Abstract
The modern day workplace continues to change at a radical and accelerated speed. Organizations have shifted away from the use of strict hierarchical structures; and have embraced autonomous team based work structures; and this as increased the importance of individual initiative and cooperation. Organizations have realized that in order to allow their employees to reach their best potentials possible, their freedom in adhering to their respective faiths and religious beliefs should be accommodated. As a result of this trend, workplace spirituality has been recognized as a fundamental area of research in the academic world to add more meaning to one’s workplace among other organizational constructs. The concern of the present study is to determine the mediating effects of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and organizational commitment (OC) in the relationships between spirituality at work (SAW) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCBs).
Ex-post facto design was adopted. Non-proportional stratified and simple random sampling techniques were utilized to select two hundred and seventy participants from fifty-four (54) branches of the twenty one (21) approved banks from three senatorial districts of Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos and Ogun states of south-west Nigeria. Standardized self-report questionnaires on: spirituality at work, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment and organization-based self-esteem were administered to generate data. Two hypotheses were tested using multiple regression statistics.
The results of the analysis showed among others, evidence of the total effect of spirituality at work on organizational citizenship behavior (c=.40; t=15.20; p<.05; 95% confidence interval from .35 to .45).
Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations were made among which are employers of labour should pay extra attention to their employees’ spiritual feelings and encourage them to engage in the organizational activities that will enhance their ‘inner’ lives.
