INTRODUCTION:

“At the time of economic downturns innovation is the single imperative condition for transforming the crisis into an opportunity”

Viewing today’s economic climate, greater than ever global competition, and rapidly changing organisations, the ability of an organisation to innovate is looked upon as a key factor for success (Shipton, 2006). To stay competitive in the worldwide market, organizations must incessantly come up with innovative and high-quality products and services, and renovate their approach of operating. It is indeed true to say that in the heart of all innovation rest the creative ideas, and it is individual employees who produce, endorse, discuss, modify and comprehend these ideas (Scott and Bruce, 1994).

Hence it is not surprising that innovative employees are the plinth for the modern organizations and the question on how to encourage and support employees’ innovativeness present a key question that both academics and managers are facing. Lately a sizeable body of research has centred on recognizing antecedents to innovative work behaviours and extending ways to better assist employees in their creative accomplishments (Janssen, Van De Vliert and West, 2004).

Understanding the relationship between Workplace Spirituality, employee well-being and innovative work behaviour is important in order to learn how innovative employees can and should be supported. One vital feature of contemporary work is that it needs independent decision making and creative use of knowledge, also companies relying on employees’ continuous ability to innovate more than ever. Thus, innovation is not just a requirement for a few select individuals but something which is expected of most employees. A healthy organization is characterized by utmost employee well-being as an outcome. Pertinent to the present paper’s centre on innovative work behaviour it is suggested that workplace spirituality has potentially strong significance to the well-being of the individuals, organizations as well as the societies (Sheep, 2006), The area is not much explored yet, also the role of employee well-being in influencing the relationship between Workplace Spirituality and Innovative work behaviour seems untilled. The current paper deals with this research gap.

The objective of this research article is therefore to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between Workplace Spirituality, employee well-being and innovative Work Behavior. Particularly by reviewing the existing literature and research findings, the following questions are tackled: ‘How does Workplace Spirituality enhance innovativeness of individual employees?’ and ‘How does Employee Well Being act as a moderator? We propose that in a work context characterized by Spirituality, employees tend to have higher well being which would in turn enhance employee innovativeness. Our conceptual framework provides the basis for empirical research at a later stage. This paper is structured as follows. First part of the paper summarizes the significance of employee well-being for organizations. It then focuses on the possible usefulness of workplace spirituality for enhancing innovative work behaviour, which suggests the need for exploring how Employee well being could moderate the relationship between workplace spirituality and innovative work behaviour. Contributions to the literature on workplace spirituality, employee well-being and innovative work behaviour are delineated. This is followed by the development of a theoretical model. Afterwards, hypotheses are developed specifying relationships between workplace spirituality, employee well-being and innovative work behaviour. Finally, the study’s research implications and practical implications are outlined.

Theoretical framework and hypothesis formulation:

Workplace Spirituality- Why so much Interest?

A workplace can be well thought-out to be spiritual when it identifies that employees have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that occurs in the perspective of community (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000). Workplace spirituality is one of the budding areas of interest among management scholars and practitioners. As a result there has been an increase in a quest for more reasonable and logical exploration of workplace spirituality, its construct and its effect on the employees and organizations. Preliminary empirical research on it faced serious challenges of clarity about build of spirituality within organizations. Changes such as technological and structural increase call for too much optimization leading to downsizing and layoffs and tremendous specialization and division of labour generate an environment in which employees feel low down self-esteem (Driver, 2005). In such situation, workplace spirituality is put forward as one of the most potent remedies for the crisis.

Infect human resource roles and relationships have taken new implication which happens to be more people oriented and more focussed on empowerment and team building (Ulrich, 1998). Even leadership has alleged a new and significant role in these reinvented business settings. The latest systems, rapidly varying conditions, the people reliance on empowerment, team oriented activities and augmented work demands place a new premium on imbibing spirituality (Conger, 1989 and Wood and Bandura, 1989). Leadership is likely to encourage individual and group learning, and shape on a newer basis for employment relationships under greatly changed environmental conditions. Generating and emphasizing a sense of spirituality in the workplace are crucial accomplishments for attaining a integrated whole.

