Connecting the Individual and Cultural Level Value Analysis z 157

Individual Spirituality at Work and

Its Relationship with Job Satisfaction,
Propensity to Leave and Job Commitment:
An Exploratory Study among Sales Professionals

VAIBHAV CHAWLA∗
SRIDHAR GUDA∗

Spirituality is a hot topic of research in recent times in management arena. Though the organizational
researchers have intensely started exploring this area, the studies related to selling organizations are few,
and fewer are the studies related to selling organizations with individual (sales professional) as the unit
of theory. The present study explores the relationship between ‘individual spirituality at work’ and sales
professionals’ ‘job satisfaction’, ‘propensity to leave’ and ‘job commitment’. This work focuses on sales pro-
fessionals across various industries. A cross-sectional survey method is adopted. Correlation analysis is done
to reveal the hypothesized relationships. The results reveal that sales professionals’ spirituality at work is
positively related to job satisfaction and job commitment, and negatively related to propensity to leave. The
results provide the relevance of spirituality at work to salespeople. The selling organizations can also utilize
the information and promote the individual expression of spirituality at work.

Keywords: spirituality, sales, sales professional, job satisfaction, job commitment, propensity to leave

*The authors dedicate this research endeavor to Lord Shri Shirdi Sai Maharaj.

Vaibhav Chawla is a Fellow Program (Doctoral) Student in the Marketing Area at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
(IIMK), Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode, Kerala 673570. E-mail: vaibhav01fpm@iimk.ac.in
Sridhar Guda is Assistant Professor (Marketing Area) at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK), Kunnamangalam,
Kozhikode, Kerala 673570. E-mail: drgsridhar@iimk.ac.in

JOURNAL OF HUMAN VALUES 16:2 (2010): 157–167

SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/097168581001600203

JOURNAL OF HUMAN VALUES 15:2 (2009): 107–118

158 z VAIBHAV CHAWLA AND SRIDHAR GUDA
Introduction
There is a growing interest among corporate,
academicians and researchers towards the topic
of spirituality in the workplace. The benefits of
workplace spirituality are many. Spirituality in the
workplace relates to the bottom line of business.
Research has shown that organizations that pro-
vide their employees with the opportunities for
spiritual development are better in performance
than others (Konz & Ryan, 1999). In India many
a company follow the new-age principles (such as
Meditation to attain inner calmness, Purshartaa for
the balance between personal and professional life,
yoga for healthy and disease-free life, etc.), which
have their roots in Indian ethos for the spiritual
upliftment of an organization.1 At an individual
level, spirituality at work provides job satisfaction
and reduces employee burnout as found in the case
of health care professionals (Komala & Ganesh,
2007). Research on the topic of ‘Workplace
Spirituality’ is still in its early stages. This article
takes an opportunity to contribute to the growing
literature on the topic.
Objective of the Article
The present study explores the relationship between
individual (sales professional) ‘spirituality at
work’ and sales professionals’ ‘job satisfaction’,
‘propensity to leave’ and ‘job commitment’. The
sample consists of 101 sales professionals across
a number of different industries. A cross-sectional
survey method is adopted. Correlation analysis is
done to reveal the hypothesized relationships. The
results reveal the relevance of spirituality at work
to salespeople.
JOURNAL OF HUMAN VALUES 16:2 (2010): 157–167
Why Study ‘Workplace Spirituality’
in Selling Organizations?
The sales profession is characterized by high
degree of job-related stress (Moncrief, Babakus,
Cravens & Johnson, 1997; Porter, Kraft &
Claycomb, 2003). The complexity of the sales
profession is further increased by the work en-
vironment operating under the pressures of glob-
alization, downsizing, layoffs, terrorism and
suspect organizational values (Badrinarayanan
& Madhavaram, 2008). ‘The demanding nature
of the sales profession coupled with the decline
in the traditional forms of community indicate
that salespersons may strive for both meaning
and a sense of community at work’ (ibid., p. 425).
Cohen (1997) notes that around 40 per cent of
the audience attending spiritual conventions
describe themselves as sales professionals. Sales
professionals’ do-anything-for-business mentality
has been replaced by a search for self and inner
peace (ibid.). Some of the sales professionals prac-
tice meditation, Zen Reading, prayer to make them
feel better about themselves. Cohen (1997) through
the interviews finds that sales professionals who
have a spiritual mindset show greater performance
and are satisfied with their jobs. Thus, spirituality
has a role to play in selling organizations.
Literature Review
Spirit and Spirituality
Indian sacred scriptures have examples of per-
sonalities who have attained oneness with the
other beings and the universe. These people have
gone to the highest ladder of human evolution, i.e.,
spirituality. The word ‘spirit’ comes from the Latin

