July-December, 2012 Business Perspectins and Research

A Review of Scientific Research on Spirituality

Rajesh Ratnakar 1
Shreekumar Nair 2

Abstract
Spirituality has, perhaps, been one of the most misused and misconstrued of concepts and over
the years, it has acquired diverse and somewhat conflicting meanings. In the recent past, there
has been a growing interest in spirituality among academicians as well as practitioners of man-
agement and organisational behaviour. In fact, attempts are still continuing to clearly define
spirituality by de-linking it from religion and also identify the quintessential facets, indicators or
dimensions of spirituality. This paper presents a review of the work done in the area of spiritual-
ity in the last three decades, with the specific purpose of highlighting some of the uncertainties
which still remain. The research studies examined here have been divided into seven sections and
each section concludes by highlighting the most prominent gaps in that area. The purpose is to
enable future researchers to bridge these gaps, in an effort to make the ongoing scientific explo-
ration of spirituality both comprehensive and complete.

Key Words
Health and wellbeing, organisational spirituality, spirituality, spirituality at work, spirituality
intelligence
1. Introduction

Spirituality is concerned with an individual's inner life, which has been found to have positive
consequences for his/her behaviour in the organisational context. In recent years, there have
been systematic and successful attempts to apply the concept of spirituality in organisational
settings for improving employee wellness. Till the turn of the century, spirituality had not really
been an area of interest for the scientifically minded researchers. In fact, until the 1990s, there
were hardly a handful of quantitative studies done on this subject. Many researchers, like Hodge
(2001) as well as Forray and Stork (2002), among others, had expressed their views, in their own
ways, wondering why spirituality was normally not treated as a scientific variable and why its
relationship with other accepted psychological variables had not been extensively studied and
statistically analyzed. They agreed that it was quite difficult to define, let alone measure spiritu-
ality. However, a very important question arose, which could not be overlooked - Why had such
few attempts been made to apply the deeply insightful tools of quantitative logic and scientific
rationality, in the study and understanding of the concepts related to spirituality?

Empirically speaking, the area of spirituality was quite undefined, before the 1980s. There were
hardly any concepts that possessed widely accepted definitions. People had their own definitions
(for their own purposes) about concepts they were interested in and were not really concerned
with gaining widespread acceptance or agreement for their 'personal' viewpoints or beliefs. With-
out attempting an exhaustive search, McGinn (1993) turned up 35 different definitions that he
had to classify into three categories or approaches: theological or dogmatic interpretations that

1
ProJ Rajesh Ratnakar, R esearch Fel/01/J, Natio11al I11stit11te ~f I11d11strial E ngineering (:\'!TIE), ,\1umhai, I11dia,
rajeshrat11akat@hot111ail. com
2
Dr. Shreekumar Nair, Professor, OB C"' HRM, Natio11al Instit11te ~f Industrial E ngineering (:\'!TIE), i\111mhai, India,
shreek umar_11itie@yahoo.com, shreek11ma1@ nitie.edu

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]11!y-Dece111ber, 2012 Business Perspectives and Research

supply a 'definition from above', anthropological understandings that emphasize human nature
and experience, and historical-contextual approaches that accentuate experience rooted in a par-
ticular community's history.
However, as the turn of the century drew closer, from the 1990s onwards, things started chang-
ing. Focused research started taking place in spirituality, building on itself, and led to a flurry of
papers and book publications in this field. What was particularly exciting, though, was that the
on-going discussions on the topic were creating whole new areas of analysis, such as Neurotheology
(Newberg, D' Aquili, & Rause, 2001), which examined the neurological and biological bases to
the spiritual experience, and Theobiology (Rayburn &Richmond, 1998), which sought to under-
stand spirituality through the fullness and structure of the natural world in which we live, as well
as revealed knowledge. What all these new approaches were beginning to show was that spiritu-
ality is a basic element of who we are as human beings.

