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IJCHM
27,5
Is workplace spirituality
associated with business ethics?
Baker Ayoun
Hotel and Restaurant Management Program, Auburn University, Auburn,
938 Alabama, USA
Received 12 January 2014 Louis Rowe
Revised 18 March 2014
10 August 2014
Economics Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Accepted 1 September 2014 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, and
Fatima Yassine
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the potential association between
spirituality and business ethics in a hotel workplace.
Design/methodology/approach – A scenario-based quantitative approach was used to collect data
from 165 practicing professionals in the hotel industry.
Findings – The results show that spirituality, as measured by the Spiritual Transcendence Scale
(STS), did not correlate significantly with measures of ethical perception, ethical judgment, ethical
intention or perceived moral intensity. There was, however, evidence to suggest that spirituality may be
able to contribute incrementally to future research.
Research limitations/implications – This study demonstrates that the dynamic associations
between spirituality and ethics may produce different outcomes in different industry settings.
Practical implications – If hotel companies focus on developing ethical standards, the effects on the
business ethics of managers could be considerably greater than relying on the spirituality of managers
or the encouragement of expression of spirituality in the workplace.
Originality/value – Although the relationship between spirituality and ethics seems to be sensible,
the empirical assessments on how managers’ workplace spirituality relate to their business ethics is
notably lacking. The present study sought to fill this gap in literature.
Keywords Hospitality industry, Spirituality, Religiosity, Workplace spirituality,
Hospitality business ethics, Spirituality in the hospitality industry
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Spirituality and religion have exerted considerable influences on the attitudes and
behaviors of people in every part of the world throughout recorded human history.
Human remains and bones of hunted game have suggested the possibility that some of
International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality
humanity’s earliest ancestors, those who walked the earth during the ice ages, believed
Management in a higher power or a supernatural force (Maringer, 1960). Religion and spirituality
Vol. 27 No. 5, 2015
pp. 938-957
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-6119
This research project was partially supported by a grant from the Auburn University Competitive
DOI 10.1108/IJCHM-01-2014-0018 Research Grant Program.
have since appeared throughout history in different forms; some lost forever, and others Workplace
lasting into the present day, making an undeniable impact on world events. Despite their spirituality
importance, many previous research publications have noted that, until recently,
writings on the role of spirituality and religion in business settings virtually did not
exist (Mitroff and Denton, 1999). Although religion and spirituality have yet to drive
universal changes in the corporate world, they have emerged in the past two decades as
fairly significant areas of interest among management researchers and educators, as 939
well as industry practitioners (Mitroff and Denton, 1999). The significant increase in
new books, articles, meetings, conferences, special journal issues and cover stories of
popular business magazines, combined with special courses offered in business schools,
all attest to this increasing attention to spirituality and religion in the workplace
(Cavanaugh, 1999; Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002; McLaughlin, 2005; Mitroff and Denton,
1999; Neal and Biberman, 2003; Ruhe and Lee, 2008).
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While religion has been approached with caution in the workplace, spirituality
appears to be more acceptable (McLaughlin, 2005; Mitroff and Denton, 1999; Morgan,
2004), even though spirituality has historically been rooted in religion (Cavanaugh,
1999). Incorporating religion into the workplace requires managers to navigate legal
risks and complicating factors, while spirituality is generally perceived to be less risky
(Morgan, 2004). Spirituality, as defined by Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003, p. 87), is “the
individual’s drive to experience transcendence, or a deeper meaning to life, through
the way in which they live and work”. Regardless of past perceptions about it, the
incorporation of spirituality in the workplace appears to be unavoidable. Studies have
suggested that it is becoming a necessity for work–life balance (Cavanaugh, 1999;
Mitroff and Denton, 1999), and it is a potential aspect of the workplace that could boost
performance and productivity if properly addressed by leadership (Fairholm, 1996;
Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002; Milliman et al., 2003).
Up to the present time, a sizeable body of literature has generally sought to
understand the effect of religion on ethical behavior (Kennedy and Lawton, 1998; Ruhe
and Lee, 2008) and the linkages of spirituality with moral behavior (Cavanaugh, 1999;
Fairholm, 1996; Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002; McCormick, 2013; McLaughlin, 2005).
