Three Decades of Research on Workplace Spirituality: A Bibliometric Overview and Insights into Indian Psychology

Workplace spirituality (WPS) is an emerging area of research in management sciences. With the changing perspective of dealing with men’s modern-day problems, WPS emerges as an effective measure to mitigate stress, maintain trust, happiness and work-life balance, and empower employees with psychological and spiritual resources.^[1] Researchers have adopted different approaches to understand various constructs related to WPS. Pawar^[2] identified three distinct concepts: individual, organisational, and workplace spirituality. Individual spirituality is a connection with God, a higher power, or the transcendence reflected in an individual’s daily functioning. Organisational spirituality refers to an organisation’s spiritual values and practices. WPS refers to an individual’s workplace-related experience of having meaning and sense of community at work. The context of various studies related to WPS is diverse, and the available literature can be more varied. Singh and Singh^[3] reviewed the literature and found that extensive research has been conducted on Workplace Spirituality (WPS). However, the concept of WPS remains elusive with no single definition. It contained various overlapping dimensions. They revealed that the WPS is a complex, multidisciplinary construct with varied personal, social, and psychological aspects. Therefore, there is a dire need for further research to understand the publication trend related to the construct and identify the research gap to pave the way for further scientific research to solidify the concept. Researchers have scrutinised some essential definitions in the literature to gain comprehensive insights into WPS. WPS is a set of organisational values that inculcates the organisational culture, promotes the experience of transcendence through the work process, and enhances employees’ sense of connection with others to provide happiness and a sense of completeness.^[4]

Mitroff and Denton^[5] proposed that spirituality is the feeling of being associated with one’s true self, establishing connections with others, and connecting to the universe. According to these studies, interconnectedness is a vital feature of spirituality. In-depth interviews with experienced managers and senior officials revealed that the participants had differentiated between spirituality and religion. Ashmos and Duchon^[6] discussed three main features of WPS: the inner aspect of life, meaning associated with work, and connection with the community. Krishnakumar and Neck^[7] argued that due to the diversified individual concepts related to WPS, it would be beneficial for managers to support employees in pursuing their own spiritual path and aligning them with organisational objectives. Different viewpoints on WPS can be observed by analysing the definitions provided by different researchers. The key themes that emerge from these definitions include transcendence, connectedness, meaning and well-being in the workplace.

There are certainly some differences in opinions among researchers regarding the definitions of WPS. The concept of WPS should include a broader focus on holistic well-being, purpose, and ethics in the workplace rather than focusing only on religious or transcendental experiences. Researchers agreed upon the difference between religion and Spirituality.^[8] Koenig,^[9] in his review paper, used the terms spirituality and religion interchangeably. However, using Spirituality synonymously with religion is misleading.^[10] Barik and Nayak^[11] clearly distinguished between workplace spirituality and religious spirituality. According to them, religious spirituality is focused on rituals and ceremonies as directed by organised religions. WPS, in contrast, is a humanistic practice of a non-religious nature based on empathy and connectedness with others at work.

An important debate regarding spirituality is categorising spirituality as pathological. However, Uludag and Zhao^[12] opined that religious experience does not always indicate the presence of delusions. Hence, a differentiation is to be made between non-pathological spiritual experience and spiritual experience due to mental disorders.^[13] Spiritual experiences lead to a broad spectrum of personal and transformative changes fostering growth and personal development. Research evidence regarding the distinction between pathological spiritual or religious experiences and normal spirituality is available.^[14] Three classifications have been incorporated into DSM 4 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-4), namely, spiritual experiences of a non-religious nature, spiritual experiences that cause mental issues and mental disorders with religious and spiritual context.^[15] A recent development is seen in the DSM-5, which includes religion and spirituality within culture, which will help in the differential diagnosis of pathological and cultural spiritual experiences. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the psychological factors related to WPS.

After scrutinising the definitions of WPS, the present researchers understand that four critical dimensions, at the individual level, may impact overall WPS. The dimensions are as follows:

This dimension focuses on employees’ feelings of personal fulfilment and connects them to a higher purpose in their work. This dimension can be measured by assessing indicators such as the employee’s understanding of the greater purpose of work, responsible action, and enjoyment or evaluation of work in terms of the employee’s core values. Humans can discover and create meanings and values from their primary and sometimes even painful experiences. The integrative and existential perspective uses this capacity to tap one’s capacity for meaning-seeking.^[16,17]

Vitell et al.^[18] found that an individual’s spirituality and moral values are two crucial factors that impact a consumer’s ethical predisposition. It can be measured by evaluating employees’ adherence to ethical standards, commitment to fairness and justice, and attitude toward showing empathy and compassion to others.

A critical dimension of WPS is employees’ sense of connection with others^[19] and attitudes towards community life. It can be measured through the quality and extent of connectedness among colleagues, the level of cooperation and collaboration within teams, and the sharing of traditions and celebrations to foster a sense of belongingness. The quality and quantity of connectedness can be measured based on the nature of the relationship with colleagues, how frequently the interaction occurs and the quality of the interaction. The extent of teamwork and the support the person receives at work defines cooperation and collaboration. Celebrating together fosters a sense of belongingness among employees.

