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Employee Relations Establishing linkages between religiosity and spirituality on employee performance AAhad M. Osman‐Gani, Junaidah Hashim, Yusof Ismail, Article information: To cite this document: AAhad M. Osman‐Gani, Junaidah Hashim, Yusof Ismail, (2013) "Establishing linkages between religiosity and spirituality on employee performance", Employee Relations, Vol. 35 Issue: 4, pp.360-376, https:// doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2012-0030 Permanent link to this document: https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2012-0030

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Establishing linkages between religiosity and spirituality on

employee performance AAhad M. Osman-Gani, Junaidah Hashim and Yusof Ismail

Department of Business Administration, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences,

International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of religiosity and spirituality on employee performance in multi-cultural and multi-religious organisations. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopted Religiosity Personality Index (MRPI) by Azimi et al., Spirituality Involvement and Beliefs Scale (SIBS) by Hatch et al., and Performance Measures by Sarmiento et al. The performance data was collected from employees, peers, and supervisors. The study administered and received all the 435 completed sets of questionnaires (435 employees, 870 peers, and 435 supervisors). Findings – SEM analysis showed that religiosity and spirituality have a significant positive relationship with employees’ performance. Better spiritual condition improves performance. Religion functions as a moderating variable in employees’ job performance. Research limitations/implications – This study has extended the knowledge of spirituality in the workplace by confirming that spirituality is more significant than religiosity in influencing employees’ performance. Religion, however, moderates spirituality-performance relationship. Practical implications – Based on the empirical findings of this study, organizations may formulate new policies and strategies for improving employee performance by allowing and encouraging spiritual activities in the workplace irrespective of religious and spiritual beliefs, thereby facilitating understanding and mutual respect. A culture of respect for diversity of beliefs and faiths should be cultivated in the workplace by enforcing appropriate codes of conduct as well as instilling values of tolerance, respect and compassion, which would result in more productive teamwork and improved performance. Originality/value – This is the only study that measured the impact of religiosity and spirituality on employees’ performance using three different sources of data: employees, peers, and supervisors. Keywords Religiosity, Spirituality, Employee performance, Multicultural, Malaysia, Employees Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the study People are reported to spend too much of their time at work, or in work-related social and leisure activities and some have less time for anything else (Klerk, 2005). However, according to Garcia-Zamor (2003) and Sharabi (2009), a majority of employees wants to find meaning in their work. As a result, although working people have desire to fulfil their spiritual requirement they are unable to do so because of time constraints. In response to this, many organisations started to focus on creating a work environment that brings a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Many corporations are encouraging the development of this new trend because they believe a

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm

Received 19 April 2012 Revised 10 August 2012 Accepted 13 August 2012

Employee Relations Vol. 35 No. 4, 2013 pp. 360-376 r Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0142-5455 DOI 10.1108/ER-04-2012-0030

This research project is funded by Endowment Type B Research Grant Scheme by International Islamic University Malaysia.

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humanistic work environment creates a win-win situation for both employees and the organisation (Garcia-Zamor, 2003).

A growing base of literature suggests that there are significant effects of religiosity and spirituality in people’s lives. This includes the way people live, behave, and work. Religious beliefs could make a significant difference in employee behaviour and performance, providing a frame of reference by which to guide decision making, particularly in multicultural, multireligious environments. Despite this, there exists a significant research gap linking religiosity and spirituality with employee performance in organisations. A number of authors (Gibbons, 2000; Milliman et al., 2003) agree that empirical research is particularly lacking in contributing to the new knowledge in this area (some authors claimed that there was a positive causal relationship between spirituality and productivity; Enander, 2000; Thompson, 2000), but the validity of that claim is questionable since it was advanced either as a theoretical proposition or lacked supporting data (Valasek, 2009). The present study aims to gather primary data from employees working in multicultural organisations, and to present the empirical findings about the linkages between religiosity and spirituality on employee performance.

2. Review of literature 2.1 Religiosity Koenig et al. (2000, p. 18) offer definitions of religion and spirituality as follows:

Religion is an organized system of beliefs, practices, rituals and symbols designed (a) to facilitate closeness to the sacred or transcendent (God, higher power, or ultimate truth/ reality), and (b) to foster an understanding of one’s relation and responsibility to others in living together in a community. Spirituality is the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred or transcendent, which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious rituals and the formation of community.

