Key Dimensions of Spirit at Work—An Indian Perspective

Abstract

Post-globalization trends have left many people with a sense of insecurity-on both the economic and the employment fronts. Business re-engineering, downsizing, lay-offs, excessive consumerism and greed have altered the rules of the business game. Skewed attention to mere economic criteria in many business organizations, even at the cost of societal and environmental factors, is leading to a sense of hollowness, 'something missing', in the organization and its employees. People are making every attempt to discover this 'missing component' in their lives, with particular reference to their work lives. This 'missing component' is referred to as 'spirit at work' in management literature. Bringing in spirit at work has become a matter of priority for many business organizations, in their drives for sustained success. Spirit at work is about care, compassion, integrity, and about attempting to live one's values at the workplace. It is about employees who are passionate and energized by their work, who find meaning and purpose and pursue excellence in their work, and who feel that they can express their complete selves at work. It is about individuals and organizations that see work as an opportunity to grow and to contribute to society in a meaningful way. Spirit at work can be better understood by gaining clarity about the key aspects that constitute this concept. This article reviews the extant literature on spirit at work, highlights the key dimensions of spirit at work, and elaborates on each of them. A number of Indian scholars like S.K. Chakraborty, Subhash Sharma, M.B. Athreya, Panduranga Bhatta and others have proposed an Indian perspective of spirit at work and have elaborated on it since a decade and a half. This article extends the Indian perspective further, based on Indian psycho-philosophy, and establishes its comprehensive and inclusive nature that enables incorporation of most of the key dimensions of spirit at work as identified in literature.

Further Validation of Workplace Spirituality Scale in an Eastern Context

“…For example, Chawla and Guda (2010), while reviewing different definitions that appear in the literature, identified common themes such as 'sense of community', 'inner life', 'meaningful work' and 'transcendence' as different dimensions of WPS. Srirangarajan and Bhaskar (2011) also noted certain key characteristics of WPS that repeatedly appear in the literature. Based on these characteristics, they shortlisted 15 key dimensions of WPS.Similarly, Petchsawang and Duchon (2009), in their attempt to develop a WPS scale in an Eastern context, found that five different themes -'connection', 'compassion', 'mindfulness', 'meaningful work', and 'transcendence' often surfaced in the WPS literature.…”

Mediating Effect of Engagement on Workplace Spirituality–Job Involvement Relationship: A Study among Generation Y Professionals

“…The community dimension, as well as the aspect of organisational purpose, has been adopted from Milliman et al (2003) scale which was conceptualised as a sense of community and alignment with the organisational values, respectively. These dimensions of spirituality, namely, meaningful work, sense of community, personal-work values alignment and inner life, are also found to be critical dimensions of the Indian perspective of spirituality at work experience (Srirangarajan & Bhaskar, 2011).…”

Workplace Spirituality and Employee Attitudes: Moderating Role of Organizational Politics

“…On the other hand, Liu and Robertson (2011) came up with three dimensions -'interconnection with a higher power', 'interconnection with human beings', and 'interconnection with nature and all living things'. Srirangarajan and Bhaskar (2011), while presenting key dimensions of spirituality at work from an Indian (Eastern) perspective, listed 15 different dimensions of WPS. Nonetheless, review of different definitions found in literature suggest that the common dimensions of WPS are 'sense of community', 'inner life', 'meaningful work', 'transcendence', 'compassion', and 'mindfulness'.…”