Spirituality Definition

Spirituality appears to be an abstract concept, various scholars and researchers have attempted to describe it using their own terms as it relates to their respective context. Prominent definitions and descriptions of spirituality which on the whole encapsulate are as opined by Vaill (1996) relate to more to the feeling individuals have about the fundamental meaning of who they are, what they are doing, the contributions they are making. Similarly Koenig (2000) argues that spirituality refers to the personal and individual inquisition for understanding as well as answers to questions about life, meaning, purpose and about the possible relationship between one and a sacred or transcendent entity or set of entities, which may give arise and

The terms adopted by most of these scholars and researchers could be considered as being distinct forms with reference to oneness, belongingness, membership, and connectedness. According to Ashmos and Duchon (2000) workplace spirituality can be described as the recognition that workers have an inner life that nourishes and is also nourished by work and activities which reflect meaningful work that takes place within the context of community. This is as Ashmos and Duchon (2000), Milliman et al. (2003) in their study specified three levels of workplace spirituality, namely: the individual level with reference to meaning in work, group level as regards a sense of community, and organizational level as relates to alignment with organizational values and belief

Though lot of work has been done, still workplace spirituality research is in its early stage (Dent, et al., 2005; Sheep, 2006). Research on workplace spirituality has continued to grow with some research primarily focused on defining and operationalizing the construct (e.g. Ashmos and Duchon, 2000; Moore and Casper, 2006), while others are focused on mapping the area of workplace spirituality research, others are concerned with the laying of guidelines for the research in workplace spirituality and outlining empirical measures and nomothetic methods for studying workplace spirituality (Lund Dean, Fornaciari and McGee, 2003; Tischler et al., 2007).

Studies have consistently examined leadership as a tool and antecedent in the facilitation of workplace spirituality (Fry, 2003) with a majority of these studies emphasizing on outcomes of workplace spirituality such as employee work attitudes, (Rego and Pina e Cunha, 2008), organizational performance and effectiveness (Fry 2005), and team or group performance (Duchon and Plowman, 2005while a good number of scholars have attempted to associate workplace spirituality with mental health (Foskett et. al,