)	Engaging work, mystical experiences, spiritual connection, sense of community
Rego and Cunha (2008)	Team’s sense of community, alignment between organisational and individual values, sense of contribution to the community, sense of enjoyment at work, opportunities for the inner life
Petchsawanga and Duchon (2009)	Compassion, mindfulness, meaningful work, transcendence
Pandey et al. (2009)	Swadharma, loksangrah, community, authenticity
Pradhan and Jena (2016)	Spiritual orientation, compassion, meaningful work and alignment of values

Source: Developed by authors based on the literature.

Critical Analysis of the Existing Scales and Approaches of Workplace Spirituality

A detailed examination of the various definitions of WPS in literature (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2006; Milliman et al., 2003; Petchsawanga & Duchon, 2009; Rego & Cunha, 2008) reveals four broad dimensions which can encompass all other dimensions. The essential components of WPS have been identified as meaning, community, transcendence and inner life. In order to understand the concept of WPS better, a comparative analysis of most frequently used scales in the literature was undertaken (refer to Table 2). The scales developed by Ashmos & Duchon (2000), Kinjerski & Skrypnek (2006), Milliman et al. (2003), Petchsawanga & Duchon (2009) and Rego & Cunha (2008) did not report findings related to discriminant validity. In the spiritual climate scale developed by Pandey et al. (2009), measurement of reliability was done and discriminant validity was checked only by looking at the occurrence of negative loading of the reverse coded items. The other methods, such as Fornell and Larcker (1981) criterion or HTMT ratio, were not used to measure discriminant validity. This study is unique because it enunciates two novel and significant dimensions, namely, embracing diversity and resilience and inner peace, which currently do not exist in the literature of WPS. At the same time, it reports discriminant validity using the Fornell–Larcker criterion.

Table 2 shows the existence or non-existence of various elements related to the dimension of meaningful work; sense of community; transcendence, which may be sub-divided into the concepts of meditative work, concern for environment and society, and mystical experience; and inner life in the most frequently used scales in the literature. A comparison has been drawn between the scales, keeping in view the current study as well. Key observations are that the rate of repetition of the elements associated to the domain of ‘transcendence’ and ‘inner life’ is comparatively lesser than that of the elements that belong to the domain of ‘meaning’ and ‘community’. In addition to that ‘transcendence’ and ‘inner life’ relate to higher aspects of meaning at workplace, these dimensions do not hold place as intense as the other dimensions of meaning and community. Inner life dimension was considered by Ashmos & Duchon (2000), however was not given due importance by later researchers, such as Milliman et al. (2003). Mystical experience (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2006) refers to a form of self-transcendence. The employees experience a sense of mingling with work or something greater. This dimension was not considered a holistic one for the study, since the employees did not mention anything related to an experience which was extremely submerging. At the same time, interviews led to the conclusion that connecting with higher power or God was considered as something very individualistic and personal.

Table 2.

Comparison of Frequently Used WPS Scales.

Elements	Ashmos and Duchon (2000)	Milliman et al. (2003)	Kinjerski and Skrypnek (2006)	Rego and Cunha (2008)	Petchsawanga and Duchon, (2009)	Pandey et al. (2009)	Current Study
Meaning in work
Personal importance of work	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Experiencing joy in work	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Everyday enthusiasm to go to office	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Experience of completeness through work	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Attaining one’s full potential	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Sense of personal fulfilment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sense of community
Sense of cooperation and belongingness	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sense of common purpose	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mutual support and care	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fairness at work	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Link with a common purpose	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Respect for diversity	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Transcendence
Concern of organisation for its employees	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Alignment of personal values with the organisational values	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Positivity towards values of organisation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Care of employees by the organisation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Concern for energising the spirit of employees	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Concern about the health of employees	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Feeling hopeful about future in the organisation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Meditative work
Immensely lost in work during working hours	No	No	yes	No	yes	yes	yes
Lack of diversion from the work	No	No	No	No	No	yes	yes
Concern for society and environment
Avoiding wastage of electricity, paper, etc., at workplace	No	No	No	No	No	yes	yes
Helping society through csr activities	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Concern for nature and social environment	No	No	No	yes	No	yes	yes
Mystical experience
Experiencing bliss at work	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Experiencing high at work	No	No	Yes	No	yes	No	No
Ineffable energy at work	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Inner Life
Higher power as an inspirational source at work	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Admiration for one’s spirituality at work	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	yes
Allowing expression of individual spirituality at work	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	yes
Being in the present moment	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Concern for spiritual health of the employees	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Optimism about life	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	yes
Importance of god/prayer in life	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	yes
Thankfulness/gratitude at work	No	No	No	No	No	No	yes

Source: The authors.

