WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY AS A NEW PARADIGM FOR AGILE MANAGEMENT?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Workplace spirituality is regarded as a fast-growing research area and a possible new paradigm in management theory and practice. The majority of publications emphasize its beneficial implications. As an emerging new paradigm, it is indispensable to scrutinize workplace spirituality regarding its risks and potential for instrumentalization. The integration of spirituality in workplaces can encompass the possibility of instrumental usage, which means spirituality is technically applied in order to improve the efficiency and performance of companies. Due to more and more critical articles about workplace spirituality, a distinct sub-theme of “critical workplace spirituality” can be identified in the academic literature. This conceptual article compares different aspects of technical versus critical spirituality and provides an overview about the major strands of discussion within the critical literature. Alternative ways of understanding spirituality are needed as spirituality involves transcendence and interconnectedness, acceptance of diversity, and acknowledgement of declaring individual values. Management will need to consider these characteristics of workplace spirituality. Therefore, this paper aims to outline its implications for management theory and practice and to present some first ideas regarding stakeholder theory and agile management. Keywords workplace spirituality, critical spirituality, technical spirituality, agile management