Minimizing Workplace Deviant Behaviors through Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Commitment: A Case Study in Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to investigate a model for reducing workplace deviance from employees' perspectives. Specifically, it examines the relationship between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance through the improvement of organizational commitment. Through the quantitative approach, questionnaires were distributed to 400 civil servants in the various government agencies in Indonesia. Structural Equation Model with Analysis of Moment Structures (SEM-AMOS) was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The results reveal that workplace spirituality has no significant negative effect directly on workplace deviance, but it has a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment. Organizational commitment also has a significant negative effect on workplace deviance. The non-significance of workplace spirituality's direct effect on workplace deviance proves that there is a full mediation effect of organizational commitment. It implies that, to reduce workplace deviance, merely workplace spirituality is not adequate, but it should enhance organizational commitment. The findings can add an understanding of the empirical evidence related to the relationship between workplace spirituality, organizational commitment, and workplace deviance. Practically, the top decision-makers in civil servant institutions need to consider the right strategies, policies, and real efforts to carry out workplace spirituality practices and organizational commitment by designing a control system.

1. Introduction

Workplace deviance, also known as counterproductive work behavior, is a common problem that many organizations encounter nowadays, particularly with the advances in communication technology and the demands of employees’ targets. Bennett and Robinson (2000) say workplace deviance can be defined as a behavior that deliberately and significantly violates an organization’s norms and threatens an organization’s performance, individual performance, or both (Mackey, McAllister, Ellen, & Carson, 2019).

Two main types of workplace deviance, namely, inter-personal and organizational deviance, differed in the target of the intended deviation (Di Stefano, Scrima, & Parry, 2019). Interpersonal deviance includes deviant behavior aimed at individuals, such as playing pranks on others, gossiping, stealing coworkers’ goods, or acting rudely. The latter refers to deviant behaviors targeted to organizations, such as working slowly, damaging the company’s properties, divulging the company’s secrets, fraud, and corruption (Malik & Lenka, 2019).

For the past three decades, workplace deviance in organizations has become a severe issue discussed by many scholars or researchers (Li, Chan, Fah, & Choon, 2016). The harmful effects of workplace deviance are especially problematic for organizations financially and psychologically, such as internal theft, fraud incidents, bullying, and workplace aggression (Bennett & Marasi, 2016). The study of Balogun, Oluyemi, and Afolabi (2018) has identified prevalent workplace deviant behaviors in the public-sector organizations such as embezzlement, misuse of government properties, habitual lateness to work, theft, fraud, bribery, abuse of power and office, sabotage, and acting rudely. Investigating the factors that can contribute to preventing or reducing workplace deviance in organizations is an essential concern to management research and organizations (Hsieh & Wang, 2016). Meanwhile, with the increase of workplace deviance issues that take place today, many researchers discuss the impact of workplace deviance (Narayanan, 2017; Pletzer, Bentvelzen, Oostrom, & de Vries, 2019; Shaheen, Bashir, & Khan, 2017; Robinson, Persich, Stawicki, & Krishnakumar, 2019).

Leader-member exchange (Lebrón, Tabak, Shkoler, & Rabenu, 2018), abusive supervision (Michel, Newness, & Duniewicz, 2016; Valle, Kacmar, Zivnuska, & Harting, 2019; Park et al., 2019; Raza, Ahmed, Zubair, & Moueed, 2019); organizational commitment (Lambert et al., 2020), perceived organizational support (Li et al., 2016), organizational culture (Di Stefano et al., 2019) personality traits (Guay et al., 2016) are the antecedents of the workplace deviance studied by previously. Malik and Lenka (2018) conceptualized a framework depicting antecedents of workplace deviance as organizational antecedents such as organizational culture, organizational change, organizational support, workplace spirituality; interpersonal antecedents, such as leadership, group behavior, dissimilarity, psychological contract breach; and individual antecedents such as personality trait, attitude, self-esteem, emotional intelligence.

