Analyzing the Effects of Eco-Spirituality on Organizational Commitment and Employee Engagement Among Female Academics in Higher Education

This study investigated the connections between eco-spirituality, organizational commitment, and employee engagement by female academics within higher education institutions. The results of this study indicate that eco-spirituality has an effect on organizational commitment, and organizational commitment has an effect on employee engagement. Both of these relationships were found to be significant. In addition, this research's findings indicate a direct and indirect relationship between employee engagement and eco-spirituality. Even though this relationship has never been investigated in any of the previous studies, the findings of this research show that there is such a relationship. An employee engagement study, an organizational commitment study, and an employee spirituality study were all conducted using regression analysis. We also considered the correlation between the two data sets when analyzing the connection between the dependent and the independent variables. An examination of the construct item's dependability was carried out.


Introduction
Organizations now put a high value on workplace spirituality and employee involvement [1]. Employees are increasingly searching for workplace spirituality's meaning and experience, Hills and Smith [7] mentioned that contemporary firms seek new approaches to boost employee engagement. Many studies, like one by Saks [18], have shown a connection between spirituality in the workplace and employee engagement. Despite this, research on these two elements remains limited, and often one is investigated without the other. Employee engagement has gained great attention in the corporate sector and the community of HRM practitioners. New methods of HR managers have been proposed to help 2 "workplace spirituality" refers to the notion of incorporating these principles into one's work environment. They describe it as a person's growing knowledge of his or her inner existence, which is nurtured by doing meaningful work in the framework of the community. No matter your religious beliefs, spirituality offers universal principles that everyone may appreciate [19]. Hence, these shared beliefs produce corporate values rooted in workplace spirituality. However, relevant studies are largely undertaken in Western nations, and studies in the context of Asia, specifically for Indonesia's history, are sparse. Employee engagement is often used as an indication for evaluating behaviour and improving performance in firms, and this may also be applied to education, particularly in higher education. In order to improve an organization's performance, universities place a high value on developing their faculty's teaching and research skills. Therefore, this research emphasizes female academicians teaching at higher educational institutions, as these responders stand for communities that are spiritually connected to students and need spirituality in the workplace. On the other hand, academics are held to a higher standard of organizational ethics in carrying out their institutional and societal obligations and are compelled to dedicate themselves to the search for truth. Considering that "engaged" workers are those who "feel," "think," and "care" about their jobs, we may assume that these workers are also highly motivated and committed to their work.
Saks [18] constructed a model of workplace spirituality and employee engagement. Faculty involvement in teaching and research is intended to be influenced by their workplace spirituality (WPS) practice. Workplace spirituality has been shown to significantly influence a business's bottom line, regardless of whether the organization is for profit or not, via empirical evidence [5]. Increasing productivity, innovation, creativity, performance, and satisfaction in the workplace may all be enhanced by the organization's capacity to integrate spirituality into its daily operations. As an alternative, employees' well-being may be enhanced via workplace spirituality, which promotes a good attitude and makes the job enjoyable [6]. In many firms, utilizing workplace spirituality to improve human capital has spawned a unique phenomenon [3].
However, after the turn of the century, organizational commitment has become a hotly debated topic [8]. This fascinating aspect of organizational behaviour has positive effects, including increased production, encouragement of creative behaviour, increased productivity, and improved quality and efficiency. An organization that encourages workplace spirituality and organizational devotion might create marvellous impacts on the overall element of an organization. Furthermore, only a few studies examined the relationship between Eco spirituality, corporate commitment, and employee engagement in a single-frame model. A few studies debate this correlation because the intersection between Eco spirituality, organizational commitment, and employee engagement was never thoroughly examined in many studies, and the relationship between those variables is hazy. As a result, this study will address the following questions: • Does Eco-Spirituality Impact the Organizational commitment of female Academics in higher educational institutions? • Does Organizational commitment influence the engagement of female academicians in the workplace? • Does spirituality significantly influence the engagement of female academicians in higher educational institutions?

