Effect of Dimensions of Workplace Spiritualism: Meaningful Work, Sense of Community, Organizational Values and Compassion with Reference to Job Satisfaction

All organizations should be focusing on maximizing the job satisfaction of their employees in order to ensure maximum contribution and efforts from them towards the growth of the organization. It is essential to understand the concept of workplace spiritualism in the organizational context. Job satisfaction highlights to what extent an employee feels satisfied with his/her respective job. The objective of this research paper is to understand the impact of workplace spiritualism on the degree of job satisfaction of employees. Workplace spiritualism is about understanding that the employees are not only having a mind but also a spirit which induces them to look for a purpose in the work they perform as well as a wish to develop an association with others and having a sense of community. In context of the workplace, the idea of spiritualism is a relatively new one even though it has existed in other aspects of human experience for long. People tend to look for a meaning in their work as well as maintaining harmonious relations with other employees in the organization. Workplace spiritualism is much more than just implying one’s physical and intellectual capabilities to one’s work and instead explore other aspects of one’s being. In order to have a clear understanding of spirituality at work one needs to recognize that people have an inner life as well as an outer life wherein the outer life’s meaningfulness and productiveness depends on how one’s inner life is nurtured (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000). With the dynamic changes going on within the global economic environment like downsizing, competition and globalization, to some extent have resulted in a sense of less relevance and lower meaningfulness of work among the employees which requires the organizations to bring in the concept of spirituality in the workplace to embrace such changes effectively. The organizations need not be of spiritual nature for implying workplace spiritualism, rather the employees must be permitted as well as urged to be able to experience spirituality in their work environment. Nevertheless ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
All organizations should be focusing on maximizing the job satisfaction of their employees in order to ensure maximum contribution and efforts from them towards the growth of the organization. It is essential to understand the concept of workplace spiritualism in the organizational context. Job satisfaction highlights to what extent an employee feels satisfied with his/her respective job. The objective of this research paper is to understand the impact of workplace spiritualism on the degree of job satisfaction of employees. Workplace spiritualism is about understanding that the employees are not only having a mind but also a spirit which induces them to look for a purpose in the work they perform as well as a wish to develop an association with others and having a sense of community. In context of the workplace, the idea of spiritualism is a relatively new one even though it has existed in other aspects of human experience for long. People tend to look for a meaning in their work as well as maintaining harmonious relations with other employees in the organization. Workplace spiritualism is much more than just implying one's physical and intellectual capabilities to one's work and instead explore other aspects of one's being. In order to have a clear understanding of spirituality at work one needs to recognize that people have an inner life as well as an outer life wherein the outer life's meaningfulness and productiveness depends on how one's inner life is nurtured (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000).
With the dynamic changes going on within the global economic environment like downsizing, competition and globalization, to some extent have resulted in a sense of less relevance and lower meaningfulness of work among the employees which requires the organizations to bring in the concept of spirituality in the workplace to embrace such changes effectively. The organizations need not be of spiritual nature for implying workplace spiritualism, rather the employees must be permitted as well as urged to be able to experience spirituality in their work environment. Nevertheless higher profitability as well as productivity can be achieved once the organization and its employees both are spiritual (Walt and Klerk, 2014).
Job satisfaction means the degree of contentment that employees have with their respective jobs. It is an attitude that an employee possesses for a particular job.
The employees are said to be satisfied with their job when they are happy to perform it and have a positive perception towards the same. The perception of the employee has an important impact on the level of satisfaction with the job. (Aziri, 2011). Job satisfaction is of utmost importance as unless the employees are satisfied with their jobs, they will not be contributing the best of their efforts for effective job performance. Job satisfaction is essential to ensure that the employees enjoy their work and have a sense of positive approach towards their job. There are various personal as well as organizational variables which impact the degree of employee job satisfaction. Organizations that are spiritual in nature offer a sense of spiritual fulfillment to employees through meaningful work with employees considering work as most important in their lives. This not only results in general life satisfaction but also job experience further contributing to job satisfaction. On the contrary, the lack of workplace spiritualism in an organization may lead to a negative work experience resulting in dissatisfaction of employees with their job (Walt and Klerk, 2014).
The prime purpose of the study is understanding the link between workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction within the organizations. The concept of workplace spiritualism is trending in the recent times and has a huge scope for research. From the results of this study, valuable insights can be drawn by the HR managers while making decisions related to job satisfaction strategies keeping the employees interests in mind. Ashmos and Duchon (2000) discussed workplace spirituality as recognizing that there is an inner life of employees that nurtures and is nurtured through the meaningfulness of the work taking place in community context. (Harrington, 2004) described spirituality at the workplace as a desire of the spirited beings to get energized by the work they perform in the organization. It is viewed as experiencing a more real meaning and purpose of work that is beyond the paychecks and review of work performance and which gives an essence of togetherness, attraction and common attachment, both within the separate work department as well as the entire organization taken on the whole. (Gotsis and Kortezi, 2008) describe workplace spiritualism as an experience involving a sense of personal completeness and joy, transcendence as well as interconnectedness as analyzed in various theoretical frameworks. Workplace spirituality can be referred to as those workplace aspects, be it in the individual, the group or the organization which encourage feeling of satisfaction in individuals through transcendence (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2010). (Schutte, 2016) has discussed that no universally agreed definition exists for workplace spiritualism which leads to obscurity and vagueness in this area of study. The paper also revealed the influence of the spiritual beliefs already existing within the strategic leaders as well as the employees on their respective leadership and day to day workplace operations exercising style.

