Through a Buddhist lens: the tensions of self-decentralization in workplace collectivism

Abstract

Workplace collectivism is often imbued with a positive tone and associated with enhanced social and moral benefits for both individuals and organizations. Yet, workplace collectivism often requires individuals to subsume their unique self-identities into the identity of the wider collective group; how these identity dynamics occur and how the experiences of doing so are perceived remain under-elaborated. Further, the notion that workplace collectivism may involve negative and painful experiences is surprisingly limited in the extant literature. Our study elaborates the process of collective identity construction through an examination of Buddhist leader-practitioners in Vietnam. Our study contributes to the critical workplace collectivism literature by revealing how the Buddhist principle of self-decentralization frames a process of karmic reasoning that enables practitioners to decenter self-identity in order to accommodate a ‘collective self’. This process, however, is personally challenging and there is a constant tension between de-centering and re-centering the self which often results in uncomfortable and painful experiences in the workplace.