A Review of Scientific Research on Spirituality

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 management 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 spirituality 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 exploration of spirituality both comprehensive and complete.