Spirituality in the workplace is a topic that is not openly
discussed in many organizations due to company regulations, policies,
procedures, and laws. Although one may hear the occasional, “I’m blessed and
highly favored” response to, “How are you today?” or the occasional religious
symbol or Bible verse in the office, does not mean that individuals are
practicing spirituality in the workplace (SAW).
I personally feel that spirituality in the workplace deals with servant
leadership at its best. As a servant leader, it is my moral obligation to serve
others and try to meet their individual needs. In the process, I must
demonstrate integrity and social responsibility to those I serve.
Although laws have abolished prayer in schools and the expression of one’s religious beliefs in the workplace, the fact still remains that “we are a nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
My friend and
colleague, Pastor Reuben Sampson, Jr. (2013) shared with me, “Spirituality in
the workplace paints somewhat of a paradox. One’s spirituality is personal.
This in itself many times makes it difficult for some to not express their
belief verbally. However, I’m of the persuasion that a person’s spirituality
should be exhibited in the workplace through their choices and work. What do I
mean? Your lifestyle in the work place and your work ethic should express what
you believe. A great example is worth more than a thousand words. Simply put,
when it comes to workplace spirituality, one should strive to live what they
believe. Then they should function properly within the guidelines of the
organization so as to promote their beliefs from a positive vantage point.”
In his book,
Leading with Passion (2010), John J. Murphy asserts:
When we are
leading in the spirit, we approach each day with joy, enthusiasm and positive expectations. We are deliberate and mindful in our actions and reactions. We
respond to stimuli by consciously ‘minding the gap’ between cause and effect.
Leading with passion and spirit requires that we remain positive, attracting
positive energy into our lives and into the solutions we seek. We are never
given a challenge we cannot meet or a problem we cannot solve. This is what
keeps life interesting. We grow in spirit when we rise to these challenges. At
the beginning of each day, the passionate leader remembers that we are
spiritual beings destines to create a better world by thinking positively and
acting wholeheartedly. And at the end of the day, the passionate leader
realizes that to inspire others, we must be in-spirit ourselves. (pp. 104-105)
As previously
stated, spirituality in the workplace begins with the leader. From my personal
experience, I take the “what would Jesus do” (WWJD) approach to handling
situations. By this I mean the following: although individuals make mistakes,
murmur, conspire, threaten, etc., I look at those individuals with God’s heart
and God’s eyes in order to move forward. As Murphy (2010) stated, I have to be
“positive and attracting positive energy.” As the leader on my campus, I must
remain positive in order to get employee buy in. This task is not always easy
but crucial because it will impact campus culture and climate. Student centered
leadership involves leaders making an effort to impact students. A positive
attitude toward helping students achieve will motivate students to excel.
Students are impressionable and can detect when someone does not genuinely care
for them. In leading with the spirit, we must accept our students, faculty, and
staff with their weaknesses and faults and commit ourselves to bringing out the
very best in them. I have always felt that my job is my ministry and my
calling. Educators do not go into the profession because of the money. We do
not get paid for working overtime or get hefty raises. I can say that most
educators lead with heart. We want to serve our children and will do everything
possible to ensure their well-being. Pruzan (2008, p. 104) asserts,
“spirituality can be looked upon as providing a framework for leadership that
can serve as the very source of an organization’s values, ethics, and
responsibility.” In education, we develop our campus vision and mission as a guide
to help us reach our students. We adopt them as our “core values, ethics, and
responsibility.” Educators have a moral responsibility to provide a high
quality education to all students and to lead their followers to a higher level
of professional growth and development.
Spirituality will help them achieve
that. John Maxwell (1993, p. 7-8) contends, “People don’t care how much you
know until they know how much you care. Leadership begins with the heart, not
the head. It flourishes with a meaningful relationship, not more regulation.
You can love people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without
loving them.”
Tourish &
Tourish (2010, pp. 213-214) describe:
Accordingly, a
leader who embraces SAW [spirituality at work] will have a heightened
obligation to offer a sense of meaning in life, and to provide a feeling of
community rooted in the workplace. It is an agenda built on the assumption that
organizations have a unitarist nature, thereby ensuring that the extension of
leaders’ power in more intrusive directions will have a benign effect. The
focus is on the need for individuals to adapt everything they possess, body and
soul, to the organizational environment in which they find themselves, in
pursuit of meaning and solace. The possibility that such a colonization of
people’s affective domain might be oppressive, invasive or unwelcomed is not
generally considered.
A feeling of
community and acceptance is vital in attempting to establish relationships. Guy
Ferguson, as cited by Maxwell (1993, p. 115) asserts:
To know to do a
job is the accomplishment of labor;
To be available to
tell others is the accomplishment of the teacher;
To inspire others
to do better work is the accomplishment of management;
To be able to do
all three is the accomplishment of true leaders.
References
Maxwell, J. C. (1993). Developing the Leader Within
You. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Merriam-Webster. (2013).
Retrieved November 4, 2013, from Merriam-Webster: www.merriam-
webster.com
Murphy, J. J. (2010). Leading with Passion. Naperville: Simple
Truths, LLC.
Pruzan, P. (2008). Spiritual-based Leadership in Business. Journal of
Human Values , 101-114.
Sampson, R. (2013, November 7).
Spirituality in the Workplace. (M. Oliva, Interviewer)
Tourish, D., & Tourish, N. (2010). Spirituality at Work, and its
Implications for Leadership and
Followership: A
Post-structuralist Perspective. Leadership , 207-224.