The effects of workplace spirituality and spiritual intelligence on person-organization fit, person-job fit and the subsequent effects on real estate agents' work behaviors and performance

Abstract

The real estate brokerage industry plays a major role in the real estate sector and economy of Thailand. There are about 5,000 registered brokerage firms that conducted business with real estate agents and brokers in Thailand, with an overall market value of approximately 16 billion Baht in 2019. Even though real estate agents are the key labor force of this business, they have been characterized as employees who have a very high turnover rate. They are paid under a commission-based compensation plan with a small basic salary; therefore, brokerage firms encounter low risk from hiring new sales agents and often do not consider hiring on a long-term basis. Under the loose recruitment process, most of the time, a brokerage firm may recruit real estate agents who do not fit in with the organization and job. The misfit among these real estate agents is costly to their performance and brokerage firm in the long run. Consequently, it is necessary for the brokerage firms to encourage real estate agents’ fit perception toward organization and job. To be able to promote these fit perceptions, this dissertation focuses on the concepts of workplace spirituality and spiritual intelligence that are relatively new and still have not received sufficient attention in the management arena. Therefore, the objective of this research is to apply the Person-organization (P-O) fit theory and Person-job (P-J) fit theory to investigate the contributions of workplace spirituality and spiritual intelligence to P-O fit, P-J fit and the subsequent effect on organizational commitment, CO-OCB, and performance of real estate agents in Thailand. In addition, the mutual effect of workplace spirituality and spiritual intelligence on P-O fit and P-J fit of real estate agents also are explored. By using the probability sampling method, the survey data were collected from 398 real estate agents who worked in 60 real estate brokerage firms in Bangkok, Thailand. The results from the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) significantly support the positive effect of workplace spirituality on P-O fit and P-J fit. The results also showed a positive effect of spiritual intelligence on P-J fit, but not on P-O fit. Moreover, P-O fit and P-J fit were found to have positive effects on organizational commitment, CO-OCB, and real estate agents’ performance. However, the model estimation did not support the mutual effect of spiritual intelligence and workplace spirituality on P-O fit and P-J fit. The findings overall clarify the theoretical mechanism of the P-O fit theory and P-J fit theory by which workplace spirituality and spiritual intelligence motivate real estate agents to demonstrate positive fit perceptions, work behavior, and enhanced performance. The academic and practical contributions are further discussed.