Enriching the Construct of Workplace Spirituality with Insights from Indian Philosophy and its Empirical Validation in Indian Context

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to proffer an enrichment of the workplace spirituality (WS) construct using tenets of Indian philosophy, and to select and execute an instrument for empirical validation of the construct to assess its cross-regional universality. The literature review was undertaken and the most accepted construct and its accompanying instrument, both developed by Ashmos and Duchon, were identified. The chosen construct was then evaluated and critiqued by leveraging tenets of Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta, the three most influential Indian philosophies. Subsequently, a survey was conducted on Indian managers working across various industries and regions in India. Factor analysis resulted in validation of cross-geographical universality of the WS construct. However, participants’ responses throw up factors with distinctively contrasting difference vis-à-vis the previous study. A plausible explanation built on the essence of Indian philosophy is attempted, and opportunities for future research are identified.