Methodology

Hinkin’s (1995) paradigm was followed for the scale development. It includes three steps – item generation, scale refinement and scale evaluation. Two studies were carried out: Study 1 included item generation and refinement, while Study 2 included scale validation. Summary of the steps is given in Figure 1.

First Step: Item Generation

Creating the items is the first stage of assessing the construct. This research study combines both deductive and inductive approaches. Utilising the deductive approach, the researchers have examined and elaborated the work on WPS, by adding new dimensions to conceptualise it more comprehensively. Deductive approach involved a thorough study of the literature review on WPS with the dual aim of understanding the concept and obtaining a basis from which to formulate the questions for qualitative interviews. The entire scale development process is explained in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Source: The authors.

Item Generation and Expert Review

Using the inductive approach, we conducted 34 semi-structured interviews with the bank employees in order to gauge the factors that employees viewed as significant. Bernard (2000) suggested that when population is heterogeneous, around 36 participants are suitable for interviewing. For selecting the participants for the interview, we used purposive sampling to make sure that the participants were most suitable for the study. Employees having an experience of more than two years were chosen for interviews as they ought to have knowledge about the functioning of the organisation. We developed holistic codes from the memos/text fragments obtained through interviews from the bank employees. The second step involved categorising into themes (WPS dimensions) by affinity to dimensions obtained from a systematic literature review. The first stage was based on semi-structured interviews with the bank employees, who were asked open-ended questions. They were briefed that this study intends to explore a shared understanding of spirituality at the workplace as perceived by Indian employees.

The aim of the interviews was to determine whether their current organisation is akin to a spiritual workplace and whether the employees feel spiritually fulfilled at work or not. The interviewees were debriefed about the study and field notes were prepared. Each interview lasted for about 20–40 min. Employees were asked about their perceptions and attitude towards spirituality. While probing into personal meanings ascribed to spirituality, the interviews also focussed on ‘slices of spirituality at work’, that is, experiences, incidents and key moments of spirituality at work. The interviewer tried to change the style of interviewing by changing the sequence of questions, ultimately, a point of saturation came wherein similar instances were coming again and again and there was no new information or further insight arising from the interviews.

The keywords and ideas expressed by the interviewees are mentioned in Table 3.

Primarily, the interview questions were divided into two sections:

SECTION A: We tried to find a definition of spirituality that could relate to the Indian context, so that, the participants were asked to give their own definition of spirituality. Participants were also told to think freely and not ponder over what would be right or wrong answer, rather they were requested to share their perception and understanding of spirituality. The main idea behind this section was to bring about the shared comprehension of the term spirituality in Indian context.

SECTION B was followed by questions, such as:

∘

What is your idea of spirituality at work? Have there been any instances through which spirituality evolved/got unfolded at work? Please give some examples.

∘

Does your bank conduct any spiritual practice?

∘

What guidelines could be proposed for implementation of effective spiritual programme within your bank?

Along with questions, the first battery of five statements (Questionnaire—A) was also shared with the interviewees aiming to gauge the spiritual awareness level among the executives. It extracted responses on Likert scale (1 for strongly disagree to 5 for strongly agree) to five simple questions:

Spirituality is something which should not even be discussed at banks.

Spirituality is very important attribute for today’s corporate leader

It is generally believed that religion plays an important role in practice of spirituality

Spirituality can bring better results if it is separated from religion

Spirituality can help increase employee engagement and productivity

There were two main ideas behind this section:

First, the interest was to find out spiritual awareness level among the executives, also try to understand whether employees are able to differentiate between religion and spirituality. Second, to explore how spirituality is displayed by bank employees and how it is manifested at banks. The outcome of the responses were:

Employees related religion with spirituality and were not able to clearly differentiate between the two, which led to the conclusion that both the terms are highly associated with each other in Indian context.