However, among those factors, a few studies have examined the mechanism for reducing workplace deviance through workplace spirituality, given that it is a crucial element in human life (Bhatti, Alam, Hassan, & Sulaiman, 2016). Workplace spirituality reflects employees’ inner lives that have values that their work has a purpose, meaning, and interrelation with people and their communities in the workplace (Milliman, Gatling, & Kim, 2018). Indeed, workplace spirituality is not about a particular religion or specific belief systems; instead, it is about personal values, or the philosophy people embrace (Farmer, Allen, Duncan, & Alagaraja, 2019; Garg, 2017). However, human behavior cannot be separated from their religion or belief. Past research supports that spirituality tends to motivate employees and inspire honesty, creativity, commitment, and personal fulfillment (Houghton, Neck, & Krishnakumar 2016). Therefore, it can be assumed that increasing workplace spirituality can probably reduce workplace deviance. To better understand how to minimize workplace deviance, studies on workplace deviance should not only focus in the direct relationship but also include mediators or moderators in the relationship between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance (Bhatti et al., 2016).

An essential element in any workplace due to its effect on behavior is organizational commitment (Mousa & Alas, 2016). The direct effect of workplace spirituality on organizational commitment has been widely investigated (Djafri & Noordin, 2017). Yet, to the authors’ best knowledge, the mechanism of the relationship between workplace spirituality and organizational commitment that has an impact on the decline of workplace deviance in the context of state civil apparatus has not been investigated. Thus, the present study seeks to fill the gap on how to reduce workplace deviance through an increase in the workplace spirituality and organizational commitment of civil servants in Indonesia. Specifically, it examines the direct relationship between workplace spirituality, workplace deviance, and the indirect relationship via organizational commitment as a mediator. It is expected that this study can contribute to relevant agencies and local governments in reducing the negative impacts of work attitudes on harming an institution or other organizations.

2. Literature Review

2.1.Workplace Spirituality and Workplace Deviance

Although the framework of workplace spirituality has been debated among scholars over the past two decades, the number of empirical studies examining the consequences of workplace spirituality has continued to grow (Houghton et al., 2016). Workplace spirituality is a philosophy that profoundly embraces the belief that work is meaningful and purposeful. Humans can form a community that can be useful for themselves and others in line with the goals and values (Vasconcelos, 2018). Besides, workplace spirituality is the recognition that employees have an inner life nourished by meaningful work in the context of a community or organization (Belwalkar & Vohra, 2016). The implication of workplace spirituality is considered at three levels: individual, group, and organizational (Tayebiniya & Khorasgani, 2018). At the individual level, work spirituality is reflected in a deep feeling that work has meaning and purpose. As the consequences of this belief, an individual’s work attitudes and behavior have internal motivation, interest, and passion for performing duties that have meaning and purpose. At the group level, workplace spirituality is reflected in the deep feeling of a relationship with other members as a community, feeling like a large family, supporting each other, and desiring to achieve a common goal. Meanwhile, at the organizational level, it is reflected in the feeling of having harmony with the organization values to benefit others and society, ethics and integrity in working for the employees’, customers’, and society’s welfare (Thakur & Singh, 2016; Joelle & Coelho, 2019). By having a philosophy that informs one’s mindset, working is seen to benefit them and others; the organization and society can be the controllers that help employees gauge their behavior at work.

Previous studies have shown that workplace spirituality is conceptually related to workplace deviance (Baharom, Bin Sharfuddin, & Iqbal, 2017; Malik & Lenka, 2018). Empirically, it has also been proven that workplace spirituality negatively relates to workplace deviance (Prasanna & Madhavaiah, 2017; Haldorai, Kim, Chang, & Li, 2020). They argue that the presence of workplace spirituality will provide a moral foundation that will resist workplace deviance. Therefore, the first hypothesis is proposed as follows:

H1: Workplace spirituality is negatively and significantly related to workplace deviance.

2.2. Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Commitment

As defined initially by Allen and Meyer (2000), organizational commitment is multidimensional with three different mindsets comprised of desire, perceived obligation, and perceived cost of leaving. A person who has a high organizational commitment will be reflected in his behavior. As he/she still desires to survive on his own (affective commitment), feels loss if he leaves the organization (continuance commitment), and feels a necessity to stay in an organization (normative commitment). Similarly, organizational commitment can result from attitude, personal values and beliefs, and emotional attachment. Each employee can experience all three components in his or her commitment (Nguyen et al., 2020). There is a correlation in between the three components, but each alone can also contribute to organizational commitment. In sum, organizational commitment can be considered as being composed of two or three components depending on scholars (Chun, Jeong, Joo, Choi, & Jyung 2016).

