Founder and Editor-in-Chief at ManageMagazine. Southwest Airlines, for example, which made it through the economic crisis, is at times described as a spirit-driven organization. 1: 57-64. religion and Eastern thinking such as Zen and Taoism may be perceived as philosophies or values. Leaders of today are facing a multitude of challenges. People are hungry for ways in which to practice spirituality in the workplace without offending their coworkers or causing acrimony. Conger et al., Spirit at Work: Discovering the Spirituality in Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994); B. Cohen and J. Greenfield, Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip: Lead with Your Values and Make Money, Too(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997); B. DeFoore and J. Ronesch, Rediscovering the Soul of Business: A Renaissance of Values (San Francisco: NewLeaders Press, 1995); M. Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: Free Press, 1996); and. Academics speak of ‘groundbreaking work’ and positive results (van der Walt & De Klerk 2014). They believe strongly that unless organizations learn how to harness the “whole person” and the immense spiritual energy that is at the core of everyone, they will not be able to produce world-class products and services. Does being Religious or Spiritual make you more Ethical at Work? Thus spirituality at work has three components: the inner life, meaningful work, and community” (Ashmos & Duchon in Dondona 2013). This article explores the underlying assumptions and history as well as the state of current theory and empirical research regarding SRW. Religion and Spirituality in the Workplace Faith in the workplace and the level of accommodations employers should allow is an increasing problem. After all, these characteristics make for a well-rounded person. Dalai Lama gives a splendid distinction between religion and spirituality in his book named Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for  the New Millennium: Religion I take to be concerned with faith in the claims of one faith tradition or another, an aspect of which is the acceptance of some form of heaven or nirvana.  Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual prayer, and so on.  Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit—such as love and compassion, patience tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony—which brings happiness to both self and others (BooksGoogle). Be deliberate about engaging a vision of betterment of mankind or the planet, or similar. Sign up for a free account: Comment on articles and get access to many more articles. READ ALSO: Purpose Driven Organizations; Purpose Beyond Profit. 3. This way stillness and mindfulness also reduce stress, burnout, and stress-related illnesses, which means more people show up at work each day. What is Psychological Safety and How to Create it? READ ALSO: For Change to Happen, You Have to Take Action. The role of spirituality and religion in the workplace (SRW) is a relatively new area of inquiry that has emerged from scholarly fields not typically associated with the study of the psychology of religion and spirituality. Management research and ideas to transform how people lead and innovate. READ ALSO: How to Lead, Manage and Motivate Knowledge Workers. Studies of leaders judged as more effective show that they increase work satisfaction, motivation, productivity, and profits – as mentioned before. Thank you for your comment, Dennis. For example, suppose an employee’s religion requires that he or she wear particular clothes that are considered hazardous if worn near moving equipment or machinery. 9. This does not mean that they had no fears, reservations, or ambivalence with regard to the potential abuse of spirituality. This will spin-off many other great things, and your people will feel recognized and praise you for your concern. • Management learns to truly listen and builds a safe place where employees can speak the truth without fear of repercussions. When you are aware – and recognize the common acts of ego – in yourself and others, which all people practice at times – then it is possible to leave ego acts behind you, and show strength, for instance, by daring to be vulnerable rather than diminishing others. They may be influenced by various other religions … These events continue to impact the marketplace, yet decision makers are … content, READ ALSO: What is Situational Leadership Theory? Make sure that the purpose and your approach runs through the entire organization. To be clear, workplace spirituality is not about religious beliefs. Why? Dimensions of spirituality are, for example, spiritual well-being, spiritual transcendence, spiritual development, spiritual wellness, spiritual distress, spiritual intelligence, spiritual self-consciousness, spiritual growth, and spiritual health (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz 2010: 8). This way you avoid it to be another mask to wear because the leaders seem to like it that way. Moreover, inclusion is also about creating a mix of employees that represent the mix we see when looking at the population. Workplace spirituality is more focused on the theme of tolerance, patience, the feel of interconnectivity, purpose and acceptability of the mind to the norms of the organization, integrated together to shape personal values, whereas religion is marked by a specific belief system, a particular system of faith and set of beliefs (Afsar & Rehman, 2015). Likewise, be certain to initiate working with workplace spirituality because you genuinely want to increase the well-being and happiness of employees while lifting your organization. 