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Traditional management techniques and change management interventions are deficit‐based. That is, they often focus on “fixing” what is wrong in our organizations by solving problems. Maintaining a committed and motivated workforce, open to learning, growth and positive change, is difficult, however, when the daily focus is on what's not working.

Growing evidence suggests that positive leadership and a strengths‐based approach to long‐term organizational change have a greater impact on performance and profitability.

Positive leaders develop such traits as optimism, self‐confidence, compassion, emotional intelligence, loyalty, and trustworthiness. Moreover, they promote a strengths‐based organizational culture that emphasizes possibilities rather than problems.

We need to develop leaders who can identify the organization's “root causes of success”, and build on those strengths for future performance.

The article will be of value to all those involved in leadership development.

This study aims to provide preliminary evidence for a new conceptualization and measure of workplace spirituality labeled spiritual expression at work (SEW). While the extant literature focuses on the fulfillment of workers' spiritual needs, spiritual expression refers to the impact of personal spirituality on the everyday thoughts, behaviors and interactions of employees.

A pilot study (n=92) included item generation and an exploratory factor analysis of the five‐item SEW scale (SEWS). The primary validation study (n=348) consisted of: performing a confirmatory factor analysis of the SEWS; comparing the SEWS with other spirituality measures, including two measures of personal spirituality and two measures of values‐based workplace spirituality; psychometrically assessing the convergent, discriminant and predictive validity of the SEWS; and examining the correlations and regression results between the SEWS and the comparison measures.

The SEWS showed acceptable psychometric properties across both samples, and the results support the convergent, discriminate and predictive validities of the SEW construct.

This study is subject to the typical limitations of cross‐sectional research. However, meaningful results were obtained across two samples.

These results suggest workers may express their spirituality regardless of their perceptions of the spiritual nature of the organization. In doing so, personal spirituality may impact important personal and organizational outcomes.

This study moves beyond existing research by showing a new way to assess workplace spirituality.