This dimension refers to an individual’s ability to live in the present and to fully engage in their work. Researchers found a significant relationship between WPS and mindfulness.^[20] It includes employees’ awareness of their inner selves and the impact of their actions on others. The indicators of this dimension are employees’ self-reported mindfulness level, ability to manage stress and maintain focus, self-efficacy, self-reflection, and introspection.

The core of WPS consists of four themes: personal meaning and purpose at work, ethics and values at work, sense of community and connectedness, and mindfulness and awareness. Relating these themes to the various constructs of Indian psychology would enhance clarity and help develop a new body of research, namely the Indian perspective on WPS. Indian Psychology represents a unique philosophical tradition, deeply rooted in indigenous Indian culture. It encompasses many practices prevalent in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. Unlike Western psychology, Indian psychology adopts a different approach not solely adhering to a materialistic reductionist perspective. Instead, it extends beyond the traditional third-person observation methods and incorporates subjective experiences and associated cognitive processes. Indian psychology embraces the exploration of extraordinary states of consciousness and exceptional human abilities. Acknowledging and studying these aspects offers a broader understanding of human psychology, and expands the scope of psychological enquiry.^[21] (p.5) Indian philosophy places a strong emphasis on spirituality as a core theme. Spirituality refers to a way of life in which individuals seek truth and strive to merge with it. Indian psychology considers the concept of spirit a fundamental aspect of human personality, referred to as the ‘true self’. The true self reveals the authentic nature of our existence.^[22] Dalal, Paranjpe and Rao^[21] (p.11) mentioned Indian psychology as a practical approach that is positive, holistic and inclusive by nature. Indian psychology employs a wide range of techniques to transcend the illusions of the ego and gain a deep understanding of one’s true nature and the ultimate reality. According to Indian Psychology, WPS incorporates work-related Indian principles and practices into professional settings. This integration aims to create a professional setting that promotes overall well-being, and personal development, with a higher purpose. In their study on Indian workplace spiritual traditions, Pardasani, Sharma, and Bindlish^[23] considered meaningful work to be the core of Indian philosophy. Karma yoga talks about working with dedication for a higher purpose without attaching one’s ego to it, as the ego may allure the worker for rewards or benefits. Applying the Karma Yoga principle can change the employee cognition. This way of thinking may induce a sense of duty, constructive orientation, and a change in orientation from only material gain to a higher purpose. Another important concept of Indian philosophy is ‘Loksangraha’, that is, selfless service and helping others in need, which can boost interconnectedness among employees.^[24](p.929) Moreover, applying the principles of Karma Yoga helps employees remain focused in the present moment, leading to reduced errors at work. Applying Indian psychology helps foster holistic well-being, personal growth, and a sense of higher purpose. India psychology intends to bring changes to individual employees, eventually enhancing WPS.

In the recent decade, various researchers worldwide have written a handful of review papers to understand the conceptual framework of WPS, current research trends, and future directions. Rocha and Pinheiro^[25] performed a cluster analysis using VOS viewer software and found scope for research in WPS and a gap regarding organizational spirituality. They wanted to clarify the term organizational spirituality as various concepts related to WPS in management science emerging through the years of research, such as individual spirituality, workplace spirituality, organisational spirituality, spiritually based organisation, spirituality in the organisation, and spiritual organisation. They proposed the idea of organisational spirituality, an organisational identity developed out of any workplace’s practices, ethics, and processes. On the other hand, individual spirituality is mentored by leaders and colleagues and modified by professional settings, organisation culture, and knowledge management. This kind of WPS resonates with value and social facilitation and reflects an organisation’s vision and mission. However, they could not recognize the core themes of WPS. In their systematic literature review, Obregon, Lopes, Kaczam, Veiga, and Silva^[26] found that there always remains an ongoing debate on the difference between spirituality and religiosity in organisational contexts. They found a theoretical gap in the literature, as no study has addressed these issues directly in a work context. Barik and Nayak^[11] found that much research has been conducted on organisational culture and employee behaviour such as trust, commitment, engagement, spiritual leadership, job satisfaction, and organisational justice. The less-studied areas in WPS are employee well-being, stress, values, mindfulness, organizational spirituality, meaningful work, spiritual intelligence, mental health, and burnout. In their bibliometric analysis, Allam, Asad, Ali and Ali^[27] found that research on WPS has gained momentum since 2000, and was found to be highest in 2020. They considered documents from the Scopus database covering 2000 to 2020. Rajni, Swami, Khan, Hemrajani and Dhiman^[28] performed a TCCM analysis (theory, context, characteristic and methodology) to understand the WPS research trend. The findings of their study showed that the prominent theories used in WPS research are organisation-fit theory, spiritual leadership theories, theory of planned behaviour, social exchange theory and theory of servant leadership. Three different contexts of WPS research were identified. Well-being, commitment, job satisfaction, and productivity at work are aspects of the human resource context. The philosophical context provides aspects of WPS related to themes such as getting purpose or meaning at work, and the interpersonal context relates to aspects such as community, connectedness and belongingness due to WPS. Characteristic analysis showed the outcomes of WPS found in previous research. Individual benefits include heightened consciousness, creativity and innovation, better emotional control, and agility. Organisational benefits include content and motivated employees, better person-organisation fit, and reduced turnover intentions. They also found a gap in existing literature related to WPS. Antecedents of WPS have been explored less, hence demanding attention from future researchers. Regarding methodology, they found a gap in longitudinal studies. Mohan and Murugan^[29] identified three main clusters in WPS research, namely, WPS and performance at work, leadership in relation to WPS and well-being related to spirituality. They considered the publication years from 2003 to 2022 and performed a bibliometric analysis of 478 documents. The study used limited keywords, namely, “workplace spirituality” and “spirituality at work”; the publication years were from 2003 to 2022. The authors suggested a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the literature related to WPS in the future.

