A study of the effects of mediators between spirituality at work and organizational citizenship behaviors

The surge of articles seen in the various academic and practitioner journals over the last ten years clearly indicates the growing interest in workplace spirituality (e.g., Manz et al., 2001; Gunther, 2001; Graber, 2001; Brandt, 1996; Thompson, 2000; McCarthy, 1996; Hein, 1999; Herman and Gioia, 1998; Ashmos and Duchon, 2000; Mitroff and Denton, 1999, Bryant, 1998). Despite this growing interest, there has been rather limited theoretical development thus far. There exists no unified explanation to explain for this heightened attention. This study attempts to contribute to the theory development by first conducting a review of the extant literature on spirituality at the workplace to reveal the variety of reasons that have been offered by scholars for this heightened attention. Subsequently, deepened understanding of the phenomenon is derived from tracing its roots through three lenses, namely, the evolution of management thought, economic development, and the assumptions made of man during each time period identified. As such, this study seeks to locate spirituality within the field of organizational research. This study also contributes to the extant literature by looking into workplace spirituality and its relationships between important organizational constructs such as organization-based self esteem (OBSE), organizational commitment (OC), and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). This focus of this exploratory empirical study is to look into how workplace spirituality can lead to the performance of certain desirable behaviors by employees within the organization. This study is particularly interested in looking in to the mediating effects of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and organizational commitment (OC) on the relationship between spirituality at work and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Based on the findings of the study, research and managerial implications are derived.