Investigating the impact of organizational spirituality on human resources productivity in manufacturing organizations

Article history: Received: September 19, 2018 Received in revised format: September 29, 2018 Accepted: October 14, 2018 Available online: October 15, 2018 Human resource productivity is one of the vital notions in the management of modern organizations. Many studies concerned with this notion have tried to identify the factors affecting productivity and its improvement. One of these important factors is organizational spirituality. The present study investigated the impact of organizational spirituality, from an Islamic perspective, on human resources productivity in BELFA Co., Iran, as a manufacturing organization. The study relied on a descriptive survey method and used structural equation modeling to analyze data in Smart-PLS software to fit the measurement model and the structural model. Results revealed that spirituality could predict 26% of the variance of Human resources productivity in the company, proving to be an effective factor. © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada


Introduction
The current business environment is characterized by increasing competition (Babatunde & Adebisi, 2012).To survive, organizations strongly depend on their sustainable competitive advantage (Singh & Mohanty, 2012).Under such circumstances, organizations need to view their human resources (HR), even more than before, as sources of competitive advantage (Nasurdin et al., 2013), because their efficiency, productivity and profitability can enhance organizations' performance and economic outcome (Hanaysha, 2016;Sirichoti & Wall, 2013).In contrast, ignoring the productivity of HR and merely concentrating on other factors can undermine an organization's productivity and effectiveness, while leading to HR loss, retention and dissatisfaction (Rezghi & Mosavi, 2013).Presently, one of the most important duties of organizational management is to identify potential talents in employees and to provide the ground for developing these talents as a contribution to HR productivity (Janipoor & Gholami, 2016).
The significance of the notion of employee productivity in organizations has led to the formation of some lines of studies.Many researchers have tried to identify the important variables associated with this notion, finding ways for improving employee productivity.One of the variables emphasized is organizational spirituality; although few studies have so far dealt with this notion, the relationship between spirituality and organizational effectiveness has been confirmed to a great extent (Faro Albuquerque et al., 2014).Organizational spirituality represents a new perspective in the realm of organizational behavior (Salarzehi et al., 2011).This concept has attracted the attention of researchers over the past decades (Shahabinasab et al., 2016), proving to be an important topic in the field of organization and management (Khanifar et al., 2010).Spirituality in the workplace refers to an inspiring and motivating force which encourages an individual to constantly seek for meaning and purpose in his/her career, understand the true value of work, and perceive the diversity of creation, nature and personal belief systems (Sheikhy et al., 2015).Many research papers, books, organizations, universities, and training workshops have confirmed the positive function of spirituality in improving the status of workplace, markets, economy and society (Pandey, 2014).More specifically, according to studies, employees' spirituality not only brings about individual advantages (e.g.pleasure, satisfaction, commitment), but also it can generate organizational benefits such as improved productivity and reduced absence from work (Faro Albuquerque, 2014).Most people believe that spirituality provides a new solution for consolidating, motivating and satisfying employees, while boosting their performance (Noor & Arif, 2011).In fact, when employees undertake work tasks and are at the same time spiritually committed, they can find purpose and meaning and consequently feel content (Petchsawang & Duchon, 2012).This feeling can help expand employees' capacities (Huang & Lin, 2014), as a result of which they can collectively help enhance organizational productivity.Because employee productivity could in various ways affect organizational performance, and its increased/reduced values could lead to organizational success/failure, the notion has become prominent in theoretical and applied investigations.Yet, no study has probed into the impact of spirituality on productivity in manufacturing organizations in Iran, and this shortage of investigation motivated the present study.The purpose of this paper, more specifically, is to investigate the impact of spirituality on employee productivity, and the central question is: Can spirituality increase HR productivity?

