Workplace spirituality concept specifications: inadequate clarity, adverse implications and a proposed resolution

Purpose This paper evaluates the existing main workplace spirituality concept specifications and points out their inadequacies and the resulting adverse implications. It also outlines a set of workplace spirituality concept specifications as a resolution. Design/methodology/approach This paper does a detailed evaluation of chronologically evolved existing main workplace spirituality concept specifications to point out their inadequacies and outlines a resolution to address the inadequacies. Findings This paper reveals that there are differences, inconsistencies, and inadequate clarity in workplace spirituality concept specifications and that these have had adverse implications. This paper yields a proposed resolution with its associated merits. Research implications This paper can potentially improve the future workplace spirituality research as reflected in its six theoretical implications and three directions for future research. Practical implications This paper’s description of the inadequacies in the existing workplace spirituality concept specifications and the proposed resolution can improve the practice of workplace spirituality research. Social implications Improvement in the research on a socially relevant topic of workplace spirituality is likely to benefit the society. Originality/value This is, to the author’s best knowledge, the first paper to evaluate workplace spirituality concept specifications and to propose a resolution to address their inadequacies.