Workplace spirituality is an employee experience of spirituality at work. It reflects an organization’s facilitation of employee experiences of spirituality at work through organizational values that can be further incorporated through its culture (Pawar, 2017; Utami, Sapta, Verawati, & Astakoni, 2021). The spiritual paradigm also permanently recognizes that people bring their arms and brains to work and their hearts or soul. That is why the people’s performance is influenced by their intelligence and influenced by their spirituality in terms of attitude, personal values and beliefs, and emotional attachment to the organization (Garg, 2017). In other words, workplace spirituality ensures that employee brings an entire self (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) to the workplace. Positive reactions toward an organization that satisfies their spiritual requirements will allow employees to feel mental safety and feel valued as humans. This becomes a very important factor in improving the positive behavior at work, such as committed to the organization.

Previous studies such as Djafri and Noordin (2017) and Jena and Pradhan (2018) found that workplace spirituality is related to organizational commitment. They argued that, when people experience workplace spirituality, they feel more effectively attached to their organizations, more loyal and committed. Therefore, the second hypothesis is formulated as follows:

H2: Workplace spirituality is positively and significantly related to organizational commitment.

2.3. Organizational Commitment and Workplace Deviance

The nature of organizational commitment is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors (Nguyen, Do, & Dinh, 2020). It refers to the bond between the worker and the employing organization. An employee with high organizational commitment feels a strong emotional attachment to their organization, and therefore, they might think that they are part of the organization (Lambert et al., 2020). This bond makes them reluctant to engage in deviant behavior at work.

Promsri (2018) revealed that affective commitment was negatively correlated with workplace deviance, while continuance commitment was found to have a positive relationship with workplace deviance. On the other hand, there is no significant relation between normative commitment and workplace deviance. Lambert et al. (2020) argue that affective commitment takes time to develop, but once developed, it tends to be strong. This bond tends to form because of positive treatment by the organization. That is why the higher the affective commitment, the less deviant behavior will be. Meanwhile, continuance commitment reflects the employee’s calculation about the benefits and costs of staying versus leaving the current employing organization. Employees who felt a high continuance commitment are less likely to resign their job but more likely to perform poorly. Moreover, normative commitment represents a normative obligation to repay the organization by committing to it. It is expected that employees who have high normative commitment tend to continue with what they have been doing rather than making a problem with workplace deviance. This is the reason why normative commitment has no significant effect on workplace deviance.

However, Ugwu and Okafor (2017) show that, when the dimension of organizational commitment was not separated, the result showed a significant negative relationship between organizational commitment and workplace deviance. To prove the effect of workplace spirituality on organizational commitment, the third hypothesis is proposed as follows:

H3: Organizational commitment is negatively and significantly related to workplace deviance.

2.4. Organizational Commitment as Mediator Variable between Workplace Spirituality and Workplace Deviance

Workplace spirituality can reduce workplace deviance, but the reduction mechanism probably occurs either directly or indirectly through an intervening variable. As described previously, the direct relation between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance (Prasanna & Madhavaiah, 2017; Haldorai et al., 2020) and the direct connection between organizational commitment and workplace deviance (Lambert et al., 2020; Ugwu & Okafor, 2017) has been approved. Nonetheless, the probable underlying mechanism of how workplace spirituality can minimize workplace deviance is unclear.

From a theoretical viewpoint, social exchange theory offers explanations as to why workplace spirituality can minimize workplace deviance. This theory suggests that positive behavior is the outcome of an exchange process. When employees receive favorable treatment, they feel obligated to respond in kind and reward the organization. This, in turn, encourages employees to participate in the organization with more commitment and positive behavior (Shaheen et al., 2017).

Meaningful work, sense of community, and alignment with organizational values are an emotional touch, attached to one’s mindset about how a person views the meaning of work. Suppose the work is considered an activity that benefits not only themselves but also others, organizations and society. In that case, these values will be a driving force for positive behavior, such as loyalty and commitment to work and organizations. Furthermore, a person has a strong desire to remain a member of an organization, the willingness to spend the maximum potential for organizational interests, and confidence in aligning organizational values and goals (Allan, Batz-Barbarich, Sterling, & Tay, 2019).