In the words of Moberg (2002, p. 58) " ... the attempt to discover additional dimensions, indica-
tors, correlates, sources, and consequences of spirituality is one of the potentially richest chal-
lenges for future research in the social and behavioural sciences." However, going forward in this
area was not so simple. Moberg (2002) also gave us a 'friendly warning' by telling us about his
sociologist friend who began research on spirituality. She recruited an expert panel from several
religious groups, but the Jews on her team did not like indicators of spiritual wellness that satis-
fied the Christians; the project died before she could consult its Muslims. It also became dear, as
one tried to understand the nuances of doing research in the area of spirituality, that one had to
proceed with caution. As Marjolien clearly pointed out, human inquiry involved doing research
with, rather than on people (Lips-Wiersma, 2002).

Most scholars are familiar with the founder of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, and his
five layered pyramid of hierarchical needs. What some might not know is that Maslow had later
added to his hierarchy of human needs a sixth, new top level of self- transcendence.

Abraham Maslow is renowned as the founder of humanistic psychology. By the mid-60s, how-
ever, Maslow moved beyond a strictly humanistic viewpoint and founded a transpersonal or
spiritually based psychology. His later books carried such titles as 'Religions, Values and Peak
Experiences' (Maslow, 1964) and 'The Farther Reaches of Human Nature' (J\'Iaslow, 1971). Maslow
added to his familiar hierarchy of human needs a new top level of self-transcendence. Maslow's
studies of self-actualized individuals forced him to conclude that the highest level of self-actual-
ization involves movement beyond the self. Today's movement of 'positive psychology' echoes
Maslow's message, and emphasizes the study of healthy vibrant persons, and attention to those
factors-including spirituality-that support their positive adjustment (Moss, 2002).

2. Review of Literature
2.1 Defining Spirituality
The etymological root of the word spirit came from the Latin root 'spiritus', meaning breath,
courage, vigour, the soul, life; or from 'spirare', to blow or to breath (as per Eliason, Hanley &
Leventis, 2001 ). Defining spirituality has always been tricky. As Taggart aptly put it, " . . .it is in
the nature of spirituality to be elusive. Whilst some ... . want to be clearer on what it is, ...... others
strongly resist giving it a definition at all, knowing the tyrannical, restrictive power of defini-
tions" (Taggart, 2001, p. 325).
Moberg (2002) asserted that some definitions of spirituality are substantive, revolving around
sacred contents or components that usually encompass God-related or divine phenomena, whereas
others are functional, focusing upon what spirituality does or how it subjectively and existentially

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affects individuals or groups. The former push the boundaries between scientific theory and
theology, whereas the later tend to erode definitional boundaries. He quoted McGinn (1993, p.
1), who claimed that "spirituality is like obscenity; we may not know how to define it, yet we
know it when we see it, and the 'fickleness' of academics inability to provide precise definitions
has never prevented people from practicing it."

Hodge (2001) directly defined spirituality as a relationship with God, or whatever was held to be
the Ultimate, that fostered a sense of meaning, purpose and mission in life. Although definitions
of spirituality varied, one thing they had in common was that they were concerned with the
process of finding meaning and purpose in our lives as well as living out one's set of deeply held
personal beliefs (Neck & Milliman, 1994). According to Vaill (1996, p.218), spirituality referred
to " ..the feeling individuals have about the fundamental meaning of who they are, what they are
doing, and the contributions they are making". On the other hand, Krishnakumar and Neck
(2002) put forth the argument that this multiple view of spirituality was a positive thing for
organizations if managers attempted to understand differing spiritual views and also encouraged
all views within an organization, and thus the search for a definitive description of the term was
not the best exercise.

Piedmont and Leach (2002) wrote that spirituality represents the raw psychological material
from which religious behaviours arise. Danah Zohar, in her much-talked-about book titled 'SQ -
Spiritual Intelligence - the Ultimate Intelligence', elaborated on the concept of Spiritual Quotient
(SQ) emphasising that "SQ is concerned with meaning, values and creative vision, and most
importantly has the power to transform" (Zohar & Marshall, 2000, p. 15).

