Sustaining women's sense of occupational authenticity in the Catholic workplace

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how laywomen who work in voluntary or paid roles in social organizations governed by traditional Catholic religious structures can sustain a sense of occupational authenticity (SOOA) essential to effective collegial collaboration. By the adaptation of collective biographic inquiry methods, research data of women's experience of volunteering and employment within the spirituality ministry belonging to an international Catholic male religious order has been generated. The study itself follows, utilizes and promotes the dynamic of St Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. Through appropriation of concepts authored by occupational theorists, particularly Antonovsky's (1988) theory of sense of coherence (SOC), the articulation of a theory of sense of occupational authenticity (SOOA) was made possible. This theoretical construct provided an interpretive lens through which research group participants' experience could be contemplated. The thesis argues that gender discrimination can diminish workers' SOOA, that is, workers' experience of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. This diminishment has negative consequences for collegial collaboration and, thus, organizational effectiveness.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	English