Creating a Context of Spirituality in the Workplace

Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance

Introduction:
This article is written in the year June 2003 by Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor who is a professor of
public administration in the school of policy and management Florida.
The article is related to workplace spirituality, and impact on the organization performance. He
explains the article historically and compared it with religious beliefs, ethical and moral theories.
Summary
Before 1980s, there was a perception that human were machines, they were working only for
money, they had no values, as a result, workforce had low morale, high turnover and burnouts.
After that era there is a great boost in corporate environment by spirituality movement, which
sets a trend that human, are not machines they have feelings, emotions, spiritually and ethics.
Many companies adopt this culture because it creates a win-win situation for the organizations
and employees and effects on organization performance and give them profits.
Many historians connect spirituality with culture. Another study traced that Spirituality has
included in many religion of the world.
Another study said that religion does not definitely tell about spirituality because according to
them religion is not a broad and wide term but Spirituality is used as a universal term for all
human beings.
People believe that religion breaks the society into groups but spirituality sets it connection
between humans because it defines that every human have same structure. Their inner is mad by
same thing human has same power of mind and all of them are species.
The literature of ethics has Spirituality in the work place but they have different though they
have same lesson of giving benefits to others. In workplace employees knows how they react
etically but new employees does not know how they tackle ethical dilemmas.
I n several states of USA training program about ethics has been started to minimize the
corruption. These training explain the rules, policies and process. However it is very difficult to
change the personality. To avoid corruption organization should conduct the ethics audit to
reshape the settings. Should conduct the ethics audit to reshape the sttings, create incentive
system and interaction among employees.
Example of helicopter Manufacturer Company who offered the 2 days ethical training offers the
training employee felt renewed and ready for new challenges. Some of them felt that they had a
new mind for contributing more for home job and community.
Another famous company G.E industry has said that these courses have helped to raised
productivity by increasing Job satisfaction.
A Christian scholar writes on spirituality that relationship not only with persons and organization
are important but relationship with God is also very important.
Creating a Context of Spirituality in the Workplace

Father Hoffen man warns that we waste our life trying to be something which we can be because
of hidden mystery.
The most important question is that once spiritual wisdom learned what must we do with it?
Answer is We must live it with our words through our actions.
Work place Spirituality defines that employees not only come with body but also with their
brain. But this Spirituality demolished when the economic problems are arise, companies lay off
their employees and go for merger. The effect of that on people was less workforce less
willingness, and not be a productive.
Critical Analysis
Once we let go of traditional definitions of spirituality, naturalism becomes a powerful resource
in evoking the spiritual response and providing a unified cognitive context within which it can be
interpreted. By abjuring spirits and ghosts we discover our true place in the cosmos, in which
Existence replaces Purpose, function replaces essence, and surprise replaces security. It turns out
we are of one nature, not two, a nature shared by all we see and know.
After the September 11th terrorist attacks on America, the economy slowed down for businesses
and public organizations. Employees were losing jobs and forced to change their lifestyles.

However, America regained its composure, refocused itself, and went back to normalcy. Yet the
aftermath of such tragedies have produced a spiritual void in Americas workplace. Essentially,
9/11 exposed this emerging trend of workers seeking more meaning in the workplace. However,
todays leaders are not prepared for this cultural change.

Todays employees are undergoing some unparalleled changes, such as outsourcing and
restructuring. These work and cultural pressures have sparked a demand for a more meaningful
work existence. This revelation may cause managers to take notice as workers start leaving in
hoping of something more.

Why are American employees in general desiring something different from their jobs? Some
employees note the lack of concern by organizations for their individuality. Historically,
organizations have had no room for spirituality of any kind. The underpinning assumption is that
well-run organizations are impersonal.

The current workforce is therefore expecting more quality-of-living improvements in
organizations. Ashar and Lane-Maher, authors of Success and Spirituality in the New Business
Paradigm, maintain that the workplace has an aspiration for something more than employment.

Some experts call this need spirituality, which is characterized by individuals feeling good about
themselves and carrying a sense of godliness in their living. However, this concept is not about
organized religion but recognizing the reality that people want to meet an inner desire by having
meaningful work.
Creating a Context of Spirituality in the Workplace


Daryl and Estraletta Green, authors of More than a Conqueror: Achieving Personal Fulfillment in
Government Service, have been studying these cultural changes for many years. They have over
20 years of management experience. They explain that most organizations have completely
ignored this emerging employee need.

Daryl clarifies, Managers want an impersonal workforce while employees want an intimate
relationship. They want to be valued and to know their efforts are valued by management. This is
obvious to us in the federal workforce.

The Greens offer suggestions for employees desiring a more, purpose-driven life in the
workplace:

1.Vision. Develop an overall purpose for your life.
2. Priority. Identify your top five priorities.
3. Purposeful Living. Find a worthy cause.
4. Ideal Job. Discover your ideal job, consisting of your interest, talents/skills, and personal
values.

Fortunately, some employers are taking this spiritual void seriously. However, some executives
still appear indifferent about these cultural shifts in the workplace.

Green argues, With the impending retirement of the baby boomer generation drawing near,
organizations that neglect the needs of their employees will find themselves in an unfavorable
position for future hiring.