Organizational Spirituality
Spirituality represents a broad and multifaceted notion (Singh & Mishra, 2016).Understanding spirituality is a thorny task, even if one directly observes people's activities or asks complicated ideological questions.In fact, every individual defines spirituality for himself/herself (Koenig et al., 2004).It could be argued that spirituality is associated with hopes and wishes, thinking patterns, emotions, feelings and behaviors, and is a multidimensional conception (like love for instance) (Garcia-Zamor, 2003).Researchers contend that spirituality mostly, although not necessarily, leads to the development of rituality and religious communities (Koenig et al., 2004).More particularly, the term "spirituality", instead of "religion", implies a step beyond religious and ideological differences within religion-based communities and can construct the grounds for creative discussion and dialogue.For the individual, spirituality may be a factor that helps reach personal satisfaction or spiritual growth in the workplace.In a broader sense, however, spirituality is a crucial component in organizations' interactions with employees, clients and the society (Garber & Johnson, 2001).Individuals who integrate spirituality into their careers can enhance their job satisfaction, and when they leave their workplaces they tend to help other people, instead of just running away from them due to fatigue (Shahabinasab et al., 2016).Organizational spirituality, which provides a framework for recognizing stable values in the organizational culture, contributes to employees' sense of solidarity in work processes and their experience of togetherness.The value-based framework of organizational spirituality involves benevolence, generativity, humanism, integrity, justice, mutuality, receptivity, respect, responsibility, and trust (Bekker, 2013).From another perspective, organizational spirituality can encompass seven dimensions: creativity, communication, respect, vision, partnership, positive energy force, and flexibility (Gupta and Singh, 2016) Furthermore, experts have divided spirituality into three levels, namely individual, group and organizational (see Fig. 1): Along with the concerns reviewed above, organizational spirituality provides the tool for: (a) improving integrity and solidarity; (b) introducing ethics and aesthetics to the workplace; (c) reinforcing emotional competences; (d) encouraging holistic approaches to work; (e) establishing specific groups in the workplace; and (f) empowering the workforce (Brown, 2003).Similarly, the literature emphasizes that spirituality in the workplace can bring about several advantages such as: -Initiative and creativity: spirituality can help individuals to expand their knowledge; this force emerges from the individual's creativity conjoined with his/her Creator's creative power; -Solidarity and credit: many organizations, following the precepts of spirituality, focus on veracity and constitute a policy which prioritizes honesty with clients/suppliers over work; -Self-efficacy: spirituality is specifically associated with Maslow's hierarchy of needs in terms of the sense of belonging; increased spirituality fosters a sense of fullness in life and work; -Commitment: encouraging an atmosphere regulated by trust, spirituality strengthens commitment to work; organizational commitment is a process through which an employee feels connected to the organization; -Organizational performance: organizations encouraging spirituality normally experience improved performance; observations show that, under such circumstances, organizations could reach increased profitability and achievements (Shahabinasab et al., 2016).Fig. 1.A conceptualization of spirituality in workplace (Sherafati et al., 2016: 169)

HR Productivity
Employee productivity could be seen as the net income per employee.Productivity may be regarded as a collective measure (as in a whole economic system) or as separated measures for every distinct industry (Singh & Mohanty, 2012).In the literature, productivity is normally considered to be a performance indicator, which consists of efficiency and effectiveness (Bhatti & Qureshi, 2007).Productivity could be defined as the attempt to reach optimal levels of performance with lowest amounts of resources used.In other word, productivity is the balance between inputs and outputs.Elsewhere, the notion has been regarded as the degree of collecting and using organizational resources to reach a set of definite outcomes (Hanaysha, 2016).Furthermore, productivity has been used to refer to the amount of production for the resources used (Ferreira & Du Plessis, 2009).Ailabouni et al. (2007) believe that factors affecting productivity could be classified into four levels: -Environmental factors: suitable work hours (which make it possible to strike a balance between work, leisure and family), timely payment, reasonable payment, job security, etc.; -Organizational factors: supervisors' leadership skills, clarity and accountability in various management hierarchies, increased pay for overwork, etc.; -Team dynamics: individual skills, occupational knowledge, group/team skills, initiative, competence, etc.; -Individual factors: technical competence, personal attitude, prior experiences, job satisfaction, etc.The association between spirituality and productivity was briefly addressed earlier (see above).According to the studies conducted, HR productivity is a variable that could be affected by spirituality in the workplace (Balouch et al., 2015).Individuals who assume they can create a spiritual atmosphere in their workplace, compared to other individuals, are happier and more productive, and may remain longer in the organization (ibid).In contrast, some workplaces suffer from low productivity only because they fail to inspire spirituality in their work space (Garcia-Zamor, 2003).