The present study explores the research trends for the last thirty years of WPS through a bibliometric analysis, particularly discussing potential avenues for future research in Indian Psychology within this domain. The current study addressed two of the limitations mentioned by Mohan and Murugan^[29] by considering various combinations of keywords like “Workplace Spirituality” OR “Spirituality at Work”, OR Work AND Spirituality OR “Spirituality at Organization” OR “Spiritual Workplace” and analysing the contents of keywords and articles from the last five years.

The current study investigates the undermentioned research inquiries

1. What are the top research trends related to workplace spirituality in the last thirty years regarding prolific authors, countries, source titles, publication details, affiliation, top cited papers, and subject categories?
2. How did the intellectual structure of WPS research develop over thirty years in terms of keywords and research themes?
3. What are the research gaps in WPS research?
4. To what extent is Indian Psychology relevant to this research area?

Materials

VOS viewer software, version 1.6.20.^[30]

The present study chose the Scopus database to extract bibliographic data to gain insight into the WPS research. The keywords used for the search were “Workplace Spirituality” OR “Spirituality at Work” OR Workplace AND Spirituality OR “Spirituality at Organisation” OR “Spiritual Workplace”, resulting in a total of 1,349 documents. All the available publication years were considered to understand the broad range of knowledge related to WPS. The search was then limited to journal articles. A total of 957 documents were identified. Bibliographic coupling, citation analysis, co-citation analysis, and co-word analysis are standard bibliometric analyses frequently employed by researchers.^[31,32] The present study used VOS viewer software to analyse data for citation analyses of documents, bibliographic coupling of authors, bibliographic coupling of journals, co-occurrence of authors’ keywords, and co-citation analysis of authors and references. For bibliographic coupling of authors, co-occurrence of authors’ keywords, and co-citation analysis of authors’ keywords and references, data cleaning was performed by creating a VOS viewer thesaurus file and cleaning repetitive items. The methodology adopted to conduct the study on hand is as given in the below flowchart (Figure 1).

Figure 1:
The Study Framework. (Source: Authors).

A total of 957 documents and 2051 authors were found to be related to the WPS literature available on the Scopus database. The top ten most influential authors in the field of workplace spirituality were found in the Scopus data analysis feature. The Scopus database provides the author’s details, the number of documents, affiliation, the author’s h-index, and countries involved in WPS research. The bibliographic coupling of authors generates data about the total number of citations, and the total link strength. The h-index refers to the quantitative metric used to assess an author’s impact. This index is important for bibliometric performance analysis as it estimates the productivity and quantifies the impact of research carried out by a scientist or scholar.^[33] The higher the index, the more impactful is the author’s research. The h-index is the intersection of number of citations (plotted on the y-axis) and the number of papers (plotted on the x-axis), and the y = x line will lead to an x-shaped graph.^[34]

Lalatendu Kesari Jena is the most impactful researcher in the domain of workplace spirituality, with an h-index of 23. He produced six documents with 146 citations. Jeffery D. Houghton has produced six documents on workplace spirituality and has an h-index of 22 as per Scopus author metrics. The six documents had 258 citations in total. Louis W. Fry has an h-index of 18 and 1794 citations for seven documents related to WPS. Naval Garg has a total citation count of 373 for the maximum number of documents (13) on workplace spirituality. His h-index, as per the Scopus database, was 16 (Table 1). Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar has produced eight documents with a total citation of 564; his h-index is 12. If the citation count is considered a parameter for understanding the performance of the authors, Louis W. Fry is at the top among the authors in the domain of the WPS, with 1794 citations. His article ‘Toward a Theory of Spiritual Leadership’^[35] has received 1,217 citations. Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar has received 564 citations, and his article ‘Individual spirituality, workplace spirituality and work attitudes: An empirical test of direct and interaction effects’ received 163 citations.