According to Al-Goaib (2003), in Islam, religiosity is the commitment to the fundamentals of Islamic religion through practices and theoretical belief through the fulfilment of Allah’s rights, protection of others rights, following Allah’s orders, avoiding bad acts, and performing worships (Allah is the name given to the Universal God in Islam). Individuals characterised as religious are not only those who hold particular religious beliefs but also practice them in day-to-day life (Morgan and Lawton, 1996). Organisational scholars seem to have been slow to incorporate religiosity and spirituality into their research due to the difficulty of defining and measuring the constructs (King and Crowther, 2004). While Azimi et al. (2006) commented that the religiosity from the Islamic perspective is measurable but one’s true level of religiosity is known only to Allah (Universal God).

Previous research had elaborated the fact that religion and spirituality are not identical (King, 2007). Religiosity and spirituality have been conceptualised to foster the development of the other aspects of life. For example, religious practices encourage spiritual growth, while spiritual practices are often a salient aspect of religious participation (King and Crowther, 2004). Religiosity includes having belief in and reverence for God or a deity, as well as participation in activities in that faith such as attending service/worship regularly and participating in other social activities with one’s religious community (Adeyemo and Adeleye, 2008). Valasek (2009) summarised ten concepts of religiosity: proselytising, Church attendance, amount of prayer,

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doctrine or dogma, authoritarian, self-righteousness, belief in the divine, ritualistic, integration, and scripture reading.

It is suggested that people who hold and follow certain religious dogmas will exhibit particular sets of behaviours that are reflected in their personal and social lives. Religious people pray, attend a place of worship, in some cases fast and engage in socially beneficial actions (e.g. charity and volunteer work), as directed by their religion. It is thus likely that employees’ work behaviour will also be affected by their religious preferences to the extent (Ntalianis and Darr, 2005).

2.2 Spirituality Spirituality has been described to include a broad range of concepts and values such as transcendence, balance, sacredness, altruism, meaning in life, living with a deep connectedness to the universe, and the awareness of something or someone greater than oneself (God, or an energy force) that provides energy and wisdom that transcends the material aspects of life (Klerk, 2005).

Spirituality in organisations is a particularly salient issue in scientific and practitioner literatures. Spirituality, spiritual practices, and spiritual values have been noticeably absent as variables of study in organisational research, and yet they may be considered among the most powerful variables related to personal, team, and organisational effectiveness (Heermann, 1997). Valasek (2009) summarised the broad range of definitions on spirituality into seven general categories as: searching for meaning and purpose; living in harmony with others; personal wholeness, wellness, holistic; achieving personal growth; ethics, integrity, or values based; belief in the divine; and sense of justice or fairness.

2.3 Performance Sarmiento et al. (2007) argued that job performance is often the result of at least two aspects: the abilities and skills (natural or acquired) that an employee possesses, and his/her motivation to use them in order to perform a job better. In addition, a number of authors believed that employees can help to improve business performance through their ability to generate ideas and use these as building blocks for new and better products, services, and work processes. On the other hand, many practitioners and academics endorsed the view that employees’ innovation help to attain organisational success (Axtell et al., 2000; Smith, 2002; Unsworth and Parker, 2003, cited in Holman et al., 2004).

Previous work indicated that the employees’ innovative behaviour depends greatly on their interaction with others in the workplace (Anderson et al., 2004; Martocchio and Ferris, 1996). Some researchers and scholars have argued that spirituality, the desire for meaningful work, and employee job satisfaction are critical elements for future organisational life and social change in our society (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003; Karakas, 2009). In support, Komala and Ganesh (2007) reported empirical results and noted that “correlation analysis indicated a positive relationship exists between the variables of individual spirituality at work and job satisfaction” (p. 128). Furthermore, some theorists and research literature have suggested that employees in organisations that embrace and foster spirituality will experience improved productivity (Garcia-Zamor, 2003), increased job satisfaction (Connolly and Myers, 2003; Miles et al., 2005), and better performance, as well as be more tolerant and less susceptible to stress (Marques, 2005).