While this research provides a number of important insights, especially at the
conceptual level, it devotes limited attention to exploring whether spirituality is
associated with a person’s ethicality in the workplace (for exceptions, see Baumsteiger
et al., 2013; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2003; Issa and Pick, 2011). Business ethics refer to
the moral principles that define right and wrong in business that go beyond legal issues
(Ferrell, 2004). In particular, empirical research on how managers’ workplace
spirituality relate to their business ethicality is notably lacking. This relationship is
conceptually and practically interesting because it bridges two timely domains (i.e.
workplace spirituality and work ethics) that have been hypothesized to be related but
seldom empirically investigated. The present study seeks to fill this gap by examining
the association of spirituality with the ethicality of hotel managers in the workplace. In
addition to contributing to the literatures on workplace spirituality and business ethics,
the study provides renewed insights into the hotel business ethics, an area of inquiry
that is commonly known to have been relatively under-researched in the hospitality
literature (Beck et al., 2007).
Due to, partially, the very nature of the hotel business of directly serving large
numbers of people every day of the year, managers in the hotel industry face numerous
IJCHM potential ethical concerns in their work. Some of these concerns include sexual
27,5 harassment, fraudulent transactions and resource mismanagement (see Yeung, 2004).
Ethical issues are growing concerns in this industry (Beck et al., 2007; Lee and Tsang,
2013), and managers are reporting that ethical dilemmas are everyday incidents in their
hotels (Vallen and Casado, 2000). Importantly, few industries are as multi-culturally
diverse as the hotel industry. Given this cultural diversity, wider differences in
940 perceiving ethical situations can be expected as a result (Kraemer, 1995). The growing
emphasis given to social responsibility, protection of the environment and human rights
in the hotel context contributes to the susceptibility of the business to the range of
potential ethical problems. It is reasonable to assume that if spirituality were to
positively affect how work is done morally, it would be evident in managers who are
working in such an industry. This study will assist managers in understanding the
extent to which spirituality may affect their own as well as others’ ethicality, and
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2. Literature review
2.1 Spirituality defined
Previous studies have defined spirituality using terms that reach for a level of being that
is beyond the purely physical, emotional or even cognitive. For example, Mitroff and
Denton (1999) stated that if spirituality had to be defined in one word, it would be
“interconnectedness”. In the search to find a working definition, however, McCormick
(1994) raised a point of caution in that some spirituality studies apply the term to
emphasize team cohesiveness or a shared workplace experience instead of anything that
relates to an individual’s relationship with the sacred. Fairholm (1996) echoed this
observation and cited dedication, mission or vision as examples of terms that leaders
and researchers have often confused for spirituality. This confusion is understandable,
as different spiritual perspectives have influenced current leadership theory, including
many books and ideas that are currently popular for managers (Korac-Kakabadse et al.,
2002). For example, and although both constructs are still in the initial concept stage of
development (Fry, 2003), there seems to be a consensus among several researchers that
spirituality and leadership overlap considerably (Fry, 2003).
Piedmont (2001, p. 5) state that spirituality is “an individual’s efforts to construe a
broad sense of personal meaning within an eschatological context”; that is, humans are
aware of their own mortality and strive to develop a sense of purpose and meaning for
their lives. When developing the Spiritual Transcendence Scale, Piedmont (1999)
included three subscales:
(1) Prayer Fulfillment, describing the feelings of joy and contentment that result
from personal encounters with a transcendent reality.
(2) Universality, describing a belief in the unitive nature of life.
(3) Connectedness, describing a belief that one is part of a larger human orchestra
whose contribution is indispensable in creating life’s continuing harmony.
