International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences, 2(9) September 2013, Pages: 752-756

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International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences

ISSN
2306-7276

www.tijournals.com

Studying the Impact of Spiritual Intelligence on Job Engagement

Mohsen Torabi *1, Sepide Javadi 2
1
2

Phd student of policy making, university of Allame, Tehran, Iran.

M.S. of executive management, university of Allame, Tehran, Iran.

AR TIC LE INF O

AB STR AC T

Keywords:

While the idea of job engagement is extensively discussed in relation to other influences, there is
yet little discussion on how spiritual and religious issues might influence job engagement. This
research is an attempt to fulfil this need. The aim of this study is to examine job engagement and its
correlation with spiritual intelligence of nurses. This cross sectional-analytic study was carried out
on 179 hospital nurses in Shiraz (Faghihi hospital). Data were gathered by a questionnaire and
were analysed using statistical software SPSS. T-test findings suggest that hospital nurses of
Faghihi in Shiraz city as job engagement and spiritual intelligence are above of the average of 3.5,
however, such results often are not unexpected in society where people believe in religious values.
Also the Pearson correlation test showed a significant and positive correlation between spiritual
intelligence and job engagement.

Job engagement
Spiritual intelligence
Nurses
Faghihi hospital

2013 Int. j. econ. manag. soc. sci. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

Introduction

1.

To survive and compete successfully in todays turbulent environment, organizations require employees to be proactive, show initiative
while engaging with their role and remain committed to performing at high standards (Bakker and Leiter, 2010). Employee engagement
(May et al, 2004) and spiritual intelligence (Gardner, 1993), are important concepts to consider when dealing with changes at work and
improving performance. Since the beginnings of human civilization, nursing, more than medicine or other allied health-care professionals,
has been a vital force in integrating holistic health concepts with traditional medicine, nursing often maintains holism, a state of harmony
between the body, mind and spirit, and functions within that ever-changing environment (Dossey, 1988). But the facts imply that nurses get
depressed over time due to the lack of happy environment and tiredness, and after a long struggle with depression and anxiety, they become
guests of hospitals beds, as Chandler Lee (2005) mentioned that, in the new, modern and more productive organization, employees have
reported feeling isolated, devalued, dehumanized, and exploited. Due to the open atmosphere of the hospital environment, high
expectations of the patients and their relatives, high frequency of interpersonal conflict, disrespectful behaviors of patients and their
relatives, nurses are experiencing stressful time (Shakerinia, 2010).
Existing these barriers to optimal care of hospitals and nurses, including Faghihi Hospital in Shiraz, make providing good services difficult.
In these conditions, nurses can take advantage of spiritual intelligence and its dimensionsnamely, critical existential thinking, personal
meaning production, transcendental awareness and conscious state expansion which are practically significantly related to employee
engagement. Also Initial evidence in the literature suggested the need to investigate further, potential relationships between spiritual
intelligence and job engagement.
Consequently, we inquire into the question of how spiritual intelligence may affect nurses strength of job engagement.

2.

Literature review

Spirituality has become an increasingly acceptable area of study on college campuses. Research has proposed that spiritual beliefs,
practices, and commitments seem to be linked with positive results like psychological, psychological, and physical health (well-being);
marital satisfaction and stability; positive interpersonal functioning; and improved quality of life (Seybold and Hill, 2001). One of the
factors that contribute to these positive results may be that possessing spiritual orientation about life protects humans against non-desirable
and non-adaptive behaviors like acting in destructive ways, socially or even personally (Emmons, 2000). Edwards (2003) has pinpointed
to/denoted differentiation between/characterizing use of spiritual intelligence or sources to resolve spiritual dilemma, and employing them
in solving non-spiritual problems. Of course, spiritual intelligence is not simply integrating one's intelligence with his or her spirituality.
For the first time Gardner (1993, p. 7), treating spirituality as a form of intelligence. He defined intelligence as the ability to solve
problems, or to fashion products, that are valued in one or more cultural or community settings (Law et al. 2004). Four dimensions of
spiritual intelligence are critical existential thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness and conscious state expansion.
Critical existential thinking is the Ability to create meaning based on deep understanding of existential questions (Amram, 2005). Personal
meaning production is Person's ability to stimulate both physical and psychological experience of the person with personal meaning that
comes with a sense of satisfaction (King, 2008). Transcendental awareness is the Ability to understand one's relationship with a higher
* Corresponding author.
Email address: mohsentorabi89@yahoo.com