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2.4 The influence of religiosity and spirituality on employee performance Religious and spiritual symbols and practices are becoming more prevalent and acceptable in the workplace as seen by the increase in enrichment and empowerment programmes, prayer meetings, Bible study, religious/spiritual language, and requests for time off for religious obligations or holidays (Conlin, 1999; Digh, 1998; Gallup and Jones, 2000; Garcia-Zamor, 2003; Laabs, 1995; Mitroff and Denton, 1999). Mohamed et al. (2004) suggested that management field and organisations may pay a heavy price for their oversight of spirituality. First, the frustration of spiritually enlightened employees with their non-spiritual or anti-spiritual workplace will increase. Consequently, organisations that do allow for spirituality may develop a competitive advantage over their rivals. Second, management theories and models that ignore the spiritual dimension will remain incomplete or incorrect.

Several studies have examined the influence of religion and spirituality in workplace. For instance, Mitroff and Denton (1999) conducted one of the earliest empirical studies of spirituality in the workplace through interviews and questionnaires administered on top executives from businesses across the USA. Their findings revealed that nearly all participants believed in the higher power of God over anything, and half of them agreed that they felt the effects of spiritual power while at work. Adam’s (2008) study showed positive correlations between prayer and motivation. In addition, Oler (2004) examined the extent to which religiosity and spirituality affected daily work practices and leader/ follower trust levels among food service and nutrition directors and their subordinates. The more directors and employees attended worship services, the more likely they were found to demonstrate specific spiritual actions and attitudes at work. In another study, Jayasinghe and Soobaroyen (2009) found the accountability systems and religious activities were both influenced by the “structural elements” of trust, aspirations, patronage and loyalty, social status, power, and rivalries. Their findings implied that the religious “spirit” is an integral and important part of accountability in non-western societies.

Vasconcelos (2009) indicated that religion is a pervasive subject that – through its tenets – tends to influence somewhat employees’ behaviours, perceptions, and decisions. McCarty (2007) also remarked that the participants had reported very interesting results from these prayer meetings, such as increased employee morale and productivity, and decreased employee turnover as well. Khanifar et al. (2010) showed that there is a significant relationship between spirituality in the workplace and professional commitment.

Neck and Milliman (1994) argued that spirituality involves an individual’s search to fulfil their potential for greater meaning and life purpose in their work. Core spiritual beliefs often involve a strong sense of community and need to contribute to the betterment of others and society. The goal of spirituality is typically to reach a highly evolved personal state or attainment of one’s highest potential, which in turn can lead to greater employee creativity, motivation, and organisational commitment. Long and Mills (2010) argued workplace spirituality as necessary for organisations and the individuals to prosper.

McGhee and Grant (2008) explained the link between individual spirituality and ethical behaviour in the workplace. The authors believed that Aristotelian virtue is the mediating factor between spirituality and moral conduct in business. They contend that spirituality forms an internalised, general regulative ideal, based on four common aspects of spirituality: self-transcendence, interconnectedness, meaning, and one’s ultimate concern, that governs what individuals perceive and value and how they act.

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These moral values practiced over time become virtues. Spiritually virtuous individuals contribute significant benefits to organisations. Harrington et al. (2001) found that the more congruent employees’ values and spiritual aspirations are with the organisation, the greater the possibility that employees will find true meaning in work. Spirituality and its components must be understood with greater precision, which will allow businesses to adopt policies and strategies that energise the spiritual nature of their employees.

Karakas (2009) reviewed about 140 articles on how workplace spirituality supports organisational performance. He identified three different perspectives how spirituality benefits employees and supports organisational performance based on the extant literature: first, spirituality enhances employee well-being and quality of life; second, spirituality provides employees a sense of purpose and meaning at work; and finally, spirituality provides employees a sense of interconnectedness and community.

Spirituality can lead individuals to experience consciousness at a deeper level, thereby enhancing their intuitive abilities (Vaughan, 1989, cited in Agor, 1989). Among later studies, Nur (2003) found that self-described Christian companies exhibited higher levels of satisfaction. East (2005) also shared similar findings and found there was a strong and significant relationship between workplace spirituality and a person’s job satisfaction. However, Polley et al. (2005) argued that despite the intrinsic human benefit and the potential organisational benefit of spirituality, spirituality at work was subject to dilemmas, costs, and negative effects. They identified several issues such as net economic cost of implementation, potential for worker exploitation, potential for competitive disadvantages, and escalating groupthink. While there is merit in those statements, the authors suggested that the implementation of spirituality in the workplace should be subjected to further analysis and quantifiable measures.

