Abstract
Prior research in the field of workplace spirituality has shown that spirituality at work is positively related to a wide range of organisational functions and practices. Though work motivation is important to the success of organisations, very little empirical research has been carried out to determine the effect of workplace spirituality on work motivation. The purpose of this research was therefore to investigate the influence of workplace spirituality on work motivation and whether or not empowering leadership has a mediation effect on this association. A quantitative research design, specifically a cross sectional web-based survey protocol, was administered to collect data from a total of 182 research participants. The research participants were employees working in either an educational consultancy industry in Nepal or in the general private sector in Sydney, Australia. Simple linear regression tests were conducted to test the hypothesised relationships between the combined effects of two workplace spirituality dimensions - sense of belonging and common goal- on three motivational sub-types, namely motivation, controlled motivation and autonomous motivation. For the mediation effect test, Baron and Kenny's (1986) mediation study approach was utilised. Results showed that workplace spirituality statistically significantly explains work motivation. Workplace spirituality has a greater explanation effect on autonomous motivation than on controlled motivation subtype. Common goal is found to have a greater explanation effect than sense of belonging on autonomous forms of motivation. Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that empowering leadership partially mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and work motivation. Overall, the findings of the study suggest that integration of workplace spirituality empowers employees at work leading to work motivation. Hene, organisational leaders can utilise workplace spirituality to energise employees at work as integration of workplace spirituality intrinsically motivates employees.