One of the difficulties of doing research on the topic of ‘Workplace Spirituality’ is to provide a suitable working definition to it (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003). Owing to the subjective nature of workplace spirituality, the definitions are in plenty. Mirvis’ (1997) idea of workplace spirituality includes notions of community and meaningful work. Mitroff and Denton (1999, p. 83) in their study on workplace spirituality find that the participants understand spirituality as ‘the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete self, others, and the entire universe’. This view is similar to the notion of inner life. Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson (2003) include the aspects of the sense of community and meaningful work in workplace spirituality. Fry (2003) includes the notions of calling and membership which is similar to meaning and sense of community (Duchon & Plowman, 2005). Giacalone and Jurkiewicz’s (2003) definition includes the aspects similar to the meaningful work and connection to others. Marques, Dhiman and King (2005) mention the aspects of inner power, interconnectedness with those involved in work process and sense of purpose in work environment in their definition. Beyer (1999) mentions that meaning in work and belongingness to community nourishes the inner life of individuals and provides their work a spiritual dimension. Kinjerski and Skrypnek’s (2006) conceptualization of individual spirituality at work has three of the four dimensions as follows: engaging work (meaningful work), sense of community, and spiritual connection (inner life). Three common themes appearing from the definitions … are the following: sense of community, meaningful work and inner life. |