Philosophical Foundations of Workplace Spirituality: A Critical Approach

It is an undeniable reality that workplace spirituality has received growing attention during the last decade. This fact is attributable to many factors, socioeconomic, cultural and others [Hicks, D.A. 2003: Religion and the Workplace. Pluralism, Sprtituality, Leadership (Cambridge University press, Cambridge)]. However the field is full of obscurity and imprecision for the researcher, the practitioner, the organisational analyst and whoever attempts to systematically approach this relatively new inquiry field. This article attempts to provide a critical review of the literature on workplace spirituality by examining the underlying rationale of the main trends regarding spirit at Work and by negotiating their strengths and weaknesses. Current approaches to workplace spirituality are distinguished to the exploratory, contextual and the consequential, acontextual ones. Particular attention is given to ‚Respectful Pluralism’ proposed by Douglas Hicks, as it is suggested that this theoretical framework is the most well-founded, elaborated and systematic up to date. However, it is proposed that even ‚Respectful Pluralism’ fails to fully capture the complexity of such a multidimensional phenomenon as spirituality. Drawing on mainstream ethical and philosophical traditions (deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics) supporting alternative value-systems, it is suggested that a more inclusive and philosophically affluent framework needs to be developed. Finally, some propositions and thoughts are made towards this direction.

[1]  Charles J. Fornaciari,et al.  Research in spirituality, religion, and work: Walking the line between relevance and legitimacy , 2003 .

[2]  D. Ladkin.  When Deontology and Utilitarianism Aren’t Enough: How Heidegger’s Notion of “Dwelling” Might Help Organisational Leaders Resolve Ethical Issues , 2006 .

[3]  A. Kakabadse,et al.  Spirituality and leadership praxis , 2002 .

[4]  Norman E. Bowie,et al.  A Kantian Theory of Meaningful Work , 1998 .

[5]  Matthias Benz,et al.  From Imperialism to Inspiration: A Survey of Economics and Psychology , 2002 .

[6]  R. Freeman.  The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions , 1994, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[7]  N. Gregson,et al.  The Meaning of Work , 1999 .

[8]  D. Ashmos,et al.  Spirituality at Work , 2000 .

[9]  P. Pruzan,et al.  Spirituality as the basis of responsible leaders and responsible companies , 2005 .

[10]  G. Crowder.  Law of Peoples , 2005 .

[11]  Robert C. Solomon,et al.  Ethics and Excellence: Cooperation and Integrity in Business , 1992 .

[12]  Douglas E. Polley,et al.  PAYING THE DEVIL HIS DUE: LIMITS AND LIABILITIES OF WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY , 2005 .

[13]  B. Singer,et al.  The Contours of Positive Human Health , 1998 .

[14]  George Bragues.  SEEK THE GOOD LIFE, NOT MONEY: THE ARISTOTELIAN APPROACH TO BUSINESS ETHICS , 2004 .

[15]  Robert L. Mckeage,et al.  Linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and workplace performance , 2002 .

[16]  D. Dierendonck,et al.  Some thoughts on spirituality and eudaimonic well-being , 2006 .

[17]  M. Pava.  INTELLIGENT SPIRITUALITY IN BUSINESS: A DEWEYAN CONCEPTION , 2003 .

[18]  Geoff Moore,et al.  In Search of Organizational Virtue in Business: Agents, Goods, Practices, Institutions and Environments , 2006 .

[19]  M. Naughton,et al.  Faith at Work Scale (FWS): Justification, Development, and Validation of a Measure of Judaeo-Christian Religion in the Workplace , 2009 .

[20]  B. Freshman.  An exploratory analysis of definitions and applications of spirituality in the workplace , 1999 .

[21]  Spirituality in management education , 1998 .

[22]  J. Marques,et al.  The spiritual worker , 2006 .

[23]  Deborah R. Litvin.  Diversity: Making Space for a Better Case , 2006 .