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a mixture of environmental, psychological and physiological circumstances which makes people truthfully tell that they are satisfied with their respective job they perform (Hoppock, 1935). (Davis et al., 1985) described job satisfaction as a blend of workers' feeling towards their work, both positive as well as negative. The expectations that an employee has dismissed can be determined through the desires and needs that he brings with him when he gets employed at a business organization. Job satisfaction measures the degree to which the expectations and the actual awards match. It is related to the behaviour of the individual employee at the place of work. Job satisfaction can also be described in terms of the level of contentment that one has with the rewards that one receives from the job they perform especially in the form of intrinsic motivation (Statt, 2004).The people's attitude and feelings towards their work define their degree of employee job satisfaction. A positive and favourable attitude can suggest job satisfaction whereas a negative or unfavourable may reveal an employee's dissatisfaction with the job (Armstrong, 2006). (George et al., 2008) described job satisfaction as a combination of the people's feelings and beliefs regarding their respective jobs. The level of job satisfaction that people have with their jobs ranges between extreme satisfaction to extreme dissatisfaction. Also, apart from having attitude towards the job on the whole, attitudes of people can also be with regard to other parts of job such as their colleagues, superiors, work, pay etc. Chawla and Guda (2010) discussed the association that individual spirituality at workplace has with the job satisfaction, job commitment as well as the propensity to leave of the sales professionals across several industries. The results showed a positive relation exists between workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction as well as job commitment while a negative relation exists among workplace spiritualism and propensity to leave. (Noor and Arif, 2011) examined how job satisfaction might be achieved through workplace spiritualism in context of Pakistani doctors. Organizational spirituality and personal spirituality are the two constructs of spirituality identified in the paper. The theoretical framework used for the same highlights that the workplace spiritualism includes both personal as well as organizational spirituality which together effects the job satisfaction of employees. The study concluded that organizations with different structures would also differ in their culture as well as spirituality while the personal perspective of spirituality may indicate an individual reflection, feeling as well as an emotional experience. The results determined that spiritualism plays a prime role in ensuring job satisfaction among the employees. (Marschke, Preziosi and Harrington, 2011) have analyzed the relationship that exists between job satisfaction and workplace spiritualism. The intrinsic as well as extrinsic job satisfaction was studied with respect to spirituality at the workplace as standalone variables. Also the relationship between such variables that can contribute to employee development, employee retention, lower turnover rates etc. The results showed that if workplace spiritualism is positively related with job satisfaction, it can transform the individual and organizational lives. (Gupta, Kumar and Singh, 2013) analyzed how workplace spiritualism impacts the employee job satisfaction with regard to the private insurance sector of Punjab, India. For this they identified and examined four dimensions that can be used to measure spiritualism at workplace, namely, sense of community; organizational values; meaningful work as well as compassion. The correlation results revealed a positive relation between each of these four dimensions of workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction. The regression analysis highlighted that organizational values as well as sense of community are highly significant dimensions of workplace spiritualism in context of job satisfaction among employees. (Dandona, 2013) discussed the importance of workplace spirituality as a concept in the management field. Organizations are analyzing how employees are no longer looking for just material gains but something superior to that. The importance of job satisfaction is also described as it measures how much the employee loves his job, looks forward to come to work, be enthusiastic about his job and willing to work for the organization. Personal growth and achievement, fulfillment, self-actualization, creativity etc. can be observed in a spiritual being whose inner self is energized. The paper discussed three parts of conceptualization of spirituality at workplace that are, inner life, meaningful work as well as sense of community. The benefits of workplace spirituality are suggested in terms of resulting honesty and trust, personal fulfillment, creativity and commitment all together contributing towards higher organizational performance. (Walt and Klerk, 2014) examined the association of workplace spirituality with job satisfaction. The results are based on a cross sectional study of employees working at two different industries of South Africa. The findings highlighted a positive relationship among the two along with offering a deeper and more clear idea about the personal and organizational spirituality as well as job satisfaction. Also, the importance of spiritually based organizations was highlighted which will result in the employees being satisfied with their overall work experience.