Defining workplace spirituality:

Defining workplace spirituality is perhaps the most glaring challenge in itself. The literature states definitions of spirituality are elusive (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003) and the general thrust of research in the area has focused on individuals rather than organizations, investigating such individual level thoughts as spiritual well-being (Moberg , 1984), spiritual anguish (Kim et al., 1987), and spiritual development (Chandler et al., 1992). Research in workplace spirituality is still in its infancy, the concept needs to be clearly defined. According to (Pawar, 2009) the term “workplace spirituality” can have two explanations- One version suggests that workplace spirituality gets facilitated by the organization. It is the employee’s experience of spirituality at work. Another interpretation of the term “workplace spirituality” recommends that workplace spirituality involves the experience an employee brings along at work. Milliman et al. (2003) came up with the notion that noted that significant research seems to have determined on outlining the nature of workplace spirituality and recommended the call for research on the consequences of workplace spirituality. Several researchers have explored the employee attitude-related outcomes (e.g. Milliman et al., 2003) as well as the work unit performance-related outcomes (e.g. Duchon and Plowman, 2005) of workplace spirituality.

Employee Well Being:

A major portion of the life of employees is spent at workplace and as a result employer should encourage employee well-being at workplace (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes (2002). The workplaces are the foundation for the enlargement of community set-up for the employees. In this era of fierce competition employees spend most of their time at workplace and look up for cordial relations and friendships at workplace (Fairholm, 1996). Encouragement of employee well-being is central in the consideration of the diverse paradigms that affect the quality of work life. Employee well-being means the worth of employees’ functioning and experience in organizations (Grant, Christianson, and Price, 2007). It is the characteristic of the healthy firms. If employee well-being is introduced at work, it gives backing to healthy and contented workforce for an organization. Warr (2005) said that the quality of life is expected to be linked to people’s insight of own level of well-being. In simple words it is the employees’ own perception and thoughts regarding his/her well-being at workplace which determines the well-being of employee at workplace. Currie (2001) suggested that an environment free from stress and physically safe would ensure employee well-being. A study of Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), 2007 concluded that employee well-being does not depend only on the workplace but also on the social context. Social relations at workplace affect both individual employees’ personal and professional lives (Guest, 1998). It is expected that the Employers should create such an office environment that promotes a state of satisfaction and happiness among employees. The environment should promote the progress of an employee to prosper and accomplish their full potential (Tehrani et al., 2007). Employee well-being has extensive consequences in organizations (Illies, Aw, and Plutt, 2015) consequently, it is an important issue in organizational life and is one of the greatest challenges leaders are facing today (Fry and Slocum, 2008). Wright and Huang (2012) pointed out the Impact of employee well-being on employee performance and other outcomes stating that latest applied research has recommended that employee well-being is considerably linked to a number of important work outcomes such as job performance, quality defect, employee retention, absenteeism, customer engagement, profitability etc. Given this practical significance, it is not surprising to note that employee well-being has lately received increased research attention and has emerged as a significant subject in positivity-based management research.

The call for investigating precursors of manifold Employee Well-being:

The prior discussion specifies the importance of employee well-being. It has been noted that certain managerial practices often result in employee well-being - recuperating one dimension of employee well-being while declining another ex: elevating jobs to augment stimulation and challenge normally increases job satisfaction but at the same time cause physical strain. Likewise job rotation aims to make work much more interesting by providing variety but may also lead to stress and strain by putting advanced demands on employees. This illustrates that it is important to enhance employee well-being. There are several forms Employee well-being can take such as physical well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being (e.g., Grant et al., 2007).

