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This chapter aims to consider workplace spirituality from a cross-cultural perspective. The terms workplace spirituality and culture are so intangible, and both start with the attitude and behavior of humans but are meaningful in a community. Because of the constraint of understanding these abstract settings, it is necessary to define and specify the dimensions of both concepts to achieve the aim of this chapter. In this regard, the section starts with the conceptuality of workplace spirituality and the dimensions of the term, which cumulate at individual, group, and organizational levels. It goes with the part of cultural dimensions in the light of Hofstede's (2001) direction, Chhokar, Brodbeck, and House's (2007) extension, and Sharma's (2010) derivation of cultural dimensions for national, organizational, and individual levels, respectively. After joining the dots, the chapter focuses on one of the most sacred research areas for academic literature, cross-cultural differences, and workplace spirituality. The last part of the chapter is the conclusion to point to final notes about the concepts and help guide future studies.

There is evidence that spirituality at the workplace has positive effects on work outcomes, and there are different models conceptualizing the construct. To date, there is no discussion highlighting how digitalization is affecting workplace spirituality and vice versa. The present review tries to close this gap by discussing the psychological dynamics in light of digitalization and spirituality in the context of work.

This is a conceptual discussion based on an extensive narrative review. The conceptual design is further tested with a real-life case study.

The result is a model that may guide future research, which consists of the four highly interdependent domains, namely psychology (with the dimensions of emotion, cognition and behavior), digitalization (with the dimensions of platforms, data and algorithms), spirituality (with the dimensions of meaning, self-transcendation and belonging), as well as the workplace (with the dimensions of work tasks, location, community and culture and values). The discussion includes implications for the future of work, suggestions for management decisions and potential future research directions.

To date, there are many discussions about digital transformation and a limited amount of them have invested in analyzing psychological dimensions. The application to spirituality and the workplace – especially when the two are combined – is almost wholly absent, which makes the present discussion both innovative and original.

This study aims to investigate the relationships between workplace spirituality, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). It examines the relationship between the three workplace spirituality components – meaning and purpose in work, recognition of an inner life or spirit and interconnectedness with OCBs, mediated by the job satisfaction experienced by the employees, in the context of an Indian private sector bank. A sample consisting of 613 banking employees is studied. The results provide considerable support for all except one of the hypothesized relationships between workplace spirituality components and OCBs. Workplace spirituality components also all led to job satisfaction in employees, and job satisfaction tested positive for a relationship with OCBs. This study can provide significant inputs to promote managerial effectiveness and change management, leadership and holistic performance and growth of organizations, through environments that promote workplace spirituality.

The objective of this research is the study of the relationship between the constructs, a spirituality at work, i.e. the independent variable, and OCBs (OCBs), i.e. the dependent variable, and to explore the possibility of the mediating effects of job satisfaction. As the nature of this empirical study is rigorous, and one which will pave the way toward theory building, this research adopts a positivist orientation quantitative method throughout because it is deemed most suitable as it allows testing the validity of the main measure (the integration profile) and the theory using hypotheses and establishing relationships, and at the same time, it allows the researcher to remain independent from the research participants (Reswell, 1994). Consequently, the findings will be very useful to answer the most important research question of this study, which is to inform managers and employers whether workplace spirituality affects employees’ job satisfaction and OCBs.

Using the SPSS statistical package and the partial least square structured equation modeling analysis software tool, the research data have been analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative results suggest that there is a positive relationship between the dependent variable, OCBs, and the independent variables, meaning and purpose and interconnectedness. The inner life dimension of workplace spirituality did to correlate to the single factor of OCB analyzed, but individually inner life had a significant positive relationship with the individual components of OCB – altruism, civic virtue, courtesy and sportsmanship, except conscientiousness. The correlations established the relationships, and the regression analysis identified the relevant factors that had causal relationship. The 163 validity and reliability of the measurement instruments were confirmed by the high internal consistency.

