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Christian Perspectives on Faith at Work: An Empirical Exploration of Faith and Work Associations Across Christian Religious Traditions

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Abstract

While personal experiences and family socialization are likely to influence beliefs and behaviors linking faith to work, religious congregations also are likely to play a prominent role in shaping faith-work connections. Our purpose in this chapter is to draw upon a nationally representative sample of over a thousand working adults to describe the role of Christian congregations in making faith relevant to the workplace. Two variables that have particular relevance to the association of faith and work are the Congregational Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale (CEOS) and the Congregational Faith at Work Scale (CFWS). The CEOS variable assesses the behavior of congregational leaders related to being innovative and demonstrating a willingness to take risks, whereas the CFWS variable assesses the extent to which specific beliefs about faith and work integration are emphasized within a congregation. This chapter reports on the association of these congregational variables, across religious traditions, with work attitudes and behaviors and offers recommendations for future research.

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... One of the major arguments in this research is that spirituality/religion by itself does not guarantee entrepreneurial behaviors. Rather, it promotes certain values relevant to working contexts; these values encourage positive work outcomes, including entrepreneurial behaviors (Block et al., 2020;Dana, 2010;Neubert and Dougherty, 2013). For example, most religions promote values such as hard work and responsible work behavior (Abu Bakar et al., 2018;Balog et al., 2014;Obregon et al., 2021). ...
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