The purpose of this paper is to review spirituality at work literature and to explore how spirituality improves employees’ performances and organizational effectiveness. The paper reviews about 140 papers on workplace spirituality to review their findings on how spirituality supports organizational performance. Three different perspectives are introduced on how spirituality benefits employees and supports organizational performance based on the extant literature: a) Spirituality enhances employee well-being and quality of life; b) Spirituality provides employees a sense of purpose and meaning at work; c) Spirituality provides employees a sense of interconnectedness and community. The paper introduces potential benefits and caveats of bringing spirituality into the workplace; providing recommendations and suggestions for practitioners to incorporate spirituality positively in organizations.

Spirituality and Performance in Organizations: A Literature Review

This article presents a leadership-based intervention model designed to modify supervisory monitoring and rewarding of subordinates' safety performance. Line supervisors received weekly feedback based on repeated episodic interviews with subordinates conceming the cumulative frequency of their safety-oriented interactions. This information identified the priority of safety over competing goals such as speed or schedules. Section managers received the same information and used it to communicate (high) safety priority. They also were trained to conduct episodic interviews to provide intermittent feedback after intervention, tuming safety priority into an explicit performance goal. Safety-oriented interaction increased significantly in the experimental groups but remained unchanged in the control groups. This change in safety-oriented interaction was accompanied by significant (and stable) changes in minor-injury rate, earplug use, and safety climate scores during the postintervention period.

Modifying supervisory practices to improve subunit safety: a leadership-based intervention model.

The purpose of this article is to review spirituality at work literature and to explore how spirituality improves employees’ performances and organizational effectiveness. The article reviews about 140 articles on workplace spirituality to review their findings on how spirituality supports organizational performance. Three different perspectives are introduced on how spirituality benefits employees and supports organizational performance based on the extant literature: (a) Spirituality enhances employee well-being and quality of life; (b) Spirituality provides employees a sense of purpose and meaning at work; (c) Spirituality provides employees a sense of interconnectedness and community. The article introduces potential benefits and caveats of bringing spirituality into the workplace; providing recommendations and suggestions for practitioners to incorporate spirituality positively in organizations.

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Spirituality and Performance in Organizations: A Literature Review.

Purpose – The paper aims to study the impact of five dimensions of workplace spirituality (team's sense of community, alignment with organizational values, sense of contribution to society, enjoyment at work, opportunities for inner life) on affective, normative and continuance commitment.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 361 individuals from 154 organizations were interviewed. Correlations, regressions and cluster analyses were carried out.Findings – The five spirituality dimensions explain 48, 16 and 7 per cent of the unique variance of, respectively, the affective, normative and continuance forms of commitment. The findings suggest that when people experience workplace spirituality, they feel more affectively attached to their organizations, experience a sense of obligation/loyalty towards them, and feel less instrumentally committed.Research limitations/implications – Dependent and independent variables were collected from the same source, simultaneously. This can produce the risk of common me...

/pdf/workplace-spirituality-and-organizational-commitment-an-51kto0m799.pdf

Workplace spirituality and organizational commitment: an empirical study

Summarises the conclusions from research which explores how people learn to start and grow high performing businesses. Seeks to understand better the ways in which individuals learn to act entrepreneurially and also suggests how this understanding might influence the design of more effective learning experiences. Proposes a conceptual model of entrepreneurial learning, and assesses its implications for designing entrepreneurship education and development programmes. Findings indicate that there would be benefits from designing development programmes for current and aspirant business owners with a greater emphasis on personal development, based upon the entrepreneurial learning model proposed in the article.

Using a life‐story approach in researching entrepreneurial learning: the development of a conceptual model and its implications in the design of learning experiences

Many recent authors have suggested it is time to move beyond the scientific, materialistic paradigm of the twentieth century toward a more holistic and spiritual view for the workplace of the twenty‐first century. The purpose of this article is to describe a new vision for leadership and the development of organizations which integrates emerging perspectives from the fields of science, transpersonal psychology, eastern philosophy and management. Spirituality is seen as important in helping human beings experience the fundamental meaning and purpose of their work. It is defined and described as distinctly different from organized religion. Practical examples are given of leaders and organizations that are facilitating spirituality in the workplace.

Creating spirit at work: re‐visioning organization development and leadership – Part I

Leadership has been a major topic in management and business literature over the last few years. The rapid changes in business, technology, political and social factors has required the development of effective leadership skills. As a result leadership development programs have become an increasing priority for business and government organisations. This article puts forward an integrated model for leadership development. The major focus of this model is to develop leadership competencies which directly contribute to the strategic imperatives of the business. In addition, it describes the key elements that contribute to a successful leadership experience such as changing mindsets, a global focus, personal development and improved business and leadership skills. Finally, the most widely used leadership methods and processes are covered under three major themes; contributing to the strategic business direction, building leadership and team skills, and self‐development. The ideas put forward in this paper provide senior managers and human resource professionals with an integrated and comprehensive framework to plan and build a leadership development program in their organisation.

An integrated model and approach for the design of effective leadership development programs

Aims to bring together some of the major perspectives and theories of leadership with some of the key practical components of eastern and western philosophy. Suggests that the current leadership theories are good foundations from which to move to a more practical and immediate experience of leadership. The major view put forward is that these concepts of leadership point to the need for “leadership wisdom”. First, covers theories of leadership to provide a summary of current thinking on what is good leadership. Discusses the recent concept of “emotional intelligence” as an appropriate way to extend the way we look at the personality and skills of a leader. Introduces leadership wisdom as a way of describing effective leadership applied to the immediate situation. This wisdom can be found in themes that have existed in western and eastern philosophy for centuries. Explores these themes using stories that have come from philosophical teachings and then relates them to the central points of leadership. Uses a summary figure to portray the integration of previous leadership concepts around leadership wisdom in practice. Makes a number of suggestions that are implemented in leadership development which contribute to the development of leadership wisdom.

Leadership moment by moment

Discusses the value of team and individual reward strategies and how these can be used to contribute to organisational change and success. A review of team effectiveness and models of teamwork are first discussed so that team rewards are understood as important motivators to accomplishing organisational objectives. Four factors need to be considered in establishing team‐based rewards: the stages of a team life cycle, reward and recognition categories, the type of teams and the culture of the team and organisation. Forty‐four specific reward tools are described which can be used for individual or team incentives. Comprehensive matrices are put forward which can be used to determine which tool should be used at which stage in a team’s life cycle and with which type of team. Finally, the implementation cost, evaluation of team reward systems is considered.

Using team – individual reward and recognition strategies to drive organizational success

Leadership and management skills are increasingly required to navigate organisations through the complexities and changes of contemporary environments. Over the last decade, 3608 feedback is a process that has gained wide usage to help development of these skills. Summarises current research on 3608 feedback and the development of an integrated model of leadership and management based on the theories of Wilber. The article describes a comprehensive “integral” model and a questionnaire that uses elements of 3608 feedback to measure roles of leadership and management, as well as dimensions of self‐development and strategic change skills. This approach is applied to a sample of 304 managers and over 1,000 subordinates. The construction, validity and results of the questionnaire are discussed, as well as the major leadership strengths and weaknesses of the sample managers. Issues and experiences in the use of this model and the 3608 process are described.

Ron Cacioppe

Papers

Creating spirit at work: re‐visioning organization development and leadership – Part I

An integrated model and approach for the design of effective leadership development programs

Leadership moment by moment

Using team – individual reward and recognition strategies to drive organizational success

Using 3608 feedback and the integral model to develop leadership and management skills