Majority (94%) of executives believed that spirituality at work can enhance productivity of the employees.

SECTION A—‘Meaning of spirituality’ (perception of Indian employees): In response to the first question asked concerning the meaning of ‘spirituality’, majority of employees related it to their belief in a supreme being, or God. The answers depicted a very high connection of Indian minds with the Sense of God, which clearly indicated that spirituality in Indian context assumes a religious meaning (refer to Figure 2). Interviewees claimed that by praising God, singing songs of God and by going to religious places, they get supreme motivation. This type of spiritual motivation is considered to be the deepest motivation one can experience, contributing to happiness and passion. Literature supports the belief of linking spirituality to religion, though not to a specific religion (Guillen et al., 2015). This is in line with the preaching of the Indian spiritual traditional scriptures like the Upanishads and the Bhagawad Geeta, which proclaim that the ultimate aim of every human being is to find God and unite with him. The interviewees were from multicultural backgrounds, thus, different viewpoints came forward.

One of the employees stated that

humans and God are same, there is no difference. When we do good actions and altruistic behaviour, it represents God. The ultimate aim of all the religions is to find and become one with God. Forming a deeper connection with God in every kind of circumstances be it pleasant or bad can be considered a way to find out one’s inclination towards spirituality.

Other participants said

praying every day, visiting temples, visiting other religious places, doing yoga, reading religious texts, singing religious songs, meditating helps me find peace, strength, and comfort. I lead a prayer group, I am also associated with Brahma kumari. God gives me inner strength and a belief to live, even if there are complications in life.

Figure 2.

Source: NVivo output.

SECTION B—‘Meaning of workplace spirituality’ or spirituality at work (perception of Indian employees): When employees were asked to share their idea of how spirituality is manifested at workplace. They did not relate it with God or higher power. The key concept that aroused was ‘The relationships’—how connected employees feel with their own self, by finding meaning and purpose in what they are doing, how connected they feel with their fellow colleagues and also how connected they feel with the environment and society. The keywords said by the interviewees are given in Table 3.

The definition of WPS that emerged from the survey asserts the concept of spirituality at the workplace as

an experience of employees who look their work as a spiritual track to find purpose and evolve. It is about being compassionate, embracing each other’s differences, being true to oneself and others at work, developing resilience and contributing to the society in a more meaningful way.

This definition has been used to unpack the measure of WPS. Following that, we analysed the psychometric properties of the proposed construct.

As per the perception of employees, sense of god is something very personal and relates with an individual’s daily life experience, rather than any experience at work. Keeping this in view, we propose that Sense of God should not be a dimension of WPS as a construct, rather it would be interesting to find how it would impact the relationship of WPS on job outcomes, when used as a moderator.

Taking conclusions from the inductive (semi-structured interviews) and deductive (literature review) modes, two primary themes and eight sub-themes were generated, and based on these themes, an instrument with 38 items was constructed. Every item was evaluated on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (representing the response ‘strongly disagree’) to 7 (representing the response ‘strongly agree’). The themes, generated after in-depth semi-structured interviews, are reported in Table 4.

Table 3.

Keywords Mentioned by the Interviewees.

Keywords Mentioned Said by the Interviewees	CODE
‘Understanding our own approach and purpose in life’ ‘Having a clear vision of mind and working towards dream achievement’ ‘Stay enthusiastic about work and dealing, enjoy coming for work each day’ ‘Appreciation of small things in life’ ‘Find meaning in whatever I do and that brings joy and happiness’.‘Searching for significance in each task, each day’ ‘Experiencing daily engagement with a legacy that integrates with life’	Meaningfulness
‘Troubled relationships lead to smouldering feelings becoming more spacious and gracious’ ‘At times we go through difficult times, maybe at the workplace or even in our personal life. It is always good if you have someone who can give support in times of need’ ‘It is about how I deal with others around, be more receptive’ ‘It is about the quality and not the quantity of moments that I spend with my colleagues’ ‘Developing a sense of consideration for colleagues leads to happiness, treating co-workers in a more responsible and caring way’ ‘Not being judgmental’	Compassion
‘Spirituality is basically a guide or rather a belief system for following an ethical system with less violation of that belief system’ ‘One should be same inside – out’ ‘Honesty and integrity are the keys’ ‘We handle people’s money, if one cannot be honest with that, problems may arise’ ‘At the same time, we handle customers’ personal documents, if we cannot be honest in handling such stuff, they may land in wrong hands’	Authenticity
‘Planting more plants and trees, having green buildings, saving electricity, switching off the computers, fans, lights and Acs while not in use are part of being spiritual and fulfilling our responsibility towards the environment’ ‘If I participate in the environmental protection initiatives/programmes organized by my bank, I consider it as part of being spiritual’ ‘Doing well for others, without expecting anything in return’ ‘We provide loans only to those organizations which have environmental concerns’ ‘We have started an initiative called “Go Green”, which includes activities like offering green products and green communication with customers. We have also reduced the use of paper by using E-ATM pin’	Others’ orientation
‘Appreciation at work is imperative and promotes effective collaboration and teamwork’ ‘Being thankful for this job makes me feel enthusiastic about it and I want to come to come to office every day’ ‘Grateful people are always welcoming. They acknowledge goodness in life and promote kindness as well as generosity’	Gratitude
‘Accept everyone even if we are not from the same background, language, religion, caste, and creed’ ‘Work as a team’ ‘Treat all equally, share the same goal’ ‘Everybody should be part of decision-making and there should be no bias based on gender and background’	Embracing diversity
‘Ever since the time I have involved myself into spiritual practices I have improved. I have become more receptive and have learnt to turn my negative thoughts and feelings into positive ones’ ‘I don’t need anyone to help me while I am working, I can do everything by myself. I feel strong’ ‘Even under lot of workload and tough conditions, I stay calm and composed’ ‘I take failure as a challenge to improve, spirituality guides to stay positive all the time’ ‘It is about feeling the peace within, be it at the workplace or on the personal front’	Resilience and inner peace

Source: The authors.

Table 4.

Themes Generated After In-depth Semi Structured Interviews.

Primary Themes	Sub-Themes
Meaning of personal/individual spirituality	Relationship with God
Meaning of spirituality at work	Relationship with self—meaningfulness
	Relationship with others—compassion
	Relationship with environment and society—others’ orientation
Influence of spirituality at workplace	Authenticity
	Resilience and inner peace
	Embracing diversity
	Gratitude

Source: The authors.

Content Validity

For establishing the content validity, the questionnaire that was developed was pre-tested with 14 participants, including four academicians and 10 employees of different banks (Malhotra, 2008). Research scholars and professors who have worked in the area of WPS were asked to evaluate the instrument. Employees with an experience of over 12–20 years in their respective areas of work were also asked to evaluate the questionnaire for clarity, comprehensibility, and relevance of the items. After the feedback was obtained from the experts, four items were dropped since there was overlap in the meanings of the statements. The remaining 34 items were retained and used for pilot testing.

Second Step: Scale Development/Refinement

Pilot Testing

The foremost step in scale purification involves evaluation of the internal reliability of the constructs using Cronbach’s alpha (α) (Churchill, 1979). In order to confirm the suitability of the items in the questionnaire, a pilot study was carried out with 42 employees. For all the 34 items, the α value came out to be above 0.7, which is acceptable (Nunnally, 1978). After reliability check, item-to-total correlation was calculated, three items, which had a corrected item-to-total correlation of less than 0.4, were removed. Finally, 31 items were left, which were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA).

Exploratory Factor Analysis

For doing EFA initially, a total of 340 questionnaires were circulated in eight banks, including three public sector banks, three private sector banks and two foreign banks, out of which 241 filled out questionnaires were received. Purposive sampling was used for data collection. Out of 241 employees, 25.62 % were females and 74.38 % were males. Majority of the employees (57. 63 %) had an experience of 5–10 years. A total of 48% employees are from public sector banks, 44.33% employees were from private sector banks, 7.6% employees were from foreign banks. 36.45% of the employees belonged to the age group of 21–30 years, 57.63% of the employees belonged to the age group of 31–40 years and 5.92% of the employees belonged to the age group of 41–50 years.

The 31 items were exposed to EFA. Before the EFA was carried out, it was checked whether the data were suitable for EFA or not. The suitability of data was checked by analysing the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value, which came out to be 0.86 (>0.6 is considered appropriate). The items were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) along with varimax rotation. A seven-factor model was identified. The items which indicated low communalities (below 0.50), below 0.50 factor loadings and/or above 0.50 high-cross loadings were subject to prospective deletion. A total of three items were dropped because their factor loadings were below 0.5 (refer to Table 5). The communality values of all the items were greater than 0.5. An EFA with varimax rotation depicted 7 significant factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. The final seven-factor model accounted for around 60% of the total variance. All the factors extracted / identified dimensions have been explained (refer to Table 6).

Table 5.

Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Dimension (factor name)	Measurement Items	Factor Loading	Communalities
Meaningfulness	My job allows me to understand the purpose of my life	0.589	00.725
	I feel a positive linkage between my job and life	0.557	0.735
	I work here just for money; apart from it there is nothing interesting in my job (reverse)	0.611	0.675
	I feel enthusiastic about my job assignments	0.683	0.706
	I feel frustrated with the entire system at work (reverse)	0.800	0.693
	I feel like coming to work everyday	0.664	0.713
Compassion	When a person gets stuck with a problem one feels free to look for advice and help from the colleagues.	0.715	0.600
	People here genuinely care for each other.	0.547	0.697
	People accept criticism and are careful while giving opinions to avoid hurting someone.	0.702	0.618
	When a colleague is in pain or undergoing any stress people try to make him feel comfortable.	0.754	0.713
	I believe people support each other as a team and are not judgmental*	0.367	Item dropped
Authenticity	At work, people act in conformity with their values and beliefs system.	0.884	0.814
	People are true to themselves at any work situation.	0.857	0.834
	People often get influenced by others and feel cut off from the real self (reverse)	0.847	0.831
	People often feel a pressure to behave in certain ways at work.*	0.412	Item dropped
Others’ orientation	People here take initiatives to avoid any sort of wastage in the branch (paper, electricity, etc).	0.872	0.708
	People get involved in the environment oriented programmes undertaken by the bank.	0.847	0.758
	Creating public awareness and educating people about their rights is of utmost importance for employees.	0.818	0.760
	Branch works towards helping the poor section of society.	0.775	0.739
	CSR is promoted here.	0.742	0.719
Gratitude	I am grateful for whatever my job has given to me.	0.679	0.795
	I feel thankful to my colleagues at work for their help and support	0.514	0.860
	I acknowledge and appreciate efforts of others at work.	0.648	0.821
Embracing Diversity	This branch provides an environment for free and open expression of opinions and beliefs.	0.791	0.703
	People who are different from others are treated fairly here.	0.761	0.746
	The branch focusses on building teams of people with different backgrounds and experiences.	0.684	0.666
	Hiring process here is unfair and biased.	0.712	0.682
Resilience and inner peace	I see obstacles as temporary and believe that everything will eventually pass smoothly.	0.858	0.806
	My job makes me feel more self-confident even after facing failure at work.	0.843	0.798
	I have the ability to stay calm during tough working conditions.	0.838	0.818
	My work provides me contentment and inner peace.*	0.402	Item dropped

Source: SPSS output.

Note: *Signifies the items dropped after EFA.

Table 6.

Meaning of Extracted Factors.