Almost universally, prayer constitutes an integral component of spirituality. Regardless of the paucity of empirical evidence regarding the effects of prayer in work settings the anecdotal evidence showed that it had been positively associated with the spirituality in business movement (Benefiel, 2005; Biberman and Tischler, 2008; Cavanagh and Hazen, 2008, cited in Biberman and Tischler 2008). More importantly, evidence indicated that managers are perceiving that prayer can be a source of accuracy or a lesser margin of error in their corporate decision making (Cavanagh and Hazen, 2008, cited in Biberman and Tischler, 2008; Vasconcelos, 2009). McGee and Delbecq (2003) asserted that executives regard prayer as being beneficial to them because it helps them to keep their mental and emotional capacities at an optimal level. Furthermore, they feel somehow inspired to make right decisions.

Two recent studies have tested the moderating effect of religion and spirituality on performance and management. For instance, Li et al. (2011) demonstrated that yin yang ideology embedded in the firm growth model organically is an important means to increase marginal benefit. In practice, the firm with yin yang philosophical ideology would combine rules and human nature to create a family oriented business atmosphere. While in another study, Lane (2008) tested the moderating effects of four spirituality variables: grateful disposition, inner life, meaning at work, and servant attitude on uncertainty management (UM). Results of the study showed many significant effects the outcome variables, only two moderated in the context of UM complementarity. Specifically, meaning at work significantly moderated UM’s impact on job satisfaction, and inner life negatively moderated UM’s impact on innovation.

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Based on the literature review, this study proposes a conceptual framework for studying employee performance from the perspectives of several variables of interest that would have impacts on organisations operating in multicultural environments, and the variables that have not been extensively studied in past research. This framework emphasises on the following independent variables: religiosity and spirituality. The independent variables are related to dependent variable employee performance, whereas religion acts as a moderating variable for employee performance (Figure 1):

H1. Religiosity has a positive relationship with employee performance.

H2. Spirituality has a positive relationship with employee performance.

H3. Religion moderates the influence of religiosity and spirituality on employee performance.

3. Methodology 3.1 Population and sampling procedures This study involves a survey method. It approached 28 organisations that represented six main industries in Malaysia: namely, education, construction, electronic manufacturing, food manufacturing, hotel, and transportation. In each organisation, employees, peers (two peers for each employee), and superior were selected as the respondents. In total, the study received 435 sets of completed questionnaire from the three different groups of participants. There were 63.7 per cent of Muslim employees and 36.3 per cent of non-Muslim employees responded to the questionnaires. The lack of response from non-Muslim employees could be due to the manner used by the researchers in approaching the organisations irrespective of their sectoral representation (Table I).

3.2 Research instruments and study measures The research instrument set comprised three separate questionnaires: Survey A for the employees, Survey B for two employee’s peers, and Survey C for the employee’s supervisor/superior. Survey A consists of 124 questions divided into seven sections labelled A through G. Survey A aims to gather data from the employees regarding their religiosity and spirituality. While Survey B and Survey C consist of 17 questions

Religiosity

Spirituality

Religion

Performance

H2 H3 Figure 1. Conceptual framework

of the study

Muslim Non-Muslim Total respondents

Employee 277 158 435 Peer 1 321 114 435 Peer 2 317 118 435 Supervisors 358 77 435

Table I. Selected Muslims and

non-Muslims respondents

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divided into two sections labelled A and B. Survey B and Survey C solicit information on respondent’s background and the respondents’ assessment (peers and supervisors) of the employee’s performance. All questions except for respondents’ background were based on a five-point scale.

The instrument incorporated several established measures:

(1) Religiosity To measure the religiosity, this study adopted religiosity personality index by Azimi et al. (2006). There are 17 items asked and some of the items include: I perform prayers five times a day on time; I do not miss paying zakat; I keep my promises; and I read Quran every day, even if I am busy.

