Spirituality at Work

Abstract

There is growing interest in spirituality at work. Workers and managers alike are increasingly looking for spiritual growth (Tischler 1999,273) and becoming engaged in a search for spirituality (McCarthy 1996, 49). There were almost a dozen conferences on spirituality in business in 1998 in the United States alone (Tischler 1999, 277), a torrent of thoughtful papers (Butts 1999, 238), two journals devoted to spirituality at work (Cavanagh 1999), and increased use of certain spiritual practices?particularly meditation (Biberman and Whitty 1997, 132; Dehler and Welsh 1994, 21). Empirical studies have examined the relative importance attached by executives to spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and personal development (McCarthy 1996, 51), and the spiritual experiences of world-class perform ers (Harung et al 1996). A number of authors relate the spiritual dimension to organizational learning processes (Biberman and Whitty 1997, 132; Senge 1990, 141), and two recent issues of the Journal of Organiza tional Change Management were devoted to spirituality in business (1999, vol 12 nos 3,4). This interest in spirituality and spiritual values is not limited to the United States, but is also apparent among Japanese organisa tions and executives (Biberman and Whitty 1997,131) and to a lesser extent in Australia (Kaldor et al 1999).