Although people may sometimes express their religious beliefs in the workplace, spirituality in the workplace is not about religion. It is an opportunity to show various aspects of one’s personality (Sani & Ekowati, 2019). Having workplace spirituality can improve organizational commitment since the role of the philosophy of meaningfulness works at the level of individuals, teams, and organizations. Thus, this philosophy can bind employees emotionally to the sustainable loyalty of a member of the organization called organizational commitment. It is in line with past studies of Bell-Ellis, Jones, Longstreth, and Neal (2015) that argue all four dimensions of spirit at work are significantly correlated with organizational commitment. With a high commitment to the organization where they work, the employee will be able to reduce the desire to behave negatively, which harms the organization in achieving its goals.

There is no empirical evidence to clarify the link between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance by using organizational commitment as the mediator variable to the best of our knowledge. Previous studies have indicated the link between workplace spirituality and organizational commitment and the link between organizational commitment and workplace deviance separately. Based on these arguments, the fourth hypothesis is formed as follows:

H4: Organizational commitment mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance.

3. Research Method

3.1. Design of the Study

The present study used a survey method for gathering data and information. The primary data were obtained directly by distributing questionnaires to selected respondents. Besides, to complement the primary data, the study also employed secondary data collected from relevant agencies.

3.2. Data Collection

This study population is 6, 886 civil servants in Jambi City. The samples were selected from a population with at least four years of service with permanent status. The sample’s choice is to strengthen the validity and reliability of workplace spirituality, organizational commitment, and workplace deviance. It is believed to be more accurate; the samples had to be more than four years of service and had been sworn as civil servants.

The sample size was determined based on a 5% significance level of 364 respondents. Four hundred and eighty sets of the questionnaires were distributed to eight government agencies; however, 400 responses were valid. Site selection was based on the representation of the most locations of the government offices, namely, Telanaipura District and Kota Baru. Funding and feasibility were the main criteria for the site selection of this study.

3.3. Measurement

The research questionnaires consisted of multiple-choice statements using 5-point Likert scales, ranging from 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree. Workplace spirituality reflects the philosophy in which employees believe that work has a valuable meaning, forms a community, and is in line with the organization’s values. For measuring the work, spirituality consists of six items of meaningful work, seven items of sense community, and eight items of alignment with organizational values from Ashmos and Duchon’s (2000) spirituality scale. While organizational commitment was defined as employee attachments to the form of recognition, involvement, and willingness to be loyal to workplace agency was measured by adapting 18 scales of organizational commitment (Allen & Meyer, 2000), which consisting of affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Finally, workplace deviance was defined as voluntary behavior that violates the norms of the workplace. It was measured by adapting 18 measurement scales of workplace deviance (Bennett & Robinson, 2000).

3.4. Data Analysis

To evaluate the research hypotheses, SEM AMOS software version 22 was used. As proposed by Aguinis, Edwards, and Bradley (2017), for conducting the mediation test, it can be done without the precondition that the relation between the antecedent and the outcome should be significant. The mediation exists when the indirect effect is supported, regardless of the presence or absence of a direct impact (Solimun & Fernandes, 2018). If the direct effect between the Independent Variable and the Dependent Variable is significant, there is a partial mediation. Conversely, if non-significant, there is a full mediation (Lachowicz, Preacher, & Kelley, 2018). Then, to test the presence of the mediation effect using the Sobel Test. Refers to Mustillo, Lizardo, and McVeigh, (2018), the Sobel Test is a formal method for testing the significance of a mediating effect that has become the default in much SEM software and can be easily implemented using SEM software packages.

4. Results

4.1. Characteristics of Respondents

From 480 questionnaires distributed, only 445 were returned. After the data screening was performed by analyzing the answers’ completeness and homogeneity, only 400 out of 445 questionnaires were processed using AMOS software version 22.

Males were the majority of respondents, accounting for 53%, while the rest (47%) were females. The respondents’ majority age group was at the range of 41–50 (33.25%), followed by 31–40 (32.25%), and 51–60 (31%). Meanwhile, the youngest age of 21–30 years old constituted 3.5%. The figure is a result of the implementation of the policy that the Indonesian government has applied moratorium for new civil servants’ recruitment for the last five years. Most respondents were university graduates (60%), followed by diploma graduates (20.5%), master level 18.25%, and only one doctorate level. The majority of respondents (56.5%) had been working for more than ten years when the research was conducted, while at 42.75% worked for 5–10 years and only 0.75% has three years’ experience. Given their lengthy working period of most respondents, their organizational commitment is unquestionable. Table 1 presents the mean, standard deviation, and the correlation between the variables being studied in the research.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics and Correlations of the Study Variables

Note: **Indicates correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 1 shows a significant positive correlation between workplace spirituality and organizational commitment. In contrast, the correlation between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance, as well as organizational commitment and workplace deviance is significantly negative. This phenomenon describes the relationship between independent and dependent variables following the theory that has been previously discussed. High workplace spirituality will lead to high organizational commitment and poor workplace deviance.