(2) Spirituality Spirituality Involvement and Beliefs Scale (SIBS) was used to measure spirituality. SIBS which was developed by Hatch et al. (1998) is widely applicable across religious traditions to assess behavioural actions as well as beliefs. The authors developed a list of the underlying principles of spirituality shared by multiple spiritual perspectives, including the following: Christianity (diverse perspectives), Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and others. Sample items include: in the future, science will be able to explain everything; I can find meaning in times of hardship; and a person can be fulfilled without pursuing an active spiritual life.

(3) Personal values Items adapted from Rokeach (1967) were used to measure personal values of the respondents. The Rokeach Values Inventory comprised 20 items: a prosperous life, service to others, an exciting life, a sense of accomplishment, a world at peace, a beautiful world, harmony with nature, equality, family security, freedom, health, inner harmony, mature love, national security, pleasure and leisure, spirituality, self-respect, admiration of others, true friendship, and wisdom. Respondents were asked to rate the items from “most important” to “least important”, using the modified five-point Likert scale. Sample items include: a comfortable life; an exciting life; and a sense of accomplishment.

(4) Employee performance To measure the employees’ performance, nine items were adopted from Sarmiento et al. (2007). Some of the items were related to: quality of work; dependability; and knowledge of work. Peers and managers were given identical measures of the employees’ performance.

3.3 Reliability analysis Reliability test was conducted using Cronbach’s a analysis. It is a frequently used technique where the values of a range between 0 and 1, while the value closer to 1 is better. With regard to questions referring to variables religiosity, spirituality, and performance, they have passed the reliability test required. Table II reports the Cronbach a values of the three variables of interest.

Variable Cronbach’s a

Religiosity 0.858 Spirituality 0.796 Performance 0.855

Table II. Reliability test result

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3.4 Data analysis Since the data were collected from three different sources: namely, the employees, peers, and supervisor, some transformation of data was done. For instance, the responses from two peers were computed as total score, and the mean of the score was used. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was run using AMOS. We ran the SEM analysis three times, first for the overall employees, second for Muslim employees, and third for the non-Muslim employees. As recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), a two-step approach has been adopted to test the fit between the theoretical model and the empirical findings and to test the extrapolative and interrelated nature of the two sets of adjustment dimensions. First, the measurement model was tested on the complete data set using a confirmatory factor analysis employing SPSS 12.0. Second, SEM was employed using AMOS 7 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1996).

4. Results 4.1 Demographic profile of the respondents There were 435 sets of questionnaires completed for this study. This means, there are 435 employees, 870 peers (two peers for each employee), and 435 supervisors who responded to the questionnaire. About half of the respondents (47 per cent) were 30 years old. In total, 37 per cent of the respondents possessed diploma, 34.9 per cent possessed a bachelor’s degree, 18.9 per cent had secondary high school education, 8.0 per cent had a master’s degree, and 1.1 per cent have completed a doctoral degree. Overall, there were 38.0 per cent of the respondents who served as supporting staffs, 27.0 per cent were supervisors, 15.6 per cent were line managers, and the remaining 19.0 per cent was in other positions in their respective organisations. Most of the respondents worked for less than three years (40.5 per cent), and 5.3 per cent of the total respondents had experience of more than 16 years. In terms of types of jobs, 25.0 per cent of the respondents worked in administration; the rest were in sales and marketing, finance, and production/operations (Table III).

4.2 Factor analysis Factor analysis was conducted to identify whether the interdependent questions refer specifically to religiosity, spirituality, and performance groups, respectively. If the questions are loaded correctly with the corresponding factor then the questions were set appropriately. As can be seen in Table IV, all religiosity, spirituality, and performance items are loaded correctly to their corresponding factors. The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy value is 0.866 and the w2 approximation for Bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at po0.01. These two statistics confirm that no variable should be dropped and all are suitable for the factor analysis.

4.3 SEM Using data from overall employees, it is confirmed statistically that religiosity and spirituality have a significant positive relationship with work performance. Since the coefficient of spirituality is higher than religiosity, it can be understood that better spiritual condition influences employees more to achieve a better performance compared with performance in ritual activity (see Figure 2). In other words, believing that one is always monitored by God (ihsan) is giving a better impact than just performing ritual activity of a religion. The model developed could explain approximately 25.0 per cent of variation in performance. Model fit indices like GFI, CFI, and RMSEA all confirm that the model developed is able to fit the data.

