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Called to Commitment: An Examination of Relationships Between Spiritual Calling, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment

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Abstract

Religious and spiritual variables have largely been excluded from organizational research. Yet, there is a growing body of literature that suggests religion and spirituality have a significant and substantive role in influencing employees’ attitudes and behaviors at work. This paper aims to add to this literature by looking at the relationships of spiritual calling with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment after accounting for a range of demographic, religious, and work controls. Furthermore, we explore the interactive effect of spiritual calling and job satisfaction on organizational commitment. The data are drawn from a nationally representative sample of 771 adults in the United States. The results provide evidence of a positive relationship between spiritual calling and both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Additionally, our results support the interaction of spiritual calling and job satisfaction explaining additional variance in organizational commitment. Specifically, not only is organizational commitment strongest when spiritual calling and job satisfaction are both strong, but the results also indicate that spiritual calling is positively associated with organizational commitment even if one’s job is not very satisfying.

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Notes

  1. Other religious tradition respondents identified with religious traditions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Mormonism. An ANOVA test revealed that there were no significant differences between Protestant and Catholic respondents as compared to respondents who identified with other religious traditions. We included respondents who did not identify with a specific religious tradition because they still can be spiritual/religious.

  2. Post-hoc exploratory analyses indicated that the interaction of spiritual calling and organizational commitment was associated with job satisfaction (p < .001), but given our theoretical interests it was not explored in this paper.

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Acknowledgments

This article is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #0925907. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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  1. Department of Management, Baylor University, One Bear Place, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Mitchell J. Neubert

  2. Department of Sociology, Baylor University, One Bear Place, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Katie Halbesleben

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Neubert, M.J., Halbesleben, K. Called to Commitment: An Examination of Relationships Between Spiritual Calling, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment. J Bus Ethics 132, 859–872 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2336-z

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