This study explores how organization members manage institutional contradictions in their everyday life without aiming at change-oriented agency. Drawing on interviews, observations, and archival data from four religious communities in Italy, we find that when organization members experience institutional contradictions between two logics that provide conflicting identity prescriptions but to which they are emotionally attached, they engage in identity work that helps them ameliorate-but not eliminate-tensions that surface when identity elements do not align. More specifically, identity work proved integral to reaching a temporary identity truce, or reconciliation of experienced contradictions, through distancing from illegitimate others and embedding of one's identity within an established tradition. These findings draw attention to the role of contradictions in institutional maintenance, extending theory that has tended to focus on the experience of contradictions as a source of institutional change. We discuss implications for managing institutional contradictions in everyday organizational life.
At the start of the twenty-first century, Catholicism is still the prevailing belief system of most Italians, but a recent project on Italian religion and spirituality, 5 carried out in 2006, has found that Italians are now more interested in spirituality, that they might describe themselves as 'spiritual, but not religious', and that they privilege the 'god within' rather than the transcendent God of traditional Catholic belief. This article presents the findings of The Italian Religion and Spirituality Project and focuses on what Italians mean by a 'spiritual life'. After an overview of the growing 10 interest in spirituality in the Italian socio-cultural setting, various aspects are illustrated: Italians' self-assessments of religiosity and spirituality; meanings of spirituality; involvement in church and/or in holistic activities; various attitudinal variables, such as preference, beliefs, identification, and willingness to lead a religious and/or a spiritual life. A typology is then elaborated to study the profiles of four groups: (1) neither religious 15 nor-spiritual; (2) religious, but not spiritual; (3) spiritual, but not religious; (4) both spiritual and religious. Two key concepts, intra-religious spirituality and extra-religious spirituality, are introduced to examine some of the ways in which spirituality finds expression in the context of contemporary Catholicism. After describing the different ways Italians understand the term 'spirituality', I identify three profiles of 20 spirituality: 'ethic', 'religious', and 'inner-self'. Finally, the significance of the 'God within' is discussed, a phenomenon that is perhaps more readily associated with Protestant forms of holistic spiritualities, but is surprisingly also significant within Italian Catholicism.
In sociological discussion the relationship between traditional religion and alternative spirituality has been variously defined on the basis of two main theoretical positions which perceive them as either mutually exclusive – according to the ‘spiritual but not religious’ formula – or as interdependent. This debate, mostly taking place in Northern Europe and the United States, does not take into account the specific characteristics of other geographical areas such as Southern Europe. The aim of this article is to fill this gap in empirical research by presenting data from a sample survey and interviews with young people in various Italian cities. A qualitative/quantitative analysis of the data shows, on one hand, that alternative spirituality is defined under the cultural influence of traditional religion, which is to say Catholicism functioning as an exemplary model of reference and, on the other hand, suggests broadening the focus of reflection to the religion-spirituality-secularism triad, interrelated fields competing to shape young Italians’ beliefs and practices.
Historically, there has be a close relationship between the nursing services and spiritual care provision to patients, arising due to the evolvement of many hospitals and nursing programmes from faith-based institutions and religious order nursing. With increasing secularism, these relationships are less entwined. Nonetheless, as nurses typically encounter patients at critical life events, such as receiving bad news or dying, nurses frequently understand the need and requirement for both spiritual support and religious for patients and families during these times. Yet there are uncertainties, and nurses can feel ill-equipped to deal with patients’ spiritual needs. Little education or preparation is provided to these nurses, and they often report a lack of confidence within this area. The development of this confidence and the required competencies is important, especially so with increasingly multicultural societies with diverse spiritual and religious needs. In this manuscript, we discuss initial field work carried out in preparation for the development of an Erasmus Plus educational intervention, entitled from Cure to Care Digital Education and Spiritual Assistance in Healthcare. Referring specifically to post-COVID spirituality needs, this development will support nurses to respond to patients’ spiritual needs in the hospital setting, using digital means. This preliminary study revealed that while nurses are actively supporting patients’ spiritual needs, their education and training are limited, non-standardised and heterogeneous. Additionally, most spiritual support occurs within the context of a Judeo-Christian framework that may not be suitable for diverse faith and non-faith populations. Educational preparation for nurses to provide spiritual care is therefore urgently required.
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