[24]  S. Herman.  CHRISTIAN BUSINESS ETHICS ON THE EMPLOYMENT RELATION: MAPPING THE TERRAIN , 2003 .

[25]  S. Howard.  A spiritual perspective on learning in the workplace , 2002 .

[26]  Martin Parker,et al.  For Business Ethics , 2005 .

[27]  K. Gozdz.  Toward Transpersonal Learning Communities in Business , 2000 .

[28]  D. Nicol,et al.  Organizational enhancement through recognition of individual spirituality , 1999 .

[29]  R. Csiernik,et al.  Seeking the Lost Spirit , 2002 .

[30]  R. Brown.  Organizational Spirituality: The Sceptic's Version , 2003 .

[31]  D. A. Hicks.  Religion and the Workplace: Pluralism, Spirituality, Leadership , 2003 .

[32]  R. A. Giacalone,et al.  Positive psychology in business ethics and corporate responsibility , 2005 .

[33]  C. Crockett.  The Cultural Paradigm of Virtue , 2005 .

[34]  Susan Cartwright,et al.  The meaning of work: The challenge of regaining employee engagement and reducing cynicism , 2006 .

[35]  David S. Bright,et al.  The Amplifying and Buffering Effects of Virtuousness in Downsized Organizations , 2006 .

[36]  Andrew J. Czaplewski,et al.  Workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes: An exploratory empirical assessment , 2003 .

[37]  N. Bowie.  A Kantian theory of leadership , 2000 .

[38]  Karin Klenke,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL MEANING AND CALLING ON ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP , 2005 .

[39]  E. Diener,et al.  Personality and Subjective Well-Being , 2009 .

[40]  J. Whetstone.  A framework for organizational virtue: the interrelationship of mission, culture and leadership , 2005 .

[41]  Jerry Biberman,et al.  Research that matters: helping organizations integrate spiritual values and practices , 2004 .

[42]  R. A. Giacalone,et al.  A Values Framework for Measuring the Impact of Workplace Spirituality on Organizational Performance , 2004 .

[43]  C. Keyes,et al.  Optimizing Well-Being: The Empirical Encounter of Two Traditions , 2002 .

[44]  J. Doh,et al.  The “Transmutation” of the Organization: , 2004 .

[45]  J. -. Klerk.  SPIRITUALITY, MEANING IN LIFE, AND WORK WELLNESS: A RESEARCH AGENDA , 2005 .

[46]  Robert C. Solomon,et al.  Corporate Roles, Personal Virtues: An Aristotelean Approach to Business Ethics , 1991, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[47]  C. Ryff.  Psychological Well-Being in Adult Life , 1995 .

[48]  E. Bell,et al.  From Outward Bound to Inward Bound’: the Prophetic Voices and Discursive Practices of Spiritual Management Development , 2004 .

[49]  Robert C. Solomon,et al.  Aristotle, Ethics and Business Organizations , 2004 .

[50]  A. Delbecq.  Christian spirituality and contemporary business leadership , 1999 .

[51]  Laura Reave.  Spiritual values and practices related to leadership effectiveness , 2005 .

[52]  F. Ryan,et al.  Maintaining an organizational spirituality: no easy task , 1999 .

[53]  Badrinarayan Shankar Pawar,et al.  Some of the Recent Organizational Behavior Concepts as Precursors to Workplace Spirituality , 2009 .

[54]  Gerald F. Cavanagh,et al.  Virtue as a Benchmark for Spirituality in Business , 2002 .

[55]  John Rawlst,et al.  The Idea of Public Reason Revisited , 1997 .

[56]  Jerry Biberman,et al.  A postmodern spiritual future for work , 1997 .

[57]  James E. King,et al.  The measurement of religiosity and spirituality: Examples and issues from psychology , 2004 .

[58]  John B. Davis,et al.  The Elgar Companion To Economics and Philosophy , 2006 .

[59]  L. Fry.  TOWARD A THEORY OF ETHICAL AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING, AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP , 2005 .