Relationship Between Workplace Spiritualism And Job Satisfaction
Hassan, Nadeem and Akhter (2016) discussed the link of dimensions of workplace spiritualism with job satisfaction, having trust as the mediating factor. Workplace spiritualism was found as a topic of great interest among academicians as well as industry people. The dimensions of workplace spirituality identified included meaningful work, sense of community as well as value of organization. The results are based on the responses obtained from the education sector. The findings revealed that workplace spiritualism and trust are positively related with trust mediating the interaction between workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction. (Fatima et al., 2017) analyzed, using intrinsic and extrinsic values as a moderating factor, the relation of workplace spiritualism with job satisfaction. The survey was conducted using self-administered questionnaires. The results of the study showed that the existence of high intrinsic values makes the relation between job satisfaction and spirituality at workplace stronger. On the other hand, the extrinsic values are also found to be moderating this relationship although it has a negative impact on the same. The paper also briefly discussed four aspects of spirituality at workplace, namely, work values, meaningful work, inner life as well as sense of community. The study revealed that spirituality at the work place is an important indicator of job satisfaction.(Habib and Khan, 2018) measured the impact of workplace spiritualism on job satisfaction of the employees working in Prasar Bharti and All India Radio (New Delhi). The study discussed four main dimensions of measuring workplace spirituality, that are, transcendence, compassion, meaningful work as well as mindfulness. The study focused at identifying possible links among the mentioned dimensions related to workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction for which cross sectional study was conducted in 2014 on 30 government employees working in Prasar Bharti and All India Radio. The results revealed that there exists a significantly positive correlation among the selected dimensions of spiritualism at the workplace and job satisfaction that can contribute towards higher productivity in the workplace.

Research Objectives
a) To study the concept of workplace spiritualism. b) To understand the various dimensions of workplace spiritualism. c) To study the relationship between workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector. d) To analyze the effect of workplace spiritualism on the job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.

Hypothesis I
H01: There is no significant relation between meaningful work and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.
Ha1: There is significant relation between meaningful work and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.

Hypothesis II
H02: There is no significant relation between sense of community and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.
Ha2: There is significant relation between sense of community and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.

Hypothesis III
H03: There is no significant relation between organizational values and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.
Ha3: There is significant relation between organizational values and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.

Hypothesis IV
H04: There is no significant relation between compassion and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.
Ha4: There is significant relation between compassion and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.