Eco-Spirituality and Organizational Commitment
Jurkiewicz and Giacalone [9] argued that groups where spirituality is expressed via certain values and cultural features "create an environment where integration of the personal and organizational selves is possible, engaging the whole person in the work process". This will likely result in increased zeal, effort, a feeling of "calling," and wanting to do well [15]. Affective and normative commitments are expected to rise when individuals regard the workplace as where they may fulfil their spiritual needs and find meaning in their job. According to Milliman [15], the essential architecture of engagement includes meaningfulness, availability, and safety [4]. Employee engagement is described as an emotional and cognitive state that is constant and widespread and is not centred on any one item, event, person, or activity [11]. Employee engagement is also fueled by vigour and a strong commitment to one's job. Employee engagement is defined as "a psychological or motivational term relating to an individual's propensity to devote personal resources (physical, emotional, and cognitive energy) to their job with a focus on the actual work duties, rather than the organization's or job's qualities" [2], [17]. Based on the above studies, we take the first hypothesis as follows: - Analyzing the Effects of Eco-Spirituality on Organizational Commitment and Employee Engagement Among Female Academics in Higher Education 3 associated with employee engagement, a prerequisite for an organization's success and bottom line [14]. Apart from that, the authors of this study [24] found a link between affective commitment and organizational engagement and employee engagement that was both significant and negative, while the link between continuity commitment and organizational engagement and employee engagement was significant but not statistically significant. According to the findings, job satisfaction has a negative and significant link with employee engagement and organization engagement, and organizational performance has a negative and significant relationship with employee engagement and organization engagement [24]. This research examined 326 workers in various roles from various firms in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Employee engagement, organizational commitment, job participation, and identity may have comparable qualities. As a result, individual engagement was validated as a theoretically and empirically distinct idiom focused on the employee and his or her work. Employee engagement also significantly influences individual and organizational success [11]. Nazir and Ul Islam's [16] findings backed up a study that found a substantial link between corporate commitment and employee engagement. Nazir and Ul Islam [16] conducted a questionnaire survey of 600 workers from different government and private units in Delhi's higher educational institutions to get answers to these issues. Employee engagement mediated by perceived organizational support increased employee performance and emotional commitment, according to the findings, and employee engagement contributed favourably to employee performance and affective Commitment [16], [17].
Organizational commitment and employee engagement continue to be important constructs in organizational behaviour, with a growing body of literature exploring their antecedents and consequences [13], [20], Employee engagement, on the other hand, refers to an individual's level of involvement, enthusiasm, and commitment to their work and their willingness to go above and beyond what is required of them [18]. Research has shown that organizational commitment and employee engagement are positively associated with important outcomes such as job performance, job satisfaction, and retention [13], [20]. Studies have also examined the antecedents of organizational commitment and employee engagement, including leadership, organizational culture, job characteristics, and social support [13], [20]. Overall, the literature on organizational commitment and employee engagement suggests that these constructs play important roles in shaping employee attitudes and behaviours and can have significant implications for organizational outcomes [25][26][27]. We offer the following hypothesis based on the elucidation of the link between organizational commitment and employee engagement formulation of the following II hypotheses:

Organizational commitment significantly influences the engagement of female academicians in higher educational institutions
Eco-Spirituality and Employee engagement: According to Millman et al. [15], the spirituality trait can be divided into three dimensions: the first is an increase in the number of people who report that they enjoy coming to work, are energized by it, and find personal meaning and purpose in it; the second is an increase in the number of people who report that they feel a strong sense of connection with their coworkers, that they support one another, and that they are linked with common purpose characters; and the third is an increase in the number of people who report that their organization provides opportunities for them to develop personally and professionally [21]. At work, employee engagement and spirituality are inseparable, and the latter is closely linked to the dedication, another important aspect of employee engagement. As a result, hypothesis III may be formulated, as shown below:

Eco-Spirituality significantly influences the engagement of female academicians in higher educational institutions
The research proposes three hypotheses based on prior literature analysis. The overview of the assumptions is shown in fig. 1, a model built for this investigation

Research Gap
Workplace spirituality was at the centre of discussion in the corporate sector after the wave of liberalization in 1991 [28][29][30][31]. Although Eco spirituality is a new concept, which is gaining the attention of corporate experts and governments due to ecological imbalance, the researcher has tried to focus on the impact of Eco spirituality on organizational commitment and employee engagement [32]. Many researchers from different perspectives have studied workplace spirituality, but Eco spirituality has not been studied at all [33]. After the pandemic, the academic industry after the pandemic covid-19 has become a point of discussion, as female academicians face many issues and problems in balancing life between family and work commitments [34- ]. This study is particularly concentrating on the impact of Eco spirituality on organisational commitment and employee engagement in the higher education institution; in this sense, the study would be helpful for the academic fraternity, particularly for the higher educational institution management, who can plan their strategies to help their female employees to balance between organizational and personal life commitments.