word Spiritus meaning breath—breath of life.
Vedanta teaches that spirit is all pervading. Spirit
is the life force or power. Parthasarathy in his book
titled Vedanta Treatise says the following:
Spirit is related to body–mind–intellect just
as electricity is to an electric bulb. The bulb
in itself has no light. Nor does electricity. But
when electricity contacts the bulb there is a
brilliant expression of life. Similarly, body,
mind and intellect have no life inherent in them.
Nor does Spirit. But when Spirit combines with
body–mind–intellect there is a scintillating ex-
pression of life. (2002, p. 134)
Identifying oneself with the spirit is Spirituality.
The most prominent feature of spirituality is one-
ness with all beings in the universe, and therefore,
Krishnan (2008) conceptualized spirituality as
oneness with all other beings.2
Workplace Spirituality
One of the difficulties of doing research on the
topic of ‘Workplace Spirituality’ is to provide
a suitable working definition to it (Giacalone &
Jurkiewicz, 2003). Owing to the subjective
nature of workplace spirituality, the definitions
are in plenty. Mirvis’ (1997) idea of workplace
spirituality includes notions of community and
meaningful work. Mitroff and Denton (1999,
p. 83) in their study on workplace spirituality find
that the participants understand spirituality as
‘the basic feeling of being connected with one’s
complete self, others, and the entire universe’.
This view is similar to the notion of inner life.
Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson (2003)
include the aspects of the sense of community
Individual Spirituality at Work z 159
and meaningful work in workplace spirituality.3
Fry (2003) includes the notions of calling and
membership which is similar to meaning and
sense of community (Duchon & Plowman, 2005).
Giacalone and Jurkiewicz’s (2003) definition
includes the aspects similar to the meaningful work
and connection to others. Marques, Dhiman and
King (2005) mention the aspects of inner power,
interconnectedness with those involved in work
process and sense of purpose in work environment
in their definition. Beyer (1999) mentions that
meaning in work and belongingness to community
nourishes the inner life of individuals and pro-
vides their work a spiritual dimension. Kinjerski
and Skrypnek’s (2006) conceptualization of indi-
vidual spirituality at work has three of the four
dimensions as follows: engaging work (mean-
ingful work), sense of community, and spiritual
connection (inner life). Three common themes ap-
pearing from the definitions as shown in Table 1
are the following: sense of community, meaningful
work and inner life.
Ashmos and Duchon’s (2000) definition com-
prises all the common themes: sense of community,
meaningful work and inner self. They define ‘Spir-
ituality at Work’ as ‘the recognition that employees
have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished
by meaningful work that takes place in the context
of community’ (ibid., p. 137). This definition is
also utilized by Badrinarayanan and Madhavaram
(2008) in the only conceptual study on work-
place spirituality in selling organization context.
They assert that ‘the definition and the dimen-
sions utilized in this paper are parsimonious and
explicit enough to assist in theory development’
(ibid., p. 425).
Mitroff, as quoted in Dean’s article (2004,
p. 13), argues that ‘[a]n obsession with finding
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160 z VAIBHAV CHAWLA AND SRIDHAR GUDA
Table 1
Common Themes among Definitions of Workplace Spirituality
Author Name with Year of Publication
Mirvis (1997)
Mitroff and Denton (1999)
Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson (2003)
Fry (2003)
Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003)
Marques, Dhiman and King (2005)
Beyer (1999)
Kinjerski and Skrypnek (2006)
Ashmos and Duchon (2000)
Source: Developed by the authors on the basis of published literature.
a single correct, overarching definition of work-
place spirituality does not respect the myriad
traditions and belief systems embedded in our
research arena’. Hence, though there may be other
ways to conceptualize the construct of ‘Workplace
Spirituality’, we proceed with the definition pro-
vided by Ashmos and Duchon (2000).
Defining Individual
Spirituality at Work
Individual spirituality at work is about expressing
one’s inner self through meaningful work and
belongingness to the community at work. This
definition is in accordance with Ashmos and
Duchon’s (2000) conceptualization of workplace
spirituality. The conceptualization of workplace
spirituality consists of three components: inner
life as spiritual identity, meaningful work and
sense of community. The scale for workplace
spirituality consists of three levels of measures:
individual, work unit and organization. The first-
level measure consists of items which denote the
JOURNAL OF HUMAN VALUES 16:2 (2010): 157–167
Dimensions of Workplace Spirituality
Meaning in Work and Sense of Community
Spiritual Identity (Inner Life)
Meaningful Work and Sense of Community
Notion of Calling Similar to Meaningful Work, and Membership Similar
to Sense of Community
Transcendence through Work Process Similar to Meaningful Work, and
Sense of Community
Inner Power, Meaningful Work, Sense of Community and a few others
Inner Life, Meaningful Work and Sense of Community
Spiritual Connection Similar to Inner Life, Meaningful Work, Sense of
Community and Mystical experience
Inner Life, Meaningful Work and Sense of Community
employee perceptions of their individual spir-
ituality at work. We will use the first-level measure
for this article.
Inner Life (Inner Self)
Inner self refers to the viewpoint that ‘employees
have spiritual needs (i.e., an inner life), just as
they have physical, emotional, and cognitive
needs, and these needs don’t get left at home when
they come to work’ (Duchon & Plowman, 2005,
p. 811). The inner self (spiritual identity) is about
feeling oneness with others and the entire universe
(Krishnan, 2008).
Meaningful Work
The second component of workplace spirituality
embodies the notion that people seek meaning at
work (Duchon and Plowman, 2005). Meaning at
work is the feeling of wholeness and harmoni-
ousness with some animating (higher) purpose
that gives direction to one’s work (Overell, 2008).

