Overview
The increasing interest of
spiritual values in organizational context has been researched by many
academics due to the positive results it has brought to the organizations (Sass,
2000). Shellenbarger (2000, as citied in Milimann et al., 2003) also asserts that spirituality has become a growing
business trend in the 21st century.
Due to the growing importance of spirituality, this post
aims to identify spirituality and the benefits it entitles.
Workplace spirituality
defined
‘Workplace spirituality recognizes
that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful
work in the context of community’ (Robbins and Judge, 2013, p.529).
Similarly, Asmos and Duchon
(2000) exerts that spirituality is recognizing individuals in the organization
as humans who has both mind and spirit and understanding that measures to
develop spirituality is just as vital as developing the minds of them.
Kochukalam (2018)
asserts that as illustrated in Figure 1, the foundation of workplace
spirituality consists of an inner need (transcendence) for fulfillment together
with a connection and purpose for work (to belong to a community, belonging at
work).
Importance of Spirituality
The following
benefits exists in a culture that promotes spirituality:
- Spirituality leads to high personal and psychological well-being (Fry and Slocum, 2008).
-
Similarly, (Garcia-zamar, 2003) asserts that spirituality creates a win-win solution for organizations and employees where performance is enhanced.
Enables sustainable competitive advantage through high creativity and flexibility (Benefiel, 2003).
However, Bell and Taylor (2003, p. 332) argues that spirituality is a mechanism implemented by organizations to control the employees as ‘workplace spirituality ensures that the search for meaning is harnessed to specific organizational purposes’.
Value Framework of Spirituality
Table 1 depicts the
value framework of workplace spirituality where organizational cultures that exhibits positive characteristics of Benevolence, Generativity, Humanism, Integrity, Justice, Mutuality, Receptivity, Respect, Responsibility and trust
portrays a spiritual organization (Jurkiewicz and Gicalone, 2004).
Figure 1: Value Framework of workplace Spirituality
|
Positive |
Values of Spirituality |
Negative |
|
Kindness towards others and an orientation to
promote their happiness and prosperity of employees and other stakeholders
within the work context. |
Benevolence |
Employee’s
feelings have no relevance in the work environment, their happiness and
prosperity are their own concern. |
|
Long-term focus, showing a concern for the
consequences of one’s actions into the future; respectful of future
generations
|
Generativity |
Concerned with
immediate reward without regard for long-term consequences
|
|
Practices and policies that assert the essential
dignity and worth of each employee; provides an opportunity for personal
growth conjunction with organizational goals |
Humanism |
Lacking
mercy or kindness; cruel; impersonal, cold; unconcerned with the needs of
employees as human beings; lacking warmth or geniality |
|
Uncompromising adherence to a code of conduct;
sincerity, honesty, candor; exercising unforced power |
Integrity |
Organizational
members can act deceptive, expedient, artificial, shallow, politically
manipulative and are inconsistent in following a code of conduct |
|
Even-handed treatment and judgment of employees;
impartial, fair, honest; unbiased assignment of rewards and punishments |
Justice |
Dishonest,
faithless; wrongful or biased in judgment |
|
All employees are interconnected and mutually
dependent, each contributes to the final output by working in conjunction |
Mutuality |
Employees are
separate and distinct free agents responsible for their own output
irrespective of others’ efforts, time spent interacting with others is
dictated by necessity |
|
Open-minded, flexible thinking, orientation toward
calculated risk-taking, rewards creativity |
Receptivity |
Enforces
one right way to do things, discourages questioning and innovation; punishes
behavior outside the norm. |
|
Regard and treat employees with esteem and value;
showing consideration and concern for others |
Respect |
Demonstrates
disesteem and contempt for employees; uncivil, discourteous to others |
|
Independently follows through on goal attainment
irrespective of difficulty or obstacles; concerned with doing what’s right
rather than the right thing |
Responsibility |
Shirks
work and follows through only insofar as forced to do so; does not exert
effort independent of external controls |
|
Being able to confidently depend on the character
and truth of the organization and its representatives |
Trust |
Character, truth,
maintenance of obligations and promises is at the discretion of individual
organizational members as predicated by their personal gain |
(Source: Jurkiewicz and Gicalone, 2004, p.131)
xz As people spend a prominent portion of time at the workplace, Video 1 describes seven tips on how one can practice spirituality at the workplace:
Video
1: Seven values to practice spirituality at work
References
Ashmos, D. and Duchon, D. (2000). Spirituality at work: A conceptualization and Measure. Journal of Management Inquiry. 9(2). pp. 134-145. doi: 10.1177/105649260092008.
