Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos

Bio: Anselmo Ferreira Vasconcelos is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Workplace spirituality & Organizational citizenship behavior. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 4 publications receiving 55 citations.

Pursuing Organizational Spirituality: Some Lessons From A Financial Services Corporation

Abstract: There has been scant investigation about workplace spirituality focusing on organizational level. Thus, this paper tries to fulfill this gap by recognizing that organizations have been increasingly forced to address other issues than their traditional concerns. Rather, it suggests that companies should be open to embrace other values such as spiritual principles through organizational re-orientation. Accordingly, this paper presents the case study of Serasa Experian, one of the world’s leading economic and financial analysis and information firms. In addition, it proposes a simplified conceptual framework in which both corporate social responsibility (CSR) and internal marketing concept (IMC) constitute the key constructs of a spiritual organization. Finally, the findings suggest that Serasa Experian has pursued an organizational spirituality orientation, yet it has somewhat lost its impetus toward it. Overall, evidence shows that its features, values, and feats are typical of an organization in which spirituality is more than a word, even though it is unaware of it.

Examining workers' perceptions of spirituality in the workplace: an exploratory study

Abstract: . There has been growing interest in workplace spirituality theory. However, research has predominantly been focused on USA and Canada, except some recent initiatives. Taking it into account, the purpose of this study is to delve into how Brazilian workers see, perceive, and define workplace spirituality. By employing a phenomenological approach, this study found 34 core themes, 12 of which were also identified in a previous investigation conducted by Marques et al. (2007), namely: trust, openness, kindness (compassion and friendship), honesty, moral and ethics, a sense of peace and harmony, aesthetically pleasing work environment, team orientation, understanding, faith in god, respect, and truth. The remaining 22 themes - which constitute the novel contribution of this study - are as follows: fun, love, well-being, a sense of religiosity, serenity, social responsibility, tolerance, sincerity, meaning of work, higher values, human valuing, coherent attitudes, common interests and objectives, politeness, willing to offer guidance and be an example, stimulating environment, listening to and be listened, praying habit, patience, positive energies and thoughts, concerns with other's well-being, and the spirit of solidarity. In addition, this research design enabled to make some comparisons between two distinct cultural contexts (i.e., Brazilian and American), which contributes to broaden the cross cultural management knowledge.Keywords: spirituality, organizations, mission, values, work, God, and religion.1. IntroductionOn the surface, the beginning of a sound transformation in the work environments (Neal, 1999) is taking place whereby employees are pursuing greater meaning in their work (Cash and Gray, 2000). It appears that this shift has been urged by the resurgence of spirituality as a core idea. In fact, it has been advocated that we are living an authentic spiritual revolution (Tacey, 2004). In this regard, Cavanagh (2003) wisely states: "Interest in spirituality has been present as long as people have existed. Spirituality meets a deeply rooted and genuine need in people and thus goes beyond being a fad" (p. 264) Going further, he remarks: "The need for spirituality can be stated as simply the need that all human beings have to recognize that they are dependent on someone or some force greater than they and are connected to every other person in the world" (p. 264).In a related vein, Garcia-Zamor (2003) argues that "If/or the most of the twentieth century, traditionally run companies ignored the basic fact of human nature" (p. 328). Rather, organizations did not realize that human beings have a spiritual essence and, to some degree, the majority of them still continue to think so. Nonetheless, Benefiel (2003) argues that we are living in a timely moment for the field of spirituality in organizations outline its frontiers. Duchon and Plowman (2005) noted that a growing number of scholars have increasingly paid attention to workplace spirituality. Earlier, Guillory (2001, p. 40) argued that the pressure toward workplaces and the change of societal values would likely generate situations, crises, and scenarios that would require "inner space" solutions. Meanwhile, Nash (2003) argues that the growing interest in spirituality - and workplace spirituality is part of it - "can be a desired and effective force in daily life, including today's business environment" (p. 53).Overall, evidence shows that people have associated workplace spirituality with different meanings and perceptions (Geh and Tan, 2009; Kolodinsky et al., 2008). Furthermore, the majority of empirical investigations have been conducted in countries like USA and Canada (e.g., Chamiec-Case, 2006; Delbecq, 2009; Dyck and Weber, 2006; James et al., 2011; Kinjerski and Skrypnek, 2006a-b, 2008; Liu and Robertson, 2011; Marques, 2006; Marques et al., 2007, 2011; Marschke, 2008; McKee et al., 2011; McKnight, 2005; Milliman et al. …