[60]  James S. Sass.  Characterizing organizational spirituality: An organizational communication culture approach , 2000 .

[61]  Catherine Casey,et al.  Bureaucracy Re-Enchanted? Spirit, Experts and Authority in Organizations , 2004 .

[62]  Making conscious choices in doing research on workplace spirituality: Utilizing the “holistic development model” to articulate values, assumptions and dogmas of the knower , 2003 .

[63]  I. Mitroff,et al.  A Study of Spirituality in the Workplace , 1999 .

[64]  Crystal L. Park,et al.  Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality , 2005 .

[65]  Judith K. Pringle,et al.  Handbook of Workplace Diversity , 2005 .

[66]  M. Lamont.  The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race , 2000 .

[67]  David Steingard.  Spiritually-Informed Management Theory , 2005 .

[68]  Len Tischler,et al.  The growing interest in spirituality in business , 1999 .

[69]  L. Fry.  Toward a theory of spiritual leadership , 2003 .

[70]  Dennis P. Heaton,et al.  Constructs, methods, and measures for researching spirituality in organizations , 2004 .

[71]  G. Geroy,et al.  Employee Spirituality in the Workplace: A Cross-Cultural View for the Management of Spiritual Employees , 2000 .

[72]  Margaret J Benefiel.  Irreconcilable Foes? The Discourse of Spirituality and the Discourse of Organizational Science , 2003 .

[73]  Douglas D. Perkins,et al.  Finding Common Ground: The Importance of Place Attachment to Community Participation and Planning , 2006 .

[74]  C. L. Jurkiewicz,et al.  Right from Wrong: The Influence of Spirituality on Perceptions of Unethical Business Activities , 2003 .

[75]  E. Burack.  Spirituality in the workplace , 1999 .

[76]  Ryan D. Duffy.  Spirituality, Religion, and Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions , 2006 .

[77]  Donald W. McCormick.  Spirituality and Management , 1994 .

[78]  D. A. Hicks.  Spiritual and religious diversity in the workplace , 2002 .

[79]  G. Fairholm.  Spiritual leadership: fulfilling whole‐self needs at work , 1996 .

[80]  M. Pava.  Religious Business Ethics and Political Liberalism: An Integrative Approach , 1998 .

[81]  G. Weaver.  Virtue in Organizations: Moral Identity as a Foundation for Moral Agency , 2006 .

[82]  Fraya Wagner-Marsh,et al.  The fourth wave: the spiritually‐based firm , 1999 .

[83]  M. Driver.  From empty speech to full speech? Reconceptualizing spirituality in organizations based on a psychoanalytically-grounded understanding of the self , 2005 .

[84]  R. Preziosi,et al.  Perceptions of Workplace Spirituality among Professionals and Executives , 2001 .

[85]  Berna J. Skrypnek,et al.  Defining spirit at work: finding common ground , 2004 .

[86]  D. Duchon,et al.  Nurturing the spirit at work: Impact on work unit performance , 2005 .

[87]  E. Deci,et al.  On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. , 2001, Annual review of psychology.

[88]  Wendy K. Smith,et al.  Work, Religious Diversity and Islam , 2003 .

[89]  R. Phillips.  Stakeholder Theory and A Principle of Fairness , 1997, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[90]  Christopher P. Neck,et al.  The “what”, “why” and “how” of spirituality in the workplace , 2002 .

[91]  J. Neal.  Work as Service to the Divine , 2000 .

[92]  D. Graber,et al.  Spirituality and Healthcare Organizations , 2001, Journal of healthcare management / American College of Healthcare Executives.

[93]  Colleen E. Mills,et al.  Coming out of the closet: negotiating spiritual expression in the workplace , 2002 .

[94]  Fritjof Capra,et al.  The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture , 1982 .

[95]  C. L. Jurkiewicz,et al.  Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance , 2002 .

[96]  Burton H. Singer,et al.  Interpersonal Flourishing: A Positive Health Agenda for the New Millennium , 2000 .