Several existing spirituality studies have focused on business leaders because they
establish rules and guidelines for appropriate behavior and have a profound effect on
workplace atmosphere and daily performance. A popular phenomenon is the spiritually
charged chief executive officer (CEO), a leader who draws inspiration from his or her
spiritual or religious beliefs when running a company (Cavanaugh, 1999; Korac-
Kakabadse et al., 2002; McLaughlin, 2005; Mitroff and Denton, 1999). The CEO,
however, is just the visible tip of the corporate iceberg. Fairholm (1996), for example,
found that mid-level managers could also benefit by working with spirituality in the
workplace. Korac-Kakabadse et al. (2002) suggested that leaders who incorporate
spirituality and embrace lessons from many faiths might also gain an advantage by
improving their ability to fully engage their employees. Consequently, a vision of the
“spiritual leader” who emphasizes principles to subordinates and embodies service and
stewardship has emerged (Fairholm, 1996).
The combined interest in spirituality from both leadership and individual levels
show that spirituality is present in the modern workplace. For many, it is such an
integral part of their being (Fairholm, 1996) that it will inevitably affect attitudes
(Cavanaugh, 1999; McLaughlin, 2005; Milliman et al., 2003) and actions taken on the part
of managers and leaders (Cavanaugh, 1999; Fairholm, 1996). This reasoning implies that
spirituality could affect a manager in any work situation, including those that are
ethically sensitive. When spirituality and religion intersect with other fields, McCormick
(2013) asserts, the most important link is with ethics. Cavanaugh (1999, p. 193)
commented on this relationship when he observed that spirituality could potentially
improve the understanding of business ethics:
Business ethics has become a major concern of most business people over the last few decades.
Yet the spirituality in business movement has developed largely independent of this related
movement. This lack of connection is not surprising in our fractured culture; but it is ironic,
since the two movements could support one another, and there are many parallels in goals and
inspiration.
However, since Cavanaugh’s (1999) observation, only a handful studies have
specifically focused on the influence of spirituality on this important aspect of
workplace conduct. Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003) focused on the effect of spirituality
on the perception of ethical issues and found evidence to support their hypothesis that
spirituality would correlate with higher perceptions of ethical breaches in cases where
the legality of a given issue is unclear. The researchers found statistically significant
IJCHM relationships between higher spirituality and perceptions of ethical problems,
27,5 specifically:
• Non-universalizability, describing situations that arise from situation-specific
standards that differ with respect to locations or conditions.
• Natural environment, describing situations that could affect natural resources.
942 • Privacy, describing situations that involve monitoring of employee activities.
The remaining factors that grouped situations with more apparent legal violations
either did not produce statistically significant results, such as the factors of ethics–legal
interface and blatant legal infractions, or the analysis produced statistically weak
results, such as the personal integrity factor.
In another study, Issa and Pick (2011) examined factors of spirituality and
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aesthetics to determine how they are related to business ethics. They used
quantitative data to identify eight components affecting business ethics, and
describing an inner world of the respondents: aesthetic spirituality; religious
spirituality; optimism; harmony and balance; truth seeking; pursuit of joy, peace
and beauty; making a difference and professionalism. Of these eight initial factors,
aesthetic spirituality and religious spirituality were the strongest predictors in
variance of business ethical practices.
Baumsteiger et al. (2013), on the other hand, surveyed over a thousand college
students in a US university with the goal of investigating whether religiosity and
spirituality influence moral reasoning. The study found that religiosity and spirituality
positively correlated with moral idealism, whereas spirituality negatively correlated
with moral relativism. The researchers concluded that religiosity and spirituality,
however, accounted for very little variability in moral reasoning, suggesting that they
do not directly influence moral reasoning.
To sum up, though the conceptual link between spirituality and business ethics
appears to be plausible, empirical investigations that may inform the literature on
their potential relationships are just starting to emerge. These studies have not yet
produced concrete evidence. The limited empirical research that is currently
available suggests that further empirical investigations may contribute to an
understanding of the association between the two domains. Based on the relevant
literature, the results of the studies presented above, as well as the important
variables identified by previous research on business ethics, the following
hypotheses are proposed concerning the association between workplace spirituality
and business ethics of hotel managers:
H1. Higher levels of managers’ spirituality will be positively associated with their
perceived moral intensity.
H2. Higher levels of managers’ spirituality will be positively associated with their
ethical perceptions.