Parsian and Dunning (2009, p. 2) who developed the 'Spirituality Questionnaire', defined spiritu-
ality as "finding meaning in life, self-actualisation, and connections with the inner-self, other
people and the universal whole" and declared that this definition was applicable to both religious
and non-religious people. However, not everybody looked at religion/ spirituality in this way.
According to Moss (2002, p. 284), Freud "portrays religion as a projection o f human fears and
wishes, and portrays religious persons as superstitious individuals too weak to face objective
realities; this double message captures Freud's attitude toward spirituality".

McSherry and Cash (2004) explored some of the commonly cited definitions (especially in the
nursing context) to establish if the concept of spirituality could be termed 'universal'. They
concluded that, " ... .. .. it would appear that there is no such thing as a universal definition of
spirituality and the theoretical probability of creating one is virtually impossible"( McSherry &
Cash 2004, p. 159). Similarly, Pava (2007, p. 292) too raised a very hard-hitting question -"why
bother to use the word spirituality at all? Why not just jettison spirituality all together in favor of
a different word like meaning or meaningfulness?" Conversely, he then went on to answer his
own question by asserting (with justifications) that the word spirituality was too important and
valuable a tool to be abandoned. By and large, people had, and still have, a very positive under-
standing of what spirituality denotes. In a recent article, Poole (2009) asked us to keep in mind
that definitions of 'spirituality' vary, and tend to include purpose, values, meaning-making, being
good or ethical, connectedness, transcendence, self-actualization and other-worldly.

Thus the most prominent researchable gap is automatically exposed. There is no single, well-
defined, widely accepted definition of spirituality. In fact there are so many, that the concept is in
danger of getting obscured due to vagueness. According to Badrinarayanan and Madhavaram
(2008), no single and universally acceptable operational definition of spirituality has yet been
proposed to the spiritual or scientific intelligentsia. In fact, Zohar (2000) actually implies that it
may be so difficult to do, that it might be close to impossible. Thus, writings / research studies
presented here, make it amply clear that defining spirituality in itself could be a huge task and

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could really benefit from researchers applying themselves diligently to the challenge of coming
out with a definition, that is by and large acceptable to the majority of people dealing with the
science of spirituality.
2.2 The Difference between Religion and Spirituality
A lot of confusion has occurred, can occur, and actually keeps occurring, because there are no
precise and specific definitions of the two concepts of religion and spirituality. Thus differentiat-
ing between these two terms becomes very difficult. That is why many people try and take the
easy path and use them as synonyms, thereby complicating things further. Also, many of the
negativities of organised religion get rubbed off on spirituality, as many times the two concepts
are vaguely clubbed together. Highlighting the confusing conceptual overlaps, McConkie (2008)
talked about the definitional ping-pong between spirituality and religion because of which both
concepts suffer from definitional murkiness.

However, many researchers have clearly started differentiating between these two terms. In fact
some of them have also declared that this differentiation is of crucial importance. Northcut
(2000, p. 158) cites two definitions - one for religion as "the external expression of faith com-
prised of beliefs, ethical codes, and worship practices", and one for spirituality as "the human
quest for personal meaning and mutually fulfilling relationships among people, the nonhuman
environment, and for some, God."

In the readings of the current literature concerning this, various views outlining this difference
have emerged, which are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Spirituality versus Religion

SPIRITUALITY RELIGION
Cnites /Unifying Divides / Separating
InclusiYe Exclusive
Basic psychological raw material (Piedmont & Methods of processing or channelizing that raw
Leach, 2002) material
L' rge coming from inside Directives coming from outside
Highly appropriate topic for discussion in the Highly inappropriate topic for discussion in the
workplace (Mitroff & Denton, 1999) workplace
Unconditional Conditional
Applicable to each and every human being Applicable to that religion following
Natural Man-created
More to do with self-discovery (Cochrane, !\fore to do with dogma, rituals, traditions, rules
2000) (Moss, 2002)
Manifests only in love, beauty, compassion and Can manifest in anything, including murder,
such positive entities ... terrorism and genocide.
God - All that is (Not one or personal God) Some personal God, or image, or a boundaried
concept
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Pure Interpreted by man
Has more to do with the inclination, the inner Has more to do with the path to be walked
force or drive (Ottaway, 2003)

