Measuring spirituality in South Africa: Validation of instruments developed in the USA

Abstract

Spirituality is receiving increased attention in the context of the workplace. Research consistently shows that spirituality is significantly correlated with mental health and well-being. Most of the research on spirituality, particularly in the context of the workplace, is conducted with instruments developed in the USA. However, the inter-cultural measurement of constructs remains a concern, because instruments developed in one culture are not necessarily transferable to another culture. In the current study, the transferability of two spiritual measures developed in the USA, namely the Human Spirituality Scale (HSS) and the Organizational Spirituality Values Scale (OSVS) are considered for a sample from South Africa. The results confirm the construct validity of the HSS and the OSVS, but indicate that the factor structures of the HSS and the OSVS should be analysed and reconfirmed when used, particularly in a South African sample. The study provides evidence that the HSS and the OSVS cannot be transferred indiscriminately to a South African sample. This insight contributes to the quality of future research studies in South Africa, not only on the important aspect of spirituality, but also when applying instruments developed elsewhere in the world.

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to the University of Pretoria for the statistical analyses of the data.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.