Organizational spirituality: The sceptic's version

Reva Berman Brown

Organization; May 2003; 10, 2; ABI/INFORM Global
pg. 393

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salvage it. The final section draws the threads of the discussion together.
Spirituality
Let us begin by considering 'spirituality'. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it
as 'attachment to, or regard for, things of the spirit as opposed to material or
worldly interests'. And that which is spiritual pertains to, or emanates from, the
intellect or higher faculties of the mind, where 'spirit' is regarded from either a
religious or an intellectual perspective.
Mitroff and Denton (1999a: 23-5; 1999b) provide the following explanation:
spirituality is broadly inclusive and embraces everyone; it is universal and
timeless, the ultimate source and provider of meaning and purpose in our lives; it
asserts the sacredness of everything, including the ordinariness of everyday life; it
provides the deep feeling of the inter-connectedness of everything; and it is
integrally connected to inner peace and calm. Additionally, spirituality is not
formal, structured, organized or denominational, in contrast to conventional
religion. It expresses the awe we feel in the presence of the transcendent, and
provides the individual with an inexhaustible source of faith and willpower,
because spirituality and (religious) faith are inseparable. It is the last point that
atheist, agnostic and secular individuals have the greatest difficulty with.
For King (1997: 668), spirituality is the search for direction, meaning, inner
wholeness, and connectedness to others, to non-human creation and to a
transcendent.
Gibbons (1999b) suggests a threefold typology of spirituality:
Religious spirituality is accepted as real in the major religions of the world. Its
beliefs are theistic and its practices are demonstrated in ritual and ceremony
both within the 'sacred space', be it church, synagogue, mosque or temple, and
also in everyday activities.
Secular spirituality includes earth-centred, nature-centred and humanistic
spiritualities. Its beliefs may be pantheistic or atheistic, and its practices include
social and environmental activism.
Mystical spirituality can be seen within Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and is
present in the Eastern traditions. Its beliefs are theistic and its practices, like
those of religious spirituality, can take place in a dedicated sacred space or in
everyday circumstances.
Organizational Spirituality
Cavanagh (1999) comments that the field of spirituality in the workplace expanded
rapidly during the 1990s, and that a bibliography distributed at a session on
spirituality in the organization at the 1998 Academy of Management conference
listed no fewer than 72 books on the subject, 54 of them published in the five years
since 1992see, for example, Conger (1997); Defoore and Renesch (1995); and
Schechter (1995). Numerous journal articles have appeared on the subject, as well
as special issues of

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Organizational Spirituality
Reva Berman Brown
journals devoted solely to the conceptsee, for example, the special issues of the
Journal of Managerial Psychology (1994); Chinmaya Management Review (1999);
the Journal of Organization and Change Management (1994 and 1999); and
American Behavioral Scientist (2000). A special issue of the Journal of
Management Education (2000) has advocated the teaching of the subject to
management students. There are also two journals devoted to the topic: Spirit at
Work and Business Spirit.' My literature search has thrown up doctoral theses
(Beazley, 1997; Perez, 1999; Trott, 1996) and a Master's-level dissertation
(Gibbons, 1999).2 And, in 1999, the American Academy of Management Annual
Meeting set up the Management, Spirituality and Religion Interest Group, an
indication of (American) academics' interest in the topic.
For reasons of space, let us accept that the description provided above is an
adequate survey of spirituality. In which case, what is organizational spirituality?
Konz and Ryan (1999: 201) state that '[n]o agreed-on definition of spirituality in
business exists' and cite Kahnwiler and Otte (1997) and McGee (1998) in support
of this statement.
'Organizational spirituality', if not viewed as a direct synonym for 'workplace
spirituality', is problematic. If one accepts the reification of an organization into an
entity with its own reality, rather than considering that an organization is a
collection of people engaged in purposeful activity, then it is a short step from
endowing the reified organization with attributes. Organizational spirituality
subsequently shares the same grammatical meaning as aspects such as
'organizational culture', which concerns the culture of the organization, and
'organizational strategy', which concerns the strategy of the organization. However,
whereas culture is an activity (the way we do things around here) and strategy is a
process (the way we decide or plan things around here), spirituality is a far more
abstract quality, and sits uncomfortably with the other concepts. OS is neither an
activity (the way we act spiritually round here) nor a process (the way we
spiritualize around here). At best, OS is a belief; at the least, it is a feeling about
reality and transcendence; in between, it is a quality that can be exhibited by the
individuals who make up a workforce. But it is not an attribute of organizational
functioning.
Synonyms for Organizational Spirituality
There are other terms for the phenomenon which might be more helpful:
'workplace spirituality', 'spirituality in the workplace' and 'spirit at work'. They
eliminate the necessity to consider the term at organizational level, where it cannot
exist, and return the concept to the individuals who work for the organization.
These terms concern a transcendent belief system that rises above rationality and
holds that there is a power beyond the self or the ego, which could, and should, be
included in an individual's working life and working environment/organization.
Butts (1999: 329) suggestsand these are suggestions, without empirical
examinationthat one useful way of integrating spirituality in the