Studying the Impact of Spiritual Intelligence on Job Engagement

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(9) Se pt ember 2013

power, all the creatures, man and the environment (King, 2008; Vaughn, 2002). Conscious state expansion is the ability to enter a state of
spiritual awareness or higher (King, 2008). Since people are born with the capacity for spirituality, nurses can combine spirituality with
their professional career and see it not as a job but as a mission (Baldachino, 2008).
Following the general trend in psychology (Seligman and Csikzentmihalyi, 2000), scholars in the field of work and organizational
psychology have become increasingly interested in employees optimal functioning and positive experiences at work (Luthans, 2002). For
example, in addition to burnout, scholars have become attentive to its complement: work engagement. Currently, there is a debate regarding
the construct definition of engagement between those who believe engagement is simply the opposite of burnout and those who believe
engagement is more complicated, that it is obliquely related to burnout, but not its opposite (Britt et al, 2005; Maslach et al, 2001; Schaufeli
et al., 2002; Shirom, 2003). The concept of engagement can be traced back to Kahn (1990). He denes personal engagement as the
harnessing of organization members selves to their work roles (p. 694) and he adds, in engagement, people employ and express
themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances (p. 694). Work engagement is defined as a positive,
fulfilling work related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption (Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). Vigour refers
to high levels of energy while working. Dedication refers to an intense work involvement and encompasses feelings of inspiration, pride,
enthusiasm, significance and challenge. The final dimension of engagement is absorption, characterized as being totally focused on ones
work such that time appears to pass speedily and one finds it increasingly difficult to detach oneself from work. In short, engaged
employees work hard; they are enthusiastic about their work; and are fully immersed in their work activities (Bakker and Demerouti, 2008).
As can be seen in the literature, clearly, researchers have not settled on a single definition of engagement, nor have they settled on a single
measure of engagement. This does not necessarily prevent engagement from being regarded as a real psychological construct. Engagement
is an emerging psychological construct that purports to measure how much a person is into their job. Engagement is an example of a recent
approach to psychology, stemming from the positive psychology movement espoused by Seligman (1999). While there is considerable
research on engagement, there is much missing from that body of work. There is no evidence of research exploring the relationship between
spiritual intelligence and job engagement.
Thus, by investigating the effects of spiritual intelligence on job engagement, the current research seeks to offer new empirical and
theoretical insights into this significant concept.

3.

Methodology

Present research, with the aim of determining the empirical relationships between nurses' spiritual intelligence and job engagement, was
analytic/cross sectional and applied. The method of data gathering was detailed questionnaires.
The number of nurses in Faghihi Hospital were 334 and due to the limited number of the nurses, the questionnaires were distributed to all
334 members of which 179 of them were returned.
86.6% of the respondents were women and 10.1% of them were men. 26% have had less than one year of work experience, (24.7%) 2-3
year work experience, (11%) 4-5 years, (14.3%) 6-9, (9.1%) 10-12 and (14.9%) with the years of experiences of more than 13.
In order to collect data, two types of questionnaires were used: 1. Job engagement questionnaire designed by Alan M.Saks (2006). 2.
Spiritual intelligence questionnaire designed by Linda Hildebrant (2011) which contains of the four dimensions: critical existential
thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness and conscious state expansion.
After selecting the questionnaires, authors attempted to assess validity and reliability of the questionnaire. With Emphasis on internal
consistency reliability of the test method, the method is called the coefficient alpha or Cronbach's (Momeni and Ghaiyoomi, 2011).
Cronbach's alpha coefficient for spiritual intelligence was 0.888 and for job engagement was 0.705 since both values were greater than 0.7,
the test of reliability is acceptable. Furthermore the effect of removing some questions on the Cronbach was investigated, for spiritual
intelligence by removing question number 6 the number become 0.898 and for job engagement by removing question number 43
Coronbach became 0.790.

4.

Conceptual model and hypotheses

To take everything into consideration, Conceptual model was designed and tested using four dimensions of spiritual intelligence as the
independent variable and job engagement as the dependent variable.
Hypothesis 0: There is relationship between spiritual intelligence and job engagement.
Hypothesis 1: There is relationship between critical existential thinking and job engagement.
Hypothesis 2: There is relationship between personal meaning production and job engagement.
Hypothesis 3: There is relationship between transcendental awareness and job engagement.
Hypothesis 4: There is relationship between conscious state expansion and job engagement.

Mohsen Torabi and Sepide Javadi

754

Internati onal Journal of Ec onomy, Mana ge me nt and Soci al Sc iences , 2( 9) Sept ember 2013

Critical
existential
thinking

Personal
meaning
production

Spiritual
intelligence

Job
engagement

Transcendental
awareness

Conscious
state
expansion

Figure1. Conceptual Model

4.1 analysis and hypotheses testing
In this research, Statistical methods were:
Correlation analysis: correlation analysis is statistical tool for determining the type and degree of correlation between variables (Momeni
and Faal ghayomi, 2011). In this study, Pearson correlation was used.
T Test: To check appropriateness or inappropriateness of the status of spiritual intelligence and its dimensions and job engagement, T test
was used.
For better understanding, prior to hypotheses testing, mean and standard deviation of spiritual intelligence and job engagement, were listed
and are shown in the table below:
Table1. Mean and std. deviation

