The Spirit at Work Scale: Developing and Validating a Measure of Individual Spirituality at Work

J. Neal (ed.), Handbook of Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace: Emerging Research and Practice, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-5233-1_23, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract A clear, empirically grounded, and theoretically defensible de fi nition, and a short, psychometrically sound measure of spirituality at work is offered. This chapter presents four studies to document the development of an 18-item Spirit at Work Scale (SAWS) and to establish basic construct validity and reports on its recent application. Study 1 outlines the development of the 18-item SAWS and presents the fourfactor structure: engaging work, sense of community, spiritual connection, and mystical experience . Analyses revealed high internal consistency for both the total scale ( a = 0.93) and the four subscales ( a s from 0.86 to 0.91). Study 2 con fi rms the factor structure and demonstrates convergent and divergent validity by correlating SAWS with a number of work-related and personal well-being measures expected to be related to SAWS in lesser and greater degrees. As predicted, SAWS total scores correlated the highest with the other work-related measures (i.e., organizational culture, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction) ( r s from 0.52 to 0.65) and the lowest with the personality dimensions ( r s from 0.10 to 0.31). The known group method illustrates that SAWS scores differ between two groups. Study 3 provides further evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with a different group. Study 4 demonstrates SAWS temporal stability (or test–retest reliability) and sensitivity to change over time. SAWS holds much promise for use in practice and research.