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workplace is through 'sacred/ultimate/whole-system values' which enable the
human spirit to grow and flourish. The benefits of these 'time-honored, lifeaffirming, and unifying values' are that they can enhance profit and productivity.
The benefits further include truth and trust (which liberate the soul), freedom and
justice (which liberate creative and co-creative genius), creativity/innovation,
collective harmony and intelligence, wholeness, synergy, deeper meaning and
higher purpose. In short, introduce spirituality to your organization and you have
Utopia on a plate.
Workplace spirituality is being put forward as a universal cure to the ills of
modern management. For instance, Biberman and Whitty (1997) suggest that spirit
in the workplace can lead to greater kindness and fairness, and even to industrial
democracy, also known as co-management or power-sharing. Indeed, they assert,
'rekindling the spirit in work is not only good business, but also subconsciously
sought after by workers and managers alike' (p. 135).
It would seem that workplace spirituality is many things. The list of positives
includes a means through which to
promote wholeness and integration
include ethics and aesthetics in the workplace
assist in the development of emotional and spiritual competence
encourage holistic ways of working
develop community at work
empower the workforce
The list of negatives suggests that is a means through which, without appearing
to do so, to
control the workforce
'push' acceptance of organizational goals and practices
manipulate meaning
avoid conflict
achieve compliance, if not cooperation
At its best, workplace spirituality is intended to provide a means for individuals
to integrate their work and their spirituality, which, it is alleged, will provide them
with direction, connectedness and wholeness at work. At its worst, workplace
spirituality is a new management fad, with sinister undertones, which, when
unmasked, is likely to prove ineffective and ephemeral. Because most of the
literature is discursive, there is little empirical evidence to show which aspect is
most likely.
It would seem that, at the moment, workplace spirituality is predominantly a
North American phenomenon. The primary texts are popular (rather than
academic) books. The basis of their truth claims is largely assertion, and the
literature tends to be optimistic and uncritical in tone.
For the individual, workplace spirituality will apparently foster his/ her journey
towards integration of work and spiritual life (work is

