Assessment of Spirituality in Decision-Making in Private and Public Organisations in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

The processes of industrialization transformed the world from feudal agricultural societies to modern capitalist ones. This transformation marked the development of modernity and became the major focus of sociological studies. Interest was focused on issues like job satisfaction, job turnover, conflict and conflict resolutions in organisation management. As a result, the theoretical perspectives that emerged and guided social organisation did not consider some aspects of social life to reflect their importance. One of such aspects of social life was spirituality, which is the state of being deeply concerned with religious values. In recent times, studies have emerged bearing titles and topics which suggest and defend the incorporation of spirituality and religious principles in organisational management. This development has raised a serious question whether this constitutes an indication that the modern scientific organisation models of objectivity, rationality and bureaucracy are no longer able to fully explain the complexities of present-day organisations, hence a return to the pre-modern era when spirituality and religious ideas informed the process of societal and organisation decision. Evidence from literature indicates that not much research has been done on this issue both in Nigeria and elsewhere. The study adopted the survey research design. The population of study included all persons within the management positions of the formal organisations in Anambra State. Only private and public organisations registered formally with either the Local, State or Federal Government qualified for study. The number of organisations chosen for study was 256 about 10% of the registered organisations arrived at using the sampling fraction method. The questionnaire was the primary data collection instrument used. In-dept interviews and focus group discussions were carried out to elicit information that would help enrich the data from the questionnaire. The chi-square statistics was used to test the hypotheses generated for the study. It was ascertained that the level of interest of decision-makers in bringing spirituality into their decision-making in formal organisations in Nigeria was on the increase with more than 70% of the respondents indicating interest citing uncertainties in the business world today. Many organisational leaders perceived spirituality-based decisions as more important and more effective in yielding results than other organisational decision-making principles; hence the hypothesis which stated that organisational leaders in Nigeria perceive bureaucratic-rationality-based decisions to be more effective than those based on spirituality principles was rejected (χ2 = 233.5, df = 2; p ≤ 0.05). More than 50% of the male respondents indicated that they allow their spirituality to affect official decision-making often. This was against the 26.4% of all the female respondents which indicated allowing their spirituality to affect official decision-making often, as a result, the hypothesis that female organisational leaders in Nigeria import spirituality into their official decision-making exercises more than their male counterparts was rejected (χ2 = 47.7, df = 2; p ≤ 0.05). On the characteristics of managers that infuse spirituality in organisational decision-making, it was ascertained that elderly leaders and leaders with higher level of educational attainment were more eager to import spirituality into official decision-making. Decision-makers who hold degrees in business studies and social sciences were not less likely to import spirituality into their decision-making than those who hold non-business and social science degrees as a result the hypothesis that stated that decision-makers who hold degrees in business studies and the social sciences are less likely to import spirituality into their decision-makings than those who hold non-business and social science degrees was rejected (χ2= 6.9, df = 2; p ≤ 0.05).