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This study sought to identify organizational factors that foster an individual's experience of spirit at work.

Ten women and three men, ranging in age from 26 to 81, who were in full‐time paid employment in a variety of occupations, and who self‐identified as having high spirit at work, participated in in‐depth, reflective interviews.

Inspired leadership emerged as central to influencing individual experiences of spirit at work and was strongly linked to six other organizational factors (strong organizational foundation; organizational integrity; positive workplace culture and space; sense of community among members; opportunities for personal fulfillment, continuous learning, and development; and appreciation and regard for employees and their contribution).

Future research needs to investigate how each of these conditions is related to measured levels of spirit at work in a larger, representative sample, and how measured spirit at work is related to work outcomes.

Although this study did not investigate specific practices or strategies to increase spirit at work, results suggest that organizations wishing to enhance their employees' spirit at work could focus efforts on creating organizational conditions that encourage inspiring leadership and mentorship and the other six identified factors.

The paper raises awareness and highlights issues surrounding organizational factors that foster an individual's experience of spirit at work.

Debate over the definition of “spirit at work” continues in both the popular and academic literatures. The lack of a clear, accepted definition has hindered the development of useful measures and has delayed research that would advance our understanding of the conditions/characteristics that influence the experience of spirit at work and the individual and organizational outcomes that result from spirit at work. To obtain a clearer understanding of an individual level construct of spirit at work, an exploratory, qualitative study was conducted. A total of 14 professionals, who not only experienced spirit at work, but whose work also involved researching or promoting spirit at work, participated through face‐to‐face interviews, telephone interviews, or written surveys. Participants were asked about what is spirit at work and then they were asked to describe a personal experience of spirit at work. Although most people had difficulty providing a comprehensive definition for spirit at work, they found it very easy to recall and describe such an experience. These rich descriptions of their personal experiences of spirit at work revealed much consistency in experiences among individuals. Participants’ descriptions revealed that spirit at work is a distinct state that has physical, affective, cognitive, interpersonal, spiritual, and mystical dimensions. This state involves physiological arousal, positive affect, a belief that one's work makes a contribution, a sense of connection to others and common purpose, a sense of connection to something larger than self, and a sense of perfection and transcendence. The usefulness of a clear, comprehensive definition of spirit at work to advancing theory, research, and practice is discussed.

This paper introduces the second issue of the special issue on research issues and research findings in spirituality in organizations. The first issue explored issues of definition and methodology, and included empirical research studies (published as Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 16 No. 4, 2003). This second issue continues and deepens that exploration, with further refinement of definitions, interdisciplinary approaches to methodology and the selection of constructs, and reports on quantitative and qualitative studies. This introduction contains an overview of the aims and themes of this special issue, summarizes the state of play in the field of organizational research and provides synopses of the papers presented.