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Organizational Spirituality
Reva Berman Brown
prayer). It will provide a boost to individual creativity, intuition and well-being at
work. For the organization, workplace spirituality will allow for a culture that
respects and nurtures employees, assists in the design of work, and helps with
team- and community-building.
Some of the concepts being labelled as 'spiritual' resemble Organizational
Development concepts such as 'values' and 'participation'. This leads the more
sceptical to wonder whether workplace spirituality is a repackaging or rebranding
of these older concepts, which, incidentally, debases the currency of the word
'spirituality'.
The reason so many books and papers avoid issues of operationalizing or
measuring workplace spirituality is the obvious difficulty of doing so. Even
accepting that there can be a spiritual path (which the more secular and agnostic
would deny), there are many paths emanating from many worldviews. Which is
the One Best Way? And how to deal with those who consider that they aren't
spiritual, who attempt to conduct their lives according to humanistic values, and
who place their faith in science, in rationality and even in the material?
Even if individuals are prepared to give their heart and soul, these would be
more likely to be given to their work activities than to their employer or to the
organization that is the reified symbol of their employer. And delicate issues are
involved if they did do so.
Are organizations justified in asking employees to give their heart and soul to
them? Where are the guarantees that the trust that is central to spiritual expression
is not abused? How is the diversity in spiritual (and religious) beliefs to be dealt
with, not even considering those individuals who deny possessing spiritual and
religious beliefs?
Conclusion
The sceptical question is whether workplace spirituality would warrant attention if
it did not, in some recognizable way, contribute to organizational output.
Currently, the debate seems to be based on well-meaning attempts to rehumanize
work and the workplace. Even if the Spiritualized Organization did improve its
outputsand even if this could be shown to be the result of its spiritualizationto
whom do the benefits accrue? And would these be material benefits or spiritual
benefits?
If organizational spirituality 'takes off as a concept for research and
implementation in management and organization studies, it is more likely to
succeed in North America, which has a different attitude to organized religion and
issues of spirituality than the UK. Emmons and Grumpier (1999) assert that 95 per
cent of Americans say they believe in God. Using church attendance as an
indicator of the difference in attitude, Inglehart (1997) reported that 44 per cent of
Americans attended church once a week, not counting funerals, christenings and
baptisms, compared with 27 per cent of people in the UK. Three years later,
Inglehart and Baker (2000) provided the figures for monthly church attendance
40 per cent in the USA compared with 7 per cent in the UK.
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Inglehart (1997) suggests several possible explanations for the great contrast
between the USA and the UK. The emphasis on religion could be a legacy of
America's frontier mentality, in which a strong sense of faith was necessary in
order to brave the unknown. It could also have a more contemporary cause: a
social welfare system less developed than those in most Nordic or European
countries. And high American church attendance and interest in religion may also
reflect a well-educated and rapidly ageing population's search for the meaning and
purpose of life. This would indicate a greater willingness to consider issues of
spirituality at work among Americans than the British.
Besides providing a sense of orientation and security in an insecure world, one
of the functions of religion is to help satisfy the need to know where we come from
and where we are going. There are non-traditional ways of gaining comfort and
transcendence, as indicated by the New Age movement (Heelas and Dawson,
1997) and the growth of ecological concerns. I suspect, however, that, despite the
continued existence of spiritual concerns for individuals, there is likely to be a
greater scepticism or lack of enthusiasm for this great new management tool
among UK employees, in that peace, prosperity and the welfare state have
produced an unprecedented sense of security within people that is more likely to be
expressed as consumerism than as spirituality. The postmodern worldview is linked
with a diminishing need for absolute rules. But it also brings a growing concern for
the meaning and purpose of life. Thus, though established religious organizations
have declined in most advanced industrial societies, we are not witnessing a
decline in spiritual concerns, but rather a redirection of them.
It may be a matter of waiting and seeing. For all I know, in five years' time,
organizational spirituality and its synonyms may be being used in a majority of UK
organizations, as a proven way of enriching organizational life. The sceptic in me
prevents much optimism.

Notes
1 Spirit at Work, six issues per year, edited by Judith Neal, Professor of
Management at New Haven University, PO Box 420, Manalapan, NJ 07726,
USA; and Business Spirit, six issues per year, The Message Company, 4
Camino Azul, Sante Fe, NM 87505, USA.
2 In the United Kingdom, the research undertaken and written up at doctoral
level is called a thesis and at Master's level is called a dissertation. In America,
the terms are normally doctoral dissertation and Master's thesis, respectively.

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Organizational Spirituality
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Reva Brown is Professor of Management Research and Director of the Research Centre at Oxford
Brookes University Business School, her remit being to promote and support research
undertaken by staff and to further develop the doctoral programme. Her research interests
include the ways in which issues of time and emotion affect management practice,
management education (the problematic links between knowledge, learning, research and
teaching), and management research methodology and methods. Address: Oxford Brookes
University Business School, Whoatley, Oxford 0X33 1HX, UK. [email:
revabrown@brookes.ac.uk]

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