A Study of Spirituality in the Workplace.
Spirituality in the Workplace is a fairly difficult topic to study. First of all, its definition is one of great debate. The word spirituality alone is hard enough to define. Different people have different ideas about what the concept of spirituality means. Some people equate spirituality with religion.It seems almost everywhere you turn these days, some type of change in this world is being attributed to the tragedies of September 11. One of the biggest places this change is evident is in peoples place of employment. Even before September 11, however, a trend was growing in the business.A Spirituality in the workplace offers everyone (Christian, non-Christian, atheist) a way to integrate the many facets of often times very fragmented lives through work. Bringing spirituality to work is not about thumping the Bible, but trying to reach the underlying concepts of peace, love, and compassion that promote integration.
In this empirical study of spirituality in the workplace,1 we report on our results from interviews with senior executives and from questionnaires sent to HR executives and managers.2 In general, the participants differentiated strongly between religion and spirituality. They viewed religion as a highly inappropriate form of expression and topic in the workplace.Religion and spirituality interrelated to some point. Some people believe that religion goes side by side with spirituality. When one talks about spirituality in the workplace one met with the awestruck faces of people chanting about religion in the workplace. But of course, spirituality in the workplace cannot blindly say as a religious concept.
This paper explains how spirituality in the workplace has become an important topic since the 1990?s. The paper uses the article, “The Ethics of Shrewdness”, to help show how Christians can remain true to their faith while maintaining relationships with others that do not share that faith so that they may be successful in business together.
