Abstract:
Employee engagement has been credited with numerous organizational benefits, but
the hospitality sector faces workforce challenges that may potentially hinder it.
Despite many studies focusing on abstract, intrinsic factors influencing engagement,
limited research explores the impact of workplace spirituality on employee
engagement in Kenya's hospitality industry. The main objective of the study therefore,
was to determine the effect of workplace spirituality on employee engagement in
selected hotels in Kilifi County. Specific objectives were to examine the effect of
inner self, meaningful work and sense of community on employee engagement. The
study was guided by Spiritual Leadership Theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and
the Social Exchange Theory. Explanatory research design was employed targeting
702 employees from 10 registered hotels from which a sample size of 260 employees
was drawn. Purposive sampling was used to select the study area, census method for
hotels, while stratified and simple random sampling techniques selected respondents.
Structured questionnaires were utilized to gather data which was analysed using
multiple linear regression. Regression results indicated that workplace spirituality
explains 47% (R 2 = .47) of variation in employee engagement. Furthermore, inner self
(t =5.709, p˂0.001), meaningful work (t=2.027, p=0.044) and community (t=2.660,
p=0.008) were all found to significantly (p˂0.05) affect employee engagement. The
study concluded that inner self, meaningful work and community all affect employee
engagement. Furthermore, results suggested that employees who have their inner self
respected at work, find meaning in their job and feel that they belong to a community
at work tend to have positive sentiments toward the tasks they carry out. It
recommended that hotel managers should encourage employees to express their inner
self at work, foster an environment whereby employees find meaning in their roles
and cultivate a culture that fosters a sense of community within the organization
ultimately promoting engagement. The findings thus contributed to knowledge on the
relationship between workplace spirituality and employee engagement in hospitality
industry.
