Undergraduate students’ perceptions of learning about leadership in multifaith workplace

ABSTRACT

Workplace demographic changes and evidence of religious discrimination suggest that management educators should prepare students for multi-faith workplaces. However, quantitative research is lacking on the impact of courses designed to prepare students for multifaith workplaces or organizations where spirituality is expressed. This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a two-hour online lesson on leadership, religion, and spirituality on undergraduate students’ perceptions of the topic in pre-, post-, and eight-week post-lesson surveys. Two factors emerged representing students’ perceptions. Changes in interest and openness to learning about leadership, religion, and spirituality were sustained over eight weeks. Changes in fear or apprehension about engaging this topic in the classroom or workplace were transient, decreasing initially, but returning to pre-lesson levels at eight weeks. This study’s findings suggest that a single lesson shows potential to increase students’ openness and interest in learning about the intersection of leadership, religion, and spirituality.

KEYWORDS:

• Leadership
• multi-faith
• online education
• religion
• spirituality
• workplace

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the C Charles Jackson Foundation [None].

Notes on contributors

Stuart Allen

Dr. Stuart Allen (Ph.D., Organizational Leadership) is a Professor of Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University (Pittsburgh, PA). He currently teaches in the Department of Organizational Leadership and Doctor of Science in Information Systems and Communications program. Dr Allen. is an active researcher, author, and editor in leadership and management, leadership and management education, workplace pluralism and diversity, and workplace post-traumatic stress. Originally from South Africa, he previously worked as an industrial psychologist, CEO, coach, consultant, and entrepreneur.

Peter Williams

Dr. Peter Williams has 35 years of experience teaching adults in various contexts including English as a Second Language in Honduras, literacy education in correctional education, and leadership in doctoral programs. With a Ph.D. in Human Resource Development, his research interests include adult learning, working and leading in distributed and culturally diverse environments, social support, and the intersection of spirituality and leadership. He is active in the International Leadership Association and the Academy of Human Resource Development. Currently, he teaches and mentors adults in a doctoral leadership program.

Howard Michael Crowson

Dr. H. Michael Crowson (Ph.D. in Educational Research, University of Alabama) is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. He has over 18 years of experience teaching statistics and research methodology to students in the Jeanine-Rainbolt College of Education. Dr. Crowson frequently is asked to consult with colleagues and students and has endeavored to share his knowledge on advanced statistical modeling of data via open source websites and materials. Dr. Crowson’s substantive areas of research focus on individual difference factors associated with social and academic outcomes.