Religion, Spirituality, and the Workplace: A Review and Critique

Religion and spirituality strongly influence how most people experience the world, and opportunities to integrate faith and work abound. Yet research on religion, spirituality, and the workplace continues to have somewhat limited impact on mainstream organizational psychology and organizational behavior research. We review the most recent generation of research in this area. We describe high-level trends in the literature and summarize consistent patterns of results linking these constructs with usually beneficial attitudinal, behavioral, and other types of criterion variables. We identify four challenges that hamper progress in this area of research: conceptualizing and measuring core constructs, finding coherence amid theoretical diversity, integrating multiple levels of analysis and explanation, and navigating religion and spirituality in organizational practice. All of these challenges point to paths forward that may usher in a new wave of scholarship using meaning systems as an integrative framework, and practices that foster inclusion, integration, and both individual and organizational well-being.