Spirituality as a Discarded Form of Organizational Wisdom

In this article, we examine what really happens when spirituality enters profit organizations. We suggest looking at workplace spirituality as a form of organizational wisdom. When surveyed, managers and consultants attested that spirituality improved their awareness at work, enhanced communication, and reduced stress. Yet our results show that workplace spirituality suggests alternative ways of thought and behavior that organization members perceive as threatening and thus reject or discard. The chief clash is related to assumptions about social order and social relationships. Our work adds value to translation research by giving more significance to the impact of core organizational ideas in the encounter with new wisdom. We also contribute to workplace spirituality literature and to the emerging field of organizational wisdom by analyzing the initial stages and essence of the encounter between existing and new wisdom.

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