Empirical study on big data of workplace spirituality theory method and computational simulation

It cannot be simply said that workplace spirituality indicates persuading one to accept the specific belief in the workplace, but instead enabling the individual in the organisation to know about the existence of its foundational spirits and cultivating spirituality in his work, so that the individual's workplace skills are developed (Campbell & Hwa, 2014). However, the individual life is also taken into account to facilitate the activation of the inside life and find the significance of life during his work. Daniel (2010) believed that it should include three aspects such as inner life, meaningful work, and organisation. Against the background that individuals pursue life, meaningful work, and intrinsic nature, such an organisation is connected by people on a one on one basis.

Eisenberger (2003) comprehended perceived organisational support (POS) to be the core concept of the social exchange process. Provided that an organisation puts emphasis on employees’ contribution and cares about their welfare, it becomes obligatory for employees to join the said organisation under the principle of reciprocity. When an organisation treats its employees well, the overall trust in employees is formed. In addition, there forms a corresponding sense of responsibility toward effort and loyalty. Then, the overall belief further forms POS to determine these obligations (Seppänen, 2016).

Avery, Mckay and Wilson (2017) defined job engagement as “the organization members control self to combine the self with job role.” Harter and James (2012) supposed that it included three dimensions, including vigour, dedication, and absorption. Vigour indicates that the individual possesses much energy, strong psychological resilience, is willing to work for his organization, does not feel fatigued, and keeps his resolution when facing difficulties. Dedication indicates that the individual has a strong sense of meaning and pride and great enthusiasm for work; he is devoted to his work wholeheartedly and bravely meets the challenges encountered in his work. Absorption indicates that the individual is absorbed in his work, takes delight in it, and is not willing to be distracted from his work, thus feeling that the time passes by too quickly.

Employees often engaged in and with workplace spirituality may manifest their attitude in the proper work environment and they may increasingly show involvement in their work (Milliman, Czaplewski & Ferguson, 2013). Such a viewpoint emphasises the job attitude that the employee forms during his daily work and it is the same as the interaction of cognition and behaviours (e.g. job involvement) as the time passes by (Fachrunnisa, 2014). More importantly, Daniel (2010) proposed that the frontline service employees of the enterprise would change the way of working according to the job requirements when they had workplace spirituality. For instance, Daniel (2010) supported this argument by using the sample of an enterprise's employees, suggesting that they should manifest higher job engagement when using workplace spirituality behaviours. Meanwhile, the enterprise employees with higher workplace spirituality may work harder to change their feelings to combine with the job expectations, enhance job engagement, and reduce the turnover intention (Keenoy, 2013).

To be specific, when the enterprise's employees adopt workplace spirituality strategies, they will keep active in their inner heart and hope that they could have a positive response among colleagues, and it is helpful for building harmonious employee relations (Fachrunnisa, 2014). Under such circumstances, they can obtain a stronger sense of self-efficacy and satisfaction, so that they can make up for the emotional resources they have lost and the positive response from the colleagues (Harter, James, 2012). On the contrary, when an employee adopts low workplace spirituality strategy, there may be a great difference between his inner feeling and external emotional expression (Moss, 2015). In such a circumstance, he may have negative behaviours, including low job engagement (Keenoy, 2013). If he cannot eliminate such negative emotions rationally and effectively, he may have the turnover intention.

Based on the above discussions, the following hypothesis is made:

H1: Workplace spirituality is positively correlated with job engagement.

According to the research carried out by Garcia-Zamor (2013), workplace spirituality is manifested by employees’ behaviours. They are satisfied with their organisation psychologically and physically. When the employees obtain high-level support from their organisation, they usually feel emotionally associated with their organisation (Eisenberger, 2003). The employees will have less turnover intentions when they obtain appropriate emotional and tool support, due to which they will have a positive attitude towards their organisation and enhance their job involvement with their organisation (Chung, Dae-Yong & Jin-Hyuk, 2016).

There is limited research on the role of POS in the relationship between workplace spirituality and job engagement. Mohammadi (2009) studied the role of POS in the relationship between workplace spirituality and job engagement. The results showed that POS fully adjusted the relationship between each of these variables and job engagement of the organisation. He discovered that POS led to a positive correlation among social emotional and tool support and job engagement (Seppänen, 2016). In a bid to illustrate the adjusting effect of the POS between workplace spirituality and job engagement, the following analysis is made.

Previous research shows that the correlation between workplace spirit and job engagement is still a subject that is not fully explored. However, current literature reveals that the result is quite complicated. Some researches manifest that employees with low workplace spirituality choose to resign or have low-efficiency job engagement to end unfairness (Garcia-Zamor, 2013). Compared to those with high workplace spirituality, they may benefit faster from the organisation than those with low workplace spirituality (Kolodinsky, Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2015). Others report that workplace spirituality exceeds any specific result, for it manifests personal decisions such as job engagement (Jurkiewicz & Giacalone, 2004).

The research carried out by Hobfoll (2011) revealed that workplace spirituality had a significant influence on the job engagement of an enterprise's employees. Thus, it could be rationally predicted that the enterprise's employees will tend to reduce job engagement if they think they receive unfair treatment, according to the results provided by POS.

Fig. 1

According to the above argument, it can be observed that workplace spirituality and job engagement are regarded by employees as based on their own behaviours and that of the organisation's (Jurkiewicz & Giacalone, 2004). Provided that the influence of workplace spirituality on job involvement is logical, the employee's ability can be improved through POS to reduce their intention of leaving the organisation and thus enhance job engagement (Macey, 2018). The emphasis of the research is laid on two aspects, social emotional support and tool support representing the PSO. The hypothesis is made as below:

H2a: Social emotional support will moderate the relationship between workplace spirituality and job engagement.

H2b: Tool support will moderate the relationship between workplace spirituality and job engagement.

This study adopts the questionnaire with frontline employees as the research objects.

Validation for H1

H1: Workplace spirituality is positively correlated with job engagement.

WS, workplace spirituality; JE, job engagement; IL, inner life; MW, meaningful work; SOC, sense of community; V, vigour.

The result indicates that the standardised regression coefficient β of the meaningful work and vigour is 0.152, so meaningful work and vigour have a positive influence (β = 0.152, P < 0.05); that of sense of community and vigour is 0.122, so the sense of community and vigour have a positive influence (β = 0.122, P < 0.05); that of inner life and vigour is 0.158, so the inner life and vigour have a positive influence (β = 0.158, P < 0.05).

WS, workplace spirituality; JE, job engagement; IL, inner life; MW, meaningful work; SOC, sense of community; D, dedication.

The result indicates that the standardised regression coefficient β of the meaningful work and dedication is 0.171, so the meaningful work and dedication have a positive influence (β = 0.171, P < 0.05); that of sense of community and dedication is 0.137, so the sense of community and dedication have a positive influence (β = 0.122, P < 0.05); that of inner life and dedication is 0.188, so the inner life and dedication have a positive influence (β = 0.188, P < 0.05).

WS, workplace spirituality; JE, job engagement; IL, inner life; MW, meaningful work; SOC, sense of community; A, absorption.

The result indicates that the standardised regression coefficient β of the meaningful work and absorption is 0.066, so the meaningful work and absorption have a positive influence (β = 0.066, P < 0.05); that of sense of community and absorption is 0.209, so the sense of community and absorption have a positive influence (β = 0.209, P < 0.05); that of inner life and absorption is 0.180, so the inner life and absorption have a positive influence (β = 0.180, P < 0.05).