Title

Transcending Belief - A Non-theistic Model for Operationalizing Spiritual Values, Practices and States and Their Relationship to Workplace Behavior

Authors

Graeme Coetzer, Central Washington University
Jerry Biberman, University of Scranton
Len Tischler, University of Scranton

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Management

Publication Date

Spring 2008

Abstract

A number of scales have been developed to measure spirituality, but many of these scales have come from a theological model and have questions concerning belief in God and faith. Such measures may not capture spiritual experiences that transcend specific theological faiths and belief systems. They would also be unacceptable in many companies that are concerned about connecting their operations with a religion. We propose a non-theistic model of spirituality that describes spiritual values, practices and states and their relationship to elements of workplace behavior. This current paper focuses on an empirical measurement of spiritual motivations, values, practices and states. A pool of items that measure each of these elements was generated and factor analyzed to group the items. The factors were then correlated with an established measure of organizational behavior. Results indicate that a non-theistic measure of spiritual states can be highly correlated with important workplace behavior. Such a measure could be applied more broadly in the workplace than theistically grounded measures. The discussion section focuses on the potential organizational utility of such correlations.

Comments

This article was originally published in Interbeing.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Recommended Citation

Graeme, C., Biberman, J., & Tischler, L. (2008). Transcending Belief - A Non-theistic Model for Operationalizing Spiritual Values, Practices and States and Their Relationship to Workplace Behavior. Interbeing, 2(1), 19-31.

Journal

Interbeing