Research Design
An empirical study was conducted with the aim of attaining the objectives of the study. The study includes two types of research designs. Firstly, descriptive statistics has been carried out with the aim to study the concept of workplace spiritualism and the various dimensions that constitute workplace spiritualism. Secondly, causal research has been conducted for understanding the association of the independent variables with the dependent variables of this research. Correlation was used for studying the link between workplace spiritualism and job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector while regression analysis was used for measuring the effect of workplace spiritualism on job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector.

Sampling Design
Simple random sampling was used to pick the respondents working within the IT sector. A total of 110 responses have been collected for the research study.

Tools For Data Collection
For this research, data was gathered through both primary and secondary sources. The primary data was gathered through a questionnaire while the existing data on similar studies was analyzed for obtaining the secondary data. The research questionnaire comprises of 3 sections. Section A contains 2 questions regarding personal information, section B has 35 questions related to the workplace spiritualism in the form of 4 subsections, namely, meaningful work, sense of community, organizational values and compassion, section C relates to measuring job satisfaction and it includes 18 questions. The questions for measuring workplace spiritualism used in section B were taken from the scale that was developed by (Gupta, Kumar and Singh, 2013) in their paper titled "Creating satisfied employees through workplace spirituality: A study of the private insurance sector in Punjab (India)." The section C of the questionnaire measuring job satisfaction is the modified form of the short form version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) (Weiss et al. 1967) as used in the paper titled "Creating satisfied employees through workplace spirituality: A study of the private insurance sector in Punjab (India)" (Gupta, Kumar and Singh, 2013).

Techniques for Data Analysis
Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was applied to the data for conducting descriptive analysis as well as causal analysis (correlation and regression). For testing the research hypothesis, correlation and regression was used. Pearson's correlation coefficient is significant at 0.01 levels, 2-tailed.

Hypothesis I
The analysis revealed the Pearson's coefficient of correlation to be 0.927, a value which is highly significant, (p < 0.01). The high value of correlation indicates that job satisfaction is positively affected by meaningful work. Therefore, hypothesis I (Ha1) is accepted. The result R square = .860, p < 0.01 highlights that when the work assigned is meaningful, there is a 86.0 % rise in the employee job satisfaction.

Hypothesis II
The analysis revealed the Pearson's coefficient of correlation to be 0.945, a value which is highly significant, (p < 0.01). The high value of correlation indicates that job satisfaction is positively effected by a sense of community at the workplace. Therefore, hypothesis II (Ha2) is accepted. The result R square = .893, p < .01 highlights that a 89.3% increase in employee job satisfaction can be achieved if the employees identify themselves as a team and work with a sense of common purpose.

Hypothesis III
The analysis revealed the Pearson's coefficient of correlation to be 0.942, a value which is highly significant, (p < 0.01). The high value of correlation indicates that job satisfaction is positively effected by organizational values. Therefore, hypothesis III (Ha3) is accepted. The result R square = .888, p < .01 highlights that a 88.8% increase in employee job satisfaction can be achieved through organizational values such as rewards, recognition, participation of employees in making decisions etc.

Hypothesis IV
The analysis revealed the Pearson's coefficient of correlation to be 0.915, a value which is highly significant, (p < 0.01). The high value of correlation indicates that job satisfaction is positively affected by compassion. Therefore, hypothesis IV (Ha4) is accepted. The result R square = .838, p < .01 highlights that a 83.8% increase in employee job satisfaction can be achieved through the presence of sympathy as well as sorrow for one another at the workplace.

Figure B
Source:Author Figure A represents the individual effect of each dimension of workplace spiritualism on the employee job satisfaction level. Through this figure, it can be observed that all the four dimensions of workplace spiritualism are having a highly significant impact on the job satisfaction levels of employees, but sense of community as well as organizational values are the two dimensions with the highest R2 values of 0.893 and 0.888 respectively, indicating that out of the 4 dimensions, these two have the maximum impact on the level of employee job satisfaction, followed by meaningful work dimension and then the compassion dimension. Figure B represents the combined effect of all the four dimensions of workplace spiritualism on the employee job satisfaction level. Through this figure, it can be observed that the overall impact of these 4 dimensions of workplace spiritualism on the level of employee job satisfaction is even higher than the individual impact that each such dimension has on level of job satisfaction. The combined R2 value comes out to be 0.915 which is highly significant indicating a strong association of workplace spiritualism with level of job satisfaction of employees.

