Workplace spirituality

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Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the workplace describes a movement and academic discourse exploring how and why individuals seek to live their faith and/or spiritual values in the workplace. Spiritual, or spirit-centered, leadership is frequently associated with the workplace spirituality movement. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

History

The 1990s saw a proliferation of publications dedicated to exploring the role of spirituality and spiritual learning in workplaces and organizational life. In the 1990 first edition of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge declared that leaders should reframe the way they understand their roles to "realize the almost sacredness of their responsibility for the lives of so many people." [6] Matthew Fox's The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time (1994) related workers' individual "inner work" to the cultural "outer work" of revisioning society by building a new cosmology through the invention of new rituals, including in workplaces. [7] Other notable books on spirituality in the workplace published during this time include Jay Conger's Spirit at Work: Discovering the Spirituality in Leadership, [8] published in 1994, and Gilbert W. Fairholm's Capturing the Heart of Leadership: Spirituality and Community in the New American Workplace, published in 1997. [9]

In the late 1990s, the Academy of Management formed a special interest group called the Management, Spirituality and Religion interest group. This is a professional association of management professors from all over the world who are teaching and doing research on spirituality and religion in the workplace. A partner organization to AOM's Management, Spirituality and Religion interest group, the International Association of Management, Spirituality, and Religion publishes the Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion as well as a book series. [10]

Human resource development scholar-practitioners have noted a trend toward using words like "contemplative" and "mindfulness" instead of "spiritual" and "spirituality" in academic articles and publications discussing spiritual knowing in workplace learning. [11] While workplace spirituality initiatives can be a way of caring for workers, many employers also implement them to increase productivity and profit. [12]

Contributing Social Factors

  1. Mergers and acquisitions destroyed the psychological contract that workers had a job for life. This led some people to search for more of a sense of inner security rather than looking for external security from a corporation.
  2. Baby Boomers hitting middle age resulting in a large demographic part of the population asking meaningful questions about life and purpose.
  3. The millennium created an opportunity for people all over the world to reflect on where the human race has come from, where it is headed in the future, and what role business plays in the future of the human race.

Key Organizations

Framings of Spirituality in the Workplace

Organizational psychology literature describes a "vertical" spirituality, related to personal connection to a god or spirit or the wider universe, and a "horizontal" spirituality, emphasizing service to and compassion for others as well as work informed by a strong ethical sense and aligned with one's values. Vertical spirituality in the workplace might include meditation rooms, accommodation of personal prayer schedules, moments of silence before meetings, retreats or time off for spiritual development, and group prayer or reflection. Horizontal spirituality might encompass more intangible cultural aspects of everyday organizational life, such as the qualitative sense of belonging to a work team or commitment to an organization as a whole or to an institution's mission. [13]

Theories

Different theories over the years have influenced the development of workplace spirituality.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Benefiel, M. (2005). Soul at work: Spiritual leadership in organizations. New York: Seabury Books.
  2. ↑ Biberman, J. (Ed.).(2000). Work and spirit: A reader of new spiritual paradigms for organizations. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press.
  3. ↑ Fry, Louis W. (2005). "Introduction to The Leadership Quarterly special issue: Toward a paradigm of spiritual leadership" . The Leadership Quarterly. 16 (5): 619–622. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.07.001.
  4. ↑ Giacalone, R.A., & Jurkiewicz, C.L. (2003). Handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
  5. ↑ Jue, A.L. (2006). Practicing spirit-centered leadership: Lessons from a corporate layoff. In Gerus, C. (Ed.). Leadership Moments: Turning points that changed lives and organizations. Victoria, BC: Trafford.
  6. ↑ Senge, Peter M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization (1st ed.). Doubleday/Currency. p. 140.
  7. ↑ Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2000). "Spirituality and emancipatory adult education in women adult educators for social change". Adult Education Quarterly. 50 (4): 310.
  8. ↑ Conger, Jay A. (1994). Spirit At Work: Discovering the Spirituality in Leadership. Jossey-Bass. ISBN   978-1555426392.
  9. ↑ Fairholm, Gilbert W. (1997). Capturing the heart of leadership: Spirituality and community in the New American Workplace. Praeger.
  10. ↑ "IAMSR - Management, Spirituality & Religion". msr.aom.org. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
  11. ↑ "HRD Masterclass Season 3 Episode 8". ALLbyPODCAST. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  12. ↑ Fenwick, Tara J. (2001-06-01). "Critical Questions for Pedagogical Engagement of Spirituality". Adult Learning. 12 (3): 10–12. doi:10.1177/104515950101200304. ISSN   1045-1595.
  13. ↑ Lewis, Phillip V. (2019). "Intrinsic Spirituality as a Context for Motivation". Journal of Organizational Psychology. 19 (5): 107.
  14. ↑ Fry, Louis W (Dec 2003). "Toward a theory of spiritual leadership" . The Leadership Quarterly. 14 (6): 693–727. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001.
  15. ↑ Burke, Peter J.; Reitzes, Donald C. (1991). "An Identity Theory Approach to Commitment" . Social Psychology Quarterly. 54 (3): 239–251. doi:10.2307/2786653. JSTOR   2786653.

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