Research objectives
• To examine the impact of Eco-Spirituality on the Organizational Commitment of female academicians in higher educational institutions.
• To study the Organizational commitment influence on the engagement of female academicians at the workplace. • To assess eco Spirituality influence on the engagement of female academicians in higher educational institutions.

Variables Description
There were two independent factors and one dependent variable in this research. (1) Eco-Spirituality (2) Organizational commitment are two independent variables, with employee engagement as the dependent variable [37]. "A pleasant, rewarding work-related state of mind marked by vitality, devotion, and absorption," according to the definition.

Scaling
We employed multi-item measures for dependent and explanatory variables, with each item scored using a 5-point Likert-type scale. We followed Kaiser et al. [10] in generating the first items for the research constructs. We looked at two useful cases: one for evaluating dimensionality, validity, and reliability, the measurements for all the various components, and the other for testing the predicted conceptual model.

Sampling & data collection
As many as 655 questionnaires were issued randomly to female academics from mid-year 2019 to November 2021, and 400 female academicians responded. As previously stated, the research only included female academicians. Therefore, forms were only provided to them. As a survey tool, the researchers utilized the questionnaire approach. The instrument briefly explained the study's aims to the informants, and a no-objection provision allowing the respondent's information to be used for research purposes was included in the questionnaire.  Table 1 shows the factor loadings for indicators related to employee engagement. Factor loadings are used in factor analysis to represent the strength of the relationship between each indicator and the underlying factor. In this case, the factor is employee engagement, represented by the set of indicators listed in the table 1. Each row in the table 1 represents an indicator, and each column represents a statistic related to that indicator's factor loading. The "Factor" column identifies the indicator's associated factor. The "Indicator" column describes the specific statement used as the indicator for the factor. The "Estimate" column shows the factor loading estimate for the indicator, which represents the strength of the relationship between the indicator and the factor. The "SE" column shows the standard error of the estimate, which represents the amount of error in the estimate.

Employee Engagement
The "Z" column shows the z-score for the estimate, a standardized measure of the difference between the estimate and the null hypothesis. Finally, the "p" column shows the pvalue for the estimate, which represents the probability of obtaining a factor loading as large or larger than the observed value under the null hypothesis.
In this case, all indicators have positive factor loadings, indicating they are positively associated with employee engagement. The estimates range from 0.122 to 0.867, with the highest loading being for the statement "Work makes me feel powerful and invigorated." This indicates that this statement is the strongest indicator of employee engagement among the statements used in this study. The standard errors are relatively small, ranging from 0.0194 to 0.0356, indicating that the estimates are relatively precise. The zscores are all quite large, ranging from 5.13 to 26.59, indicating that the estimates are statistically significant at a very high level (p < 0.001). Overall, the table 2 provides a useful summary of the factor loadings for indicators related to employee engagement. The estimates and associated statistics can be used to identify the most important engagement indicators and better understand the underlying factors that contribute to employee engagement in the workplace.  Table 2 of the reliability analysis of the employee engagement scale suggests that Cronbach's α is 0.979, indicating a very high internal consistency reliability. This means that the items in the employee engagement scale are strongly related to each other and measure the same underlying construct. This suggests that a scale is reliable for measuring employee engagement in the studied population.

Figure 2. Path Diagram of Organizational Commitment
The above indicators in figure 2 are observed variables of employee engagement and form three latent variables Vigor, Dedication and absorption, and collectively impact employee engagement in the organization.