The bibliographic coupling of authors explores the relationship between authors who have used the same references in their research. Using common references indicates relatedness and similarity in research interests among authors.^[36] VOS viewer software has analysed bibliographic coupling keeping the unit as an author to understand the association between the authors in terms of research interest. The lower threshold for the number of documents and citations was selected as five. Four clusters are formed. Naval Garg, Wiwiek Rabiatul Adawiyah, Jeffery D. Houghton, William D. Hunsaker, Lalatendu Kesari Jena, Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar and other authors belong to cluster 1. Stuart Allen and Louis W. Fry, Cathy Driscoll, Marjolein Lips-Wiersma, and Joan Marques are eminent authors who belong to cluster 2. Nimitha Aboobaker and Manoj Edward belong to cluster 3. Aminah Ahmad and Zoharah Omar belong to cluster 4 (Figure 2).

Figure 2:
Network Visualization of Bibliographic Coupling of Authors (Source: Authors).

The top ten countries actively involved in WPS research are the United States, India, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Pakistan, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and Iran with 250,166, 62, 59, 51, 41, 39, 38, and 30 documents, respectively (Figure 3). The United States topped the list, followed by India.

Figure 3:
Contributing Countries in WPS Research(Source: Authors).

The Scopus database generated a total of 957 journal articles on WPS. The articles were published in different double-blind peer-reviewed journals. The Journal of Management Spirituality and Religion published 119 WPS-related documents, the highest among all the journals. The Journal of Business Ethics has published 34 documents related to WPS research. Some prominent sources are the Journal of Organizational Change Management, Journal of Nursing Management, Religions, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Journal of Human Values, Journal of Management Development, Purushartha, and Health Progress Saint Louis Mo with 22, 14, 13, 11, 11, 11, 11, and 9 documents respectively. The bibliographic coupling of sources was used to understand the commonalities of themes published in different sources. It is based on the concept that if two publications have strong matches regarding the references used in the published articles, then the content of those publications would be similar.^[37] The bibliometric coupling is performed using a VOS viewer to visualise the network among sources. The minimum number of documents and citations for each source was five. Out of a total of 416 sources, 30 were connected to each other. Five clusters are formed. The top ten journals in Cluster 1 with corresponding citations are Leadership and Organization Development Journal (396), Journal of Nursing Management (274), Cogent Business and Management (151), International Journal of Organizational Analysis (140), Management Research Review (121), Journal of Religion and Health (92), Theological Studies (86), International Journal of Ethics and Systems (84), Religions (84), and Management Science Letters (64). Cluster 2 includes the Journal of Organizational Change Management (2082), Journal of Human Values (291), Global Business Review (151), South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management (85), International Journal of Public Administration (83), Vision (75), and Purushartha (40). Cluster 3 includes Human Relations (556), Journal of Business Ethics (2204), Journal of Management Development (314), Journal of Management Inquiry (1351), Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion (2550), Leadership Quarterly (2791), and Organization (122). Clusters 4 and 5 contain the Asian Journal of Business Ethics (26) and International Review of Psychiatry (184), respectively. The top ten journals published 255 of 957 documents. This indicates that 702 documents were published in various journals across disciplines (Figure 4).

Figure 4:
Network Visualization of Bibliographic Coupling of Journals with WPS Articles (Source: Authors).

WPS research gained momentum during 1990s. The present study included all the publication years available in the Scopus database, which started from 1995 and includes all journal articles available until 15 July, 2024. The year-wise research trend showed a consistent increase from 1995 to 2024. In the initial ten years, the average production of research on WPS was five documents per year. Over the next ten years, from 2005 to 2014, the average production increased to 29. From 2015 to mid-year 2024, the average production rose to approximately 66 documents per year.

The affiliated institutes in WPS research are versatile in nature. Universities are found to be affiliated, such as Kyungpook National University (13 documents), one of the top ten Universities in South Korea; Universitas Jenderal Soedirman (11 documents) is a public university in Indonesia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (9 documents) is a public research university in Malaysia, and Central University of Technology (9 documents) is a public university in technological education situated in South Africa. The University of Punjab, an Indian public university, is affiliated with WPS research and has nine documents. Indian private universities such as Amity University (6 documents) and GLA University (5) are affiliated with WPS research. Indian management institutes such as Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (10 documents), Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (6documents), Manipal Institute of Management (6 documents), Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida (6 documents), VIT Business School (5documents) are affiliated with WPS research. Some of the technical institutes are affiliated with WPS research. Delhi Technological University (10 documents) and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (5 documents), two premiere technology institutes in India, are found to be affiliated with WPS research.

WPS research is widespread across various subject areas. The dominant areas are Business, Management and Accounting (563 documents), followed by Social Sciences (320 documents), Arts and Humanities (299 documents), Economics, Econometrics and Finance (105 documents), Psychology (102 documents), Medicine (89 documents), Nursing (80 documents), Decision Sciences (47 documents) and Engineering (31 documents).