Spirituality and HR Productivity
As the literature suggests, there are not many studies concerned with the impact of organizational spirituality on HR productivity.Most studies, instead of addressing productivity, have focused on the employees' or organizations' performance.In this section, some of the most relevant studies are reviewed.Balouch et al. (2015) conducted a descriptive-correlational study on the impact of spirituality on the productivity of secondary school teachers in Nikshahr, Iran, within 2014-2015.The finding suggested that there was a significant and positive relationship between organizational spirituality and teachers' productivity.The observations also increased criticisms, suggestions and perceptions could predict organizational spirituality in the teachers.Amirhosseini and Ghobadi (2015) dealt with spirituality in the workplace and HR productivity in the Tourism Bank of Iran, relying on a descriptive-correlational method.The population they investigated included 262 individuals selected according to Morgan's table.In their research, spirituality involved such indicators as job meaningfulness and a sense of conformity with organizational values, whereas productivity rested on such indicators as organizational commitment, positive attitude, understanding of the job, innovation, partnership, job-related skills/knowledge, job satisfaction, and motivation.The results of the study suggested that there was a significant relationship between productivity and spirituality.Khamse et al. (2015) investigated the impact of organizational spirituality on the productivity of employees in Torbat-e Jam, Iran, Education Department.Conducting a descriptive-applied survey on a sample of 67 individuals, they looked at the relationship between productivity and spirituality.Results revealed that organizational spirituality affected the productivity of the employees under study, while all three factors (viz.meaningful job, solidarity, and conformity with organization) influenced the employees' performance.Molaey et al. (2014) probed into the relationship of task performance to spirituality in the workplace, internal motivation, and work engagement.Using a descriptive-correlational design, they tried to find the relationship of task performance to spirituality (spiritual craving, mystical/spiritual experience, spiritual connection, and the sense of community), internal motivation, and work engagement (strength, devotion, attraction) in a medical services center in Isfahan, Iran.The sample included 200 randomly selected individuals employed in the center.Data analysis through Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise regression analysis revealed that there was a significant and positive relationship between task performance and spirituality in the workplace, internal motivation, and work engagement.Additionally, Regression analysis results showed that mystical/spiritual experience and spiritual connection (two factors of spirituality in the workplace), strength (a factor of work engagement), and internal motivation predicted task performance.Investigating the relationship between religiosity, spirituality and employee performance, Osman-Gani, Hashim and Ismail (2013) concentrated on a multicultural and multi-religious organization.In doing so, they used standardized questionnaires including the notions involved to gather data from 435 employees in the organization.Results indicated a positive and significant relationship between religiosity, spirituality and employee performance.In another survey, Jamshidi-Ghahfarkhi and Hayati (2012) measured the impact of organizational spirituality on HR productivity in libraries of Shiraz University.They tried to find the most effective and most indicative factors in improving employee productivity.The data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed via Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis.Results of Jamshidi-Ghahfarkhi and Hayati's (2012) research revealed a correlation between spirituality and productivity of the participants under study.Among the indicators of spirituality, obligation to act upon religious duties was more effective than other factors in improving employee productivity, showing the highest degree of predictability for the variable productivity.Hamid and Dehghanizadeh (2011) probed into the relationship of job performance to spirituality, organizational commitment, and general health in clinical nurses, using a descriptive/analytic, cross-sectional survey in hospitals of Ahvaz, Iran.A total number of 196 nurses were selected through the two-stage cluster sampling method to measure the variables.Findings suggested that spirituality, organizational commitment, general health had a positive and significant relationship to job performance.Exploring the literature on spirituality and organizational performance, Karakas (2010) tried to find how spirituality could influence employee performance in an organization.In this study, 140 articles concerned with organizational spirituality were investigated to figure out how this variable could support organizational performance.As a result, Karakas proposed three different aspects that would help employees gain advantage from spirituality at an organizational level: (a) spirituality could enhance employees' welfare and life quality; (b) spirituality could inspire a sense of purpose and meaning; and (c) spirituality could give a meaning to mutual relationships and social interactions.Garcia-Zamor (2003), dealing with workforce spirituality and organizational performance, delved into theories about workforce, spirituality, organizational dynamics, and the phenomena associated with these notions.The study underscored ethical values as an effective factor in work productivity.Garcia-Zamor finally suggested some methods that could guide governmental and private organizations on how to increase performance and develop ethics in organizations through spirituality.As the literature shows, in the studies conducted by Khamse et al. (2015), Molaey et al. (2014), Osman-Gani et al. (2013), Hamid and Dehghanizadeh (2011), Karakas (2010), andGarcia-Zamor (2003), the main research topic was the impact of spiritualty on performance.Yet, although the notions productivity and employee performance have some aspects in common, they are generally different.Considering these issues, the present study is distinguished from the studies conducted.Of course, this research, as far as the topics for investigation are concerned, has more in common with studies conducted by Balouch et al. (2015) and Jamshidi-Ghahfarkhi and Hayati (2012).These studies, like the present one, looked into two main variables, namely organizational spirituality and employee productivity.Furthermore, the results they observed and those found in this study are generally in line with each other.However, what distinguishes this research from the studies just mentioned is that they dealt with servicesbased organizations, whereas this investigation addresses manufacturing organizations.