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The next step is running the SEM analysis for Muslim and non-Muslims separately to find out whether religion has a moderating effect upon employee performance. Figure 3 shows the SEM results for Muslim employees. The coefficients of religiosity and spirituality both increase significantly from 0.16 to 0.24 and from 0.26 to 0.30, respectively. In addition, the coefficient of determination also improves from 0.24 to 0.34, which means that 34.0 per cent of variance in dependent variable can be explained by the model developed.

However, the results on non-Muslim employees’ data show the opposite. All the coefficients decrease significantly from 0.16 to 0.08 and 0.26 to 0.18 for religiosity and spirituality, respectively. In fact, the coefficient of religiosity has now become insignificant while the coefficient of spirituality has declined

Demographic factor Total %

1. Gender Female 172 39.5 Male 263 60.5 2. Age Up to 30 years old 205 47.1 31-40 years old 114 26.2 41-50 years old 101 23.2 51-60 years old 12 2.8 60 years and above 3 0.7 3. Level of education Secondary high school 82 18.9 Diploma 161 37.0 Bachelor’s degree 152 34.9 Master’s degree 35 8.0 Doctoral degree 5 1.1 4. Current position Supporting staff 166 38.2 Supervisory 116 26.7 Line manager 68 15.6 Others 85 19.5 5. Total service length Less than or equal to 3 years 176 40.5 4-5 years 131 30.1 6-10 years 83 19.1 11-15 years 21 4.8 16 years and above 23 5.3 6. Current service length Less than or equal to 3 years 171 39.3 4-5 years 137 31.5 6-10 years 73 16.8 11-15 years 30 6.9 16 years and above 24 5.5 7. Job function Administration 109 25.1 Finance 66 15.2 Production 69 15.9 Sales/marketing 100 23.0 Others 91 20.9

Table III. Demographic profile of the respondents

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from 1 to 5 per cent level of significance. Furthermore, according to its new R2, the model now can only explain 12 per cent of variation in dependent variable (see Figure 4). These confirm the hypothesis mentioned earlier that religion (i.e. for Muslim and non-Muslim) is a moderating variable for employees’ job performance.

Factor 1 (religiosity) 2 (performance) 3 (spirituality)

er3 0.559 er5 0.620 er6 0.644 er7 0.575 er8 0.634 er9 0.621 er10 0.696 er11 0.610 er13 0.521 er17 0.669 spr_be6 0.507 spr_be7 0.648 spr_b10 0.686 spr_b11 0.655 spr_b12 0.577 spr_b14 0.555 spr_b16 0.516 spr_b17 0.575 spr_b19 0.648 perf1 0.539 perf2 0.642 perf3 0.615 perf4 0.658 perf5 0.641 perf6 0.630 perf7 0.606

Notes: KMO¼0.866; w2 approximately for Bartlett’s test¼24,419.9 ( p-value¼0.000) Table IV.

Factor analysis result

Religiosity

Spirituality

Note: ***Significant at ! 1 per cent

Performance R 2 =0.25

0.16***

0.26***

CMIN = 923.82; p-value = 0.000 GFI = 0.857 CFI = 0.844 RMSEA = 0.07

Figure 2. SEM results for

overall employees

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5. Discussion and conclusion The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of religiosity and spirituality on employee performance in organisations. The results from SEM analysis showed that religiosity and spirituality have a significant positive relationship with job performance for all employees (i.e. Muslims and non-Muslims), and religion moderates the relationships.

This finding is consistent with previous studies. For instance, Oler (2004) found religiosity and spirituality affected daily work practices. While, Vasconcelos (2009) indicated that religion through its tenets tends to influence somewhat employees’ behaviours, perceptions, and decisions of individuals. McCarty (2007) also reported that the participants in his study had reported prayers activities increase employee morale and productivity, and decrease employee turnover as well. Another finding of the present study is that the coefficient of spirituality is higher than religiosity, which indicates that better spiritual condition influences employees more to show better performance compared with only ritual activity performed. And, it is found that religion is a moderating variable for employees’ performance. This result supports previous studies that there is a significant positive relationship between spirituality in the workplace and professional commitment (Khanifar et al., 2010), ethical behaviour (McGhee and Grant, 2008), and job satisfaction (East, 2005; Komala and Ganesh, 2007; Nur, 2003).