4.2. Measurement Model Assessment

The measurement model assesses the relationships between the measured variables and their respective latent variables. To measure all latent variables’ indicators and dimensions, the results of measurement are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Measurement Model of the Research Variables

The table shows that all variables have a valid indicator with the value of the standardized loading factor (λ) > 0.50. Construct reliability also shows the results greater than 0.5. Likewise, AVE of workplace spirituality and organizational commitment is still greater than 0.50. Although workplace deviance only has the AVE value of 0.41, this is not the matter because the value of loading factor and construct reliability is above 0.50; thus, it can be concluded that all indicators and dimensions are able to reflect all the latent variables.

4.3. Structural Model Assessment

With the aid of the AMOS program, the result is obtained, as depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Research Model

Based on the computation using AMOS, the result show that X² = 27.22 at p value > 0.05, goodness of fit indices (GFI) = 0.98, adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) = 0.97, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.98 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.039. Figure 1 indicates that the research model used in this study is fit to the sample data.

Furthermore, it can also be observed in Figure 1 that work spirituality is positively related to organizational commitment (standardized coefficient = 0.42). It means that the higher workplace spirituality is, the higher organizational commitment will be. On the other hand, organizational commitment is negatively related to workplace deviance (standardized coefficient = –0.19), and workplace spirituality is negatively related to workplace deviance (standardized coefficient = –0.14).

Thus, it indicates that workplace deviance can be minimized through organizational commitment and workplace spirituality. To examine the role of organizational commitment, the direct and indirect effects between the variables can be observed in Table 3.

Table 3: Direct Effect Between Independent and Dependent Variables

Based on the results of data processing by AMOS, it shows that the direct effect of workplace spirituality on workplace deviance is non-significantly negative. It means that the hypothesis that workplace spirituality has a significantly negative effect on workplace deviance is rejected. Meanwhile, the direct effect of workplace spirituality on organizational commitment is significantly positive, whereas the direct influence of organizational commitment on workplace deviance is significantly negative. It implies that having a high workplace spirituality cannot decrease workplace deviance directly. The effect of workplace spirituality increases organizational commitment and, with high organizational commitment, decreases workplace deviance.

Table 3 shows that the value of the direct effect of workplace spirituality on workplace deviance (–0.14) is less than that of the indirect effect through organizational commitment (–0.079). Hence, as organizational commitment is a fully mediating variable, in other words, organizational commitment as mediation between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance is accepted. Using the Sobel test online, the results also show that Sobel test statistic –1.97 greater than 1.96, and the significance value is 0.0244 less than 0.05. It is indicated that there is a mediating effect on the relationship between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance.

5. Discussion

There are five findings of this study interesting for discussion. First, the study results indicate that workplace spirituality has no significant negative effect directly on workplace deviance. It infers that to reduce workplace deviance, merely workplace spirituality is not adequate. However, the current finding is not in line with previous studies’ results, which concluded that workplace spirituality has a significantly negative and direct effect on workplace deviance (Prasanna & Madhavaiah, 2017). Workplace spirituality is philosophical values that believe that work has meaning, building a community that can benefit them, others, and the community. It also assumes that work also has harmony with the personal values one espouses. Philosophical values adopted will indeed affect a person’s positive behavior at work. However, the behavior will also be formed from the results of one’s interactions with their environment. Therefore, these values will become behavioral controllers if their work environment is supported. In particular, respondents who are the object of this research have a different context from previous studies.

This research finding is in line with Haldorai et al. (2020) that workplace spirituality has no significant negative effect directly on workplace deviance. Di Stefano et al. (2019) argue that organizational culture values, beyond employees’ personality traits, affected workplace deviance. A state civil servant is appointed and dismissed by the applicable regulations. When the civil servants commit a violation, there are stages in applying a sanction, ranging from verbal reprimands, written warnings, and delay in periodic promotions up to dismissal. Sometimes, the sanction of disciplinary violations is not explicitly given. A state civil servant has a high level of job security, which provides exemption so as they are not reluctant to behave negatively. That is why having top workplace spirituality cannot directly reduce workplace deviance significantly.