8. Still, the growing number of successful faith-friendly and faith-based employers serves as testament that religion and spirituality can flourish in the workplace. When communicating spirituality in the workplace it is important to be crystal clear on this matter. Workplace spirituality is gaining ground in modern organizations and for good reasons. Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the workplace is a movement that began in the early 1920s. Let’s add a few definitions, to more fully grasp what is workplace spirituality and how understandings of it may vary. This search for religious and spiritual meaning in the workplace is a departure from the more traditional business mentality of “power, profit, and takeovers, where religion was something saved for the Sabbath day.” 1 Greater spiritual and religious accommodation has become a source for achieving that meaning and support. They could deploy more of their full creativity, emotions, and intelligence; in short, organizations viewed as more spiritual get more from their participants, and vice versa. van der Walt, Freda and Mias De Klerk (2014). A combination of different approaches helps us to view spirituality from a new perspective. Spirituality is generally believed to be a phenomenon that is too soft, too nebulous, and too ill-formed for serious academic study. Next, we’ll be looking into how to encourage and implement a culture of spirituality in the workplace, and then we shall return to explain the benefits of workplace spirituality in more detail. In recent years, a large amount of mostly popular literature on spirituality has grown steadily,3 a significant portion of which deals with spirituality in the work-place4 and the benefits of such workplaces. “The full benefits of spirituality on morale and productivity will not be realized without a sustained, large-scale cultural transformation at all levels of the organization. This is to avoid any organizational members should get the feeling that leaders are imposing a belief system upon them. • Management practices and decisions will be clearly consistent with spiritual values such as integrity, honesty, love, hope, kindness, respect, and nurturing. Again – it undermines genuineness. Guidelines for Publishing in ManageMagazine, Be a Co-Creative Partner of ManageMagazine, Purpose Driven Organizations; Purpose Beyond Profit, organizations having a meaningful purpose, Start with Why – How great leaders inspire action. This would surely create a negative impact. Routledge: London and New York. With newer generations taking over; generations which are more prone to ‘work-shopping’ – it is surely a growing trend. Emmons (2000) simply states that workplace spirituality is ‘the personal expression of ultimate concern’. They believe strongly that unless organizations learn how to harness the “whole person” and the immense spiritual energy that is at the core of everyone, they will not be able to produce world-class products and services. When we listen and are genuinely curious as to why another person thinks the way he/she does – then we understand and feel connected with this person rather than disconnected. Entrepreneur, speaker, lecturer, and board member. The World as an Oyster: What Shapes the Way you Think as a Leader? Obviously, we cannot fully engage ourselves in things that create a negative impact. Workplace spirituality is not about religion or conversion, or about accepting a specific belief system. Nasina, M. & Doris, K. (2011). The workplace spirituality and. Know your employees and what triggers them. This criticism is undoubtedly valid when spirituality is defined as bringing religion and God into the workplace. The above are the main benefits of workplace spirituality as confirmed again and again through different types of research and with various methods. Yet, if we can make capitalism the horse in front of the carriage to secure movement of doing good – then results much greater in scope will occur. 1. 5 Most Popular Leadership and Management Articles in ManageMagazine 2017, Importance of Communication Skills for Leadership and Management. Workplace spirituality and job satisfaction, The Importance Role of Religions and Spirituality, 10 Guidelines for Estimating Project Effort in Project Management, Four Ways your Name can Affect your Job Prospects, Different Types of Leadership and Management Styles – Quick Overview. Vail, Spirited Leading and Learning (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998). Be consistent. Some call workplace spirituality the most significant trend in management since the human-potential movement in the 50s. More and more it becomes obvious, that current structures and policies are not fit to solve the problems of the 21. century. 5 free articles per month, $6.95/article thereafter, free newsletter. Some call this self-leadership, yet I’ve recently started calling it. See I.I. Spirituality involves a sense of connectedness, meaning making and transcendence. These affinity groups can help encourage religious understanding by offering panel discussions that educate employees on their beliefs. Workplace spirituality is rooted in meaning, value, and purpose. Conference Paper: National Conference on Paradigm for Sustainable Business: People, Planet, and Profit. Unless there is another type of clothing that would meet the employee’s religious needs, permitting the employee to work in those clothes may be an undue hardship because of legitimate safety rules or regulations. In this sense, workplace spirituality is closely connected with organizations having a meaningful purpose. A front-runner on the need of asking why before what and how is Simon Sinek, who since his famous TedTalk: Start with Why – How great leaders inspire action (watched by more than 44 M) – has initiated a wave of ‘purpose talk’. K. Wilber, A Brief History of Everything (Boston: Shambhala, 1996). See L. Bolman and T.E. Definitions & Examples, For Change to Happen, You Have to Take Action. Thrilled to facilitate partnerships, research, knowledge sharing, and professional networks to ensure a positive practice impact - allowing people to live out their highest, truest, and fullest expression of themselves. In spite of or perhaps because of this literature, there have been, until now, no serious empirical studies of what managers and executives believe and feel about spirituality or assessments of its purported benefits. Don’t worry so much about fancy CVs and papers promising abilities. Corporate culture is largely influenced by outside views on religion and spirituality. They defined “spirituality” as “the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete self, others, and the entire universe.” If a single word best captures the meaning of spirituality and the vital role that it plays in people’s lives, that word is “interconnectedness.” Those associated with organizations they perceived as “more spiritual” also saw their organizations as “more profitable.” They reported that they were able to bring more of their “complete selves” to work. 14. READ ALSO: Does being Religious or Spiritual make you more Ethical at Work? Some people might think there’s no place for religion at work, but you have protected rights to act on your beliefs. • There will be a move from command-and-control leadership to horizontal servant leadership, which emphasizes empowering, delegation, and cooperation. Sociologist and Ph.D. in Organization Studies and Innovation Management. • Management with a mission will replace management of efficiency and control. To do this you must be clear on your mission (how you are going to enable clients to do it) and vision (what the world looks like when this has come to be). Make it people before profit, and the rest solves itself. Religion and Spirituality in the Workplace Today there are over 900 religious employee resource groups, according to the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). As 75% of Canadians indicate a religious affiliation, and as immigration and foreign worker programs lend themselves to an increasingly diverse workforce, there is a growing concern for Canadian employers to meet employees' spirituality needs. – these millions were wasted. To go on, workplace spirituality is also shown to reduce staff turnover rates. Why is, in other words, a purpose, a cause, a belief. You are conscious about how people prosper when feeling meaning and purpose in their work-life and through being given creative space – and this is why you do it. Recruit people that buy into your purpose… your brand agenda, mission, and vision statements. They say that part of the Warrior Spirit (company language) is about having a servant’s heart and a LUVing attitude. The role of spirituality and religion in the workplace (SRW) is a relatively new area of inquiry that has emerged from scholarly fields not typically associated with the study of the psychology of religion and spirituality. Giacalone & Jurkiewicz famously define workplace spirituality as those aspects of the workplace, either in the individual, the group, or the organization, that promote individual feelings of satisfaction through transcendence (2010: 13). There is no other simple way than just asking them. Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. Therefore, they will be reluctant in issuing an ultimatum and slow in the “firing trigger”. Religion divides people. Mitroff and E. Denton, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), in press. Spirituality at work is about leaders and followers who understand themselves as spiritual beings who have a sense of calling that provides meaning and purpose for their lives. Neal (1997) believes spirituality in the workplace has little to do with religion. One which they want to show-off. • There is a new willingness to reflect on the meaning of life and moral implications in making important decisions. “According to Ashmos and Duchon, spirituality at work is the recognition that employees have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community. • Bosses will treat employees in a responsible, respectful, and caring way because people are not instruments to be used and exploited. Interestingly, the benefits of workplace spirituality are a rather perfect match to problems of modern organizations and this makes workplace spirituality a solution, which you want to have a closer look at. This article explores the underlying assumptions and history as well as the state of current The first time the floor manager looked sharply at the people talking by the watercooler and said: ‘don’t you have better things to do? Furthermore, both clients and employees prefer to surround themselves with people they both trust and respect. Thankfully, the realms of ‘spirituality’ and workplace spirituality provide some answers. Get free, timely updates from MIT SMR with new ideas, research, frameworks, and more. J.K. Salkin, Being God's Partner: How to Find the Hidden Link Between Spirituality and Your Work (Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994). As human beings, we want to make a difference and feel energized while making this difference. INTRODUCTION TO RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE Changes in religious preference in the US population influence religious tolerance in the workplace (Scheitle & Ecklund, 2017). 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