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UMI/ProQuest URL |
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http://80-wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/9961549 |
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PUBLICATION NUMBER |
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AAT
9961549 |
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TITLE |
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Developmental
processes and structures requisite to the integration of spirituality and work |
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AUTHOR |
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Acker, Kimberlee |
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DEGREE |
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PhD |
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SCHOOL |
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FIELDING GRADUATE INSTITUTE |
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DATE |
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2000 |
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PAGES |
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144 |
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ADVISER |
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ISBN |
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0-599-65445-7 |
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SOURCE |
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DAI-B 61/02, p. 1107, Aug 2000 |
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SUBJECT |
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PSYCHOLOGY,
DEVELOPMENTAL (0620); PSYCHOLOGY, INDUSTRIAL (0624); SOCIOLOGY, SOCIAL
STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT (0700); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318) |
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ABSTRACT |
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This
qualitative research study describes the experience of personal integration
of spirituality and work. It is grounded in the theoretical context of
transpersonal developmental psychology that claims spiritual development is
human development. It extends into the workplace 5 developmental theories
positing that human beings possess the potential to surpass the limits of the
developed adult ego. The theorists discussed are Assagioli,
Helminiak, Kegan, Maslow, and Wilber. The study explores the essence of
integration of spirituality and work as described by 11 individuals working
in nine different departments within a nonprofit
medical complex. Interviews were qualitatively conducted and analyzed using a
phenomenologically inspired approach. Processes
required for spiritual integration with work include ongoing differentiation
and integration of the ego often supported by spiritual practices. Findings
indicate that crisis periods resulting in reflection and reassessment of
worldview assumptions can propel individuals toward spiritual development.
This supports human developmental theory that chronicles the process of
differentiation and integration moving toward a spiritual end. This course
can be continuous along the lifetime of a self-actualizing individual as
demonstrated by study participants. Supported also is the notion that, at the
fundamental core, everything becomes spiritual. Participants describe mundane
activities transformed into spiritual practices through a process of clear
and focused sacred intention. Four structures are recognized to be integral
to the lived experience of integration of spirituality and work: (1) relationship, identified as the actual point of
overlap between the inner and outer worlds; (2) authenticity,
expressed as integrity or a growing self-consistency within the individual;
(3) awareness, bringing about a
perspective shift revealing previously hidden worldview contexts; and
(4) congruency, leading to clear intention
and action in the world while seeing the inconsistency in life with an
interior vision of truth. All four of these structures are found to be
mutually influencing within self-actualizing individuals. This study suggests
that the potential may be present for a new level of transformation and
integration at the individual, organizational, and societal level. The
findings propose that individual transformation can influence organizational
transformation, arguing for the possible interdependence of
micro-transformation and macro-transformation. Individuals engaged in this
process are creating the cognitive potential in which the current
marginalized view of spirituality in the workplace may become anchored in a
transformed collective consciousness leading to and supporting a new way of
organizing and being in the workplace. |