H3. Higher levels of manager’s spirituality will be positively associated with
ethicality in their judgment.
H4. Higher levels of managers’ spirituality will be positively associated with
ethicality in their intentions.
3. Methods Workplace
3.1 Measurements spirituality
This survey-based approach used three scenarios adopted, with minor word changes,
from hospitality-based studies by Damitio and Schmidgall (1993) and Stevens and
Fleckenstein (1999) to assess spirituality and hotel business ethics (see Appendix). The
scenarios addressed the general issues of compensation inequality, potential conflict of
interest and improper disclosure of confidential information, all in the hotel industry 943
context. The ethical issues addressed by these scenarios were reported to be of high
value in their original sources. For example, in Damitio and Schmidgall’s (1993) study,
hospitality professionals were found to believe that using organization for personal
financial gain is most unethical. Two practicing hotel managers (a General Manager
[GM] and human resources manager) were also involved in the scenario selection
process, adding more relevance to the study.
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Spirituality was measured using the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) developed
by Piedmont (1999). The spiritual transcendence construct measured by the STS was
created to be independent of existing personality models, and at the same time provide
incremental validity to improve measurements of personality factors when included
(Piedmont, 1999, 2001). The STS was validated with both self- and observer ratings,
showing that the results from the scale could be verified and have predictive value
(Piedmont, 1999, 2001). Given that the hotel industry is very diverse, and that this study
involves hotel managers belonging to various cultures, a measurement scale of
spirituality that is pertinent to diverse groups of individuals is particularly relevant.
The STS scale has been subsequently shown to demonstrate suitable applicability
across nationally and with groups of various faiths (Piedmont, 2007; Piedmont and
Leach, 2002; Piedmont et al., 2009). The scale has been utilized in various studies
(Griffiths et al., 2006; McCullough et al., 2002). The STS measures spirituality with three
main factors: Universality, Prayer Fulfillment and Connectedness. The present
study used a direct application of the STS, as developed by Piedmont (1999):
Prayer Fulfillment and Universality were measured using nine items each, while
Connectedness was measured using six items. Example items of Universality are “I
believe there is a larger meaning to life” and “I feel that on a higher level all of us share
a common bond”, and example items of Prayer Fulfillment include “I have experienced
deep fulfillment and bliss through my prayers or meditations” and “Sometimes I find the
details of my life to be a distraction from my prayers and/or meditations”. Example
items of Connectedness include “I am a link in the chain of my family’s heritage, a bridge
between past and future” and “I still have strong emotional ties with someone who has
died”. The exact wording of the items used was the same as Piedmont’s (1999) study. All
items were rated on a five-point Likert-type scale.
When it comes to business ethics, previous research has identified important
variables and developed scales to measure the variables. Jones (1991) argued that every
issue can be represented in terms of its moral intensity, which in turn may considerably
vary from an issue to another. In this study, perceived moral intensity was measured in
a similar method to that used by Singhapakdi et al. (1996, 1999), although this study
used three of the original six components of the construct proposed by Jones (1991) and
developed into question form by Singhapakdi et al. (1996). Specifically, magnitude of
consequences (defined as the sum of the harms – or benefits – done to victims – or
beneficiaries – of a moral act in question); social consensus (defined as the degree of
IJCHM social agreement that a proposed act is evil – or good); and probability of effect (defined
27,5 as a joint function of the probability that the act in question will actually take place and
the act in question will actually cause harm – or benefit), were included because of their
relevance to the present study. Previous empirical studies produced inconsistent
findings related to the support of the six components of moral intensity (McMahon and
Harvey, 2006) or the relative role each component play in ethical decision-making
944 (Barnett, 2001). The three items were combined to form a single perceived moral
intensity measurement for analysis, as the selected items served as an approximation of
the full perceived moral intensity construct. Jones (1991) also suggested that moral
intensity items might have interactive effects, which would be expressed in the
combined measurement. Each of the three components were assessed using a system
developed by Singhapakdi et al. (1996) and used by Singhapakdi et al. (1999), who used
a single question that was rated using a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (completely
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businesses related to the hotel segment were targeted. E-mail addresses were obtained
from individual Web sites of businesses listed in the Community’s directories. The
original e-mail was sent to 717 potential participant managers. The use of the
online-based survey allowed the researchers to reach a population that is both widely
dispersed geographically and difficult to reach through more conventional survey
methods.
