RESEARCH PROPOSAL

EFFECT OF WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY ON EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT

SUPERVISOR: SIR IBRAHIM NORANI

GROUP MEMBERS:
Mehmoona Rani Reg No: 566
Sehrish Naz Reg No: 607
BBA 9TH Batch | 8TH Semester
 Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 3
1. INTRODUCTION: .............................................................................................................. 3
1.1. Background:.................................................................................................................. 3
A. Industry Brief: ........................................................................................................... 3
1.2. Research Problem: ........................................................................................................ 3
1.3. Research Question: ....................................................................................................... 4
1.4. Objectives of The Study: .............................................................................................. 4
1.5. Justifications: ................................................................................................................ 4
1.6. Limitations: ................................................................................................................... 4
1.7. Scope: ........................................................................................................................... 4
1.8. Assumptions: ................................................................................................................ 5
CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................... 6
2. LITERATURE REVIEW: ................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................... 8
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................................................... 8
3.1. Research Design: .......................................................................................................... 8
3.2. Procedure: ..................................................................................................................... 8
3.3. Population: .................................................................................................................... 8
3.4. Sample and Sampling Method:..................................................................................... 8
3.5. Instrument Selection: .................................................................................................... 8
3.6. Variables: ...................................................................................................................... 8
3.7. Hypothesis: ................................................................................................................... 8
3.8. Plan of Analysis: ........................................................................................................... 9
3.9. Research Schedule: ....................................................................................................... 9
REFERENCES: ............................................................................................................................ 10

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 CHAPTER 1

1. INTRODUCTION:
1.1. Background:
Workplace spirituality began in 1920s. Workplace spirituality interconnects the past
experience of the employees and it is use for development of trust among employees in a way that
can be beneficial for organization into a better and productive environment. It minimizes the stress,
leaves of employee and frustrated environment. The statement of workplace spirituality requires
the belief that everyone has their own internal motive and wish to be engaged in activities that
provide huge meaning to their life and as well as others lives. (Ashmos and duchon, 2000; Hawley
1993).

Workplace spirituality on employee commitment is of three types: when employee gets committed
towards job because of love and affection towards workplace is called Affective. Commitment of
employees with organization due to handsome salary and other bucks called continuous. When
employees are responsible towards the firm is called normative. Community at workplace is based
on the environment in which people see themselves connected to each other and have a relationship
between their inner selves. (Maynard 1992, millar 1992).

A. Industry Brief:
We are taking hospitality sector in our research because hospitality industry which includes
hotel and restaurant are emerging in all over the world, generating high profits. In Pakistan hotels
are working since 1947 and have emerged with time. Pakistan is ranked high in tourism which is
a great benefit for it. Due to tourism destination Pakistan’s hotel industry is generating high profits
and has the biggest contribution in Pakistan GDP. In 2020 hospitality industry of Pakistan has
valued of 20 billion USD. Hotels are providing more employment opportunities in Pakistan. We
are targeting hospitality industry to evaluate the effect of workplace spirituality on the employee
performance and productivity as they have a very big role towards reputation of hotel industry of
Pakistan.

1.2. Research Problem:

Research problem is how workplace spirituality effect on employee commitment. How
employee work and behave in workplace spirituality and that effect on employee commitment or

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not. Many researchers work on this but no one work on hospitality sector in Pakistan may be some
of the researchers work but we can’t find out so our research is on hospitality sector that is there
effect of workplace spirituality on hospitality sector or not.

1.3. Research Question:

Research question is what the effect of workplace spirituality on employee commitment?

1.4. Objectives of The Study:

I. To evaluate the effect of workplace spirituality on employee commitment.
II. To evaluate the effect of workplace spirituality on affective commitment.
III. To evaluate the effect of workplace spirituality on normative commitment.
IV. To evaluate the effect of workplace spirituality on continuous commitment.

1.5. Justifications:
Our research is beneficial for the hotels to know the impact of workplace spirituality on
employees. Previous researchers have worked on this topic on different sectors but we didn’t see
any research on hotel industry in Pakistan. This research will provide ideas to evaluate the
spirituality in workplace.

1.6. Limitations:
This research is conducted in small sample size due to lack of time and resource and this
research is limited only to the hospitality sector because we can’t collect data from any other
industry but in future light will be shed on other variables

1.7. Scope:
The research carries a great significance in the hospitality industry as it is designed to
understand the spirituality impact on the productivity and performance of the employees. It will
be helpful for the managers to help in motivating the employees who will in turn develop
performance and satisfaction. All this leads to long term loyalty of employees. However, the
research opens a door towards new opportunity of replicating the same across the industries for
better understanding of results and overall performance improvements.

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1.8. Assumptions:
In this research, we assume that workplace spirituality has a significant impact on employee
commitment. We collected some data and the result was positive. I think if anyone collected other
data, the result would be the same, because when employees work in a spiritual environment, they
must be more effective and increase the productivity of any organization.