Internal Demarketing: Construct, Research Propositions And Managerial Implications

Abstract: To a large degree, organizations strive for marketing and selling themselves as good employers. However, by a wide range of actions, practices, mistakes, and premises they can most notably demotivate rather than motivate their workforces. On the face of it, this paper proposes a conceptual framework where (1) internal demarketing (ID) is regarded as a sort of corporate illness that is (2) closely associated with high and middle managers’ actions, decisions, and behaviors that (3) are capable of triggering negative perceptions at work settings that (4) can potentially lead to the decrease of productivity and/or poor organizational performance. Thus, some constructs are posited as determinants of ID manifestation such as psychological contract violation, people devaluing, quality of work life unconcern, poor leadership, blurred vision, the spread of distrust, and lack of corporate communication. Also, the potential consequences of ID are addressed, namely the lack of commitment, employee dissatisfaction, and employee silence.

Organizational Diversity Commitment: A Web-Based Investigation

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine organizational held values and beliefs related to diversity, particularly derived from the corporate websites of the best companies to work for in Brazil, that is, an annual edition published by Epoca magazine along with the Great Place to Work® Institute (GPTW). Therefore, this study focuses on how these companies are addressing the themes of diversity, inclusion, and discrimination through their organizational discourses. More specifically, it draws exclusively on the statements and corporative documents posted on their websites. Overall, findings indicated that barely 57 (43.8%) of the 130 companies awarded by GPTW-Epoca 2014’s list showed some interest in providing a discourse toward diversity/inclusion issues in their websites. Moreover, no more than 31 firms (54.4% of the sample) depicted a compelling or somewhat acceptable diversity discourse (i.e., an indication that this issue has been addressed, yet it requires additional measures). Taken as a whole, results suggest that diversity appears to be a topic of low status in the most of the best organizations to work for in Brazil. In general, multinational corporations tend to put aside desirable aspects on their statements, even so they enact better diversity, inclusion, and anti-discrimination discourses than Brazilian firms.

From Employee to Customer

Abstract: After 10 years in sales and product marketing with Steelcase, a challenge to become involved in a startup company led me away from Steelcase. After years of selling Steelcase products, being involved in new product development, seeing Steelcase trucks on the road, and feeling proud to be part of Steelcase, I was now on the outside. A few years into the new business, I had the opportunity to build a new facility. We outfitted the building with Steelcase 9000 and wood offices suites from Stow & Davis. It was a great day to see a Steelcase truck back into my truck well. Today I still use the same furniture from 15 years ago and it still looks great!

Determinants of organizational performance: the case of romania

Abstract: Continuous performance is the objective of any organization because only through performance, organizations are able to grow and progress. Knowing the determinants of organizational performance is important especially in the context of the current economic crises because it enables the identification of those factors that should be treated with an increased interest in order to improve the organizational performance. The most important objective of this paper is to create a model that will allow, based on multiple dimensions, to evaluate the Romanian manufacturing companies and to underline the relationship between the way they operate and their performance. The model used in this study was developed from the existing literature on organizational diagnostic models and from a broad literature review conducted to identify the factors influencing the performance of an organization. The results of this study also offer information on the relationship between the performance measurement process and the organizational performance. This article offers the base to identify measures that can lead to an improvement in organizational performance.

Workplace Spirituality and Employee Well-being: An Empirical Exploration:

Abstract: The popularity of concept of spirituality is increasing exponentially in the field of human resource management. Both academicians and practitioners are looking at spirituality to solve modern day ...

Socially Responsible Diversity Management

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual framework to describe ‘socially responsible diversity management’. This framework seeks to demonstrate that the desired social justice outcomes of affirmative action programs and the business benefits of diversity management programs can be achieved but only by undertaking initiatives at a number of levels. Traditional approaches to afirmative action have been unsuccessful in achieving their goal of equitable labour market outcomes and it is unclear that diversity management programs have contributed to business outcomes. The article argues that neither affirmative action nor diversity management has been able to fully achieve its objectives because of a number of limitations. The article argues that organisations can achieve better business outcomes, as well as equity outcomes associated with a diverse workforce, by adopting a relational, multilevel framework of managing diversity. Such a framework provides for the creation of what is termed ‘socially responsible diversity management’.