The focus of this inquiry is “The influence of ‘spiritual meaning-making’ on career choice, transition and experience”. Over the past decade there has been an increase in interest in the expression of spiritual belief in work. Most of the writing on the topic is based on the premise that individuals and organisations have lost meaning, and that the problem of meaning in work needs to addressed to enhance the ways in which we organise, and to enhance organisational output and personal wellbeing. Whereas the current writing on spirituality and work often suggests that organisations should provide more meaning, this research took a more humble starting point by asking what meanings individuals with spiritual belief are currently attributing to, and discovering in, their work, and by asking how and whether these meanings determine work behaviour. I argue in this thesis that the concept of meaning-making is central to spirituality. I reviewed the psychological literature on meaning and as a result decided to focus the inquiry on three core elements of meaning; purpose, sense-making and coherence. In order to step back from the organisational agenda, and give voice to the authenticity of diverse spiritual beliefs, I chose to use career, rather than organisational theory, as framework for this inquiry. An additional theoretical framework of ‘agency and communion’ was introduced to conceptualise human motivation beyond its current narrow ‘self’ and ‘doing’ oriented definitions. A combination of ‘collaborative human inquiry’ and ‘narrative’ methodology was chosen to elicit subjective career meanings. Fifteen individuals with diverse spiritual beliefs participated in this research. These included a Buddhist, a Quaker, a Catholic, a Bahá'í, and a Mormon, as well as those not currently affiliated with an organized religion. The findings show that spiritual belief strongly determines career choice, transition and experience. It was found that research participants, in spite of their diverse beliefs, shared four purposes: ‘developing and becoming self’, ‘union with others’, ‘expressing self’ and ‘serving others’. When these purposes can be expressed fully, the workplace is experienced to be aligned with spiritual belief, and individuals are contributing fully, especially when diversity of spiritual expressions is acknowledged at the same time. Career transitions are made through an ongoing sense-making process as a result of which the individual may decide that the four purposes are no longer in balance and action is required in order to continue to live meaningfully. This sensemaking is a result of ongoing interaction between the individual and his or her work environment. Coherence is a result of the transrational element of spirituality, when the individual feels his or her work is still aligned with a bigger (divine) plan. This is assessed on an ongoing basis through prayer, asking ‘was this meant to be’ and reframing difficulties and setbacks as opportunities for learning and development. I suggest that it may not be wise to seek collective enactment of the trans-rational as it has no firm basis for collective organisational decision-making. It cannot seek collective expression due to the diversity of beliefs of organisational members. However I strongly suggest that an organisation that wants to align itself with the spiritual beliefs of its members, ensures that the four purposes of ‘developing and becoming self’, ‘union with others’, ‘expressing self’ and ‘serving others’ can be fully enacted in the organisation, keeping in mind that spirituality expresses itself in process as well as outcome. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This study examines the perception of K-12 principals about school social work consultation, collaboration and program development in a large urban school district in Georgia. The primary survey participants consist of one hundred eight K-12 school principals selected using non-probability sampling. Twenty seven school social workers in the same school district also selected by convenience sampling responded to the survey questionnaire which is designed using a four point Likert scale. The fmdings of the study indicate that responding principals and school social workers perceive consultation, collaboration and program development as expected activities. Responding principals also perceive that it is the responsibility of the principal to ensure that these activities occur. A greater percentage of principals in schools with special education and/or homeless enrollments expect consultation with the school social worker. Principals in schools with special education and homeless enrollments are more likely to 1 include the school social worker as an integral partner in school leadership and decision making than principals in schools with Title I or English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) student enrollments.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Walter R. Schumm / This exploratory study examines abortion decision-making attitudes of adolescents attending Roman Catholic schools. With a theoretical background using both cognitive-developmental theory and moral development theory, this study investigated adolescent abortion decision-making attitudes with a multi-part paper and pencil survey. The first part of the Abortion Attitude Scale consisted of a combination of the seven General Social Survey (GSS) abortion questions, intermingled with seven additional author-devised abortion questions. The second part of the survey consisted of sixteen reality-based scenarios, each containing a high or low level of four dimensions. The dimensions consisted of the four most common reasons for abortion females wrote about in their online written testimonies about their actual abortion experiences. The four dimensions were determined after the author conducted a frequency count of reasons for abortion originating from 87 testimonies from pro-choice web sites and 82 testimonies from pro-life web sites, plus phone calls to 8 pro-choice agencies and phone calls to 8 pro-life agencies. The Abortion Attitude Scale was offered to a convenience sample of 8th through 12th graders attending the Topeka, Kansas Catholic Schools, which includes five elementary schools and one high school. Written parental consent and written student ascent were required for students to be eligible to participate in the study. A total of 350 students participated. The study’s six hypotheses explored whether or not the combined GSS and author-devised abortion questions are unidimensional; whether or not interaction effects exist among the four dimensions in each of the scenarios; and how the independent variables of gender, age, ethnicity, and intrinsic religiosity may impact adolescents’ abortion attitudes. Results suggest several conclusions. The GSS and author-devised abortion questions are multidimensional. Regarding the four dimensions used in each of the scenarios, there were interaction effects among the four dimensions. Whereas the adolescent female participants in this study did appear to be less accepting of abortion than the male participants, and the adolescents with higher intrinsic religiosity appeared to be less accepting of abortion, the hypotheses regarding younger age and greater ethnic diversity did not appear to lend support to adolescents being less accepting of abortion. The findings thus appear to show that this study’s participants had complex attitudes about abortion decision-making, and that these attitudes appear to be at least somewhat situationally-dependent. Implications for further studies are discussed, along with limitations and conclusions.

Master of Arts / Department of Speech Communication, Theatre, and Dance / Charles J. Griffin / This thesis is a response to a contemporary debate over the nature of rhetoric. Specifically, it has recently been declared that rhetoric is aesthetic. This move is known as the "aesthetic turn" and it has been both praised and denounced by rhetoric scholars. An aesthetic rhetoric is concerned not with the content of a message, but rather with the presentation of the message. In this thesis, I argue that an aesthetic turn is a good turn to make in theory, but that the actual turn taken by a number of prominent rhetorical scholars has been misguided. A Catholic theory of beauty is developed within this thesis as an alternative to the postmodern aesthetic. The Catholic theory posits that beauty flows from three forms: the accidental, the substantial, and the transcendental. Accidental beauty is concerned with physical traits and can be judged through integrity, proportion, and splendor. Substantial beauty deals with an object's telos or end and is judged according to the actualization of telos. Transcendental beauty is a trait of all beings and can be judged hierarchically according to participation in Being. Finally, a methodology for analyzing beauty is developed within the thesis. In order to reify the Catholic theory of beauty and its methodology the Roman Catholic Mass of 1962, also known as the Tridentine Mass, is analyzed as a case study. This artifact was chosen in particular because it was recently liberated from bureaucratic imprisonment by Pope Benedict XVI. In addition to analyzing the traditional Roman rite, several changes that were made to the Mass after the Second Vatican Council are examined. This study is important for several reasons. First, it provides rhetorical scholars with a clear understanding of beauty with which rhetoric can be analyzed. Also, the aesthetic theory offered by this study transcends the differences between rhetoric-as-epistemic and rhetoric-as-aesthetic scholarship. Most importantly though, view of beauty that is advanced implies an ethic from which rhetoric can be evaluated. Finally, the study has important implications for the development of the Roman Catholic liturgy.