Five funding bodies are from China. Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (1 project), Beijing Municipal Social Science Foundation (1 project), Beijing Union University (1 project), National Natural Science Foundation of China (4 projects), National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences (4 projects). Three funding bodies are found in India: The Ministry of Education (2 projects), the University Grants Commission (2 projects), and Banaras Hindu University (1 project). The National Research Foundation of Korea funded 3 projects on WPS. The medical domain has shown an interest in WPS research. Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (2 projects), Alborz University of Medical Sciences (1 project), Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Nurses Foundation, and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention funded one project each.

From the citation analysis of documents using the VOS viewer software with a minimum citation limit set at 20 per document, it was found that out of 957 documents, 282 met the threshold. In total, 230 items were connected to each other. The Top cited papers are presented in tabular form in Table 1.

If two papers appear together in the reference list of a third paper, it is assumed that they share a thematic relationship. The co-citation analysis of references is based on this assumption. The co-citation analysis identifies the intellectual structure of any research domain and concentrates on only high-cited publications identifying the seminal work on the field.^[37] The citation rate is the frequency of citations of two cited documents.^[38] Hence, the co-citation analysis of references identifies the top-cited references. The lower threshold for a cited reference was kept at 20 citations per reference. Out of the 47995, 73 references meet the criteria. Duplicate items were removed using the VOS viewer thesaurus, and 56 references were generated. 56 items formed 4 clusters. The clustering of items indicates closeness among them regarding co-citation and hence indicates thematic resemblance. Two major clusters are indicated by red and green colours, and they contain items that are focused on theoretical and conceptual model building. They marked the initial years of research on WPS. The item with the biggest node in the green cluster is ‘Spirituality at work: a conceptualization and measure’ by Ashmos and Duchon^[6] published in the Journal of Management Inquiry. This item has 219 citations with 209 total link strengths. Green cluster contains items like ‘Towards a science of Workplace spirituality” by Giacalone RA and Jurkiewicz CL.^[39] with citations of 115 and link strength of 107.71; ‘Philosophical Foundations of Workplace Spirituality: A Critical Approach’ by Gotsis G, Kortezi Z.,^[40] published in the Journal of Business Ethics with citations of 85 and total link strength of 74.00. The red cluster contains studies like ‘Spirituality and performance in organizations: A literature review’ by Karakas F^[41] in Journal of Business Ethics with citations of 145 and citation link of 142.00, ‘Nurturing the spirit at work: Impact on work unit performance’ by Duchon D and Plowman DA.^[42] published in The Leadership Quarterly has citation count of 141 with link strength of 139.00, ‘Workplace spirituality and Organizational Commitment: An empirical study’ by Rego, A and Pina e Cunha, M.^[43] published in Journal of Organizational Change Management with citations of 70 and total link strength of 64.00. This cluster focuses on the impact or consequences of WPS.^[28] Two major works found in cluster 3 (blue colour) are ‘Workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes’ by Milliman J, Czaplewski AJ and Ferguson J,^[44] published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management with citations of 209 and total link strength of 204.71 and ‘Toward a theory of spiritual leadership’ by Fry LW.^[35] published in The Leadership Quarterly with a citation count of 132 and total link strength of 126.00.^[45]

Co-occurrence analysis of authors’ keywords determines the keywords that co-occur in publications related to a particular scientific research field.^[46] A total of 2086 authors’ keywords were found through 957 documents. The minimum occurrence of a keyword was maintained at 10. 28 keywords were extracted, and presented in 3 clusters. Workplace spirituality (or spirituality at work or spiritual workplace) in Cluster 1 had the highest occurrence of 651 and a total link strength of 353. The high occurrence rate shows this word’s centrality in the research domain.^[47] Twelve keywords with their corresponding occurrences are workplace spirituality (651), spiritual leadership (58), job satisfaction (53), well-being (39), mindfulness (18), nurses (16), India (13), burnout (12), organisational citizenship behaviour (11), organisational culture (10), organisational justice (10), and stress (10). Some dominant keywords were spiritual leadership, job satisfaction, well-being, mindfulness, and nurses, which revealed their high presence in the research domain. In India, burnout, organisational citizenship behaviour, organisational culture, organisational justice, and stress are comparatively less common words in literature. The dominant words in the green cluster are job performance (36), employee engagement (31), organisational commitment (28) and meaningful work (20). Comparatively less dominant keywords were organisational spirituality (14), transformational leadership (14), emotional intelligence (13), sense of community (12), and individual spirituality (10). The blue cluster contains keywords like religion (78), leadership (43), ethics (34) and values (19). Leadership, religion, ethics, values, and Islam form clusters that show their proximity and dominance in the WPS research. Comparatively fewer occurrences were seen in the case of keywords such as meaningful work, transformational leadership, sense of community, emotional intelligence, employee engagement, organizational spirituality, and individual spirituality (Figure 5). The content analysis of the authors’ keywords regarding co-occurrence revealed that employee well-being, stress, burnout, and organisational performance are less frequent terms and indicate a research gap in this area. Psychological factors related to WPS are worth mentioning. Few studies have explored the psychological factors which are antecedents to workplace spirituality. Most of the studies explored the psychological factors that are the consequences of WPS. Psychological factors related to WPS include psychological capital,^[48,49] self-esteem,^[50,51] self-efficacy,^[52] personality traits related to WPS^[53,54] psychological ownership,^[55] mental well-being,^[20] Stress^[56–59] etc.