Given the sensitivity of the topics investigated in this study, and instead of asking
those managers to provide the researchers with contact information about potential
respondents in their professional networks, the instructions asked the managers to
forward the link of the survey to other eligible individuals that might be willing to
participate. This procedure helped in preventing any breaching of confidentiality or an
invasion of privacy.
Similar to the network sample used by Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003), the use of a
snowball sampling technique is concerning because it reduces the control that a
researcher has on the sample, but if precautions are taken, it can provide a larger sample
than would otherwise be possible. To ensure a good sample was obtained, the initial
distribution of the surveys specifically targeted hotel managers to start the snowball
sample in the desired population. Any forwarded surveys to expand the sample had a
good chance of reaching valid respondents, as the target population was flexible enough
(including CEOs, GMs and mid-level managers from a variety of different departments
in the hotel industry) to accommodate minor variations in dissemination. Further, as an
extra precaution, the first question of the survey requested the respondent’s job title to
ensure that the person was from a management position, and the fifth question
requested the respondent’s functional background. Another benefit of the snowball
sample for this study is that it could possibly encourage participation: a survey that
measures sensitive subjects like spirituality and ethics may be better received from a
friend or familiar colleague than a foreigner. Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003) achieved a
notable response rate when they used a similar network sampling technique where
MBA students identified potential respondents.
The snowball sample in the present study initially reached 717 hotel professionals
with valid e-mail addresses. Following two reminder messages, 165 analyzable
responses were received and used in the analyses. The number of respondents compares
favorably to other studies related to ethics and the job titles the respondents hold,
especially because no students were used as respondents or recruiters. For example,
IJCHM Mitroff and Denton (1999) recruited 131 participants of a potential 2,000 respondents
27,5 (a 6.6 per cent response rate); studies by Singhapakdi and Vitell (1990), Singhapakdi
et al. (1996, 1999) averaged 478 participants (for a 23.9 per cent response rate). Issa and
Pick (2011) were able to recruit 223 active participants (a response rate of 48 per cent).
As presented in Table I, the sample is overwhelmingly male (84.2 per cent), and
approximately 85 per cent of the sample is over the age of 35 years. Of the sample,
946 77 respondents (46 per cent) claimed to have Bachelor’s degrees, 28 (17 per cent) claimed
Master’s degrees and 24 (14.5 per cent) claimed Associate’s degrees. The group was
fairly diverse from a nationality perspective even though about one-third of the
respondents reported their nationality as American.
Table II shows the occupational characteristics of the sample. Approximately 16 per
cent of the respondents indicated they are the CEO or chairman, 26 per cent hold the title
of GM or owner/GM, approximately 8 per cent vice president and 43 per cent hold other
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job titles, such as assistant manager, revenue manager, consultant, hotel director, F & B
director, business development manager and executive chef. Most of the participants
come from operational backgrounds with 30.3 per cent in hotel operations and 22.4 per
cent in food operations. Functional backgrounds relating to business operations made
Gender (n ⫽ 165)
Male 139 84.2
Female 26 15.8
Age (n ⫽ 165) (years)
Under 25 2 1.2
25-35 22 13.3
36-45 48 29.1
46-55 54 32.7
56 or over 39 23.6
Education (n ⫽ 164)
High school or less 13 7.9
Associate degree (2 years) 24 14.5
Bachelor (4 years) 77 46.7
Master’s degree 28 17.0
Doctoral degree 8 4.8
Other 14 8.5
Nationality (n ⫽ 158)
American 51 30.9
British 7 4.2
Dutch 7 4.2
Chinese 7 4.2
Canadian 11 6.7
German 14 8.5
Table I. Swiss 11 6.7
Demographic French 7 4.2
characteristics of the Australian 6 3.6
respondents Other 37 22.4
Occupational variables Frequency (%)
Workplace
spirituality
Job title (n ⫽ 164)
CEO/Chairman 26 15.8
Vice president 13 7.9
General manager (GM) 34 20.6
Owner/GM 9 5.5
Assistant GM 11 6.7
947
Other 71 43.3
Functional background (n ⫽ 164)
Marketing and sales 12 7.3
Human resources management 5 3.0
Hotel operations 50 30.3
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up most of the rest, with 7.3 per cent in marketing and sales, 8.5 per cent finance and
accounting and 3 per cent in human resources management. The significant majority of
the respondents (77.6 per cent) indicated they have over 15 years of industry experience.