Second, workplace spirituality has a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment. It is in line with the study of Djafri and Noordin (2017) and Jena and Pradhan (2018). For the civil servants’ context in Indonesia, when a recruitment test is carried out, the candidates of state civil servants have been well informed that their duties are to provide services to the public. To be appointed as a national civil servant, they must be sworn into office to have loyalties to the country through obedience to their respective agency. Every Monday and every 17th of each month, there is always a flag-raising ceremony to commemorate and strengthen the institutional commitment. These philosophical values will touch emotionally and lead to a commitment to maintain an organization’s excellent reputation and be loyal to the institution. This finding also implies that organizational commitment can be increased by improving spirituality climates. This is because people react reciprocally towards an organization that satisfies their spiritual needs. It allows them to experience a sense of psychological safety, makes them feel valued as human beings and that they deserve respectful treatment, and to experience the senses of purpose, self-determination, enjoyment, and belonging.

Third, organizational commitment also has a significant negative effect on workplace deviance. This finding is in line with an earlier study conducted by Ugwu and Okafor (2017) among civil servants in Nigeria. This implies that the more committed an individual is to his/her organization; the less likely it is for that individual to engage in the workplace deviance. The influence of emotional ties can control negative behavior, which undermines the institution. Organizational commitment is limited to stay in the institution where they work and the ability to maintain the reputation of the agency and deliver the best to the organization. The leader role is required to nurture a commitment to the organization to control workplace deviance. Firmness to enforce regulations for anyone who violates is also believed to reduce workplace deviance. Organizational commitment was found to have a positive relationship with several favorable work outcomes. By understanding when and how commitments develop and how they help shape attitudes and behaviors, organizations will be in a better position to anticipate the negative behavior and to manage it more effectively (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016).

Fourth, the results of this research show that the indirect effect through organizational commitment is a fully mediating variable that, in fact, contributes better to workplace deviance. It means that the role of organizational commitment as a mediator strongly supports Bell-Ellis et al.’s (2015) argument in terms of the role of organizational commitment in mediating the relationship between workplace spirituality and workplace deviance. This study’s findings prove that workplace spirituality can significantly reduce workplace deviance when mediated by high organizational commitment. Workplace spirituality is not related to a particular religion; rather, it is a philosophical value about work’s meaningfulness. This philosophical value will control negative behavior in the workplace through a strong emotional bond towards the institution. The non-significance of workplace spirituality’s direct effect on workplace deviance proves that there is a full mediation effect of organizational commitment. Therefore, workplace deviance can be reduced through both enhanced organizational commitment and workplace spirituality. The human being is not only rational but also emotional and spiritual. They have a mind, spiritual needs; that spiritual development may be pivotal to mental development. Therefore, decreasing workplace deviance can be conducted by increasing organizational commitment (emotional) and workplace spirituality (spiritual).

Finally, from an academic standpoint, the findings of the current study add insight edges and references for further researchers as a basis of the empirical evidence in relation to the relationship between workplace spirituality, organizational commitment and workplace deviance. However, in practice, the top decision-makers of a civil servant institution need to consider good strategies, policies, and real efforts in carrying out workplace spirituality practices and organizational commitment by designing a control system.

6. Conclusion

Workplace spirituality has no direct significant effect on reducing workplace deviance. However, workplace spirituality has a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment. Meanwhile, organizational commitment has a significant effect on reducing workplace deviance. Thus, workplace deviance can be reduced by enhancing both organizational commitment and workplace spirituality. This research presents a model for reducing the workplace deviance through improving workplace spirituality and organizational commitment. From an academic standpoint, the research can also add insight edges and references for further researchers as a basis of the empirical evidence in relation to the relationship between workplace spirituality, organizational commitment, and workplace deviance.

This research’s main limitation is related to a simultaneous cross-data collection method, while attitude measurement actually needs observation through time-series data. Besides, the empirical data was gathered based on individual institutions, while the discussion tends to be general; therefore, further researchers are recommended to pursue research to see the findings based on time series data observation.