Research Method
This applied study relied on a descriptive-correlational design.To measure the variable spirituality, the questionnaire proposed by Khodayarifard and Rahiminezhad (2009) was used.The questionnaire was composed of 97 questions organized into three dimensions: religious beliefs, religious emotions, and obligation to act upon religious duties.It also involved 5 questions measuring social image or the way the participants tried to display a socially acceptable image of themselves in terms of religion.These questions were structured according to a five-point Likert scale.
Additionally, to measure HR productivity, a version of Hohfe's (2010) HR productivity questionnaire was used, which involved 30 questions measured according to a five-point Likert scale through exploratory factor analysis (EFA).Considering the KMO value (0.84) and the value of Bartlett's chi-square test (1784.79,df=435) which was significant at the 0.0001 level, the EFA was confirmed.Thus, as Table 1 shows, factors 1, 2 and 3 measured 53.49% of the variance of the construct "employee productivity."EFA revealed that factor 1 included 9 items (11, 13, 16, 20, 23, 24, 25, 28 and 30), factor 2 included 8 items (9, 19, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 and 29), and factor 3 included 6 items (1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8).However, items 2, 5, 12, 21, 26 and 27did not show adequate validity ad were eliminated.Furthermore, item 29 was categorized under factor 1 because of it showed theoretical incompatibility with factor 2. Considering the categorizations observed as a result of the EFA, factor 1 could be regarded as a content factor, factor 2 as a structure factor, and factor 3 as a context factor.Therefore, in this study employee productivity was composed of three dimensions, namely content, structure and context.The validity and reliability of both of the questionnaires were already confirmed in other studies in the literature.Yet, in this study, too, the validity of the questionnaire was tested through Pearson's correlation coefficient, and its reliability was examined through Cronbach's alpha (see Table 2).

Table 2
The validity and reliability of the research tools used The population included the employees of BELFA Co. (which manufactures household products) with a population over 200 individuals, from whom, according to Krejcie and Morgan's table, 127 individuals were selected as participants based on the simple random sampling method.After 127 copies of the questionnaire were distributed among and completed by the participants, 27 copied displayed inadequate information or alterations.As a result, the analysis was conducted on a total number of 100 questionnaires (78.74) which were returned and finally confirmed.