Figure 5:
Network Visualization of Co-occurrences of Authors’ Keywords regarding WPS. (Source: Authors).

Content analysis of the keywords of some of the WPS-related documents available in the Scopus database was performed considering the publication years from 2020 to 2024. Keyword scrutiny generated themes such as ethical leadership, spiritual leadership, stress, burnout, well-being, workplace deviance/ deviant behaviour, Islamic workplace spirituality, Indian workplace spirituality/ India/ Indian context, spirituality among nurses, spirituality among teachers, review of WPS, mindfulness, and personality traits related to WPS. The journal articles available in the Scopus database from 2020 to 2024 were scrutinised carefully to understand research trend. Evidence shows that much research has been conducted on spiritual leadership, whereas comparatively little research has been conducted on ethical leadership. The article published in 2020 reviewed the literature and introduced a conceptual framework to explore the relationship between employee engagement, WPS and ethical leadership.^[60] The article published in 2022 explored the scope of WPS in enhancing the internal motivation of the employees working in the hotel industry. The researchers found a positive association between WPS and internal motivation, understanding the mediating effect of ethical leadership and moral courage of employees.^[61] Both studies used self-determination theory to explain the output. In 2023, two documents were found with ethical leadership as a keyword.^[52,62] One of the research projects found that ethical leadership promotes spirituality among employees of the IT industry and enhances job satisfaction. Self-efficacy moderates, and WPS partially mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction.^[52] Another article showed that ethical leadership had a positive association with organisational citizenship behaviour and a negative association with unethical pro-organizational behaviour for the employees working in hotels in North India. WPS had a mediation effect on the relationship between WPS and various outcomes of ethical leadership.^[62] In 2024, until the data retrieval period of mid-July, three documents were found using ethical leadership as a keyword. Hilton, Puni, Albert, and Yeboah^[63] found that the dimensions of transformational leadership and ethical leadership had a strong positive association with employee job involvement among employees working in private and public universities of Ghana. They further proved that WPS had a moderating effect on the association between ethical leadership and job involvement. Bagis, Arraniri, and Darmawan^[64] used social exchange theory and found a nominal yet favourable relation between ethical leadership and workplace deviant behaviour in Islamic Educational Institutes. They considered variables such as organizational commitment, WPS, organisational justice, and job satisfaction. Gustari and Widodo^[65] showed that WPS, ethical leadership and proactive behaviour directly influence the job performance of employees working in investment industries, finance and trade services in Indonesia. Ethical leadership and WPS had a direct effect on employees’ proactive behaviour. Further, they established that ethical leadership indirectly affected employees’ job performance, and WPS and proactive behaviour mediated this relationship.

A total of nineteen documents were found from 2020 to 2024 with ‘spiritual leadership’ as the keyword. After the content analysis of the articles, some important insights are available. The mediation effect of WPS in the relationship between spiritual leadership and various other variables is studied extensively.^[66–71] Various variables have been taken up for research about spiritual leadership, such as innovative behaviour at work,^[70,72,73] well-being,^[74–77] organisational commitment,^[66] employee CSR participation.^[67] Workplace deviance or deviant behaviour is a relatively new variable for WPS. The studies exploring the relationship between workplace deviance and WPS are limited.^[78–82] In the case of review regarding WPS, research evidence has been found in the bibliometric analysis of WPS.^[28,82,83] Some literature review papers on WPS have been published.^{[26,84,85,86]} Some research has been conducted on Islamic WPS,^[80,87,88] on stress/ burnout,^[1,89–98] well-being.^{[75,77,99–101]} Very little research is found about the Indian perspective on WPS. Only three documents have been found in relation to Indian wisdom in the WPS research.^[102,103] A paucity of research on mindfulness related to WPS is noticed. Comparatively few articles are found on mindfulness and the WPS.^[104–107] A clear gap is found in the research area of personality factors related to WPS. Two articles are found which studies personality factors in relation to WPS.^[53,54]