Some workers are taking personal responsibility for their lives in order to gain a more fulfilled
life. Therefore, future managers will need to understand how to deal this new trend of
spirituality.
But how, practically speaking, are we to feel all this? Abstractions are all well and good, but we
might want the direct experience of connection simply because its intrinsically rewarding, a
refreshment from our ordinary ego-centered, goal-driven state of mind. Naturalism can help
inspire us, but to substantially change how we feel we may need to participate in some sort of
spiritual practice.

An explicitly naturalistic spiritual practice must evoke the spiritual response in the cognitive
context of naturalism. Traditional religion has linked this response to sacred liturgies, with all
their supernatural connotations, using music, theater, incense, architecture and other ritual
elements that generate feelings of connection and wonder. There is no reason why such a link
cannot be forged between naturalism and such feelings; its simply a matter of finding (or
Creating a Context of Spirituality in the Workplace

designing) rituals and practices which pair these feelings with expressions of naturalistic beliefs.
In his television series Cosmos, Carl Sagan accomplished this by telling a naturalistic creation
story, set to some exceptionally beautiful music and stunning visual panoramas of the heavens.

Theres much to choose from in terms of existing spiritual practice that might be adapted for a
naturalistic spirituality. Some Unitarian services come close to an entirely naturalistic celebration
of community, despite the fact that they often use theistic hymns and take place in buildings that
look suspiciously like churches. Naturalists must infiltrate these congregations, form committees
over coffee, and lobby for less God and more naturalism in the liturgy. The musicians and
lyricists among them must collaborate on new, more explicitly naturalistic anthems (having tried
this myself, I know its damned difficult, but someones got to do it). Sunday school must teach
ethics and respect and humility before the mysteries of life without resorting to stale and
incredible biblical tales. Rather, parents must search the literature (and the Web) for the Sesame
Street and Zoom of secular spirituality, should it exist. If not, they must create it themselves. And
as for venues, those with planetariums nearby might investigate the possibilities for creating a
participatory naturalistic service, with sound and lighting effects. Finding out what works and
doesnt work in all of this, is, of course, a matter of experimentation.

For those not inclined to communal practice, there are more private means of altering ones
consciousness, meditation chief among them. Meditation, although not often advertised as such,
can work dramatic changes on the brain via concentration or the non-judgmental awareness of
mental contents. When thinking quiets down and sensory input is at a minimum, very different
sorts of feelings can arise, some of which are extraordinarily unlike normal waking
consciousness. Although meditation is not an easy art, the potential rewards are great for those
who have the knack and put in the time. The states of consciousness accessed, naturalistically
understood, are just more brain states, but they can have directly felt qualities of unity and
acceptance that mark them off as subjectively quite special, and that correspond to empirically-
grounded cognitions. Because many varieties of Buddhism are inherently naturalistic and
emphatically this-worldly, humanists interested in exploring meditation could do worse than
joining a local Zen center or vipassana (insight meditation) group.

It is true than an organization treat human as machine before 1980s, which is totally wrong
because humans are the collection of emotion and feeling. They have a family and moral values
that we cannot compare them with machine, not a single way. In this article author say that
religion is not definitely tells about spirituality and according to them both are taboos. But in my
analysis I searched that especially in Islam spirituality is totally related with religion.
So in Quran chapter no 15 Surah-e-Bane Israel
Say it that spirit is created by my God
In explanation of this verse there is a hadith of Apostle of God Muhammad (P.B.U.H) that
Allah created firstly my soul and then created all the things from my soul.
Creating a Context of Spirituality in the Workplace

In our life religion is a part and parcel but in best they believe that religion is only a separate
department but in my opinion religion is their guideline of our life and spirituality is one of them.
In another place Allah the Almighty says
I blow from my spirit into Adam
From all the above quotations we can say that spirituality is not separated from religion, Its an
essential part of religion.
In another part of this article the author wrote that spirituality compel men to identify b/w evil
and good. Spirituality keeps away men from all unethical, illegal needs.
If a person inner is clear from all kinds of bad things it automatically leave from corruption and
will not trap easily.
If a person becomes the status of virtue and take the divine and orders of Allah and implemented
them it become like this hadith.
If you take divine from Allah you walk on water and mountain shrinks from your prayers.
Conclusion
It turns out that business is more than just business. We need to consider workers' need for
meaning and spirituality in order to unleash their full potential. It is refreshing that more and
more companies and corporations are embracing spiritual values.
The present spiritual movement is probably the most significant trend in management since the
human-potential movement in the 50s. It appears to be a grassroots movement, as more and more
people entertain the notion that work can be meaningful and fulfilling. In the wake of the Enron
debacle, management is also more willing to take spiritual and moral values seriously.
This trend will endure, simply because it speaks to the deeper needs of the human heart, and
provides a promising remedy to declining job satisfaction. Even if research fails to establish a
direct link between spirituality and profitability, an enlightened business attitude may still have
the benefit of creating a more compassionate, caring and ethical workplace. This alone would be
good news for people, who spend most of their adult lives at work.


Saving Corporate Soul, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Spirit at Work, Jesus CEO, Working from
the Heart, and Leading with Soul.
The Living Workplace: Soul, Spirit and Success in the 21st Century
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050705225244714
God and Mammon at Harvard By: Linda TischlerMay 1, 2005
1. Marsha Sinetar, Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow: Choosing Your Right Livelihood
(New York: Dell Publishing Co., 2006).
2. Robert Frost, "Two Tramps in the Mud," in The Poetry of Robert Frost (New York: Henry
Holt and Co., 1979), 277.
3. Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the
New Capitalism (New York: W. W. Norton, 1998).