Research Findings
This section addresses the model configured out of the software-processed interrelations between the variables of spirituality and productivity in BELFA Co. (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. The examined model of the variables
To fit the model, two aspects were examined, namely the measurement model and the structural model.

Fitting the Measurement Model
In this phase, as Chin (1998) suggests, to assess the discriminant (divergent) validity of a construct, the analyst must consider two criteria: (a) the items of the construct show the highest factor loading values with respect to the construct (cross-loading validity); and (b) the average variance extracted (AVE) value of the construct is greater than the correlation value of the construct with other constructs.Furthermore, Fornell and Larcker (1981) highlighted the importance of three elements in examining the reliability of a model with unobservable variables: the reliability of each item in terms of the significance of factorloadings, the composite reliability of each construct, and AVE.

Validity 4.1.1.1. Composite Validity of the Dimensions
Table 3 reports the cross-loads every dimension places on its constructs and other constructs.To examine the discriminant validity of the dimensions, the values of cross-loads placed by each dimension on its constructs had to be greater than the values it placed on other constructs.

Table 3
The cross-loads of dimensions on the constructs As Table 3 demonstrates, the cross-loads placed by all dimensions on their respective constructs were greater than the cross-loads each dimension had on the other construct.As a result, it could be argued that the dimensions organizational spirituality and employee productivity involved good cross-validity values.Table 4 also shows that the least cross-load value belonged to context factors (0.58), whereas content factors displayed the highest cross-load value (0.93).Obviously, both of these constructs were aspects of employee productivity.

AVE Comparisons
To examine the second validity criterion for the measurement model, AVEs of the constructs were compared (see table 4).As such, the AVE of each construct had to be greater than the correlation of the construct with the other construct.This condition could demonstrate that the correlation of the construct with its items was greater than its correlation with the construct (Chin, 1988).As Table 4 shows, the correlation of the constructs' AVE values was greater than the correlation between each construct and the other construct in the model.Thus, the validity of the constructs was confirmed.
As the two criteria were met, the constructs investigated in this research had good discriminant validity values.

Comparing the Significance of Factor-Loadings
At this stage, the factor-load of every indicator representing its respective latent construct is illustrated.
Based on the information obtained (see Table 5), the factor-loads of the dimensions had to be greater than 0.7 and the T-values in factor-loads had to be greater than 2.58 and 1.96.As Table 5 shows, the factor-loads for all dimensions, except context, were greater than 0.7.Considering the T-values obtained, the reliability of all the dimensions of both constructs was confirmed at the 0.01 significance level.Because the dimension context factors showed a low factor-load value, it could be eliminated, but since it did not display any significant cross-load value with respect to any other dimensions, it could be retained in the model.

Composite Reliability
To measure the composite reliability of spirituality and productivity, the composite reliability (CR) coefficient was calculated for these constructs.Because PLS relied on participants' the factor scores for the sake of analysis, including the factor-load of each item was necessary to calculate reliability.Meanwhile, Cronbach's alpha would give an equal weight to the items, showing a lower degree of reliability.Therefore, CR coefficient was used in this study (Amani Saribagloo et al., 2011).Thus, as Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) suggest, to test CR, values greater than 0.6 for every construct would represent a good degree of reliability.The outputs are reported in Table 6.6 simply emphasize that the CR of the constructs was greater than 0.8 and as a result their degrees of reliability were confirmed.
4. 1.2.3. AVE Values Fornell and Larcker (1981) suggest that AVE values in PLS studies should be greater than 0.5 (see Afthanorhan, 2013).According to Table 7, the AVE values in both of the constructs (spirituality and productivity) were greater than 0.5 and showed good degrees of reliability.Considering the three criteria specified above, the constructs under consideration displayed acceptable reliability.

Fitting the Structural Model
The structural model of PLS is normally accomplished through investigating path coefficients and model quality indices.This study drew on the bootstrap method (with 300 subsamples) to compute the T-value to determine the significance of the path coefficient.