Respondents working in North America made up 37 per cent of the sample. Respondents
working in Asia Pacific and Europe were also well represented, making up 24.8 and 15.8
per cent, respectively. The Middle East and Africa were less represented with 9.7 per
cent, as was Latin America with 3 per cent.
The sample characteristics are similar to previous studies that have targeted
international hotel managers. Research by Zhou et al. (2007) focused on business
strategy (customer and competitor orientation) and used a sample from the Global
Hoteliers Club. Their sample achieved a 32.9 per cent response rate and consisted of 72.7
per cent GMs and 27.3 per cent remaining as senior managers, and they had an average
of 24.3 years of industry experience. An older study by Wei et al. (2001) focusing on the
“uses of the Internet in the global hotel industry” focused on the Global Hoteliers and
achieved a 21.4 per cent response rate. Their sample consisted of 68.7 per cent
respondents who were GMs, the majority of their sample (80.0 per cent) was between
IJCHM 36 and 55 years of age, and 98.8 per cent of their sample had over six years of industry
27,5 experience. The sample for this study differed slightly in that fewer respondents
claimed to be GMs. Unfortunately, there were no statistics available for hotel managers
worldwide, but the studies by Wei et al. (2001) and Zhou et al. (2007) suggest that the
respondents for this study were similar to previous efforts to analyze the target
population of international hotel managers.
948
4. Results
The mean perceived ethical problem scores for the three scenarios (S1 ⫽ 5.96, S2 ⫽ 7.11
and S3 ⫽ 7.18) showed that the respondents generally viewed the scenarios as those that
describe an ethical problem. This is similar to the checks performed by Singhapakdi and
Vitell (1990) and Singhapakdi et al. (1996). Singhapakdi and Vitell (1990) found scores of
6.03 and 5.55 on a seven-point Likert scale for their two versions of a scenario featuring
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an ethical and an unethical company, and Singhapakdi et al. (1996) found mean
responses ranging from 6.25 to 8.42 on a nine-point Likert scale.
The variables for STS components, ethical judgment, ethical perception, ethical
intention and moral intensity were analyzed using a correlation analysis. Demographic
variables for gender, age, education and functional background were also included. The
correlation analysis (see Table III) indicated that spirituality showed weak correlations
with ethical perception (S1 ⫽ 0.045, S2 ⫽ 0.084 S3 ⫽ 0.148), ethical judgment (S1 ⫽
⫺0.145, S2 ⫽ ⫺0.053 and S3 ⫽ ⫺0.144), ethical intention (S1 ⫽ ⫺0.265, S2 ⫽ 0.014 and
S3 ⫽ ⫺0.084) and perceived moral intensity (S1 ⫽ 0.008, S2 ⫽ 0.080 and S3 ⫽ 0.175).
The directions for all correlations were the same for each variable with the single
exception of scores measuring ethical intention on the second scenario. With the
exception of the ratings for ethical intention on the first scenario, neither the combined
STS score nor its three components achieved a statistical significance at an alpha level
of 0.05 or lower for their respective measurements of the three-component
approximation of perceived moral intensity (H1) ethical perceptions (H2), ethical
judgments (H3) or ethical intentions (H4), providing no support for the four hypotheses.
Compared with spirituality, moral intensity showed much stronger results.
