From Temples to Organizations: The Introduction and Packaging of Spirituality

Abstract

This article is based on a research of Israeli spiritual consultants and their interaction with local organizations. The incorporation of ideas of spirituality into the world of effi cient management and organizations seem on the outset to be 'unnatural'. We show that while this inherent contradiction does not disappear, spiritual consultants employ various ways to overcome the anticipated resistance and to make an impact. These ways include not only attentive processes of selection and reframing of ideas before introducing them to the new setting, but often enough also methods of concealing and lack of transparency in the consultants' interactions with managers and or employees. We use domestication, as a key analytical concept. In spite all the familiarization and disguising techniques, spiritual consultants do bring new ideas into the organizational context. Unlike conventional consultants, they set an emphasis on the individual's awareness of his or her body, thoughts and feelings at the moment and by that challenge management expectation that employees

Exploring association of spiritual perspectives with complementary medicine use among patients with Type 2 diabetes in Israel

“…This term has been proposed to describe a process characteristic of CAM in Israel (and perhaps also elsewhere), 'in which the foreign is rendered familiar and palatable to local tastes' (Fadlon 2005, p. 2). As shown in another Israeli study (Zaidman et al 2009), domestication may take the form of ignoring or omitting some of CAM's core ideas. Our results suggest that CAM, diabetes, and religiosity are interconnected at least in the Jewish society.…”

Work innovations: transformation, micro-emancipations, or discursive shift?

“…The harnessing of further aspects of the self can also be seen in the emerging workplace spirituality literature (Karakas, 2009;Poole, 2009;Suwanakul, 2009;Zaidman et al, 2009). According to Karakas (2009, p.17), 'This new spiritual movement embodies employees' search for simplicity, meaning at work, and interconnectedness to something higher'.…”

“…Concomitant developments in the management of employees, and specifically the development of human resource management practices, has led some to proclaim a transformed workplace for employees (Cappelli and Rogovsky, 1994;Lamb and Sutherland, 2010). Discursive framing of such practices includes such terms as tele-working (Sakamoto and Spinks, 2008), virtual workers, flexible hours, family friendly practices, diversity management (Klarsfeld and Bender, 2009;McVittie et al, 2008;Watson et al, 2009), organisational spirituality (Grzeda, 2008;Lips-Wiersma et al, 2009;Long and Mills, 2010;Pandey et al, 2009;Pawar, 2009;Poole, 2009;Zaidman et al, 2009). The new practices come with 'new' organisational and industry forms such as the 'virtual organisation', 'network organisation', 'creative industries'.…”

Workplace Spirituality Scale Design─ the view of Oriental Culture

“…In addition, individual spirituality is a critical factor to probe into the employees' latent conflicts (Konz & Ryan, 1999;Sheep, 2006). Zaidman, Goldstein-Gidoni and Nehemya (2009) note in spite all the familiarization and disguising techniques, spiritual consultants do bring new ideas into the organizational context. However, Gibbons (2000) suggests that most studies on employees' attitudes tend to focus on the assumption of the impact of spirituality at work, instead of studying the relations among the major factors of the experiences.…”