Meaning relates to whether purpose and signi-
ficance is felt (Overell, 2008).
Sense of Community
The third dimension is based on the idea that spir-
itual beings live in connection to other human
beings and here community refers to ‘the notions
of sharing, mutual obligation and commitment
that connect people to each other’ (Duchon &
Plowman, 2005, p. 814).
Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a multidimensional construct,
including satisfaction with one’s job, supervisor,
co-workers, payment conditions, promotional
programmes, company policy and feelings of
job security (Churchill, Ford & Walker, 1979).
Job satisfaction lowers the turnover intentions of
salesperson (Chakrabarty et al., 2007; Jaramillo,
Mulki & Solomon, 2006; Mulki, Jaramillo &
Marshall, 2007) and also increases organizational
commitment (Chakrabarty et al., 2007; Jaramillo
et al., 2006). Thus, organizations need to pay
importance to salesperson’s job satisfaction be-
cause of its strong associations with other critical
outcomes.
Propensity to Leave
Propensity to leave is the likelihood that an em-
ployee will voluntarily end their relationship
with their employer in the near future (Bluedorn,
1982). Propensity to leave is an effective predictor
of actual turnover in organizations (Johnston,
Parasuraman, Futrell & Black, 1990). Retention
in selling organizations is a top concern as firms
invest a lot in selecting, motivating and training
their salespeople.
Individual Spirituality at Work z 161
Job Commitment
Job commitment is defined as the extent to which a
person psychologically identifies with or absorbed
by their job (Lawler & Hall, 1970). Committed
salespeople display greater performance, are
willing to make sacrifices and are less likely to
leave the organization (Bashaw & Grant, 1994;
C.E. Pettijohn, L.S. Pettijohn & Taylor, 2007).
Hypotheses
Null hypothesis 1: There is no relationship
between sales professionals’ spirituality at
work and job satisfaction.
Null hypothesis 2: There is no relationship
between Individual spirituality at work and
job commitment.
Null hypothesis 3: There is no relationship
between sales professionals’ spirituality at
work and propensity to leave.
Methodology
Design and Sampling
Internet-based survey questionnaire is used to get
the responses. A request letter with the survey
link is e-mailed to some of the respondents, and
to the others the letter is posted to their orkut
(social networking website) profile requesting
them to fill the survey. All the respondents are
sales professionals. By sales professionals, we
mean the people who are either working or
have worked as sales executives or sales managers.
The respondents (sample) belonged to different
industries, and the sample is a convenient one.
The total number of sample responses is 101. The
profile of the respondents is given in Table 2.
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162 z VAIBHAV CHAWLA AND SRIDHAR GUDA

