Conservation of Resources Theory and Spirituality at Work: When a Resource Is Not Always a Resource

The conservation of resources (COR) theory is a broad motivational theory that holds significant explanatory power for the psychological study of religion and spirituality. The present study of 491 Australian vocational religious workers addresses relationships between spiritual variables and professional efficacy based on COR. Results from item level structural equation modeling using a full panel three-wave longitudinal design support COR tenets of gain spirals, loss spirals, and caravanning of resources. Specifically, a trimmed model representing reciprocal cross-lagged relationships among spiritual variables, and unidirectional relationships between spiritual variables and professional efficacy provided the best fit of the data. This is the first study to approach the dynamic relationships between predictors of growth and decline among individual dimensions of spirituality and personal resources from a COR perspective-a leading resource theory that has been successfully applied to numerous psychological domains.