A more fulfilling life: Critical analysis of discourses on spirituality and work
Cécile Rozuel, University of Surrey
Although work has always accounted for an extensive part of our awaken life, the modern times unveil a desire to make this work-time more meaningful than it used to be. The future will show whether it is a mere fad or the stepping stone of a long-lasting change, but the fact is that the more developed the economy, the more people seem to expect from their work, not only economically but socially and personally (King and Nicol, 1999).
Putting meaning into work is twofold: one can either make the content of work more fulfilling, stimulating or interesting, and/or transform the context, i.e. the workplace. The underlying principle is that happy people should work better, perform better. Hence, it is a priori both economically and morally sensible to allow employees to engage with tasks that make them develop at least as much as it makes the bottom-line grow.
Management has certainly embraced this, and a range of buzzwords, from empowerment to ‘entrepreneurship culture’, promise better value and greater satisfaction to employees. Yet these concepts seem to fix the details rather than address the actual issue. It would take more than re-decorating the office to make employees feel truly happy at work if they feel exploited, depressed, used and morally blackmailed. Since happiness is about how people feel within, management is in need for something deeper than tea-break gatherings or additional responsibilities to keep their staff happy. This is where spirituality steps in.
Spirituality as a concept is relatively undefined for at least two reasons. First, it is one of those terms that have been overused to the point that they now mean everything and anything. Second, spirituality is implicitly a very personal relation with the Spirit (be it God, Nature, or any other Higher and Sacred Authority or Energy), usually associated with some physical, emotional and psychological reactions that are delicate to articulate and generalise (Zsolnai, 2004). Spirituality is usually contrasted with religion: whereas religion is formal, dogmatic, institutionalised, rooted in a community with an organised beliefs system, spirituality is loose, informal, deeply personal, and permeates our way of being (Guillory, 2001; Forman, 2004). More importantly, spirituality epitomises the quest for meaning in one’s existence (Cottingham, 2005).
In this purview, spirituality offers significant opportunities to pave the way for happier, more self-aware employees (Benefiel, 2003; Marques, 2006). We can distinguish three main areas of ‘applied spirituality’ (Ashar and Lane-Maher, 2004): organisational spirituality, spirituality in the workplace, and spirituality and leadership. It is argued that each three areas has developed its own understanding of spirituality and its use (Brown, 2003). We are thus confronted with rival discourses on what is and what should be.
This paper aims to demonstrate how such trend jeopardizes the potential of the spiritual in improving moral and morale at work. It sets to examine the relevance of spirituality in line with the quest for the Good Life and a worthwhile existence, and to identify misleading discourses on the benefits of the spiritual that disguise management cynicism and self-serving manoeuvres.
References
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Benefiel, M. (2003) “Irreconciliable Foes? The Discourse of Spirituality and the Discourse of Organizational Science”, Organization, 10(2): 383-391
Brown, R.B. (2003) “Organizational Spirituality: The Sceptic’s Version”, Organization, 10(2): 393-400
Cottingham, J. (2005) The Spiritual Dimension – Religion, Philosophy and Human Value, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Forman, R. (2004) Grassroots Spirituality: What it is, Why it is there, Where it is going, Exeter: Imprint Academic
Guillory, W.A. (2001) The Living Organization – Spirituality in the Workplace (2nd), Salt Lake City: Innovations International
King, S. and Nicol, D.M. (1999) “Organizational Enhancement Through Recognition of Individual Spirituality – Reflections of Jaques and Jung”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12(3): 234-242
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Zsolnai, L. (ed.) (2004) Spirituality and Ethics in Management, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers