ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’ commitment of Local Government Areas in Rivers State, Nigeria. Faith and altruism were considered the dimensions of workplace spirituality while affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment were used as measures of employee’s commitment. Based on the conceptual framework, six (6) research questions and six (6) hypotheses were answered in order to ascertain the degree of positive relationship. Self Determination theory was adopted as the theoretical foundation for the study. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design to solicit responses from the employees of the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State using the Simple Random Technique. The sample size for this study was 379 from the given population of six Local Government Areas. After data cleaning, only data of 316 respondents were finally used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and the Spearman rank order correlation were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Empirical findings revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between workplace spirituality and employee commitment of Local Government staffs in Rivers State. Findings further revealed that faith and altruism dimensions of workplace spirituality have significant relationships with affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment measures of organizational employee commitment. The study thus concluded that workplace spirituality bears a positive and significant influence on employee commitment and all the dimensions and measures show significant positive relationships. We recommended that Local Government Authorities should strive to show devotion to organizational members through acts of benevolence, care and concern, in order to be assured of their high level of commitment to work. We further recommended that one way to substantially increase workers emotional involvement at work is to substantially enhance the stock of altruism within the organization. Virtues of unselfishness, self-sacrifice and selflessness, and philanthropy are hereby recommended. Also our study recommends that Local Government Area authorities are encouraged to promote altruistic behaviours amongst employees.INTRODUCTION
The concept of workplace spirituality have been well articulated by researchers in the past decades. The historical origin is traced to have started in the United States of America over the recent years past and have cut across international borders owing to globalization. This concept is relatively new especially in the Local Government Service of Rivers State, Nigeria. The relevance of the concept of promote employees’ commitment in organizations have not been well articulated, owing to the fact that it is sometimes taught to mean religiosity at work. As such, not much of workplace spirituality has been noticeable within organizations in the level of employee commitment. Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003 conceived workplace spirituality as a framework of organizational values evidenced in the culture that promotes employees’ experience of transcendence through the work process, facilitating their sense of being connected in a way that provides feelings of compassion and joy.Tourish & Pinnington, 2002 posits that the increasing interest in the spiritual side of workers, is often driven by non-spiritual concerns. Studies have argued that the non-spiritual concerns are the outcomes, not antecedents, of workplace spirituality. Maintaining spirituality at the workplace is a complex task, it is worth the effort given to the known benefits associated with better leadership, improved ethical behavior, increased creativity, improved productivity, higher employee effectiveness and reduced absenteeism and turnover, and increased job performance which reinstates the work of Mitroff & Denton, 1999 that spirituality has been heralded as the ultimate competitive advantage. Spirituality and commitment have made its steady entry in to management literature in the early 1920’s as a grassroots’ movement seeking to stamp the need for its individuals to express or live their faith and or spiritual values in the workplace.
Its newness cannot be overemphasized as published in the article of William Miller titled “How do we put our spirituality value to work”, published in New Tradition in business spirit and leadership in the 21st century. The length and breadth of the civil service has experienced a disconnect that resulted to employee’s operating without their soul in their daily assignment for lack of workplace spirituality amongst others (Adams & Bezner, 2000).
Spirituality in the workplace means that employees find nourishment for both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of their spirituality at work. Workplace spirituality is about individuals and employees seeing work in a spiritual perspective to grow and to contribute to society in a meaningful way. The spiritual perspective of workplace spirituality is about compassion and support of others, about integrity and people being true to themselves and others. It means that individuals and organizations should attempt to live to their values more fully in the work they do.
One of the casual effects which have contributed immensely to the growing interest in the study of workplace spirituality is the dramatic change in the nature of work resulting from increasing globalization and a shift from the industrial age to the information age. To the perception of some employee within the civil service, this shift has provided a platform for longer work hours; greater expectation for production accompanied by much expectation from employees, due to government intention to reduce expenses (Duxbury and Higgins, 2002).
Despite the background of intensive interest on workplace spirituality, some advocates of the school of thought think that a managerial approach trivializes spirituality. They argued that, being a non – materialistic concern, workplace spirituality is marginalized and misrepresented when people focus on the material gains that can be reaped by integrating it in organizational life. Therefore some management scholars posit that, whatever cannot be defined and measured lacks the attention and to a large extend the functional ability within organization. Therefore, workplace spirituality is not bad or good in itself. It can be a good construct for personnel / organizations, or for the personnel and not organization or entirely bad for the whole system.
Proffering some level of trade-offs on the debate within the circle of management science, in the discussion of workplace spirituality and commitment as irreconcilable foes, spirituality and management once thought incompatible, have in the past decades falling in love (Benefiel, 2003). Bnefiel, 2003 further buttress that there exist a connection and/or relationship between the extent of an individual / employee level of spirituality and its commitment to work. However, academics practice and popular literatures have given enormous attention to this relatively new field especially in Nigeria, there has been little empirical research to examine the relationship between workplace spirituality and commitment within the civil service in Rivers State.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Conceptual Framework 4
1.4 Purpose of the Study 4
1.5 Research Questions 5
1.6 Research Hypotheses 5
1.7 Significance of the Study 6
1.8 Scope of the Study 6
1.9 Limitation of the Study 7
1.10 Definition of Terms 7
1.11 Organization of the Study 8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Foundation 9
2.2 Concept of Workplace Spirituality 10
2.2.1 The Intrinsic Origin view of Spirituality 15
2.2.2 The Religious view of Spirituality 15
2.2.3 The Existentialist views of Spirituality 16
2.3 Dimensions of Workplace Spirituality 17
2.3.1 Faith 18
2.3.2 Altruism 36
2.4 Measures of Employee Commitment 47
2.4.1 Affective Commitment 48
2.4.2 Continuance Commitment 49
2.4.3 Normative Commitment 50
2.5 Relationship between Workplace
Spirituality and Workers’ Commitment 51
2.6 Operational Framework 56
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design 57
3.2 Population of the Study 57
3.3 Sample Technique/Sample Size Determination 58
3.4 Data Collection Methods 59
3.5 Operational Measures of the Variables 60
3.6 Test of Validity and Reliability 60
3.7 Data Analyses Techniques 61
CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
OF FINDINGS
4.1 Data Presentation 62
4.2 Response Rate 62
4.3 Demographic Analysis 62
4.4 Univariate Analysis 67
4.5 Bivariate Analysis 72
4.5.1 Scatter Plot Showing Relationship of
Variables 72
4.4.2 Test of Research Hypotheses One 74
4.4.3 Test of Research Hypothesis Two 75
4.4.4 Test of Research Hypothesis Three 75
4.4.5 Test of Research Hypothesis Four 76
4.4.6 Test of Research Hypothesis Five 77
4.4.7 Test of Research Hypothesis Six 77
4.5 Discussion of Findings 79
4.5.1 Significant Positive Relationship between Faith and Employee Commitment 80
4.5.2 Significant Positive Relationship between Altruism and Employee Commitment 82
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 85
5.2 Conclusion 86
5.3 Recommendations 86
5.4 Contribution to Knowledge 87
References 89
Appendix A
Appendix B
Reference code: MG018
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Reference code: MG018
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