1. Links between Workplace Spirituality, Job-Related Attitudes, and Value Fit in a Non-Profit Agency
Kimberly T. Schneider, Eros DeSouza, & Renee N. Durst
Illinois State University
Midwestern Psychological Association (2014) Symposium on Bringing the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality into Community Psychology

2. Spirituality at Work: Overview
A growing area of interest in the U.S.
“A source of meaning and purpose in life, providing a sense of interconnectedness, and a sense of feeling connected with one’s self, others, and the universe” (Mitroff & Denton, 1999)
Academy of Management has an interest group on spirituality
Some MBA programs offer courses on spirituality for leaders
Some propose that employees may seek spiritual connections at work, in part to substitute for decline in more traditional community groups (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000)
Distinction between overt and covert expressions of spirituality at work
Tombaugh et al. (2011) argued that both constructs may influence behavior at work, either via attitudes & behaviors witnessed by coworkers (overt) or attitudes not publicly demonstrated (covert).

3. The Study of Workplace Spirituality
Mitroff & Denton (1999) suggest 4 organizational orientations toward religion & spirituality:
Religion-based organization
Evolutionary organization: evolve from religious identification to non-denominational and values-based
Recovering organization: build spirituality & focused on recovery
Values-based organization: not associated w/religion or spirituality
Level of Analysis
Can examine spirituality at both individual & organizational levels

4. Benefits of Workplace Spirituality
Sense of belonging and connectedness
Spiritualty may strengthen connections among like-minded employees
Offers sense of belonging & connectedness to fellow coworkers, and may buffer from ostracism (Wesselmann & Williams, 2010)
Links with job-related attitudes and behaviors
Correlations among spirituality & job satisfaction among diverse samples (nurses, grad students, Catholic health system employees)
Most of these studies focused on global job satisfaction, less is known about various job satisfaction facets

5. Person-organization ‘fit’
Current study focused on a non-profit social service agency with a spiritual mission.
Raises questions about ‘fit’ between employees & the agency
We expect individual differences in importance of spirituality at work and in life
Given the agency’s mission, some employees may feel more supported by such a climate than others
Importance of perceived ‘fit’
We expect that employees who felt they did not have to compromise their basic values in doing their work will ‘fit’ better with such an agency
 this may translate to more positive job attitudes

6. Hypotheses
H1: Individual perceptions of the importance of spirituality at work will be significantly related to satisfaction with work, with coworkers, with supervision, and with the agency.
H2: Employees who value the agency’s service-related and community-support functions will report more positive job attitudes than employees who do not hold such values.

7. H3: Importance of workplace spirituality will be related to work having a greater contribution to general meaning in life.
H4: Employees’ perceptions of the match/fit between coworkers’ values and the agency’s mission will moderate relationships between the importance of spirituality at work and facets of job satisfaction.

8. Method Setting: Nonprofit social service agency in the Midwest
Christian-based organization historically linked to a religious foundation; founded as a ‘faith-based orphanage’
Not run by a specific church or denomination
Mission statement, “…embodies Christian principles to help families and children develop the hope, courage, and love they need to become whole and healthy.”
“God” is referenced in 3 of 6 agency values
Respect: ”Humankind, created in God’s image, has inherent value…”
Teamwork: “We are called to be in relationship with God and with one another…”
Stewardship: “Our funds, property, and human resources are given to us in trust from God...”
Services include residential treatment of children & adolescents, special education, foster care, adoption services.

9. Sample
One-hundred ninety-two employees participated voluntarily
out of 300 employees (64% response rate)
77% female respondents (reflects employee population)
Majority worked full-time (88%) in non-supervisory positions (73%) including residential treatment staff, therapists, caseworkers, and teachers.
Procedure
Online survey ed to all agency employees
Voluntary participation & confidential responses
No one from the agency had access to data, only feedback reports our team prepared

10. Measures
We used the agency’s pre-existing Employee Opinion Survey (EOS), administered online
The EOS included measures of
Satisfaction with work (7 items)
Satisfaction with coworkers (3 items)
Satisfaction with supervision (6 items)
Satisfaction with the agency in general (1 item)
Six items from Mitroff & Denton’s (1999) spirituality measure
1 item – “Choose (from among 12 job attributes) the 3 that provide the most meaning & purpose in your job”
Options of interest to us:
“Being associated with a good organization”
“Providing community service”
2 items – “rate the importance of spirituality in your life” and “rate the importance of spirituality at work” (not at all important – very important)
3 items –
To what extent does work contributes to general meaning in your life?
How frequently you feel forced to compromise your values while at work?
To what extent do your coworkers’ values match those of the agency?

11. Results:
Hypothesis 1: Individual perceptions of the importance of spirituality at work will be significantly related to satisfaction with work, with coworkers, with supervision, and with the agency.
Significant correlations between employees’ perceptions of the importance of workplace spirituality with all job attitudes
Perceived spirituality as more important…
Reported higher sat w/supervision (r = .15, p = .03)
Reported higher sat w/coworkers (r = .15, p = .02)
Reported higher sat w/work itself (r = .12, p = .04)
Reported higher sat w/the agency (r = .17, p = .01)
Spirituality assessments may be domain-specific – the correlations between job attitudes & spirituality in general (as opposed to ‘at work’) were non-significant

12. Hypothesis 2: Employees who value the agency’s service-related and community-support functions will report more positive job attitudes than employees who do not hold such values.
Focused on forced-choice item of top 3 dimensions that give most meaning & purpose on the job
Created groups based on whether they chose ‘being associated with a good organization’ or not
Satisfaction Dimension
Mean (SD) for those selecting ‘Good Organization’
Mean (SD) for those not selecting ‘Good Organization’ t df d
Supervision
2.34 (.33)
2.19 (.37)
2.69**
183
.43
Coworker
3.43 (.37)
3.25 (.42)
2.86**
186
.45
Work
3.38 (.37)
3.23 (.42)
2.27*
179
.38
Agency
3.63 (.52)
3.30 (.63)
3.47***
190
.57

13. Hypothesis 3: Importance of workplace spirituality will be related to work having a greater contribution to general meaning in life.
Correlation between these 2 variables was significant, r = .29, p = .001
Hypothesis 4: Employees’ perceptions of the match/fit between coworkers’ values and the agency’s mission will moderate relationships between the importance of spirituality at work and facets of job satisfaction.
Hierarchical regression to test the moderator:
Employees’ ratings of the importance of spirituality at work
Perceptions of coworkers’ values
Interaction terms

14. The ‘value match’ moderated the relationship between the importance of workplace spirituality and sat w/supervision (F (1, 176) = 4.89, Δ R2 = .02, p =.03)
Those who perceive low value match (between coworkers & the agency)  sat w/supervision was lower for those who view workplace spirituality as more important

15. Implications
For some employees, workplace spirituality is an important contributor to meaningfulness and contributes to a healthy working climate.
In our sample, workplace spirituality was significantly & positively related to facets of job satisfaction
And employees’ perceptions of their coworkers’ values matching those of the organization were important predictors of their own satisfaction

16. Employees at this agency distinguished between the importance of workplace spirituality and spirituality in life in general
…and that was reflected in relationships with job satisfaction
 may reflect good person-job fit in this social service agency
Previous research on person-job fit has focused on dimensions related to performance rewards, training & development, & teamwork (Bretz & Judge, 1994) but not aspects of spirituality.
Workplace spirituality as a possible barrier to burnout?
Used as a buffer for stress – especially for employees who feel their spiritual values are supported by their organization
Organizational context is important to keep in mind. Spirituality is difficult to study within organizations!