Workplace Spirituality

This study examines how workplace spirituality (WSp) moderates the effects of workplace stress (WS) on employee engagement (EE), workplace deviance (WD), and work–family conflict (WFC) in Indian higher education institutions. Stress has become an unavoidable reality in the modern workplace, affecting employees’ psychological and physiological well-being. While researchers have extensively examined the direct effects of stress on health, work attitudes, and other employee behaviors, the moderating role of spirituality in the relationship between stress and its outcomes has not been thoroughly examined, especially in non-Western settings. There is a need to broaden research beyond Western settings to provide context-specific insights into how spirituality can serve as a psychological resource. This study was conducted in India to reflect its sociocultural context, characterized by deep-rooted spiritual traditions and collectivist values. This work investigates the combined effects of stress (direct and indirect) on employees across individual, organizational, and familial domains. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 585 academics working in Indian higher education institutions, using standardized instruments. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical multiple regression. The findings revealed that stress increases WD and WFC while reducing EE. Grounded in the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this research confirmed that WSp significantly moderates these relationships. This investigation has bridged a critical gap in the literature by developing and testing a model to examine associations among research variables. The findings are both academically and practically relevant because they help researchers and practitioners understand how organizations and their employees can adopt WSp to conserve mental, emotional, and social resources, thereby reducing WD.