The material nature of spirituality in the small business workplace: from transcendent ethical values to immanent ethical actions

Abstract

We interviewed leaders of small businesses who have integrated spirituality from diverse spiritual traditions into their workplaces. We contribute to a better understanding of the motives and deeply held values behind the integration of spirituality in the small business workplace, of how spiritual values and meaning are manifest in small business, and of how spirituality can be integrated into small business processes and behaviors. We build upon previous theoretical development of an authentically and spirituality informed management theory by focusing on the concepts of immanence and involvement, and integration and interconnectedness, as they relate to ethical and socially responsible behavior in workplaces. Our findings contrast some ways that workplace spirituality has been reported to be institutionalized in the management, spirituality, and religion literature.