Table 2 descriptive statistics are shown in Table 3. Each

Profile of the Respondents variable is constructed by computing the mean of
Personal Details Frequency (%) the items comprising the scale. The reliability of
Education the scales is provided in Table 4.
Undergraduate work 12 (11.9)
Graduate or postgraduate 89 (88.1) Job Satisfaction
Age
25 or less 33 (32.7) In this article, Job satisfaction is measured using
26 to 35 58 (57.4)
36 to 45 8 (7.9) seven selected items from the original 26-item
46 to 55 2 (2.0) scale provided by Churchill et al. (1979). These
Marital status items assess satisfaction with seven specific aspects
Married 40 (39.6) of the job: pay, opportunities for advancement, job
Not Married 61 (60.4)
security, company policies, boss, fellow workers
Gender and overall satisfaction. The response options for
Male 98 (97)
Female 3 (3.0) the items range from 1 for strongly dissatisfied to
Total business experience 7 for strongly satisfied.
1 year or less 15 (14.9)
2 to 5 years 56 (55.4) Job Commitment
6 to 10 years 18 (17.8)
11 to 15 years 8 (7.9)
16 to 20 years 1 (1.0) Job commitment is measured using three items from
21 years or more 3 (3.0) the scale provided by Lodahl and Kejner (1965).
Number of companies worked till date The response options for the items range from
1 30 (29.7) 1 for strongly disagree to 7 for strongly agree.
2 27 (26.7)
3 29 (28.7)
4 8 (7.9) Propensity to Leave
5 or more 7 (6.9)
Years with the current firm Propensity to leave was measured by a single item
1 year or less 44 (43.6) from Quinn and Staines (1979) that asks, ‘Taking
2 to 5 years 43 (42.6)
6 to 10 years 4 (4.0)
everything into consideration, how likely is it that
11 to 15 years 4 (4.0) you will make a genuine effort to find a new job
16 to 20 years 1 (1.0) with another employer within the next year?,’ with
21 years or more 5 (5.0) response options ranging from 1 for very likely to
Source: Developed by the authors using data from the 7 for very unlikely.4
respondents.

Measures Individual Spirituality at Work

Four measures, namely, individual spirituality The Meaning and Purpose at Work Questionnaire
at work, job satisfaction, job commitment and developed by Ashmos and Duchon (2000) consists
propensity to leave, are used in the study. The items of three levels of measures: individual, work
from each variable along with their corresponding unit and organizational. The individual measure

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 Individual Spirituality at Work z 163

Table 3
Measures Along with Its Items Used in the Study

Item Mean Std. Dev.

A. Meaning and Purpose at Work Scale (Workplace Spirituality at Individual Level)
Sense of community
1. I feel part of a community in my immediate workplace (department, unit, etc.). 5.2277 1.69045
2. My supervisor encourages my personal growth. 5.2772 1.63780
3. I have had numerous experiences in my job which have resulted in personal growth. 6.0297 1.23657
4. When I have fears I am encouraged to discuss them. 5.0198 1.62469
5. When I have a concern I represent it to the appropriate person. 5.7426 1.30118
6. At work we work together to resolve conflict in a positive way. 5.4158 1.53145
7. I am evaluated fairly here. 4.8020 1.75511
8. I am encouraged to take risks at work. 5.2178 1.48731
9. I am valued at work for who I am. 5.0000 1.67929
Meaningful work
10. I experience joy in my work. 5.5050 1.76422
11. I believe others experience joy as a result of my work. 5.2277 1.59299
12. My spirit is energized by my work. 5.8317 1.40762
13. The work I do is connected to what I think is important in life. 5.2574 1.68317
14. I look forward to coming to work most days. 5.6337 1.44030
15. I see a connection between my work and the larger social good of my community. 4.8020 1.87627
16. I understand what gives my work personal meaning. 5.4455 1.25280
Inner life
17. I feel hopeful about life. 6.2574 1.30118
18. My spiritual values influence the choices I make. 5.3564 1.69460
19. I consider myself a spiritual person. 5.2079 1.74538
20. Prayer is an important part of my life. 5.2376 1.83384
21. I care about the spiritual health of my co-workers. 4.9010 1.72919
B. Job Commitment
1. I feel the most important things that happen to me involve my job. 5.0495 1.53868
2. I feel the major satisfaction in life comes from my job. 4.9406 1.65422
3. I live, eat, and breathe my job. 4.3564 1.83621
C. Job Satisfaction
How satisfied are you with...
1. Overall Job satisfaction. 5.0198 1.58733
2. My compensation (salary). 4.4851 1.79228
3. Opportunities for advancement. 4.7426 1.84203
4. Job security. 4.8911 1.73148
5. Company policies. 4.5149 1.79228
6. My supervisor overall. 5.0693 1.68082
7. My colleagues/workers overall. 5.1881 1.42627
D. Propensity to Leave
1. Taking everything into consideration, how likely is that
you will make a genuine effort to find a new job with
another employer within the next year? 3.4356 2.10910
Source: Developed by the authors using data from the respondents.