About an open-minded search for the Ultimate About perpetuating an agreed faith (Kari 2007)
Source : Ratnakar 2011

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Badrinarayanan and Madhavaram (2008, p. 422) invited full and widespread agreement when
they emphatically stated that two factors have impeded scholarly research on spirituality in the
mainstream business literature: (1) the prevailing confusion regarding the differences between
spirituality and religiosity and (2) the lack of a consensus on the definition of spirituality. Both
these issues have to be tackled head-on, for breakthroughs in scientific research in this field.

2.3 Different Dimensions of Spirituality

Many dimensions of spirituality have been identified by various scholars who have gone deep
into the subject. While exploring the question, - Do human characteristics that are spiritual in
nature contribute to the learning process? Bennet and Bennet (2007) came up with the following
13 dimensions of spirituality: Aliveness, Caring, Compassion, Eagerness, Empathy, Expectancy,
Harmony, Joy, Love, Respect, Sensitivity, Tolerance and Willingness. According to Mahoney and
Graci (1999), spirituality seemed to include the following attributes: charity (a sense of giving,
service), community (a sense of connection, relationship), compassion, forgiveness (and peace),
hope, learning opportunities, meaning (purpose), and morality (a sensitivity to right and wrong).
McCormick (1994) laid out these 5 themes of spirituality that assumed significant relevance in
the context of the global marketplace and multicultural workplace - Compassion, Right liveli-
hood, Selfless service, Work as a meditation and Respecting pluralism. In their study of spiritual-
ity in the workplace, Mitroff and Denton (1999) in a systematic survey, found spirituality to be
universal and timeless, encompassing many dimensions like interconnectedness, sacredness, in-
ner peace - just to name a few.
Again, it is evident that here too, as in the case of defining spirituality, there seemed to be as
many dimensions / ingredients of spirituality, as there are approaches - or people that are making
these approaches. However, this again highlights the need for working on the important research-
able question of whether a single, operational, well defined and well accepted definition, specify-
ing clearly defined dimensions of spirituality, can be written and proposed to satisfy all, or at least
a majority of the stakeholders involved in the scientific study of spirituality.

2.4 Spiritual Intelligence

In the earlier days, intelligence used to be a simple, singular, non-problematic concept, under-
stood generally to be" ... a single capacity, often abbreviated as 'g' for general intelligence; . . . largely
inborn and therefore difficult to alter; and psychologists can measure intelligence, from early in a
subject's life through the administration of circumscribed instruments called IQ tests" (Herrnstein
& Murray, 1994, as cited in Gardner, 2000, p. 28) .

Then Gardner (1993) published his book on the theory of multiple intelligences, and introduced
a total of seven intelligences, as follows: Linguistic/ Verbal; Mathematical/Logical/ Analytical;
Visual/Spatial; Auditory /Musical; l<.inaesthetic/ Motor; Interpersonal; Intrapersonal; Naturalis-
tic (eighth added later, Gardner, 2000). He also laid down eight criteria defining what would
enable an entity to qualify for being recognized as an intelligence.

Emmons (2000) wrote a revolutionary article proposing the existence of a ninth intelligence i.e.
spiritual intelligence. He convincingly argued th~.t spiritual intelligence met all the qualifying
criteria. Edwards (2003, p. 51 ) had this to say about the Gardner - Emmons debate on spiritual
intelligence - "I am initially in broad sympathy with the case for spiritual intelligence, but I feel
that three questions need to be addressed before we get overenthusiastic about the concept".
The three questions were: (a) Is spiritual intelligence truly autonomous from other forms of
intelligence, such as verbal, logico-mathematical, and perhaps most important of all - social
intelligence? (b) Does using spirituality to solve problems imply that a certain set of problems

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can be specifically designated as spiritual ones? and (c) Can we distinguish spiritual knowing
from knowing about spirituality?
The debate on spiritual intelligence is still going on and this could be a rich area for contributions
and furthering the boundary of knowledge and understanding. However, scholars working in this
area are still trading conflicting insights and views on whether spirituality qualifies to be called an
'intelligence' or not. And from the current trends, these somewhat meandering discussions and
deliberations look all set to continue for some time. Therefore, any 'intelligently-designed' re-
search study in this particular area which can, once and for all, resolve this issue could provide
the much needed breakthrough in this area of spirituality.

