The Place of Spirituality in Organizational Theory

Spirituality in the American workplace has been receiving increasing attention by the popular literature. However, the issue has received little consideration from management scholars. Although there are several definitions of spirituality, this paper discusses it as a cultural phenomenon that might influence organizational behavior. The investigation of spirituality in the workplace demands the examination of organization theory and some of its concepts. Open systems, institutional isomorphism, open fields, institutionalism, and neo-institutional theories are examined. Spirituality should not be neglected as a legitimate organizational topic of study, and more research on the impact of spirituality in the workplace should be conducted. Introduction The term spirituality infers a number of conclusions and may firmly imply some form of religious connotation. Several authors have offered a variety of definitions of spirituality: Some with atheistic and materialistic constructions (Dehler & Welsh, 1994; Mitroff & Denton, 1999a; Ashmos & Duchon, 2000), and others with pantheistic and deistic visions (Benner, 1989; Mohamed, Hassan & Wisnieski, 2001). To Griffin (1988), for example, spirituality is an inherent human characteristic that does not intrinsically infer any religious meaning: Spirituality in this broad sense is not an optional quality which we might elect not to have. Everyone embodies a [sic] spirituality, even if it be a nihilistic or materialistic spirituality. It is also, of course, customary to use spirituality in a stricter sense for a way of life oriented around an ultimate meaning and around values other than power, pleasure, and possession. (pp. 1-2) According to Mitroff and Denton, (1999a), spirituality is “the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete self, others, and the entire universe” (p.86). Dehler and Welsh (1994) defined spirituality as “a specific form of work feeling that energizes action” (p. 19). Ashmos and Duchon (2000) discussed spirituality in the context of community work, and Benner (1989) believed that spirituality involves the process of establishing and maintaining a relationship with God. Mohamed, Hassan, and Wisnieski (2001), highlighted the fact that several scholars (Harlos, 2000; Shafranske & Malony, 1990) defended the importance of defining the conceptual differences between spirituality and religiosity. Thus, in their view, spirituality may be personal, inclusive, and positive, whereas religiosity might be external, exclusive, and negative. Supporting the recommendation of Mahamed et al., in a two-year empirical study based on both face-to-face interviews and survey questionnaires, Mitroff and Denton (1999b) found that 60 percent of the participants viewed religion as an inappropriate form of expression, whereas spirituality was interpreted as a proper subject for the workplace. In addition, their research indicated that employees expect organizations to cultivate some type of spirituality within their members in order to produce high quality products and services. However, taking a different direction, Mohamed et al. claimed that the attempt to differentiate between spirituality and religiosity is merely artificial. As an alternative to this unnecessary dichotomy, they proposed that the concept of spirituality should be added to the five-factor psychological model of personality, the “Big Five,” as its sixth dimension. Their justification, nevertheless, attempted to find support in the facts that the concept of spirituality is not in opposition to other well-established psychological constructs and that the Big Five has already been linked to job performance. Mohamed et al. also speculated that spirituality, managerial behavior and, job performance are, to some extent, interconnected, which could explain some of the variances in job performance that have not yet been elucidated by the Big Five. Although the literature has provided ample interpretations for spirituality, the definition used in this article, in a broad sense, refers to people’s values and meanings, which sometimes might incorporate religious beliefs as well. Further, this premise also infers that spirituality might carry strong cultural connotations.