This study seeks to understand the top research trends in WPS in the last three decades. One of the research gaps in the literature is the lack of an Indian perspective on WPS, although India is among the top producers of WPS research. India, rich in spiritual history, deserves more attention from researchers regarding the Indian Model of WPS. It is important to develop an Indian perspective or an Indian model on WPS for various reasons. Due to India’s rich history of spiritual and philosophical traditions, it is justified to incorporate the philosophical traditions that will resonate with the cultural background of the Indian workforce.^[108] This alignment with workforce’s values, ethics, and culture will help enhance employee engagement and job satisfaction. Indian spiritual tradition has a holistic approach to integrating body, mind and spirit.^[109] If an Indian model of workplace spirituality is developed incorporating these elements, it will boost the holistic development of employees. Ethical behaviour, integrity, and compassion are the core aspects of the Indian spiritual tradition relevant to WPS. Over the last decade, the globalization of Indian management-related thoughts has gathered momentum.^[110] Indian perspective on WPS would help mitigate conflict and boost interpersonal harmony due to its all-inclusive nature. The top contributing countries to WPS research are the United States and India. Interestingly, the two countries that topped the list in WPS research have huge differences in economic development. The United States has a developed economy, whereas India is developing in status. This indicates growing interest in WPS worldwide, irrespective of economic status and cultural differences. It is found that WPS-related publications showed a sharp increase over the years from five documents per year in the initial ten years to sixty-six documents per year in the last ten years from 2015 to 2024. This increase in WPS research indicates that the impact of spirituality in the workplace is recognised worldwide by the scientific community.

One of the aims of the present study was to find prolific authors, countries, source titles, publication details, affiliations, top-cited papers, and subject categories in the domain of WPS. The keyword sets used in the present study are “Workplace Spirituality” OR “Spirituality at Work”, OR Work AND Spirituality OR “Spirituality at Organization”, OR “Spiritual Workplace”.

The prolific authors in the research area of WPS are Jeffery D. Houghton, Louis W. Fry, Lalatendu Kesari Jena, Naval Garg, and Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar in terms of the number of citations, number of documents produced and h-index of the authors. Naval Garg, Wiwiek Rabiatul Adawiyah, Jeffery D. Houghton, William D. Hunsaker, Lalatendu Kesari Jena, and Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar share common research interest as they all belong to the same cluster as per the bibliographic coupling method applied by VOS viewer software. The common interest areas for Cluster 1 authors are job satisfaction, stress and employee well-being. Stuart Allen and Louis W. Fry, along with other eminent authors, belong to Cluster 2. Cluster 2 authors were interested in the theoretical framework of spiritual leadership, values and ethics. Cluster analysis shows that Nimitha Aboobaker and Manoj Edward belong to Cluster 3 and are distant from other authors with common research interests related to employee well-being, loyalty, and intention to stay (Figure 2). Aminah Ahmad and Zoharah Omar are in Cluster 4 and worked on WPS among the Malaysian community.

The top contributing countries in WPS research are the United States and India. The interesting point is that the two countries that topped the list in WPS research have huge differences in economic development. The United States has a developed economy, whereas India is developing in status. This indicates a growing interest in WPS worldwide, irrespective of economic status. Twenty-three articles affiliated with Indian institutes have open access; of these 23 articles, 14 have gold open access. The gold open access makes articles available through the publisher’s platform,^[111] and article publishing charges are applicable. The 24 articles affiliated with institutions from the US were found to have open access, and 12 had gold open access. Although the USA and India are large countries of comparable size, they differ in culture and worldviews. The USA’s culture is individualistic, self-reliant, and more focused on immediate gratification. In contrast, India greatly emphasises community sense and Indian culture is rooted in age-old spiritual teachings.^[112] Both the countries vary cross-culturally.^[113]

Cluster analysis of the sources showed a concentration of top-cited journals in Cluster 3. Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Development, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, and Leadership Quarterly belong to Cluster 3 and cover a wide range of subject categories, from social science, arts and humanities, business, management and accounting, to psychology, and religious studies. The result confirms the interdisciplinary nature of WPS research. The journals fall between the 88th to 99th percentile rank, indicating that the sources had generated high-quality research.

The list of affiliations shows that public and private universities across the globe are affiliated with WPS research. Premier Indian institutes like the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, and Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, are found to be affiliated with WPS research. Moreover, institutes of technical education are showing interest in WPS research.

WPS research includes various subject categories: business, management and accounting, social sciences, arts and humanities, economics, econometrics and finance, psychology, medicine, nursing, decision sciences and engineering.

The top-cited references show the seminal works of researchers in the WPS domain. The articles were from an initial decade (1995-2004) when researchers had focused mainly on theoretical frameworks and concept building. The next decade (2005-2019) was marked with quantitative analysis to determine the relationship between WPS and various other related variables based on the theoretical framework of previous research. In the following decade (2020-2024), researchers focused more on the relationship mechanism between WPS and other variables to explain the same. Moderation and mediation analyses have trended over the last five years.

