Spirituality as a Buffer Between Negative Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Life as Well as Job Satisfaction?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has various consequences on employees that negatively affect their work and personal lives. According to previous research, spirituality helps one to cope with negative life events relating to uncertainty and Unverfügbarbeit. We investigate whether spirituality at work moderates the relationship between the pandemic's negative consequences and both job and life satisfaction. In a large-scale two-wave panel study with 1,468 participants (December to November 2019 and June to July 2020) in Germany, participants were surveyed for the severity of individual negative consequences of the pandemic, their job and life satisfaction, and their spirituality at work. The results show that job and life satisfaction are negatively related to the pandemic's negative consequences. Spirituality at work significantly moderates the relationship between negative consequences and life satisfaction as well as job satisfaction. However, the moderation effect on the job satisfaction model is only weakly significant. Thus, within the (work) life-changing circumstances of the pandemic, high spirituality at work can help one to cope with the negative consequences, buffering their impacts on job and life satisfaction. Employers can help to maintain or strengthen their employees' well-being by facilitating and supporting spirituality at work via HRM.