Innovative Work Behaviour:

Several definitions of IWB have been developed in the past few years. Though there are numerous definitions, a comprehensible definition of IWB is still not clear. IWB is described as employee behaviour intended at generation, introduction and/or use of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new and aimed to support the relevant adoption. Mumford and Gustafson (1988) explained creativity as the procedure of beginning novel, new, and useful ideas, whereas IWB includes a set of activities aimed at modification, recognition, development, acceptance, and implementation of ideas (Scott and Bruce 1994). Creativity is different from IWB as it has a clearer applied component and is expected to generate some kind of innovative output and benefit. Employees’ IWB may be understood as the instigation and intended behaviour to pioneer new ideas, products, processes, and procedures (Farr and Ford, 1990). De Jong and Den Hartog (2010) have described innovation within organizations as a multi-stage process. The researchers stated that innovation consist of the four elements, namely idea exploration, idea generation, idea championing, and idea implementation. Idea exploration deals with the process of searching for ideas on how actual products and processes can be enhanced and developed. The second aspect idea generation is the procedure where information should be combined and reorganized with centre on problem solving and escalating current performance. The next factor of IWB is idea championing which comprises of encouragement of new ideas that have not yet applied in the organization. Idea championing comes into action when the ideas have already been generated. The last and fourth element is the implementation of the ideas. Execution of new ideas and innovation should be part of the daily work process.

In the next section, we propose a conceptual framework linking WPS with IWB (see Figure 1):

We argue that WPS (at individual and collective levels) creates a sense of interconnectedness, community, meaning and purpose, which boosts intrinsic rewards (like joy, self-worth, among others) and reinforce the underlying belief structures towards IWB. We also assimilate the effect of Employee Well Being (EWB) in this framework, and argue for its vital role as a moderator in shaping the spiritual climate at the organizational level and affecting employees’ belief structures.

Workplace Spirituality at Individual level:

There is positive relationship between Workplace spirituality and organizational performance (Mitroff 2003, Duchon and Plowman 2005), employee engagement , organization commitment (Fry et al. 2005), intentions to leave, job satisfaction, Job involvement and organizational-based self-esteem (Milliman et al. 2003). The three dimensions proposed by Milliman et al. 2003- Meaningful work, sense of community, and alignment with organizational values are likely to relate positively with employee IWB. Meaningful work is regarded as an individual’s active orientation to a work role with an aspiration to contour organizational contexts, processes, and work environments (Spreitzer 1995, such orientation raises autonomy and task motivation (Thomas and Velthouse 1990), which may augment the possibility of them getting engaged in IWBs. According to (Jung et al. 2003) when employees find meaning in work, they demonstrate creative behaviours as they find value in their work roles. Research suggests that meaningful work inspires individual to achieve and dream of attractive future which produces more creative accomplishments to enhance job performance (Kendall et al. 1999). A sense of community encourages sharing of ideas, people will share better relationships and trust the fellow worker. This would enhance sharing of ideas and promote innovation. Alignment with organizational beliefs and values is expected to lead to IWB as people make a difference. If there is right person for the right job and the right organization, it will help to achieve positive work outcomes (O’Reilly III et al. 1991). Without the fear of any bureaucratic rules better aligned employees may produce more innovative ideas as organization anticipate them to reciprocate. Workplace spirituality facilitates achievement of sense of purpose and direction which support creativity (Pawar, 2009). Skills such as creativity, communication, and innovation are outcomes of a peaceful mind and satisfaction with what one does. A greater job satisfaction is expressed when individuals are treated fairly and care is taken for their values (Marques 2006, Karakas 2010). It is the outcomes of Spiritual feelings that help individuals connect to creativity-relevant thought processes (Daniel 2010), also extra-role efforts to convince, converse and help others in implementing new ideas. When people recognize that their work roles are meaningful, and in person important to them, they engage more in thorough understanding of a problem and hunt for new solutions (Gilson and Shalley 2004).

This leads to our first proposition:

P1: The inner life dimension of WPS will positively affect IWB.

P2: The meaningful work dimension of WPS will positively affect IWB.

P3: The sense of community dimension of WPS will positively affect IWB.