Bell, E. and Taylor, S. (2003). The Elevation of Work: Pastoral Power and the New Age Work Ethic. 10(2). Organization. pp. 329-349. doi: 10.1177/1350508403010002009.
Benefiel, M. (2003). Mapping the terrain of spirituality in organizations research. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 16(4). pp. 367-377. doi: 10.1108/09534810310484136.
Garcia-zamor, J. (2003). Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance. Public Administration Review. 63(3). pp. 355-363. doi: 10.1111/1540-6210.00295.
Gibbons, P. (2019). Spirituality at work: Definitions, measures, assumptions, and validity claims. Work and Spirit: A Reader of New Spiritual Paradigms for Organizations. pp. 111-131.
Fry, L. and Slocum, J. (2008). Maximizing the Triple Bottom Line through Spiritual Leadership. Organizational Dynamics. 37(1). pp. 86-96. doi: 10.1016/j.orgdyn.2007.11.004.
Jurkiewicz, C. and Giacalone, R. (2004). A Values Framework for Measuring the Impact of Workplace Spirituality on Organizational Performance. Journal of Business Ethics. 49(1). pp. 129-142. doi: 10.1023/B:BUSI.0000015843.22195.b9.
Kochukalam, C. (2018).
Workplace Spirituality – A Transcending Experience. Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective. 7(1). pp.
20-22. doi: 10.24105/gjcmp.7.1.1804.
Millimann, J., Czaplewski, A. and Ferguson, J. (2003). Workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes: An exploratory empirical assessment. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 16(4). pp. 426-447. doi: 10.1108/09534810310484172.
Mind Spark. (2017). Practice Spirituality in the Workplace - Mind Spark Videos. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsG5RbyQ110 (Accessed: 11th May 2021).
Robbins, S.
and Judge, T. (2013). Organizational
Behavior. 15th edn. United States: Pearson Education.
Sass, J. (2000). Characterizing
Organization Spirituality: An Organizational Communication Culture Approach’, Communication Studies. 51(3). pp.
195–217. doi: 0.1080/10510970009388520.
6 Comments
Agreed with you Arjun and adding that, it should be vital role to be played by the leaders to confortable organizational culture in an organization.
ReplyDeleteAn effective leader can motivate employees to behave in a certain way especially based on the accepted value systems. By rewarding the right behavior and inspiring through actions can take the organizational culture to a better position (Sarros, 2002).
Yes Eranda, in my previous post 'The impact of Leadership towards Organizational Culture' I elaborated further on how leadership can influence the organizational culture.
DeleteSpirituality is much more than rewards, it's about creating a culture where employees can find their inner selves and where the culture encourages the spiritual growth of the employees (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2010).
Agree with you. Over the last decade, workplace spirituality has become a buzzword in business and organization literature. Furthermore, many studies have affirmed its significance in satisfying individuals’ inner feelings and self actualization. As organizational culture represents the personality of any organization, it has a tremendous role in shaping current and future organizational orientation (Klein,A.S., Wallis,J. and Cooke,R.A., 2013).
ReplyDeleteYes Wasantha, organizations also have understood the importance spirituality has on life, health, community and well-being, it is about finding the inner life while preserving the other aspects of life (Tacey, 2004).
DeleteWell said Arjun, As per a research done by Mousa & Alas (2016), the study has found that workplace spirituality dimensions (meaningful work, sense of community, and alignment with organizational values) are strongly affected by both adaptability and mission. Also, in agreement with the same study, the results of this research have proved a weak correlation between consistency and workplace spirituality dimensions. However, the results of this research have shown a moderate correlation between involvement and the two dimensions of workplace spirituality; namely, meaningful work and sense of community.
ReplyDeleteYes Indeevari, however, Rathee and Rajain (2020, p.27) proved through empirical data and theoretical evidence that 'workplace spirituality has a significant impact of work attitudes like organizational performance, job involvement, job commitment, and job satisfaction as a whole'.
Delete