In bibliometric analysis, authors’ keywords provide valuable insights into the priorities and interests of researchers in a specific field. These keywords indicate the main topics and themes explored in their work, allowing for a deeper understanding of the research landscape and trends within the field. By analysing these keywords, researchers can gain valuable information about the focus areas and emerging topics within a particular domain. A total of 2086 authors’ keywords were generated through 957 documents. From the content analysis of authors’ keywords and the articles available in the Scopus database, it was found that research on ethical leadership is scarce compared to research on spiritual leadership. The mediation effect of WPS on the relationship between various other variables has trended over the last five years. This trend indicates an effort on the part of the researchers to explain the mechanism through which WPS and various other variables are related. It has been found that workplace deviance or deviant behaviour is a relatively new variable in relation to WPS. From the last five years of research on WPS extracted from the Scopus database, it has been found that five studies are available with workplace deviant behaviour or deviant behaviour as the authors’ keywords.^[78–82] Ethical climate, organisational citizenship behaviour, organisational justice,^[78,79] Islamic spirituality in the workplace; job satisfaction^[79,80] employee well-being; job performance,^[80] organization-based self-esteem,^[81] workplace ostracism, and emotional exhaustion^[82] are the other authors’ keywords related to workplace deviant behaviour or deviant behaviour used by these articles. A research gap regarding mindfulness related to WPS and personality factors leading to WPS is identified. Various studies explored the outcomes of WPS. The variables that are antecedents to WPS are less studied than those that empirically established WPS as antecedent to variables such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job involvement, and many more. Marginal work has explored the relationships between WPS and humility, job involvement, mental health, spiritual intelligence, individual spirituality, and corporate social responsibility. These findings are in line with the findings by Barik and Nayak.^[11] WPS research lack longitudinal studies, cross-cultural studies, qualitative studies, mixed methods studies, and application of Eastern concepts related to WPS such as Karma yoga, Lok Sangraha, etc. Barik and Nayak^[11] in their bibliometric analysis of WPS, mentioned the distinction between workplace spirituality and religious spirituality. Workplace spirituality is not related to the rituals of organised religions but is a humanistic practice characterised by compassion and connectedness with others at work. According to them, WPS is an individual’s commitment to work that comes from within. This concept is similar to the Indian perspective of work. The scope of Indian Psychology in the domain of WPS has not been extensively explored. Relevant constructs related to WPS are awareness, compassion, ethics, mindfulness, spiritual values, and transcendence. Relating these terms to the terminology of Indian psychology will elaborate on the scope of research in this area. ‘Spirituality has been valued in the Indian culture from time immemorial, and it is of no surprise that many innovations in the field of spirituality originated in India.’^[114](p.25) An important aspect of WPS is the pursuit of meaning in one’s work. The Indian worldview suggests that human life’s ultimate purpose is salvation, which can be attained through work as per karma yoga. From this perspective, work is considered sacred and is approached with a sense of duty and contribution.^[102] As per the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the right attitude towards work can make it meaningful to the doer. One must act with complete knowledge of the purpose, processes, and end goal of the work so that it removes ambiguity and helps the doer gain more profound clarity and meaning at work. Carrying out work without being attached to the result will help the actor to remain calm, stable and mindful throughout the entire period. Therefore, another important dimension of WPS, mindfulness, can be achieved by practising karma yoga at work. Indian culture believes in collectivism. Conceptualising the workplace as a community enhances a sense of belongingness among employees. Moreover, it can encourage the development of virtues such as compassion, forgiveness, and freedom from pride. ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam’ (the whole world is one family) is an age-old Indian concept promoting community.^[102] Indian psychology broadens the idea of a community feeling of interconnectedness. A sense of interconnectedness helps employees feel connected to community members in their surroundings or universe.

This comprehensive bibliometric analysis covers three decades of WPS research and identifies the niche areas and particular gaps in the existing literature. Jeffery D. Houghton, Louis W. Fry, Lalatendu Kesari Jena, Naval Garg, and Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar are eminent researchers in this domain. India and the United States dominate this research field. Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Development, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, and Leadership Quarterly are top-cited sources in WPS research. The sharp increase in publications from 1995 to 2024 confirms the importance of WPS research across various disciplines and proves its relevance. The initial years of research were marked with theory and concept building, followed by a quantitative analysis and finding relations between WPS and various outcome variables. In the following decade, researchers were typically engaged in exploring the underlying mechanisms that plays a role in the relationship among various related variables relevant to WPS research. Content analysis of the authors’ keywords and sample papers reveals some research gaps in the WPS literature. Very few studies explored the role of personality factors in the development of WPS. The antecedent conditions of WPS are less studied areas. The role of ethical leadership in WPS is under-researched area, as identified by the present researchers. The Indian model of WPS or the Indian perspective on WPS have not been thoroughly explored, although a huge scope lies in further scientific research investigating the scope and application of Indian psychology in this domain. The twenty-first century’s rising demand for transpersonal psychology to achieve peace, harmony, growth, and sustainability opens up the scope and relevance of Indian psychology to the entire world. Most of WPS research is centred on concept development, explorative analysis, and psychometric scale development. There lies scope for developing an intervention model based on Indian psychological principles to enhance the WPS construct.