P4: The alignment of values dimension of WPS will positively affect IWB.

Workplace Spirituality at a Collective Level:

At the collective level, there are set of values that influence the way individuals conduct themselves in organizations by putting normative strain to perform in accordance with the group’s values and norms (when it is believed that these are strongly shared amongst employees). Organizational climate is found to strongly predict IWB (R Shanker, 2017). The fundamental nature of ‘community culture’ is captured by the Indian Vedantic notion of ‘loksangraha’- which is associated with work done for the betterment of others (Chakraborty, 1998). Organizations relying on community culture experience the employee collaboration towards the greater good. Organizations adopting spirituality make stipulation for universal optimistic values such as benevolence, integrity, mutuality, humanism, justice, receptivity, responsibility, respect and trust (Jurkiewicz and Giacalone, 2004). These values support the sense of connectedness and commitment by employees towards their organizations and associated members. Such climate will stimulate employees to contribute towards innovation.

This leads to following proposition:

P5: Organizational climate perceived to be characterized by spiritual values will positively affect IWB.

Moderating effects of Employee well being:

It has been suggested by several researchers that stress-free and physically safe environment for the employees ensure employee well-being (Bakke, 2005). Employee Well Being has been linked with workplace environment and it has been proposed that work excitement, stimulation, enjoyable and happy office environment leads to employee’s well-being. Krishnakumar and Neck (2002) emphasized that the support of spirituality for employee well-being is in the interest of communities and organizations. Though a few studies have indicated the association of workplace spirituality and employee well-being, there is still scarcity of evidence to verify the relationship.

This leads to following proposition:

P6: Employee well being moderates the relationship between Workplace Spirituality and Innovative Work Behaviour.

Discussion and Implications:

The budding interest in WPS has principally focused on defining the concept, measurement and assessment of the impact of WPS on individual level factors such as job satisfaction, Involvement, commitment, and Engagement to name a few. Through this paper, we have directed attention towards the role of WPS on an imperative organizational variable of IWB.

Innovation these days forms the groundwork of an organization’s success and performance, which exists primarily with the employees. Designing of new systems, products and processes is essential to survive the competition. Intrinsic psychological factors have been explored and it has been established that they play crucial role in strengthening individual’s intention to innovate. Existing literature on IWB has highlighted the influential role of self motivation, trust, autonomy, organizational pro-social behaviour, altruism, in-role behaviour, self-efficacy and organizational climate but there is a call for a more comprehensive and integrated framework to understand the factors affecting. WPS with its dimensions of inner spirit, interconnectedness, meaningful work and values’ alignment affects IWB, by affecting the supporting belief structures. People who are high on WPS are likely to view life from a bigger perspective distinguished by unity and bonding with all. Such individuals tend to enjoy work and have propensity for creativity and innovation.

The paper attempts to contribute to the growing literature on WPS by calling attention to its importance with respect to a very significant organizational outcome—IWB. We recommend researchers to test the projected framework empirically and investigate the proposed linkages in greater intensity. Toward this end, we put forward the following suggestions to extend this literature stream further:

· Empirical verification- The propositions and relationships raised in this paper are theoretically grounded, but empirical verification is necessary to accelerate future research in this promising area.

· Workplace spirituality and training. - Researchers can explore effective ways to impart the collective values of spirituality through spiritual training sessions and practices such as meditation, yoga, prayer before meetings could be encouraged.

· Inclusion of Indian Spiritual Traditions- There is need to include Indian Spiritual traditions such as Daivi Sampat, Lokasangraha, Doctrine of Karma, Guna theory, etc that could be incorporated to develop a scale to measure WSP in Indian Firms.

· Workplace spirituality and Quality of Work Life- Given the significance of Employee Well Being for an organization, the role and strategies by organizations to improve it can be studied. Incorporating dimensions of workplace spirituality in measuring quality of work life among employees is a promising avenue for future research.

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Received on 02.05.2019 Modified on 14.05.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(2):623-628.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00101.3