Improving organizational citizenship is one of the lowest costs and best ways to encourage organizational effectiveness. This research is important for businesses that want to create competence and organizational effectiveness. Indian contextual studies (non-Western context) on both workplace spirituality and organizational outcomes are few and keeping in mind the growth of Indian industry, the evolving workforce and demands being made on workplaces, a study like this is significant. The studies stated that businesses should act as agents of national progress and development and as socially responsible citizens contributing to the environment and influencing well-being. This would require a strong and hard look at current management practices. Allio (2011) stated that as a result of the consequences of questionable and corrupt corporate practices, there is a strong need felt to articulate a new sense of purpose of the firm, corporate character and culture, survival, sustainability and innovation. Thaker (2011) advocated the same view as he stated that the current management and organizational policies, principles and practices are focused on a view of self-interest. This results in socially and environmentally dysfunctional organizations. An alternative approach is workplace spirituality (Al-Qutop and Harrim, 2014).

Strategic implementation of workplace spirituality is an upcoming focus and priority area of work for human resource managers (Marques, 2005). The human resource department’s role in designing and developing strategies that embrace spirituality, with the intention of developing a culture aimed toward the successful achievement of both business and individual or personal goals, is very critical for the management. By using statistical analysis to demonstrate whether or not a relationship exists between one or more of the determinants of spirituality and one or more of the determinants of job satisfaction, leaders may be better able to understand why certain individuals are able to remain passionate about their work. Leaders can integrate the appropriate determinants that may correlate to job satisfaction into the organizational culture, resulting in improved job satisfaction for all within the organization. The outcomes can provide a significant contribution to the body of knowledge for spirituality within organizations, as well as knowledge of factors that influence job satisfaction and motivation.

The inherent nature of this study is intimately connected to its objective, purpose and significance. It is also based on the fundamental realization that managers and leaders today have a larger responsibility in society, one that extends beyond their routine functions and basic tasks of running a business. Leadership decisions can and do have a profound lasting effect on the larger community and society within which they operate. This study and the methods that have been adopted for this research are intended to add to the growing body of knowledge on managerial perceptions, and implications of the process of introducing and practicing workplace spirituality.

Studies in the Indian context of workplace spirituality and outcomes are rare. Particular studies in the banking sector are lesser. This research aims at studying the link between workplace spirituality, job satisfaction and OCBs, in the context of an Indian private sector bank, which is very unique. Earlier studies have tested the relationships independently, but have not examined the relationships of all three variables together.

This study aims to examine the influence of workplace spirituality on employee loyalty toward the organization, mediated through well-being at work. Furthermore, the study endeavors to test the difference in conceptual model estimates, across two groups of employees: those who work on contract/temporary and permanent basis. The study gains relevance particularly in the context of the emerging sharing economy, where jobs are primarily characterized by short-term contracts and freelancing.

This descriptive study was conducted among a sample of 523 educators working in private educational institutions in India. Self-reporting questionnaires were administered among the respondents, who were selected through the purposive sampling method. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were done to test the proposed hypotheses.

The analysis revealed that workplace spirituality enriched employee well-being and loyalty toward the organization and evidence were found for indirect effects too. Variances were observed in the relationships, with respect to the different employment statuses of the personnel. Significant differences in the relationships were not found across temporary and permanent employment statuses. Interestingly, temporary employees experienced stronger influences between meaningful work, well-being and word-of-mouth. Results suggest the relevance of understanding employees' differential work experiences and attitudes and thus facilitate human resource strategies accordingly.

This study is pioneering in conceptualizing and testing a theoretical model linking workplace spirituality, well-being at work and employee loyalty, particularly in the context of employees who differ in their employment status, which is a critical aspect of modern-day organizations. Unlike traditional workplaces, in recent times, people come together and work along for shorter terms, as the case of a sharing economy and the thus emergent interpersonal dynamics between each other and with the workplace has significant repercussions on the organization. Theoretical and managerial implications with regard to the experience of workplace spirituality and job outcomes are elaborated, thus striving to fill a gap in the existing literature.