2.5 Measuring Spirituality

At this stage, a very pertinent and valid question arises - If it is so difficult to define the concept
of spirituality, wouldn't it be even more difficult to measure it? That may be true, but some
people have found a way around this problem, by first defining their own construct/ approach to
spirituality or a particular aspect of it, and then gone on to devise and validate ways of measuring
that.

Many people have attempted to develop spirituality-related constructs and tool for measuring
them. For example, Ellison (1983) produced a Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) made up of
two dimensions, Existential Well-Being (EWB) and Religious Well-Being (RWB). This has, over
the last few years, been extensively used. The SWBS was further fine-tuned and developed into a
more validated - Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ) (Gomez & Fisher, 2003) . Another
instrument, Kuhn's Spiritual Inventory (reported in McKee & Chappel, 1992), is made up of 25
questions focussed on relations with self, others, and the Transcendent, but not environment.

Mascaro, Rosen and Morey (2004) constructed a 14-item Spiritual Meaning Scale (SMS) for
measuring the extent of meaning derived from spirituality. Ryan and Fiorito (2003) developed a
'Means-Ends Spirituality Questionnaire' (63-item M-E-S-Q) to investigate the relationship
between religion and mental health.

Glik (1990) developed a 19-item Index of Spiritual Orientation. This scale has three distinct
factors which corresponded conceptually to 'Ideational beliefs' (9 items), 'Salience of religion'
(6 items), and 'Mysticism' (4 items).

The Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index (SH4DI) was developed by Fisher, Francis and
Johnson (2000), for the assessment of spiritual health in terms of four domains of spiritual
wellbeing concerned with self, community, environment, and God. The Spirituality Question-
naire, consisting of 29 items, was developed by Parsian and Dunning (2009) to measure spiritu-
ality and examine the relationship between spirituality and coping in young adults with diabetes.
It had four factors: self-awareness, the importance of spiritual beliefs, spiritual practices, and
spiritual needs.

There was, however, one significant problem in the application of these inventories. They were
predominantly used in western settings, with mostly Christian participants. Moberg (2002) con-
veyed, very tellingly, that only 5 of the 282 studies on religion/ spirituality and related variables
he looked at, were devoted to Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, or Muslim subjects (or all of them),
and of them only 2 (both on Muslim religion) used quantitative methodologies. Thus this is a
limitation which needs to be overcome. More empirical studies need to be conducted in the
eastern cultural settings, especially using measuring instruments that are both culture-free and
free from any religious bias or influences.

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2.6 Spirituality, Health and Well Being