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 CHAPTER 2

2. LITERATURE REVIEW:
A study on the effect of workplace spiritualty on employee commitment was conducted by
John Milliam PhD, Anthony Gatling PhD and Jung sun (sunny) Kim PhD on (07 Aug. 2017). The
study worked on the effect of workplace spirituality on hospitability sector employee engagement
on employee work attitudes involving employee intention to stay. The author collected data with
questionnaire-based surveys and distributed that question to 477 employees. The author used
quantitative methodology to determine these three dimensions: involving meaningful work,
community and alignment with organizational values. The data was analyzed on SPSS software.
The results from the study concluded and proven that employee’s workplace spirituality will have
a direct positive effect on their intention to stay. Saks (2011) also proposed that future research
should examine the relationship of workplace spirituality and engagement to employee work
outcomes and to determine is engagement acts as a mediator within their relationship.7 Aug. 2017.
The

Another recent study by Mohamed Mousa and Ruth Alas (2016). In this study the researcher tries
to investigate the relationship between workplace spirituality and organizational commitment
because employees tend to increase their level or absenteeism, leave their job and with less
provocation raising rates of turnover and poor results in term of work performance. In this study
the teacher shows low level of organizational commitment. The author collects data from 200
questionnaires and analyzed that only meaning work and sense of community have significant
correlation with organizational commitment. Daniel (2014) he considered changes in both
demographics and religious aspects. Gupta Et Al (2014) say that the stress and anxiety derived
from high targets and heavy workload requires from employees. Alas and Mousa defined that
“workplace spirituality is a dynamic factor building trust between employer and employees.”

Another recent study was conducted by Iqbal Bobbie PhD, kenay.roz PhD (July 2021). In this
study of research is to see how the relationship between workplace spiritualty and organizational
commitment to employee performance influenced by job satisfaction as a moderating variable of
workplace spiritualty impact on employee performance. The author collected data with
questionnaire and in- dept. interviews from 177 employees of Islamic banks in East Java province.
The data was analyzed on SPSS software version 23.0. The study of the research results show that

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workplace spirituality has a positive and significant impact on employee performance,
organizational commitment has no impact on performance and employee commitment can be
moderated by enhancing the impact of workplace spirituality on employee performance.

Another recent study was conducted by Lalatendu kesari jena and sajeet pardhan (04 april 2018).
The author worked on employee commitment and measures these three dimensions Affective,
normative and continuous. The currently study will attempt to unveil the role of organizational
citizenship behavior (OCB) as a potential mediator on the association between workplace
spirituality and employee commitment. The author collected data with questionnaire-based
surveys and distributed those questions to 538 employees during face to face interactions and they
collected online surveys through Google, LinkedIn and personal emails and they received 345
filled in online responses. The author used qualitative methodology. The data was analyzed on
SPSS software. The results from the study proven that workplace spirituality positively influences
employee commitment.

“Spiritual organizations promote happiness and hope which in turn faster the sense of commitment
and loyalty”. (Eisenberger et al 2001).

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 CHAPTER 3

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research Design:
The research is qualitative because we collecting interviews in the form of video and audio
and it are based on concepts and experiences of respondents.

3.2. Procedure:
We are conducting interviews from employees, two-way communication between interviewer
and interviewee. We are following unstructured pattern for questioning.

3.3. Population:
Population of this research is individuals of hospitality sector. We research on the hospitality
environment and their employees.

3.4. Sample and Sampling Method:

The sample size of research is 12 and the sampling method is convenience method.
Convenience sampling is a technique which collects by simply taking responses from the available
resources. It is a quick and easy mode of data collection which requires low costs and significantly
less duration without huge compromise on the reliability of data.

3.5. Instrument Selection:

In research, we use unstructured interviews. This means we are using open ended questions
in interview and the questions are not pre-determined.

3.6. Variables:
Independent: workplace spirituality

Dependent: Employee commitment, Affective commitment, normative commitment and

continuous commitment.

3.7. Hypothesis:
H1: There is a significant relationship between workplace spirituality on employee commitment.

H2: There is a significant relationship between workplace spirituality on Affective commitment.

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H3: There is a significant relationship between workplace spirituality on normative commitment

H4: There is a significant relationship between workplace spirituality on continuous commitment.

3.8. Plan of Analysis:

This research is macro logical analysis in which we will deeply go through facts for analysis.

3.9. Research Schedule:

The following schedule is made to complete this.

• Research activity in 4th week

• Take interviews in 5th week
• Make result in 6th week
• Report writing in 7th week
• Research submission in 8th week.

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REFERENCES:
• Milliman, J., Czaplewski, A. J., & Ferguson, J. (2003). Workplace spirituality and
employee work attitudes: An exploratory empirical assessment. Journal of
organizational change management.
• Jena, L. K., & Pradhan, S. (2018). Workplace spirituality and employee commitment:
The role of emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior in Indian
organizations. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.
• Ashmos, D. P., & Duchon, D. (2000). Spirituality at work: A conceptualization and
measure. Journal of management inquiry, 9(2), 134-145.
• Chawla, V., & Guda, S. (2010). Individual spirituality at work and its relationship
with job satisfaction, propensity to leave and job commitment: An exploratory study
among sales professionals. Journal of Human values, 16(2), 157-167.
• Garg, N. (2017). Workplace spirituality and employee well-being: An empirical
exploration. Journal of Human Values, 23(2), 129-147.
• Guillory, W. A. (2000). Spirituality in the workplace. Salt Lake City, UT: Innovations
International.
• Milliman, J., Gatling, A., & Kim, J. S. (2018). The effect of workplace spirituality on
hospitality employee engagement, intention to stay, and service delivery. Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Management, 35, 56-65.
• Mousa, M., & Alas, R. (2016). Workplace spirituality and organizational
commitment: A study on the public schools’ teachers in Menoufia (Egypt). African
Journal of Business Management, 10(10), 247-255.
• Robbie, R. I., & Roz, K. (2021). The relationship of workplace spirituality,
organizational commitment on employee’s performance, and job satisfaction as
moderating variable. Technium Soc. Sci. J., 21, 611.
• Kolodinsky, R. W., Giacalone, R. A., & Jurkiewicz, C. L. (2008). Workplace values
and outcomes: Exploring personal, organizational, and interactive workplace
spirituality. Journal of business ethics, 81(2), 465-480.

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