Transforming an Organization into a Spiritual One: A Five- Pathway Integrated Framework

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a number of insights about the "what", "why", and "how" of workplace/ organizational spirituality, providing a clear and broader conceptualization and themes of the phenomenon. It presents an integrated framework leading towards building and maintaining a spirituality-based workplace. This framework encompasses five "core pillars" or "pathways": (1) organizational culture; (2) organization's mission, vision; (3) leadership; (4) human resource development; and, (5) organization structure and job design. Each can partially contribute to building a spiritual organization. But to build and maintain a truly spiritual organization, it requires to simultaneously and steadily proceed on all "pathways" or fronts".

Adding an Ethical and Spiritual Dimension to Sustainable Business Models

“…For example, Thaker [43] argues that business challenges cannot be met only through knowledge-based tools, and organizations that aim for long-term competitiveness and sustainability would benefit from the development and implementation of "pathways" towards spirituality. Banyhamdan et al [44] discuss potentially relevant "pathways", identifying some main cultural and structural components that might contribute to move an organization towards a more spiritual approach to business. The inclusion of ethics and spirituality is also highlighted by Balog et al [45] in relation to a more complete and even realistic way to study entrepreneurial practices.…”

Manager Perspectives on Embedding Workplace Spirituality into the Business Curriculum: Bridging the Gap

“…Workplace spirituality has been described as a “movement” (Barnett, Krell, & Sendry, , p. 562) that appears to be growing without abatement (Banyhamdan, Harrim, & Al‐Qutop, ; Deshpande, ). As a term, it is used relatively generically in management, spirituality, and Religion (MSR) literature (Fornaciari & Lund Dean, ), reflecting a capacity to encompass various lines of inquiry exploring spirituality at both the organizational (Mitroff, ) and individual employee level (Banyhamdan et al, ).…”

“…Although spirituality has been the source of ontological and metaphysical inquiry in the academy since the time of Plato (Speck, ), the topic of workplace spirituality did not emerge in the business and management literature until the 1990s (Banyhamdan et al, ; Manz, Marx, Neal, & Manz, ), with attention intensifying thereafter (Gotsis & Kortezi, ; Miller & Ewest, ; Western, ). The increased interest has been attributed to a gamut of factors.…”

“…Despite an abundance of publications focused on defining and debating spirituality (Cavanagh, ; Fornaciari & Lund Dean, ; Lips‐Wiersma, ; Long & Mills, ; Miller & Ewest, ), no real consensus has emerged across major operational definitions (Banyhamdan et al, ; Miller & Ewest, ) perhaps because of the variety of ways in which individuals bring meaning to it (Barnett et al, ; Haroutiounian et al, ; Miller & Ewest, ). Indeed, Fornaciari and Lund Dean () suggest that multiple works on defining spirituality can overwhelm the scholar who becomes “bogged down” (p. 319) by constant reinvention of the wheel.…”

“…Second, while management scholars are well represented as stakeholders in this literature, the voices of managers in the field are less evident. Finally, as Banyhamdan et al () have also observed, although scholarly, theoretical attention to the issue of embedding workplace spirituality into the curriculum exists, few of the sources cited are based on empirical and qualitative research, an issue this study seeks to address.…”