Role of spirituality and religiosity on employee commitment and performance

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“…To clarify the conceptual differences, firstly, religion represents a structured order of symbols, beliefs, and practices that enables an individual closeness to God and guides individual relationships with others (Agarwala, Mishra, & Singh, 2019;Souiden & Rani, 2015). Religion is further expressed as the purpose of life reflected in the values and attitudes of its followers (Kim Shyan, David, & Erdogan, 2004) with Mathew et al (2018), maintaining that religiosity is faith in God with the allegiance to comply with the rules set by God. These definitions imply that religiosity is an indication of ones' obedience toward religion he or she believes in which often has external behavioral characteristics.…”

“…Spirituality, is different to religiosity which refers to an individual's behavior being substantiated through an internal experience an individual has (Mathew et al, 2018). Spirituality is said to be a person's personal relationship with a transcendent entity beyond his or her life dimensions of physical, psychological, and social, that has been labelled as "Divinity," "Divine being," "Ultimate reality," or "God" (Tiliouine et al, 2009).…”

“…Attracting and retaining employees who are highly engaged and motivated is one of the most soughtafter sustainable competitive advantages an organization can have (Alessandri, Consiglio, Luthans, & Borgogni, 2018;Saks Alan, 2019) as they represent the firm to the public and have a fundamental role in establishing and altering business performance (Mathew, Prashar, & Ramanathan, 2018). The aforementioned views is further supported by a vast array of literature which reports that competent staff can increase customer satisfaction and overall business performance through highquality service (Dean, Suhartanto, & Kusdibyo, 2019;Suhartanto & Leo, 2018), in what it a changing customer and employee base (Alessandri et al, 2018;Johansen & Sowa, 2019).…”

“…Many factors determine employee job performance and how the employees engage with their job and organization (Brien, Anthonisz, & Suhartanto, 2019;Ismail Hussein, 2019;Suhartanto & Brien, 2018), including commitment and enthusiasm which is seen as key drivers to engagement that leads to higher job performance (Saks Alan, 2019;Schaufeli, 2014). Besides engagement, the extant literature has discussed the important role of religiosity has in influencing employee job-related attitude and behavior (King & Williamson, 2005;Mathew et al, 2018;Tiliouine, Cummins, & Davern, 2009). Further, literature has signaled the influence of religiosity on employee engagement (Kutcher, Bragger, Rodriguez-Srednicki, & Masco, 2010;Osman-Gani, Hashim, & Ismail, 2013); however, none of the existing publication has empirically examined the role of religiosity on both employee engagement and performance.…”

“…Further, literature has signaled the influence of religiosity on employee engagement (Kutcher, Bragger, Rodriguez-Srednicki, & Masco, 2010;Osman-Gani, Hashim, & Ismail, 2013); however, none of the existing publication has empirically examined the role of religiosity on both employee engagement and performance. Given the role religion plays in a person's life (Abu-Alhaija, Raja Yusof, Hashim, & Jaharuddin, 2019;Saroglou, 2011;Tiliouine et al, 2009), and the plausible influence of religion on a person's attitude and behavior in work (Mathew et al, 2018;Sikorska-Simmons, 2005), clarifying the role of religiosity on employee engagement and job performance is an important step in comprehending the employees' job-related attitude in relation to religion factor. As such, this research is ground-breaking in terms of future work-religion studies and is a practical reference for managing employees.…”