Spiritual Climate and Its Impact on Learning in Teams in Business Organizations

Abstract

Learning in an organization takes place at the individual, group and organizational levels. There is an upsurge of interest among researchers in issues of collective learning. Spirituality at work, also a multi-level phenomenon, manifests at both the individual and the collective levels. Spirituality at work is about search for meaning or higher purpose, connectedness and transcendence. Spirituality is recognized as a major factor in learning at the individual level. However, the expression and impact of spirituality need to be examined at the collective level. The present research addresses this conceptual and empirical gap using the concept of spiritual climate and examines its impact on learning in teams. This relationship is proposed based on theories of learning in teams, flow, social learning and levels of learning. Various aspects of spiritual climate are found to have positive association with learning in teams in the present study. These findings have theoretical and practical implications on organization development, corporate social responsibility and learning at workplace.