Workplace chaplaincy: a literature review

Abstract

Interest in workplace spirituality has risen over the past few decades and it continues to garner increasing attention as evidenced by interdisciplinary scholarship and corporate interest. Workplace chaplaincy can be considered to be a special approach to spirituality in companies and therefore is described as a growing and concrete manifestation of workplace spirituality. Workplace chaplaincy can be called a phenomenon with a long history but partial scholarly study. This specialized manifestation of workplace spirituality has not yet received adequate academic attention and few empirical studies exist, but there are clear signs of emerging academic interest in this field of research. In this paper, we present an interdisciplinary systematic literature review focusing on the main topics in the available literature. As workplace chaplaincy is organized in different ways in different countries, the review aims to present diverse models of chaplaincy in various states. Furthermore, the question arises of whether workplace chaplaincy represents the real integration of spirituality or if it is just exploited by instrumentality, which means that workplace chaplaincy is solely regarded as an opportunity to improve the efficiency and performance of organizations.

Spirituality in the workplace: a systematic review

“…This phenomenal rise in literature may be ascribed to a positive relationship between workplace spirituality (WPS) and profitability (Mitroff and Denton, 1999). The rising interest in the topic led to the formation of a special interest group called Management, Spirituality and Religion (MSR) by the Academy of Management (Wolf and Feldbauer-Durstm€ uller, 2018) that specifically works towards the intersection of religion and spirituality in management research (Vasconcelos, 2018). Academics opine that the emergence of WPS in management research goes back to 1990s when researchers like Mitroff and Denton (1999), Piedmont (1999) and Dehler and Welsh (1994) advocated that organisations perceived as spiritual by their employees are also more profitable (Mitroff and Denton, 1999), primarily because spiritual fulfilment enables employees to express their whole selves at work.…”

Spirituality, Symbolism and Storytelling in Twentyfirst-Century Organizations: Understanding and addressing the crisis of imagination

“…Thus, for example, extant research has found an overlap between individual and organizational values (beliefs) that may be considered spiritual, as concerns the establishment of trust (Li, Bai & Xi, 2011), and of normative behaviour, as concerns propensity for innovation (Assouad & Parboteeah, 2018). With the inroads that the study of spirituality and religion has made into organization studies, we find, at one end, scholarship on specific faith aspects of organizational life, such as the deployment of industrial chaplains at the workplace (Wolf & Feldbauer-Durstmüller, 2018), and at the other end, the import of religious practice into organizational life, like mindfulness (Vu & Gill, 2018) and discernment (Falque & Duriau, 2004). Leadership, perhaps the most studied aspect of management in organizations, has seen the development of new constructs such as spiritual leadership (Fry, 2003) and servant leadership (Van Dierendonck, 2011), as well as inputs from the realm of spirituality/religion into extant constructs, such as transformational leadership (Pravichai & Ariyabuddhiphongs, 2018).…”

The Christian Body at Work

“…As the individual fsw section will make clear, particular forms of experience can be considered another crucial aspect of fsw. 15 For a literature review on workplace chaplaincy, seeWolf and Feldbauer-Durstmüller (2018). 16 For an alternative model focusing on rituals, community, and belief, seeBandsuch and Cavanagh (2005:228).…”