This particular study has provided a new input to knowledge in the field of spirituality and religiosity. It has extended the knowledge of spirituality at workplace by not only confirming the previous studies but also by confirming that spirituality is more significant than religiosity in influencing employees’ performance. It should be noted that most of the previous studies examined the effects of spirituality on organisational performance, but not in terms of profitability or productivity or

Religiosity

Spirituality

Performance R2 = 0.34

0.24***

0.30***

CMIN = 1,241.1; p-value = 0.000 GFI = 0.82 CFI = 0.84 RMSEA = 0.05

Note: ***Significant at ! 1 per cent

Figure 3. SEM results for Muslim employees

Religiosity

Spirituality

Performance R2 = 0.12

0.08

0.18**

CMIN = 1,241.1; p-value = 0.000 GFI = 0.82 CFI = 0.84 RMSEA = 0.05

Note: **Significant at ! 5 per cent

Figure 4. SEM results for non- Muslim employees

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employees’ performance improvement; rather in terms of some indicators such as job satisfaction (Connolly and Myers, 2003; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003; Komala and Ganesh, 2007; Miles et al., 2005) and these in turn support organisational performance. More interestingly, this study enhances understanding in the field by revealing that religion played the role of a moderating variable in spirituality-performance relationship.

There are several implications of this study. Managers and supervisors who attempt to bring about changes in employee behaviours in multicultural organisations through the integration of spirituality at work need to address major concerns and caveats. As asserted by Karakas (2010), whether applying, enabling, or incorporating spirituality practices in organisations result in an increase in productivity or profitability is a very complex and controversial issue. Managers should accommodate spiritual requests of their employees irrespective of their different spiritual beliefs (Cavanagh, 1999). This means that as long as the spiritual requests of some employees do not limit the freedoms of others, managers should respond to them (Cavanagh, 1999). Given the fact that the workforce in Malaysia is multicultural and multireligious in nature, it has become crucial to acknowledge diversity in the workplace and respect individual differences, including those professed to be atheists. A culture of respect for diversity of beliefs and faiths should be cultivated in the workplace by enforcing codes of conduct as well as instilling values of tolerance, respect, and compassion.

It is an understatement to conclude that religiosity and spirituality benefit only the individuals, society, or the community. Furthermore, some theorists and research literature have suggested that employees in organisations that embrace and foster spirituality will experience improved productivity (Garcia-Zamor, 2003), increased job satisfaction (Connolly and Myers, 2003; Miles et al., 2005), and better performance, as well as be more tolerant and less susceptible to stress (Marques, 2005). Karakas (2009) in his review of 140 articles reported that workplace spirituality supports organisational performance.

Even though, religiosity does not show as significant influence as spirituality on employees’ performance, it is not realistic to expect employees to leave their personal essence at home when they go to their workplace (Garcia-Zamor, 2003). Researchers have suggested that many people in the twenty-first century workforce desire to have meaningful work that engages their whole self (Marques, 2006; Mitroff and Denton, 1999). Furthermore, it is important to remember that these factors do not standalone; for example, religiosity alone may not make significant impacts, unless positive values and work commitment are present. Moreover, it is imperative that researchers and practitioners continue to examine various ways so that employees are motivated to improve their quantity and quality of performance.

The limitation of this study is that this research did not analyse all of the demographic variables, except religion with regard to employees’ performance. Demographic characteristics such as age, income, and gender are often assumed to have affected employees’ performance. Another limitation is that this study examined religiosity and spirituality at the individual level, not at organisational level. Further research is needed to effectively measure the factors identified in the model, and then provide a more comprehensive framework by identifying and incorporating all other apparently relevant factors that influence organisations in today’s dynamic multicultural and multireligious work environment. Different measurements of religiosity and spirituality may be applied. Hopefully, findings from this study will trigger more research interests in future among the scholars of relevant fields of study.

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