Workplace Spirituality :: Religion, Work

Workplace spirituality is a sophisticated concept (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2004). Generally speaking, it involves the sense of well-being, the touch perception of the whole self involved in the work, the feeling of connection to others and something larger than oneself, and a sense of transcendence (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000 Ingersoll, 2010 Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2004 Kinjerski, V. M., & Skrypnek, 2008 Rego & Pina e Cunha, 2008 Sheep, 2004). Individuals view their work as sacred (Ingersoll, 2010), while workplace spirituality is not undeniable related to religion (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000 Krishnakumar & Neck, 2002 Milliman et al., 2003 Rego & Pina e Cunha, 2008). It coffin nail be regard to personal value or philosophy. This concept can be referred to self-actualization proposed by Maslows (1954) power structure of needs. Besides pursuing satisfaction of the basic levels in the hierarchy, someones have desire to satisfy the higher level of need. Although earning money is the basic goal, individuals eager to find bring out the implication in work, to make contribution to the society, to reach their full potential, to become connecting with colleagues, to work in an organization which they identify its goal and value (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2004).Although a undifferentiated definition in workplace spirituality has not been reached, mutuality in its definition delineated in literatures can be easily found. Sheep (2004) has been summed up into quatern themes. The first theme is self-workplace integration, that is the immersion of whole self into work. The second theme is meaning of work. People tend to find out meaning in their work. The meaning may be related to personal value, such as contributing to society and others, and go beyond monetary benefits. The third one is transcendence of self, connecting to something larger than self. This theme includes the connectedness to others, community, and the organization. The final theme is personal growth and development of ones inner life at work. Organization can provide conditions for the growth and development of employees.Despite various perspectives about workplace spirituality, three dimensions were focused in the present study. The model proposed by Milliman et al. (2003) was adopted. In this model, workplace spirituality includes three levels, namely individual, community and organization. This model embraces two above mentioned theme such as meaning of work and transcendence of self.In the individual level of workplace spirituality, meaningfulness in work is involved in this level. People are motivated to actively search for and give meaning to their lives (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000 Frankl, 1992 Lips-Wiersma & Morris, 2009).