Perceived moral intensity strongly correlated with ethical perception (S1 ⫽ 0.257, S2 ⫽
0.421 and S3 ⫽ 0.381; all p ⬍ 0.01), ethical judgment (S1 ⫽ ⫺0.683, S2 ⫽ ⫺0.657 and
S3 ⫽ ⫺0.651; all p ⬍ 0.01) and ethical intention (S1 ⫽ ⫺0.552, S2 ⫽ ⫺0.680 and S3 ⫽
⫺0.507; all p ⬍ 0.01). Higher perceptions of moral intensity were related to stronger
disagreements with the scenario manager’s actions and lower intentions to act in the
same manner. Higher perceived moral intensity did correlate with higher perceptions
that the scenarios presented an ethical problem. All intra-scenario correlations were
strongly supported statistically at an alpha level of 0.01 or lower.
Demographic variables were analyzed using Kendall’s Tau correlation for gender
and Spearman’s rho for age, education and years of experience; both measures are fairly
common techniques (Huck, 2008). Gender showed a non-significant correlation with the
STS ratings for spirituality (rtau ⫽ ⫺0.065), but was strongly correlated with years of
experience (rtau ⫽ ⫺0.362, p ⬍ 0.01). A further analysis of response means for the
categories showed that males were generally older than the females that responded. Age
demonstrated a significant association with responses for years of experience (rs ⫽
0.561, p ⬍ 0.01), perceived moral intensity for the third scenario (rs ⫽ ⫺0.197, p ⬍ 0.05)
and ethical items related to the second scenario: ethical perception (rs ⫽ 0.284, p ⬍ 0.01),
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No. Variables n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Table III.
949
spirituality
and correlations
Workplace
Summary statistics
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27,5
950
IJCHM
Table III.
No. Variables 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1 STS
2 Prayer full.
3 Universality
4 Connectedness
5 Gendera
6 Age
7 Education
8 Years of experience
9 Ethical perception (S1)
10 Ethical perception (S2)
11 Ethical perception (S3) 1.00
12 Ethical judgment (S1) ⫺0.183* 1.00
13 Ethical judgment (S2) ⫺0.252** 0.095 1.00
14 Ethical judgment (S3) ⫺0.433** 0.205* 0.068 1.00
15 Ethical intention (S1) ⫺0.131 0.808** 0.079 0.119 1.00
16 Ethical intention (S2) ⫺0.178*** 0.090 0.880** 0.096 0.108 1.00
17 Ethical intention (S3) ⫺0.543** 0.211* 0.055 0.627** 0.170*** 0.158*** 1.00
18 Moral intensity (S1) 0.105 ⫺0.683** ⫺0.065 ⫺0.216* ⫺0.557** ⫺0.125 ⫺0.125 1.00
19 Moral intensity (S2) 0.126 ⫺0.001 ⫺0.657** 0.013 0.089 ⫺0.677** 0.087 0.104 1.00
20 Moral intensity (S3) 0.381** ⫺0.151 ⫺0.035 ⫺0.651** ⫺0.086 –0.077 ⫺0.549** 0.183* 0.108 1.00
ethical judgment (rs ⫽ ⫺0.252, p ⬍ 0.01) and ethical intention (rs ⫽ ⫺0.238, p ⬍ 0.01), Workplace
but not the measure for perceived moral intensity (rs ⫽ 0.103). Education only showed spirituality
significant correlations for the first scenario measurements of ethical perception (rs ⫽
0.247, p ⬍ 0.01) and for perceived moral intensity (rs ⫽ ⫺0.182, p ⬍ 0.05). Overall, no
robust patterns related to demographic variables were identified across the three
scenarios.
To further validate the results, a regression analysis using the three components of 951
STS, specifically Prayer Fulfillment, Universality and Connectedness, was conducted
for the ethical perception and perceived moral intensity for the three scenarios. The
regression models for the measurements of ethical perception were not statistically
significant for any of the scenarios: The F scores were not significant (S1 ⫽ 0.456, p ⫽
0.714; S2 ⫽ 0.383, p ⫽ 0.765; S3 ⫽ 1.091, p ⫽ 0.356) and no beta values for the three STS
components were statistically significant in any of the scenarios. The same lack of
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statistical significance was observed for the measure of perceived moral intensity as
well: The F scores for the models lacked statistical significance (S1 ⫽ 0.777, p ⫽ 0.510;
S2 ⫽ 0.371, p ⫽ 0.774; S3 ⫽ 1.782, p ⫽ 0.155); no beta values for the measurements of
prayer fulfillment, universality or connectedness were statistically significant.
