Serving and Sharing: A Quantitative Spirituality at Work Comparison Study of Inner Life, Meaning at Work, and Conditions for Community in Healthcare and Academia

December 3, 2025

Serving and Sharing: A Quantitative Spirituality at Work Comparison Study of Inner Life, Meaning at Work, and Conditions for Community in Healthcare and Academia

Howard Brent Fricks | 2025

Abstract

This quantitative study examined the differences in workplace spirituality between healthcare and academic settings. The research focused on Christian adjunct faculty members of Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) or similar programs who were employed or had been employed in healthcare settings. The study sought to understand if there was a difference in the levels of inner life, meaning at work, and conditions for community between the participants’ healthcare workplace setting and their academic workplace setting. The Spirituality at Work Scale (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000) was administered as the data collection tool. A paired t-test was conducted in SPSS to understand if there were differences in the levels of inner life, meaning at work, and conditions for community in the participants’ healthcare work setting compared to their academic work setting. The results indicated statistically significant differences between the academic and healthcare workplace settings across all three measured variables. Participants reported higher levels of inner life, meaning at work, and conditions for community in the academic workplace setting compared to the healthcare workplace setting, suggesting the distinct characteristics of each work environment may influence levels of spirituality at work.

Keywords: Academic, Christian adjunct faculty, Healthcare, Spirituality at Work Scale, Workplace Spirituality

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