Narratives about workplace spirituality in healthcare projects

Context Workplace spirituality is a complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon which consists of individual and work-related components. They are supported by the organizational culture. Workplace spirituality in healthcare projects has not been researched as far as we know. Previous studies focus mostly on the individual’s viewpoint. Group level and manager’s viewpoint need to be studied more. The ongoing restructuring of healthcare service sector in Finland is mainly carried out as different projects. Methods Participants of the study were project managers and leaders (n=20). They were interviewed by thematic individual interviews. The material was analyzed by thematic narrative method. The themes of the interviews included the project managers’ views of workplace spirituality, its features and construction as well as the project managers’ support in experiencing workplace spirituality in healthcare projects. The project as well as the informants were selected by purposive sampling. The inclusion criteria for the projects were that they had to be big healthcare projects located in Northern Finland. The inclusion criteria for the informants were that they had education in management as well as the title of and some work experience as project manager. Results The purpose was to describe workplace spirituality in healthcare projects from the project managers’ viewpoint. The aim was to gain knowledge about how project managers understand workplace spirituality in healthcare projects, what features are related to it, how it is constructed and how project managers can improve it in healthcare projects. Discussion Project work is a challenge to workplace spirituality because project work is done as part of the routine and especially in big projects work is done physically far away from each other. Project manager has a crucial and central role in experiencing workplace spirituality. Being able to support experiencing workplace spirituality in healthcare projects project manager creates an enabling environment which becomes visible in higher work outcomes and perceived overall satisfaction.