Workplace spirituality and innovative work behavior: the role of employee flourishing and workplace satisfaction
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-01-2021-0032 |
| Published date | 06 May 2022 |
| Date | 06 May 2022 |
| Pages | 1355-1371 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | William D. Hunsaker,Wenjing Ding |
Workplace spirituality and
innovative work behavior: the role
of employee flourishing and
workplace satisfaction
William D. Hunsaker
College of Business, Kyungpook National University,
Daegu, Republic of South Korea, and
Wenjing Ding
Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of South Korea
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to explore the role of employee flourishing as a mechanism to explain
the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’innovative work behavior (IWB). Furthermore,
this study investigates how the relationship between workplace spirituality and innovative behavior is
moderated by employees’perceived workplace satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression
analysis, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 236 millennial workers in China’s service and manufacturing
industries.
Findings –The research findings confirmed that workplace spirituality positively predicted the innovative
behavior of employees; furthermore,employee flourishing and workplace satisfaction mediated and moderated
the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee innovation, respectively.
Practical implications –This study’s findings suggest that workplace spirituality unlocks employees’
innovative behavior through a heightened sense of flourishing and enhanced sense of workplace satisfaction.
Organizations are advised to foster a climate conducive of workplace spirituality by developing mutually
aligned values. Moreover, organizations are advised to train leaders on workplace spirituality dimensions and
foster workplace practices that facilitate self-reflection, job crafting and team building, as a means of
broadening employees’emotional states and workplace satisfaction.
Originality/value –Few studies have examined the mechanisms that shape employees’innovative behavior
through workplace spirituality. This study fills several research gaps by extending the theoretical implications
of workplace spirituality and employee flourishing, as demonstrated by the multi-faceted role these variables
play in motivating employees’innovative behavior among Chinese millennials. Additionally, this study
demonstrates that higher levels of workplace satisfaction contribute to higher levels of innovative behavior.
Keywords Innovative work behaviour, Workplace spirituality, Employeewell-being, Workplace satisfaction,
Employee flourishing
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Socio-economic changes facing organizations since the 1990s have spurred interest in the role
that employees play in workplace innovation. To counter organizational uncertainties and
complexities, employees are increasingly looked upon as a critical resource to spur
organizational competitiveness through extra-role, innovative work behavior (IWB;
Anderson et al., 2014;De Jong and Den Hartog, 2007;Hunsaker, 2020;Zhu and Zhang,
2020). However, this emphasis on employee productivity and extra-role demands has often
left employees feeling stressed and ignored, which research findings have demonstrated can
negatively influence their innovative mentalities and sense of well-being at the workplace
(Ashmos and Duchon, 2000;Chen et al., 2019;Kolodinsky et al., 2008;Garg, 2017). Hence, in
addition to the challenge of motivating employees’IWB, a second key challenge facing
organizations is the ability to meet employees’increasing needs for purpose, meaningful
The role of
employee
flourishing
1355
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 19 January 2021
Revised 8 December 2021
18 February 2022
Accepted 19 April 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 44 No. 6, 2022
pp. 1355-1371
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-01-2021-0032
work and enriching relationships with leaders and coworkers (Colbert et al., 2016;Singh et al.,
2021;Zou et al., 2020). Workplace spirituality has been suggested as a construct to help
organizations capture employees’intangible, innovative resources, based on underlying
assumptions related to meaningful work and community in the workplace (Amabile and
Pratt, 2016;Houghton et al., 2016;Zhang and Yang, 2021). Indeed, to extend workplace
spirituality theory, scholars have called for researchers to investigate the intervening
mechanisms of how and when workplace spirituality influences employees’IWB (Chen et al.,
2019;Garg, 2017;Houghton et al., 2016)
Workplace spirituality is characterized as meaningful work, community, purpose and
transcendence (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000;Pfeffer, 2010). It helps employees achieve their
spiritual needs, such as meaning and purpose in their work, and connection and comradery
with others at the workplace (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000;Kinjerski and Skrypnek, 2004),
while helping to mitigate their stress and anxiety (Pawar, 2016). Meeting these needs
increases work performance, including employee satisfaction, commitment and job
involvement in the workplace (Houghton et al., 2016;Milliman et al., 2003;Petchsawanga
and Duchon, 2012). Research findings have demonstrated that the spillover effect of
workplace spirituality influences employee well-being (Hunsaker, 2020;Pawar, 2016;
Wilensky, 1960;Zou et al., 2020), which, in turn, has been shown to influence employees’
innovative behaviors in the workplace (Afsar and Badir, 2017;Ilies et al., 2015;Khoreva and
Wechtler, 2018). This process is explained by means of workplace spirituality helping
employees experience positive emotional states and reactions to workplace challenges that
broaden their socio-psychological resources, which are subsequently reciprocated to the
organization through innovative behavior such as new ideas, solutions, or improvements for
the betterment of the organization (Colbert et al., 2016;Fredrickson, 2001;Hunsaker, 2020;
Gouldner, 1960;Staw et al., 1994;Tenney et al., 2016). However, to understand employee well-
being more deeply as an intervening mechanism, scholars have called for additional research
on these relationships through different samples and measures (Diener et al., 2010;
Pawar, 2016).
The primary aim of this paper is to meet this research call by examining the roles of
workplace spirituality and employee well -being on IWB in the context of Chinese
organizations and through the lens of employee flourishing (Afsar and Badir, 2017;Zhang
and Yang, 2021;Zou et al., 2020). We have chosen to measure employee well-being through
the lens of employee flourishing, as it is an evolved, multi-dimensional approach to
conceptualizing well-being (Diener et al., 2010), and posited to be the “gold standard for
measuring well-being”(Seligman, 2011, p. 13). Employee flourishing explores multi-faceted
aspects of perceived well-being in the workplace through the attributes of purpose,
competence, self-respect, optimism, supportive relationships and engagement in work
(Diener et al., 2018).
A second aim of this paper is to explore contingency intervening relationships that
influence the strength of workplace spirituality on IWB in meeting the call of scholars to
better understand when workplace spirituality influences proactive employee behaviors
(Afsar and Badir, 2017;Chen et al., 2019;Diener et al., 2018). An employee’s perceived
satisfaction in the workplace (PWS) was chosen to explore this relationship, given research
findings that tie workplace satisfaction to employee creativity and innovation (De Jong and
Den Hartog, 2007;Tenney et al., 2016) and employee workplace attitudes, such as
autonomous motivation, spiritual well-being, perceived organizational support and
empowerment that intervene between workplace spirituality and IWB (Afsar and Badir,
2017;Hunsaker, 2020;Sinha et al., 2016;Zhang and Yang, 2021). Moreover, within the context
of China’s collectivist, Guanxi culture, implicit interpersonal and social connections in the
workplace form the basis for satisfaction in the workplace (Zhang, 2020). PWS refers to
whether employee’s needs at the workplace are being met and whether the satisfaction of
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