Spirituality is a concept that explains the spiritual dimension of human beings. Meaning of life, being together, and the bigger one's existence are the components of spirituality. In that manner, workplace spirituality is an area that endeavors to find the meaning of the work together with the community. Research reveals that workplace spirituality has several dimensions, and inner life, sense of community, and meaning at work are validly used. Though developing in the research area, misunderstandings and misuses of the phenomenon causes several dark sides. In this context, this chapter aims to reveal these in five aspects to contribute to enhancing the literature. The ambiguity in defining spirituality and religion is the first dark point in understanding workplace spirituality. Accepting spiritual executions at work as a tool for profitability is the second. The scarcity of awareness of executive leaders about workplace spirituality is the other. Considering the studies on workplace spirituality as a fad and the expected difficulties in developments about the area is the fourth. Finally, workplace spirituality-based misbehaviors at work are the last dark side, addressed in this study. In addition to the explanations in its content, the authors present a bibliometric analysis conducted by R. The chapter concludes with general evaluations and suggestions for future studies.

Drawing on the positive activity model, this study aims to investigate the impact of workplace spirituality on the level of engagement shown by the teachers at higher education institutions. This study also tries to explore if emotional intelligence acts as a mediator in the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee engagement.

Using the purposive sampling technique, data were collected from the teachers (N = 287) teaching at various Indian educational institutions imparting tertiary education. The variables under study were measured using standardized instruments. The data were analyzed by means of Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20.0 and Analysis of Moment Structures software tools.

The findings generated from structural equation modeling analysis revealed that the teachers who practiced spirituality at their workplace were more engaged. Furthermore, emotional intelligence partially mediated this relationship.

This study underscores the importance of providing a spiritually conducive work milieu and nurturing emotional intelligence among the higher education teachers for better job outcomes.

This study offers insights into the mechanism linking spirituality at the workplace (a positive activity) and employee engagement (an indicator of well-being) in the context of higher education sector.

This study aims to examine the association between shared transformational leadership and workplace spirituality in teams. While articulating its theoretical propositions, this research draws on the theory of motivational effects of charismatic leadership based on the self-concept.

The paper has adopted the quantitative method and cross-sectional research design while examining the study’s variables’ multi-level relationship. The authors researched 141 project teams in India’s information technology setting.

This study shows that shared transformational leadership is associated with workplace spirituality. This research has also found significant within-team variance in team members’ workplace spirituality experiences.

The study’s results show that the information technology companies’ employees aspire to cultivate individual-specific meaning at work. Therefore, team leaders should strive to display transformational leadership behaviours to build individual-specific meaning and a sense of community among team members.

The study’s findings imply that shared transformational leadership can reduce individualistic utilitarianism and the resulting baneful impact of hedonism. Society can also benefit from shared leadership’s impact on individuals’ self-work integration as it will probably strengthen the “other-benefitting” behaviour instead of mere hedonistic orientation.

This paper has addressed the theoretical tensions regarding the role of shared transformational leadership in inducing employees’ inner life, meaning at work and sense of community. This paper helps us understand shared transformational leadership’s effects on individual workplace spirituality experiences.

Though violence is very much prevalent in modern organizations, unfortunately, researchers and practitioners have given very little attention in creating an organizational culture based on nonviolence. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between individual spirituality and non-violence work behaviour. It also investigates the mediating role of four constructs of psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy).

Collected data is subjected to rigorous reliability, validity and common method biasness tests. Further mediation is analyzed with the help of hierarchical regression, Sobel test and bootstrapping estimates.

The results show that all four dimensions of psychological capital partially mediate the relationship of individual spirituality and non-violent behaviour at the workplace. The practical and theoretical implications of the study are also discussed.