S. No.	Dimention Name	Meaning
1.	Meaningfulness (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Duchon & Plowman, 2005; Milliman et al., 2003; Pandey et al., 2009; Rego & Cunha, 2008)	It refers to an individual’s experience as to how important is his/ her work and also how an employee responds to daily work routine.
2.	Compassion (Petchsawanga & Duchon 2009; Pradhan & Jena, 2016)	It refers to the feeling of concern, care, love, support, sympathy that would help to understand suffering of others, so that, you can provide a solution or relief.
3.	Authenticity (Pandey et al., 2009; Saxena et.al., 2020)	It refers to the experience of living one’s personal values and perspectives at work. It leads to high sense of well-being. It is all about the fundamental aspects related to one’s identity, beliefs and perspectives about also what is right.
4.	Others’ orientation (Pandey et al., 2009; Saxena et al., 2020)	It implies all actions that are undertaken for bringing unity in the world, keeping it safe and encouraging unity/oneness
5.	Gratitude (Saxena et al., 2020)	It is an appreciation of what is valuable or meaningful and is a general state of thankfulness.
6.	Embracing diversity (developed by authors)	It is all about respecting and appreciating each other’s differences and experiences.
7.	Resilience and inner peace (developed by authors)	It refers to the capacity to stand firm and calm both mentally and emotionally during the adversities. It is also the ability to bounce back from the downturns in life.

Source: The authors.

Reliability Assessment

Cronbach’s α was used to measure the internal consistency and reliability of the seven factors. The values of Cronbach’s α for the seven different dimensions of WPS came out to be greater than 0.7. The internal consistency was found to be greater than the required value of 0.7 for all the factors (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994; Hair et al., 2011).

Third Step: Scale Evaluation

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Scale evaluation was done in study 2. For conducting the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), an additional 456 questionnaires were circulated, out of which 406 responses were received from managerial-level bank employees using purposive sampling technique. Of the sample, 34.2 % were females and 64.8 % were males. A total of 46.05% employees were from public sector banks, 45.4% employees were from private sector banks and 8.3% employees were from foreign banks. CFA is generally preferred over EFA as it focusses on a priori model testing (Bartko et al., 1988). For the measurement model, the CFA is always performed for construct validation as also to develop and test theory (Hair et al., 2006). The items that had factor loadings below 0.50 were deleted. One item from the factor ‘compassion’ and one from the factor ‘embracing diversity’ got deleted, following which the measurement model was developed and CFA was estimated again (refer to Figure 3). This time, the CFA showed a better fit to the data. It included all the seven factors along with the items. The measurement model was analysed to assess the convergent as well as discriminant validity. The composite reliability of each measure was found to be greater than 0.7.

Figure 3.

Source: AMOS output.

Psychometric properties of the first-order model: CFA results showed the validity of the scale, since all the values for statistical fitness were found to be as expected Chi-square fit statistics/degree of freedom (CMIN/df) = 2.54, adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI) = 0.84, goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.97 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04). Next, the convergent validity was assessed, and for it, the average variance extracted (AVE) values were measured. The AVE values for all the dimensions were above 0.5, which indicates a good convergent validity of the latent constructs (refer to Table 7). After this, the discriminant validity was established. As per Fornell and Larcker (1981), for assessing the discriminant validity, the AVE of each construct should be greater than its shared variance with the other constructs. The values were found to be as per the criteria (refer to Table 8).

Table 7.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Constructs	Items	Item Loadings	Composite Reliability	Average Variance Extracted	Maximum Shared Variance
Meaningfulness	Mean1	0.81	0.911	0.632	0.412
	Mean2	0.83
	Mean3	0.77
	Mean4	0.84
	Mean5	0.78
	Mean6	0.73
Compassion	CO1	0.78	0.857	0.668	0.412
	CO2	0.86
	CO3	0.81
Authenticity	AUT1	0.85	0.898	0.745	0.355
	AUT2	0.88
	AUT3	0.86
Others’ orientation	OO1	0.77	0.908	0.663	0.348
	OO2	0.92
	OO3	0.83
	OO4	0.84
	OO5	0.81
Gratitude	GRAT1	0.82	0.904	0.759	0.394
	GRAT2	0.86
	GRAT3	0.93
Embracing diversity	ED1	0.77	0.865	0.681	0.394
	ED2	0.88
	ED3	0.82
Resilience and inner peace	PR1	0.83	0.878	0.706	0.279
	PR2	0.86
	PR3	0.83

Source: The authors.

