A spiritual audit of corporate America: ten years later (spirituality and attachment theory, an interim report)

Abstract

This paper represents the first in a series of reports of a 10‐year follow up study of the authors’ 1997–1999 study of spirituality in the workplace.Forty‐five responses to a modified questionnaire were analyzed. Attachment Theory was used to analyze the respondents’ views and feelings with regard to a variety of items pertaining to religion and spirituality.Those respondents having a Secure style of attachment were attracted to and had a much more positive view of spirituality than those with other attachment styles.The low percentage of respondents and the fact that those who responded were overwhelmingly Secure limits the study. Nonetheless, a very strong and clear portrait emerges of the link between a Secure attachment style and spirituality.The data show clearly that Secure individuals have a much more positive view of their organizations, and furthermore that their organizations are perceived as more spiritual. A strong implication is that spiritual organizations are thus somehow more Secure. If this implication is borne out by further research, then it means that we have identified a potentially new model for practicing spirituality in the workplace beyond those that were identified in our 1997–1999 study.