The Significance of the Path Coefficient
The analysis revealed in Table 9 that spirituality, with a path coefficient of 0.26, was a positive and significant predictor of employee productivity.That is to say, 1-point increase in organizational spirituality could rise up to a 0.26 value of employee productivity.

The Quality of the Structural Model
As Table 10 shows, the incremental validation of the dependent latent variable was positive, as a result of which the structural had a good level of quality.That is, the variable spirituality was capable of predicting employee productivity.

Conclusion
In modern organizations, workforce productivity represents one of the vital factors contributing to the business performance (Koopman, 2002).As a result of this importance, numerous studies have explored productivity, and researchers have meticulously tried to identify the factors that can influence productivity.Among the factors suggested, organizational spirituality is an important one.Most studies in the literature have pointed to a positive and significant relationship between organizational spirituality and employee performance.Meanwhile, some of these studies have explicitly/implicitly underscored the impact that organizational spirituality could have on HR productivity (Garcia-Zamor, 2003;Balouch et al., 2015).Yet, the realm of studies concerned with spirituality and productivity remains underdeveloped and thorough investigations are still needed to clarify the aspects of the relationship between the two variables, especially in manufacturing and service-based organizations.Such studies should help provide a comprehensive understanding of the ways the two variables interact in various work environments and delve into the consequences arising from HR productivity in a spiritually motivated space.
Considering these concerns, this study investigated the impact of spirituality on HR productivity in a manufacturing organization, and in line with other studies, it found that increased spirituality could considerably predict employee productivity.The research, more specifically, found that spirituality helped employees to perform their tasks, while concentrating on fundamental issues of life (e.g.God, family, people in the immediate context, the environment, nature).This concentration could in turn reduce losses engendered by retention.Thus, spirituality could enhance employees' virtuosity and life quality, inspiring a sense of purpose and meaning in their working hours.Because of this quality, employees' performance and ultimately their productivity can be positively influenced.One could argue that due to these positive effects, today many organizations have started to take spirituality seriously.Furthermore, recourse to cultures (e.g. a partitionist culture) which are radically against the precepts of spirituality in the organization will undermine the spiritual atmosphere and disturb work relations between the employees.On this account, some behavioral patterns lead the organization astray and consequently affect organizational performance and the productivity of employees.Reduced levels of spirituality would degrade the image of the organization in the society, altering the quality of the resources that enter the organization.Considering these assumptions, organizational management, in the executive section, is expected to find the origins of the shortcomings that could lead to problems in the organization.The management, suggesting cultural or structural solutions, should lead the spirituality of the employees.The present study, highlighting these concerns, tried to theoretically contribute to the understanding of the positive impact of spirituality on productivity.The findings of the study suggest that this impact, to become more effective, requires further investigations that explore contributing processes, factors and interventions in workplaces.Thinking paradigms in future studies can guide researches on how to identify the effective elements in other serves-based and industrial environments.Measuring levels of organizational spirituality among members and the nature of spirituality governing their work environment, along with an analysis of points of strength/weakness, can collectively unfold what factors influence the quality of employee spirituality.Such findings will help figure out the existing issues and clarify the gaps that should be filled before excellent human goals can be achieved in an organization.

Geolocation information
Pishtaz Sanat Pars Khoram Company, commercially known as BELFA, is a private joint stock company in southern Iran, which has expanded industry and employment in the region.Pars Khoram GRP Pipes manufacturer, located in Safashaher County, Fars Province, is one of the BELFA-affiliated production lines which has been active in the field of design and production of GRP pipes, with an annual production capacity of 62000 tons.

Table 1
Results of EFA of the productivity questionnaire

Table 4
The correlation matrix and AVE values

Table 5
Factor loads, T-values, and the significance level of the dimensions As Table8clarifies, the cross-validation indicator of the latent variable was positive, as a result of which the measurement model involved a good level of quality.

Table 8
The cross-validation of the measurement model

Table 9
Path coefficients and its significance

Table 10
The incremental validation of the structural model