Table 8.

Discriminant Validity Test Matrix.

	PR	Mean	CO	GRAT	AUT	ED	OO
PR	0.840
Mean	0.503	0.795
CO	0.528	0.642	0.817
GRAT	0.507	0.592	0.563	0.871
AUT	0.335	0.596	0.449	0.496	0.863
ED	0.465	0.610	0.600	0.628	0.527	0.825
OO	0.402	0.537	0.283	0.539	0.416	0.590	0.814

Source: Gakingston MS-Excel validity master output.

Note: AUT, Authenticity; CO, compassion; ED, embracing diversity; GRAT, gratitude; Mean, meaningfulness; OO, others’ orientation; PR, resilience and peace.

Psychometric properties of the second-order model: The correlation among all the zero-order constructs came out to be very high. This is a necessary condition for defending the second-order model. While the second-order CFA was done, WPS became the second-order construct, as explained by the seven first-order constructs (refer to Figure 4). The second-order CFA was performed and the results indicate that the second-order seven-factor model showed a good model fit, meeting all the statistical value requirements (CMIN/df=2.15, AGFI=0.81, GFI=0.96 and RMSEA=0.038). For attaining a second-order construct, only the convergent validity is measured and the discriminant validity is not measured. For measuring the convergent validity, the value of the composite reliability was calculated, which came out to be 0.873, while and the value of AVE came out to be 0.521. These values indicate that the second-order model is statistically fit.

Figure 4.

Source: AMOS Output.

Discussion

Spirituality has been an engrossing theme since ancient times and is an intrinsic need for all human beings. The main aim of the study was to develop and validate a scale to measure WPS in Indian context. To pull off the objective, the study followed Hinkin’s (1995) approach of scale development and developed items considering both inductive and deductive approaches. EFA resulted in formation of seven distinct and interrelated factors, making WPS a multidimensional construct. A good model fit was found in the second-order factor model as well. Meaningfulness came out to be the most important factor influencing WPS (λ = 0.82), which clearly indicates that employees give preference to meaningfulness as an important criterion for spiritual well-being. With high meaningfulness, employees perceive job to match their values, beliefs and self-concept. Embracing diversity was found to be the next most significant factor influencing WPS (λ = 0.80). Employees want work for organisations that promote equality at work and discourage any sort of discrimination. Employees work in teams that comprises people from diverse backgrounds, beliefs and experiences, if an organisation is welcoming to diverse opinions and respect the differences people have, it leads to a more open minded and inclusive work culture. Results indicate gratitude to be the third most significant factor influencing WPS (λ = 0.77). When employees give more attention to the positive aspects of their lives, positive emotions increase and there is downfall of negative emotions. Gratitude helps employees perform better.

Compassion was found to be the fourth most significant factor influencing WPS (λ = 0.72). Healthy interpersonal relationships could be encouraged with compassion. By building trust and empathy, reciprocation employees can work for organisational benefits rather than personal gains. This was followed by authenticity as the fifth most significant factor influencing WPS (λ = 0.66). When employees can be just themselves at work and do not have to hide their true selves, it affects everyone around. They feel at ease, happier and become more productive. Others’ orientation, and resilience and inner peace were found to be the sixth and the seventh most significant factors influencing WPS (λ = 0.64 and λ = 0.62), respectively. Since the scales developed earlier failed to prove discriminant validity, this study was undertaken to address the gap. The outcomes of this study confirm that the WPS scale is reliable and has content, convergent and discriminant validity. Hence, WPS is accepted as a multi-dimensional construct.

Theoretical Implications

This study could be used to extend the theoretical foundations of conceptualising the idea of spirituality at work. The ‘meaningfulness’ dimension emerged as one of the most significant dimensions influencing WPS. This shows that spiritual practices can be used to create a roadmap for finding meaning and purpose in life, which represent the fundamental aspect of human life. The results support previous studies in terms of indicating that the concepts of meaningfulness, compassion, authenticity and gratitude were the dimensions proposed in literature (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Pandey et al., 2009; Petchsawanga & Duchon, 2009; Pradhan & Jena, 2016; Saxena et al., 2020), but it adds two new dimensions connected with WPS, namely, ‘embracing diversity’ and ‘resilience and inner Peace’. Today, employees are looking for opportunities whereby they can find meaning in whatever they are doing in life. The dimensions suggested in the study can be used to measure the impact of each dimension on the work attitudes of employees like involvement, commitment, satisfaction and engagement, as well as on job outcomes or productivity. Since this study has been done using the sample of only bank employees, dimensions can be tested for applicability in the other sectors as well. The dimensions are generic in nature and can be used in diverse sectors, which would ultimately enhance their generalisability.