Although the study produces significant results, it has certain limitations, too, which can be addressed in future research. Firstly, as psychological capital is a state like construct, the responses of the participants may vary from time to time, leading to biases. Secondly, the study is confined only to manufacturing, IT/ITES and financial institutions. It can be duplicated to other sectors as well to assess its generality. Future researchers may adopt both quantitative and qualitative methodology to explore the field. Even experimental research may help to understand these work behaviours. Although the study has been conducted in business organization the purpose is not to limit it to the workplace context. It is relevant to all sectors and across all domains.

The findings have revealed individual spirituality as a significant predictor of nonviolence behaviour at the workplace. Thus managers, leaders, policymakers or organizational development practitioners need to facilitate spirituality at the workplace and introduce spiritual-based interventions such as meditation, yoga and several other mindfulness practices. Even organizational training, which is considered to be essential to human resource development, needs to develop a spiritual development program and also to examine the impact of such programs on organizational outcomes (Dent et al., 2005). Organizational interventions that facilitate mindfulness practices, yoga and meditation will enhance nonviolence communication through empathy and compassion-based listening, meaningful dialogues, through connecting employees with universal human values/needs.

The primary objective of the study is to foster conflict prevention in society rather than conflict resolution. With the help of the study, the authors understand the importance of spiritual intervention and its impact on the elevation of people's values, beliefs and attitudes. Major organisations such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook have already started to develop spiritual interventions at their workplace. It is an excellent time to capitalize on India's rich spiritual tradition that honours unity in diversity. Besides, an organization's facilitation to connect to employee’s actions with spiritual values can overcome cultural conditioning that triggers violence and help in making a more meaningful place to work. Thus, impacting the society from a macro perspective.

This is one of the pioneer studies that tried to unlock the “black-box” of mechanism through which individual spirituality impacts non-violent work behaviour.

Based on a multidimensional perspective of workplace spirituality, the authors examined a moderated mediation model, wherein workplace spirituality leads to life satisfaction through organizational commitment moderated by employees' religious affiliation.

Data were collected from South Korean employees, and hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.

Three subdimensions of workplace spirituality – meaning at work, membership and inner life – were positively related to organizational commitment. In addition, organizational commitment mediated the relationships between the subdimensions and life satisfaction. Employees' religious affiliation moderated the relationship between the inner life and organizational commitment, which, in turn, also mediated the interactive effect on life satisfaction.

Based on the awareness of the importance of workplace spirituality, organizations need to endeavor to help employees find meaningfulness in their work, experience a climate of mutual understanding and feel a sense of trust and respect within organizations by providing opportunities or resources to fulfill their needs to spiritual self. In addition, organizations need to consider implementing policies to support employees to pursue their inner spirit not only within the workplace but also in the areas of personal life.

This study verifies the internal mechanisms behind the workplace spirituality – life satisfaction relationship and underlines how religious affiliation interacts with workplace spirituality to influence organizational commitment and life satisfaction.

This paper seeks to outline and compare two approaches to workplace spirituality facilitation and to derive conclusions and suggest implications for research and practice.

The article uses two real‐life descriptions from the existing literature to outline two approaches to workplace spirituality facilitation. It outlines similarities and differences between them. It also compares them on key features and outlines their implications and complementarities. Based on this, it describes conclusions and implications for research and practice.

The paper finds that the first approach, with its starting point of organizational spiritual values and emphasis on organizational processes to facilitate the transmission of these values, can be identified as an organization‐focused approach. At the centre of the second approach is a program for transformation or spiritual development of individual employees.

Inputs from the present paper will help future research to specify: comprehensive classifications – typologies and taxonomies – of various types of approaches to workplace spirituality facilitation; and new theories of workplace spirituality facilitation.

The paper can inform workplace spirituality implementation efforts in organizations.

Theory development in workplace spirituality is at a formative stage. Thus, various inputs, outlined in the research implications part of the paper, for further theory development will be a valuable contribution to workplace spirituality research.