The relationship between spirituality and good health has been recognized for a long time and has
been the subject of a lot of debate and research. Many studies found a positive correlation
between these two variables. Coward and Reed (1996) defined healing as a sense of wellbeing
that is derived from an intensified awareness of wholeness and integration among all dimensions
of being.
In one study Fisher, Francis and Johnson (2002), who also developed the SH4DI, (Spiritual
Health in Four Domains Index) examined personal and social correlates of health and spiritual
well-being among primary school teachers in the UK and found a positive correlation of age with
spiritual well-being. In another study with a difference, Kaut (2002) closely examined the
connection of spirituality and death / dying. His study revealed that not only it is important to
enhance spirituality throughout one's life but also it is even more imperative to promote spiritual
health near the end of one's life.
Byrd (1988) conducted a random double blind assignment of 393 coronary care patients to con-
trol or experimental groups. Patients, physicians, and experimenters did not know which patients
were prayed for. Religious groups were organized and prayed daily for the experimental group.
Each volunteer prayed for several patients by the patient's first name, using that volunteer's own
style of prayer. Byrd's findings showed that the prayed-for patients in his experimental group
were 5 times less likely to require antibiotics and 3 times less likely to have pulmonary edema;
none of them required endotracheal intubation compared to 12 in the control group and propor-
tionately fewer died. The prayed-for group had "less congestive heart failure, required less di-
uretic and antibiotic therapy, had fewer episodes of pneumonia, had fewer cardiac arrests and
were less frequently intubated and ventilated" (Bryd, 1988, p.829) . On a similar vein, Braud
(1990) at the Mind Science Foundation used 10 tubes of red blood cells in an experimental group
and 10 identical tubes in the control group. 32 unskilled volunteers visualized protecting the red
blood cells in the experimental group. Experimenters and technicians were blinded as to which
tubes were prayed for. When all the blood cells were exposed to a salt solution, those in the
experimental group showed less haemolysis, swelling, bursting and dissolving. In another compa-
rable study, Wirth and Cram (1994) reported that prayer lowered surface EMG at lumbar and
thoracic sites, all other things remaining constant including autonomic relaxation.

Therefore, that spirituality positively affects health is now beyond doubt, however, how it does
so and how it can be logically harnessed to do so, i.e., how spirituality can be tangibly used for
enhancing physical health directly, can be an area of serious and insightful research in the future.
Research studies which can isolate (all other factors remaining constant) the effect of spirituality
on health, so that it can be scientifically studied, used and harnessed for the practical, everyday
use for improving all-round health, would further pave the path for bringing spirituality in the
mainstream of all aspects of people's lives.

2. 7 Spirituality at Work
There is no doubt that workplace spirituality is now being subjected to very intense scrutiny by
the researching community and the explosion of writings on this subject is ample proof of this
fact. Though the real research work (as reported in publications) has started in the last 15 years or
so, spirituality (at work and in daily life), has been talked about for almost a 100 years now. Way
back, almost 90 years ago, Mary Parker Follett, a prolific and very respected writer of her times,
had emphasised in her book 'Creative Experience' (Pollet, 1924) the need for attention to one's
spiritual life in the workplace when she wrote that "the divorce of our so-called spiritual life from
our daily activities is a fatal dualism" (as cited in Johnson, 2007, p. 430).

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In the Journal of Organizational Change Management's special issue on 'The leading edge in
research on spirituality and organizations', Benefiel (2003) summarized three main approaches
being taken in the field: (a) The quantitative trail; (b) The broad 'why' and 'how' trail - addressing
why and how spirituality should, and could, be integrated into organisations; and finally (c) The
deep 'how' and 'why' trail - qualitative research work on manifestation and impact of spirituality,

The leadership angle on spirituality looks to be fast gaining currency in the research world, Fry
and Cohen (2009) offered spiritual leadership as a paradigm for organizational transformation,
and recovery from the negative aspects of EWHC - (Extended Working Hours Culture), which
can go on to enhance employee well-being and corporate social responsibility, without sacrificing
profitability, revenue growth, and other indicators of financial performance. In fact, Cacioppe
(2000) went so far as to declare that the central role of leadership was the development of spirit
at an individual, team and organizational level.

Tischler, Biberman and Mckeage (2002) made an assertion (based on their extensive study of
this subject) that people with higher levels of spirituality have healthier, happier and more pro-
ductive lives at work. They said that since Emotional Quotient (EQ) has been proven to affect
work lives (Goleman, 1995), there could be a strong case made for SQ to do the same. They also
put forth their view that being an intra-personal experience, one cannot empirically test the spiri-
tual experience itself, though its manifestations/ effects can be studied. They cited many studies
where Transcendental Meditation (TM) of Mahesh Yogi has been shown to have significant
positive effects on work productivity.
In another study, Mi troff and Denton (1999) conducted more than 100-indepth interviews and
backed it up with a mailed questionnaire. Some of their findings (briefly summarised) were:

• People are hungry for ways in which to practice spirituality in the workplace without offend-
ing their co-workers or causing acrimony.