Practical Implications

The proposed dimensions can be used by firms for the development of spiritual values in their respective organisations to attain better results in terms of employee involvement and productivity. An organisation that cares about the spirit of its employees will lead to the formation of an empowered, highly motivated, loyal and emotionally engaged workforce. Firms can incorporate contemplative spiritual practices into all aspects of work. The foremost managerial implication is that this scale can be put into practice by managers to assess the perceptions of employees regarding spirituality at work. That, in turn, can help managers evaluate how the dimensions can help in fostering positive job outcomes. Thereafter, the organisations can work on ways of creating a more spiritual environment at work, which can enhance the person-organisation fit. Bento (1994) proposed that that employees who are spiritually empowered are perceived to be more courageous, trustworthy, honest, authentic, and compassionate, and these characteristics can also be exhibited at the workplace. Managers may also benefit by involving the dimensions in practice. In doing so, while performing duties, they must be inspired by values, such as authenticity, honesty, friendship, trust, tolerance and a sense of responsibility towards the society. Spiritual powers may be very beneficial in bringing out people’s expertise to handle unanticipated situations and in building resilience. Organisations may also achieve a balanced and comprehensive performance, long-term stability, efficiency, a high degree of motivation and creativity (Milliman et al., 2018). A large number of organisations are now adopting methods to promote spirituality at work. For example, Google has a spiritual centre and offers courses on spirituality to enhance the mental and physical fitness of its employees. Maruti Suzuki India conducts various spiritual and insightful programmes (Cavanagh, 1999) and Apple has a separate space for doing meditation, wherein employees are encouraged to meditate for 30 min per day. Interventions, such as having the provision of meditation rooms, prayer rooms, contemplation gardens and discussion rooms for spiritual unfolding, can contribute to more cordial workplaces.

Limitations and Future Research

The study provides seven dimensions of WPS. There is a possibility of the presence of other dimensions, which were not considered in this study. It paves the way for academicians and corporate practitioners to use and test the dimensions in different contexts. The study includes a sample of only employees working in the banking sector, which is a limitation in itself for generalising the results. The results may vary in different sectors as well as different cultural contexts. This study used a cross-sectional design, but it is recommended that future studies use longitudinal research designs. The construct of spirituality is subjective in nature, and it is, therefore, suggested that the dimensions in different cultures should be cross-validated. Extensive literature is available on the Indian spiritual traditions, and future research may include spiritual traditions as dimensions and refine the scale. The study aimed at developing a theory that can be tested, and future researchers should identify moderators, mediators and other variables that can be analysed along with the construct of WPS.

Conclusion

Spirituality is definitely a potential catalyst, which drives employees’ towards achieving corporate goals. It is thus imperative for stakeholders in every organisation to have a desirable understanding of spirituality for displaying behavioural standards to ensure better results. This study provides an in-depth and holistic comprehension of WPS in an Indian context, as perceived by Indian bank employees. It led to determination of the contextually relevant dimensions that can be used to assess the WPS. Results indicate that meaningfulness, embracing diversity, gratitude and compassion are the top four significant dimensions. The positive aspects of the dimensions have been discussed emphasising on the areas that need management attention. Our findings will definitely be useful for practitioners as well as policy makers. To promote spirituality, organisations can capitalize on the employees’ spiritual side and organise various workshops, spiritual programmes or practices to enhance their spiritual awareness. Within this outlook, the spiritual side may provide strength, leading to prudence in decision-making, creativity, improved interpersonal relationships and a thriving organisational culture.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Anubhuti Saxena

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