Organizational Commitment
In 1991, Meyer and Allen proposed the first model of commitment consisting of three components: The impact of these three latent variables has been seen on organizational commitment and shown in figure 3 of path diagrams of Organizational Commitment (table 3).   Table 4. Reliability analysis of organizational commitment Cronbach's α Scale 0.977 Table 4 of the reliability analysis of the organizational commitment scale suggests that Cronbach's α is 0.977, indicating a very high internal consistency reliability. This means that the items in the organizational commitment scale are strongly related to each other and measure the same underlying construct. This suggests that a scale is reliable for measuring organizational commitment in the studied population. Table 5 provides the factor loadings for factor analysis of indicators related to eco-spirituality. Factor loadings indicate the strength of the relationship between each indicator and the factor it is loading on, with higher numbers indicating stronger relationships. In this analysis, the measured factor is eco-spirituality, which is reflected in the indicators of garbage reduction, water conservation, recycling, reduction of overconsumption, increased employee satisfaction, feeling connected to nature, greener zone, and natural sunlight. The estimates for each indicator are presented in the table 4, along with the standard error, Z score, and p-value. All indicators have significant factor loadings, with p-values less than .001, indicating that they contribute significantly to the ecospirituality factor. The indicators with the highest factor loadings are recycling (0.87) and feeling connected to nature (0.88), indicating that these two indicators have a stronger relationship with the eco-spirituality factor than the other indicators. Garbage reduction (0.48) and employee satisfaction level increases (0.496) have lower factor loadings, indicating a weaker relationship with the ecospirituality factor. Overall, the factor analysis suggests that the indicators measure a coherent construct related to ecospirituality, with recycling and feeling connected to nature being the most important indicators. These findings can inform efforts to promote eco-spirituality and sustainable behaviours in various settings.  Table 6. Reliability analysis of eco-spirituality

Eco-Spirituality
Cronbach's α Scale 0.983 The reliability analysis of the eco-spirituality scale suggests that Cronbach's α is 0.983, which is a very high level of internal consistency reliability and has been shown in table 6. A Cronbach's α of 0.983 indicates that the items in the ecospirituality scale are strongly related and measure the same underlying construct. This suggests that a scale is reliable for measuring eco-spirituality in the studied population.

Result and Discussion
The linear regression analysis was done during data analysis to understand the association between eco-spirituality factors and Organizational commitment. As Table 7 depicts r 2 value at 0.925, it indicates that eco-spirituality factors chosen for the study have a very significant effect on the organizational commitment of female academicians. Thus, this table 7 proves the study's first hypothesis that eco-spirituality strongly impacts employees' organizational commitment. As for understanding their relative impact on organizational Commitment, Table 5 exhibits the same, as it can be observed here that, while reducing overconsumption has the strongest association, other factors like the presence of a green zone, natural sunlight in the office and water conservation also has a positive association with organizational commitment in that order. Three factors that exhibit negative association with feeling connected to nature, recycling and garbage reduction, are puzzling outcomes in this table 8, which could be explained as these are the factors that demand extra effort from the employee for maintaining these facilities, which might have led the respondents to depict a negative association for the same. For the testing of the second hypothesis, again, a linear regression test was conducted, and the resultant r 2 value of 0.857 in Table 8 depicts the strong association between organizational commitment and employee engagement, thus proving the second hypothesis in the process that organizational commitment does exhibit a strong impact on the employee engagement. Table 9 further types cement this outcome with a strong association of organizational commitment with employee engagement.  Table 9 is the model with an R-value of 0.92, indicating a strong positive correlation between Organisational Commitment and employee engagement. The R² value of 0.857 indicates that Organisational Commitment can explain 85.7% of the variation in employee engagement (table 10). To test the third hypothesis of the study, a linear regression test was conducted to ascertain the impact of eco-spirituality factors on the employee engagement of female academicians, and, as Tables 8 and 9 exhibit, again, there is a significant association among these factors, as the r 2 value of 0.986 is a very significant and strong indicator of the influence of ecospirituality factors on employee engagement. This proves the third hypothesis of the study, as it establishes the impact of EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 08 2022 -10 2022 | Volume 8 | Issue 2 | e2 Analyzing the Effects of Eco-Spirituality on Organizational Commitment and Employee Engagement Among Female Academics in Higher Education 9 eco-spirituality on the employee engagement of female academicians in higher education institutions.  Table 11 is of model fit measure, and when we study the individual impact of the eco-spirituality variables on employee engagement, the overall outcome remains the same as in the case of organizational commitment. However, the change of recycling and feeling connected to nature variables from negative to positive association indicate that the employees feel connected to the organization in a better manner with such initiatives like recycling etc. but might feel that the organization expects more out of the employees in this regard, as compared to their input in this matter. The strongest association moves from overconsumption reduction to the green zone availability in the office, indicating that if the organization provides and maintains a green landscape, it is highly beneficial for the employees of the organization as they feel more connected with the organization and, naturally, their performance would improve, thus benefiting every stakeholder in the process (table 12). An additional step of computation of the values for employee engagement was also conducted to double-check the outcomes of the data analysis exercise concerning the three hypotheses being tested, and, like Table 13 indicates, once again, a very strong association (r 2 = 0.977) between the variables chosen for study and employee engagement is exhibited. The model has an R-value of 0.989, which indicates an extremely strong positive correlation between employee engagement and Eco-Spirituality. The R² value of 0.977 indicates that 97.7% of the variation in employee engagement can be explained by Eco-Spirituality.  Table 14 shows the regression analysis results with one predictor variable, Eco-Spirituality, and employee engagement. The intercept estimate is 0.22, indicating that the expected value of the outcome variable when the predictor variable is zero is 0.22. The estimate for Eco-Spirituality is 0.948, indicating that for every one-unit increase in the Eco-Spirituality predictor variable, the outcome variable is expected to increase by 0.948 units. The t-value column shows the calculated t-value for each predictor variable. The t-value is calculated by dividing the estimate by the standard error. The t-value for the intercept is 7.29, and for Eco-Spirituality is 130.72. The p-value column shows the calculated p-value for each predictor variable. The p-value is the probability of observing a t-value as extreme or more extreme than the calculated t-value, assuming the null hypothesis is true. In this case, the null hypothesis is that the predictor variable does not affect the outcome variable. The intercept and Eco-Spirituality predictor variables have pvalues less than 0.001, indicating a statistically significant effect on the outcome variable.