• A decisive majority wished to be able to express and develop their complete self at work.

• Most of the people interviewed had experienced some form of 'wounding of the soul' as a
result of working in organisations.

• Almost all the interviewees believed in a higher power or God.

Neal and Biberman (2003) realistically philosophized - In the past several 100 years, Westerners
have created a distinct separation between the outer world of worldly activities and the inner
world of spirituality and religion. In many ways this helped the human race to rise above supersti-
tion and the power and domination of churches. But in many other ways, it separated us from
what is best and highest in being human. After making this compelling point, they then went on
to raise some very specific questions facing all researchers in the field of spirituality, namely:

• Can and should we measure something as ineffable as spirituality?

• By attempting to measure spirituality related to organizational outcomes, are we providing

ammunition for organizations to use spirituality for instrumental means?

• How do we distinguish between spirituality, religiosity, religion, spiritual values, spiritual

practices, and other important concepts? Do current assessment tools (mostly from the fields
of psychology and theology) work in organizational settings?

• Are there new methodologies, beyond current qualitative and quantitative approaches, that
might be more in alignment with a higher consciousness way of doing research?

• How cross-cultural are our concepts and methodologies?

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• What significant individual outcomes are related to individual spirituality in the workplace?

• Is there such a thing as organizational spirituality and if so, what are key organizational
outcomes related to it?
• What impact does the researcher's own spirituality have on the outcomes of the research?
(Neal & Biberman, 2003, p. 364).
Focussing on a slightly different corporate setting, i.e., the software industry, Armour (2002, p.
14) succinctly contended, - "We program machines, but we are not machines. It is the spirit that
makes us different."
Thus, as many of the research studies quoted above have elucidated, spirituality was now begin-
ning to be perceived as a necessary ingredient in a satisfying and motivating workplace. And as
can be clearly seen, a plethora of research, from multiple angles, is going on in this specific area.
But then again, much more needs to be still explored regarding what can be the acceptable forms
in which spirituality can be made a seamless part of workplaces, work lives and work cultures,
and also more empirical research is needed in the most (at least from the corporate perspective)
crucial realm of the nature of relationship between the profit-driven-bottomline and spirituality.
Hardly any study was found which dealt directly with the intricate relationship between spiritual-
ity and money-related variables like revenue, profits and shareholder value.

3. Conclusion

Though it is amply clear that the number of research studies done relating to spirituality has
increased considerably in the recent past, still there are many significant areas as yet unexplored.
Most of the research work has been carried out in the Christianity dominated western culture,
with quite a few of the empirical studies using instruments having religious bias. This, along with
the other gaps outlined at the end of each section in this article, need to be addressed at the
earliest.
It made a lot of sense when Moberg (2002) pointed out that, inspite of the reductionism that is
inevitable because it is impossible to measure spirituality directly and in its wholeness, the
attempt to discover additional dimensions, indicators, correlates, sources, and consequences of
spirituality is one of the potentially richest challenges for future research in the social and
behavioural sciences.
The importance, significance and impact of spirituality are just beginning to be understood. This
is happening at all levels and across many diverse fields of study, like physics, psychology, eco-
nomics and all bio-sciences. The emergence of fields of study like theo-biology and neuro-theol-
ogy, gives further credence to this, as well as the explosion of writings and research work in this
field. Yet, in conclusion it must be said that the work done in this field has some significant gaps
which this article has attempted to highlight. It is expected that, with further research work in
these areas by those who are striving to bring science and spirituality closer, many breakthroughs
can be achieved, taking us forward on the path to a much more comprehensive and scientific
understanding of the realm of spirituality.
References
Armour, P. G. (2002). The spiritual life of projects. Communications of the Association far Computing
Machinery, 4 5 (1 ), 11-14.
Badrinarayanan, V., & Madhavaram, S. (2008). Workplace spirituality and the selling
organization: a conceptual framework and research propositions. Journal of Personal
Selling & Sales Management, 28(4), 421-434.

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