N valid
Missing
Mean
Std. deviation

Spiritual intelligence

critical existential
thinking

personal meaning
production

Transcendental
awareness

Conscious state
expansion

Job engagement

179
0
3.8751
.46711

179
0
3.9937
.49172

179
0
3.8866
.61305

179
0
3.6773
.48690

179
0
3.7138
.66210

178
1
3.8289
.67716

As it is evident from Table1, all the variables and dimensions are above average (>3).
To evaluate appropriateness or inappropriateness of job engagement and psychological empowerment status T-Test were carried out. They
are summarized in the table below:
Table2. One sample T-test
Test value=3.5

Spiritual intelligence
critical existential thinking
personal meaning production
Transcendental awareness
Conscious state expansion
Job engagement

Df

10.743
13.434
8.437
4.871
4.320
6.481

178
178
178
178
178
177

Sig.
(2-tailed)
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000

Mean difference
.37508
.49375
.38659
.17728
.21378
.32893

95% confidence interval of difference

Lower
Upper
.3062
.4440
.4212
.5663
.2962
.4770
.1055
.2491
.1161
.3114
.2288
.4291

4.2 hypothesis design H0 and H1

H0: =3.5
H1: 3.5
According to the table 2, in all cases, significant value (sig) is less than 0.05, so H0 assumption is rejected and H1 is accepted.
Also, in all cases, both the upper limit and lower limit test is positive, then the value is larger than the average and this, represents that
nurses as both job engagement and spiritual intelligence are in good condition.

Studying the Impact of Spiritual Intelligence on Job Engagement

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(9) Se pt ember 2013

4.3 testing hypotheses

All hypotheses were tested by Pearson correlation. Since significant of hypotheses 0, 1, 2 and 4 are less than 0.05, these hypotheses are
confirmed. Significant of hypothesis 3 is .090 and due to the fact that it is higher than 0.05 it is not confirmed.
The following table shows hypotheses in order of the strength of the correlation:
Table3. hypotheses in order of strength of correlation

5.

Order

Hypothesis

Coefficient of correlation

1
2
3
4
5

H2
H0
H1
H3
H4

.317
.299
.283
.235
.211

Conclusion

This paper contributes to the developing engagement literature in two important ways: First, previous research has predominantly
concentrated on the role of job and personal resources for augmenting employees engagement with their work. The present study deviates
from this established line of enquiry and advances theory and research in the area by exploring the influence of spiritual intelligence on job
engagement. Second, there has been relative silence on the underlying mechanisms through which engagement has been affected from
psychological point of view. The current paper fills this gap by highlighting mental process such as spiritual intelligence. This study aimed
to add to the literature on engagement by examining the processes underlying the relationships between spiritual intelligence and job
engagement.
Three dimensions of spiritual intelligence contains of: critical existential thinking, personal meaning production and conscious state
expansion predicted job engagement in a statistically significantly way. The Pearson correlations showed that three dimensions of spiritual
intelligence except of transcendental awareness were practically significantly related to job engagement.
According to the literature, confirming the main hypothesis: positive relationship between nurses' spiritual intelligence and job engagement
had been anticipated. Authors reasoning which was based on the literature had been made as follows:
On the one hand, Engagement is an emerging psychological construct that purports to measure how much a person is into their job.
Engagement is an example of a recent approach to psychology, stemming from the positive psychology movement espoused by Seligman
(1999). On the other hand, it has long been known that spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, prayer, etc. are important to the mind,
body and spirit of the individual. The spiritual person, by the very nature of who he or she is, needs to be in touch with that spiritual side of
themselves. So it is not surprising if engagement considered as a mental process which is related to spiritual intelligence. Some of the
outcomes of the development and practice of spiritual intelligence include an ability to stay calm and focused in the face of crisis and
chaos, a more selfless and altruistic attitude towards others and more enlightened and relaxed perspective on life. Things that many nurses
need in stressful work environment. While many people think there is nothing spiritual about work and the workplace, there are many areas
of working life in which spiritual intelligence can be applied.
In addition, with regard to T-test results, interesting results obtained and confirm authors assumptions. Nurses as job engagement and
spiritual intelligence were of the above average 3.5.

6.

Limitation

As with all empirical research, the limitation of the present study should be addressed. One notable limitation of this study was the small
number of respondents (179) from one particular hospital. The small sample size and the lack occupational heterogeneity limited the ability
to generalize the ndings of the present study.

7.

Suggestions

Due to stress caused by on night duty and dealing with different types of diseases which might hamper using benefit of spiritual
intelligence, flexible hours which give them the freedom to choose the hours and formal training programs in the form of seminars is
suggested.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the study subjects for their participation. Grateful appreciation also goes to our parents for their support.

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