Future Scope
The current research is concentrated at measuring the impact of workplace spiritualism on the degree of job satisfaction of employees in the IT sector only. However, it being a new but trending concept can be studied in more industry -specific terms or company specific terms. This relationship between the two can be analyzed in different sectors as well as in terms of different companies within a sector or comparison between employees of different companies or different sectors. Workplace spiritualism has a broad scope in the area of management research as organizations are beginning to realize that employees are looking for something more than just the monetary aspect, they look for a sense of spiritual fulfillment of their inner selves. Studies in this area can help managers create more opportunities for employees to fulfill such needs which can have a favourable impact on their contribution and efforts towards their job which, in turn effect the organization and its growth on the whole.

Research Limitations
This research study is limited by the availability of literature used for the secondary research aspect. The secondary research done in this paper is dependent upon the level of accuracy of the studies carried out earlier by researchers in this area of research. Also, the responses received are subject to the risk of inaccuracy in cases where some respondents might not have been truthful with their response. Another limitation to this study is the sample size, a sample size larger in number or even a same sample size consisting of a different set of respondents selected through simple random sampling method may lead to different results. Furthermore, the results of this study are subject to the four dimensions identified for measuring workplace spiritualism in this paper, the use of some other dimension in exchange of or in addition to the ones used in this study can lead to a completely different result.

CONCLUSION
This paper attempts to emphasize on the importance of the currently trending concept of workplace spiritualism in relation to its associated impact on the degree of employee job satisfaction with respect to the IT sector. The results revealed that there is a significantly strong as well as positive relation between workplace spiritualism and employee job satisfaction. From the results of this study, an increase in the degree of employee job satisfaction by 91.5% when all the four dimensions of workplace spiritualism are applied together can be seen. The four dimensions used for measuring the level of workplace spiritualism include meaningful work; sense of community; organizational values as well as compassion. The results from regression analysis highlighted that sense of community as well as organizational values are the two most important B dimensions influencing job satisfaction. It is important to understand that those employees who find themselves spiritually connected with the organization and its practices are more likely to keep working hard for the benefit of the organization as well as remain highly satisfied with the work they are expected to perform as part of their respective jobs. Also, employees are looking for something more than just the monetary aspect from their job. Spiritual fulfillment of employees at their place of work therefore becomes essential for ensuring their satisfaction. All organizations should therefore work towards creating an environment which fulfills the spiritual needs of the employees. The higher the degree of workplace spiritualism, greater will be their satisfaction from the job which will lead to higher commitment, contribution, retention, hard work, productivity as well as profitability for the organization. Hence, this is not only important from the employees' point of view but is also crucial for the benefit of the organization as satisfied employees contribute more effectively and efficiently towards the achievement of organizational objectives. More and more organizations are becoming aware as well as working towards offering the same to their workers. Job satisfaction is what ensures the continuous contribution of workers towards accomplishment of organizational objectives and knowing the importance of the relation of spirituality at work place with the same is the reason why this has gained more importance. The management can use these dimensions while forming strategies directed towards increasing the degree of satisfaction of workers in respect of their jobs. In conclusion, the scope of workplace spiritualism is vast as it is still in the stage of conceptualization whereby this area can be taken up for future researches in industry or company specific terms. Those organizations which understand the importance of workplace spiritualism and effectively work towards ensuring fulfillment of spiritual needs of their employees will be successful in creating greater level of job satisfaction among the employees. This is essential not only from employee perspective but also for the organization as higher the satisfaction level of employees, more will be their contribution through greater efforts, hard work and commitment which will be beneficial for the effective attainment of organizational objectives and overall growth of the organization.