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164 z VAIBHAV CHAWLA AND SRIDHAR GUDA

Table 4
Reliability Analysis

Scale Name Coefficient Alpha Value Number of Items

Job Satisfaction 0.877 7
Job Commitment 0.799 3
Propensity to Leave — 1
Meaning and Purpose at Work 0.883 21 (Total)
(Workplace Spirituality; Individual Items)
Sense of Community 0.859 9
Meaningful Work 0.844 7
Inner Life 0.753 5
Source: Developed by the authors using data from the respondents.

captures individuals’ perception of their own
spirituality at work. We have used the individual
level measure with three sub-scales for the study.
The response options for the items of the sub-
scales range from 1 for strongly disagree to 7 for
strongly agree.
Analysis and Results
SPSS software (16.0) is used for the analysis.
Hypothesis 1: The Pearson’s product moment
correlation coefficient between individual spir-
ituality at work and job satisfaction is 0.651
and the value is significant ( p < 0.01). Given
the very large positive value of the coefficient
and the high significance of the correlation,
it implies that the null hypothesis is rejected.
Table 5 shows the results.
Hypothesis 2: The Pearson’s product moment
correlation coefficient between individual spir-
ituality at work and job commitment is 0.388
and the value is highly significant (p < 0.01).
Given the high significance of the correlation
and sufficiently large coefficient value, it implies
that the null hypothesis is rejected. Table 6 shows
the results.
Hypothesis 3: The Pearson’s product moment
correlation coefficient between Individual spir-
ituality at work and propensity to leave is –0.454
and the value is highly significant ( p < 0.01).
Given the sufficiently large negative value of
the coefficient and the high significance of the

Table 5
Correlation of Individual Spirituality at Work and Job Satisfaction

Individual Spirituality at Work Job Satisfaction

Individual Spirituality at Work Pearson correlation 1 0.651∗
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 101 101
Job Satisfaction Pearson correlation 0.651∗ 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 101 101
Source: Developed by the authors using data from the respondents.
Note: ∗Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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 Individual Spirituality at Work z 165

Table 6
Correlation of Individual Spirituality at Work and Job Commitment

Individual Spirituality at Work Job Commitment

Individual Spirituality at Work Pearson correlation 1 0.388∗
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 101 101
Job Commitment Pearson correlation 0.388∗ 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 101 101
Source: Developed by the authors using data from the respondents.
Note: ∗Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 7
Correlation of Individual Spirituality at Work and Propensity to Leave

Individual Spirituality at Work Propensity to Leave

Individual Spirituality at Work Pearson Correlation 1 –0.454∗
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 101 101
Propensity to Leave Pearson Correlation –0.454∗ 1
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 101 101
Source: Developed by the authors using data from the respondents.
Note: ∗Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

correlation, it implies that null hypothesis is re-
jected. Table 7 shows the results.
Discussion
Correlation analysis provides that there is a strong
positive relationship between sales professionals’
spirituality at work and his/her job satisfaction. The
result comes as expected. The sales professionals
who align their self-concept to their spiritual
identity (inner life) express their spiritual identity
by meaningful work and by belongingness to the
community. Thus, there is an alignment between
who one is and what one does, then there comes
the satisfaction. The same reason holds true for the
positive relationship between sales professionals’
spirituality at work and his/her commitment to the
job. The result also provides that there is a strong
negative relationship between sales professionals’
spirituality at work and his/her intentions to leave.
When there is belongingness, i.e., the feelings of
existing together in the community and when one
is happy with the work then one may not intend to
leave the job and the organization. For the future
research, one can develop the scale for meaning
and purpose at work suitable specifically for the
sales setting. The new scale for sales setting will
be useful to confirm the relationships hypothesized
in the present study. Since the nature of the pre-
sent study is exploratory, we used a general setting
scale for meaning and purpose scale at work.
Researchers can also look into the relationship
for sales professionals between their spirituality
at work and job burnout.

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166 z VAIBHAV CHAWLA AND SRIDHAR GUDA
Conclusion
Sales professionals generally face extreme
pressures to produce sales which often leave
them frustrated and burnout. Aligning one’s self-
concept to the spiritual identity (inner life) at
workplace and expressing this spiritual identity
through meaningful work and belongingness to
NOTES
1. See Aravamudhan (2010) for some information on the
Indian companies that are reaching out for workplace
spirituality.
2. Although the word ‘spiritual’ appears in only two of the
items in the survey, the authors have still provided the
meaning of spirituality at the start of the survey so that
respondents do not confuse it with religiosity. By spir-
ituality, we mean that all that exists whether living or
non-living are fundamentally connected to each other.
There is oneness in all beings. The various beings in this
world are like the branches and leaves of the same tree.
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