INVESTIGATING THE MODERATING EFFECT OF GENDER ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY AND EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

The human resource management (HRM) practices have been broadened to include a workplace spirituality (WS) dimension to increase employee loyalty to the organization. Employee loyalty plays a significant role in organizational development as well as economic growth around the world. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of gender between workplace spirituality (WS) and employee loyalty (EL) in the Nigerian public sector. This study adopts a quantitative research approach. A survey, using a questionnaire, was conducted to obtain data from 500 public sector employees in Lagos state Nigeria. Structural Equation Modeling analysis using AMOS version 22 was conducted to determine the moderating role of gender between workplace spirituality and employee loyalty. The findings reveal that there is a strong causal relationship between workplace spirituality and employee loyalty in the Lagos state public sector. However, the worker’s gender does not moderate the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’ loyalty. The study also establishes valid measures for workplace spirituality and employee loyalty constructs. It is evident from the findings that workplace spirituality is an underlying factor to reckon with in motivating an employee to be loyal to their organization. Hence, this study supports the use of workplace spirituality as one of human resource management practices dimension in the organization.