Workplace spirituality is a novel
concept with potentially strong relevance to the well-being of individuals,
organisations and societies. The common problems faced by most of the corporates
are stress, absenteeism, organisational politics, absence of teamwork and so
on. And all these can be attributed to the absence of spirituality in the
workplace. Although the term spirituality in the workplace has increasingly
gained popularity in the past few years, there still seems to be too much of a
misconception, predominantly among managers, confusing spirituality with
religion.
However, Workplace Spirituality
(WPS) and Religion are distinctly separate. WPS is more focused on the theme of
tolerance, patience, the feel of interconnectivity, purpose and acceptability
to the norms of the organisation, all of these integrated to shape personal
values; religion, on the other hand, is marked by a specific belief system, a
particular system of faith and set of beliefs1.
A study undertaken by MIT
University, USA, way back in 2010, wherein they interviewed senior executives,
HR executives and managers, defined ‘spirituality’ as ‘the basic feeling of
being connected with one’s complete self, others and the entire universe’. If a
single word best captures the meaning of spirituality and the vital role that
it plays in people’s lives, that word is ‘interconnectedness’. Those associated
with organisations they perceived as ‘more spiritual’ also saw their
organisations as ‘more profitable’. They reported that they were able to bring
more of their ‘complete selves’ to work. They could deploy more of their full
creativity, emotions and intelligence; in short, organisations viewed as more
spiritual get more from their participants, and vice versa. They believe
strongly that unless organisations learn how to harness the ‘whole person’ and
the immense spiritual energy that is at the core of everyone, they will not be
able to produce world-class products and services.
Benefits for the organisation
that adopts workplace spirituality:
(a) Enhanced trust among people;
(b) Increased interconnectedness;
(c) Motivated organisational culture leading to
better organisational performance;
(d) Job satisfaction;
(e) Positive task output;
(f) Community sense.
Eventually, it leads the
organisation towards excellence.
It will be wrong to say that only
for-profit organisations need to adopt WPS. Contrary to conventional wisdom,
working in a non-profit organisation (NPO) does not automatically make a person
more spiritually inclined. Many NPOs have specific political goals and are even
more concerned with obtaining hard results in the secular world than many
for-profit corporates. Whether an organisation is more or less spiritual
depends on the specific organisation, not its profit status.
What do organisations such as the
Tata Group, HUL, Wipro or Dabur have in common? Apart from other
characteristics, they are among a growing number of organisations that have
embraced workplace spirituality.
Spiritual organisations bring in
a strong sense of purpose to their members. They connect with the values of the
organisation. This helps develop a sense of job security, trust and openness.
Spirituality in leadership also
helps organisations fulfil their goal of effectiveness. When the leader in an
organisation is spiritually strong, it means that the culture prevailing in
that organisation would also be healthy and he
would act as a bridge between the managers and employees (partnership) to
communicate effectively and to feel themselves to be equally responsible for
organisational goals.
One wonders why such an important
topic has been neglected. Though more and more organisations are now accepting
this theory, the academic research gap is vast. It is time that we embrace
Workplace Spirituality at each one of our organisations to achieve overall
organisational, personal and community well-being.
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1 A study by Afsar & Rehman in 2015
