Studying the role of spirituality in quality of work life amongst Muslim employees in Indonesia

Abstract

The Abrahamic religions, which have been propagated and promoted by the divine prophets, aimed to guide human beings to worldly and heavenly happiness. Islamic spirituality is achieved by observing religious rules. As people spend much of their lives at the workplaces, it is imperative to address spirituality at the workplace and its effect on the quality of work life in the field of religion psychology and industrial psychology. Therefore, this study determined the role of spirituality in the quality of work life of 10 000 employees of 80 government organisations in Jakarta, Makassar, Medan and Burger in Indonesia, by simple random sampling. The participants were analysed through questionnaires. Given the religious conditions governing Indonesia, an acceptable level of spirituality was confirmed in the studied organisations. Furthermore, path analysis tests in Linear Structural Relationship (LISREL) software verified a positive and significant relationship between spirituality and quality of work life (p = 0.71; T = 12.64). Organisations are slowly transforming from a small environment of purely economic and social activity into places of spiritual growth. Moreover, organisations that provide opportunities for the spiritual development of their employees have been shown to be more successful than the others. The quality of work life of employees is also relevant as the most valuable asset of the organisation. Consequently, the results of this study should be considered by managers of organisations to enjoy the positive outcomes of spirituality and quality of work life. Contribution: This article contributes to the relationship between spirituality and quality of work life.

Keywords

• happiness
• religion
• spirituality
• quality of work life
• industrial psychology
• muslim employees
• indonesia
• organisational change