Spirituality in the Workplace
It seems almost everywhere you turn these days, some type of change in this world is being attributed to the tragedies of September 11. One of the biggest places this change is evident is in peoples' place of employment. Even before September 11, however, a trend was growing in the business world - a trend of exploring spirituality and its role in the workplace. This idea has only grown further in light of recent events and become much more important not only to employees, but management as well. It has been examined by everyone from University Professors specializing in Organizational Theory and Behavior to a Monk in England with an MBA. Over the past few weeks, Jim Campbell and I have explored this trend and what has been written about it. What follows is a summary of our preliminary findings. Hopefully, these findings will reveal a niche that the Crossroads Center, Mr. Shea, and Mr. Campbell will be interested in exploring over the course of the next quarter. Spirituality in the Workplace is a fairly difficult topic to study. First of all, its definition is one of great debate. The word spirituality alone is hard enough to define. Different people have different ideas about what the concept of s
One shining example was a case study done by four gentlemen on a spiritual values-based model like the one used by Southwest Airlines (SWA). This model appears in the diagram below. Offering a more commercial avenue for the exploration of spirituality in the workplace are several management-consulting groups across the country. As a contrary example, the researchers offered up another company who continued business exactly as usual, even scheduling meetings the very next day. Some people equate spirituality with religion. Internal compassion for employees, however, is not usually as apparent to the external eye. As far as The Crossroads Center goes, it would be my recommendation that they focus any efforts they may pursue in two areas. TJX's CEO, who lost seven employees in one of the planes which collided with the World Trade Center, gathered his staff and announced the names immediately, brought in grief counselors, and chartered a plane to bring the victims' relatives from Europe and Canada, personally greeting the families at the airport when they arrived. Case studies like the one done on Southwest Airlines are excellent tools and I think the conducting of similar studies would be of great value.
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