Conclusion
The pandemic Covid 19 has thrown higher education institutions in disarray, as most of them realized that the assets which they thought were very strong and attractive, like huge campuses and magnificent buildings, were proven worthless in the online teaching-learning process, and turning the manpower of the institution, the academicians as the most important asset and a huge differentiating factor from their competitors. The pandemic demanded extra work hours and extra hours from everybody involved to maintain business continuity, thus harming female academicians more than their male counterparts. One of the fundamental reasons for this difference is the involvement of the females in their household chores, which a male member can ignore. As the campuses open up and the staff returns to the office, it is a challenge for the organizations to generate the same amount of attachment among the employees for the office that was there before the pandemic. Eco-Spirituality as a concept helps in this regard, as it shows that if the organization can take care of a few factors deemed crucial by the employees, the same amount of Commitment and Engagement could be generated among the staff towards the organization. As the factors and variables chosen for the study, indicate, a turn towards nature and imbibing the eco-friendly practices of the new millennium go a long way in enhancing the organizational Commitment and the Engagement of the employees in the workplace. Important factors among these are those that lead to a unification of nature and her gifts with the formal structure and design of an office, like green spaces, more natural light seeping into the office and creating a feeling of being connected with nature. This aspect could be the outcome of the WFH practices many employees have followed over the past two years of shifting to eco-friendly and remote locations while working. Recycling, reducing wastage and overconsumption echo the new woke sensibilities of the modern workforce that realize the importance of environmental conservation and is now demanding that organizations should also actively contribute. In a way, this study concludes that the more an organization is in harmony with the environment and natural surroundings, the better engaged would be their female academicians with the organization, thus benefiting everybody in the process.

Study limitations
Because this research was limited to higher education institutions in the National Capital Region, the findings cannot be applied to other states or metro areas. Another constraint was the small sample size (400), which does not represent a representative sample of female academicians working in higher education institutions throughout the country, including the National Capital Region. A third constraint was that only private higher education institutions were considered, while public sector institutions were excluded from the study.

Future scope of research
The researcher evaluated the impact of eco-spirituality and organizational commitment on employee engagement of female academicians in higher educational institutions of the National Capital Region; therefore, other states and metro cities can be included in future research. This study focused exclusively on female academicians, who account for nearly 60% of all academicians in higher education institutions; thus, in future research, male academicians and their perceptions can also be included.