moral intensity, and extended the application beyond general marketing (Singhapakdi
et al., 1996, 1999) to the hotel management field. The additional findings concerning
ethical perception, which was emphasized in a positive analysis of business ethics by
Hunt and Vitell (1986) and later used by Singhapakdi and Vitell (1990), Singhapakdi
et al. (1996, 1999), further demonstrated the applicability of this simple yet important
step in evaluating ethical decisions. These findings are very encouraging, as they have
provided a method with a firm psychological and empirical foundation for evaluating
ethical situations in future research in hospitality management.
of ethics standards, such as those related to gift giving, fairness, bribery and corruption
and developing a communication plan of those standards to their managers and
employees. The results of this study also lead to placing an emphasis by hotel
companies on a training that educates managers and employees to recognize possible
ethical dilemmas in the workplace and to understand the full consequences of their
decisions and actions. As the results of this study imply, such training should be of value
to all employees in the hotel, regardless of their age, gender and educational level.
Mandating spirituality practices in the workplace in the hope that it will build ethical
managerial decision-making is both difficult and controversial. However, hotels can
benefit from being willing to accommodate the spirituality of its managers in their
workplace. As human beings, managers are spiritual and, therefore, have spiritual
needs (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000), and although spirituality is not correlated with
business ethics, as revealed by this study, it could enhance other measures of
organizational performance. Importantly, it is possible that impeding managers and
employees from embracing their spirituality while at work may negatively affect the
ethical environment in the organization. Research evidence as to whether the absence of
spirituality is related to unethical practices is still lacking.
6. Conclusion
Although a consensus over a definition of spirituality is yet to be reached, literature on
spirituality in the workplace generally imply that companies should expect a
constructive influence on business ethics as a result of encouraging expression of
spirituality by organizational members. Empirical testing of these assumptions is
starting to emerge, and have so far produced inconclusive results. The present study
was set out to investigate whether spirituality in the workplace is associated with
business ethics, in the hotel industry context. Although the relationship between
spirituality in the workplace and business ethics may seem intuitively positive, the
findings of the present study indicate that overemphasizing workplace spirituality as a
foundation for ethical direction would leave hotel companies with little positive
outcomes. In lights of these findings, it seems clear that hotel companies would benefit
more by pursuing other strategies instead, such as the establishment of ethical
standards and investing in ethical training. While contributing to forming an empirical
foundation for future research, especially in the hotel industry, findings in this study
will benefit from future investigation that overcome the several limitations of any
research done in this challenging line of inquiry.
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Appendix Workplace
spirituality
Scenario 1 Damitio and A hotel manager has just received a 20% increase in her annual salary,
Schmidgall (1993) to $95,000. However, the property’s board of directors refused to
increase the hourly employees’ average pay of $5.25 because the
property was in “financial strain”. The manager decides to quietly
accept the pay raise
957
Scenario 2 Damitio and The hotel property needs a roof. Three bids are obtained. The lowest
Schmidgall (1993) bidder suggests privately that he would be willing to roof the
manager’s personal residence, which just happens to need the attention,
for half price. The manager finds references indicating the low bidder
does excellent work. The property’s roof is replaced, and the manager’s
house is also roofed, by the lowest bidder
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Scenario 3 Stevens and A manager at a luxury hotel located in a large city received a call from
Fleckenstein (1999) a friend whom she met on the job, but who now works at a competing
hotel. The friend called the manager at the hotel to ask for some
proprietary information, admitting that she had requested the
information from several other people, and had been turned down
because the information would be useful to the competitor. However,
the former employee called asking the manager to provide her with this
information as a “friend”. The manager agreed to honor the request and
shared some of this information
Table AI.
Note: All scenarios stated reflect minor changes from their original sources Ethical scenarios
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