Spirituality at Work A Study of Selected Organizations

Spirituality in general and in the workplace in particular has received heightened attention

not only in the popular press but also in the business and management literature and in

research (Fry, 2003; Gotsis & Kortezi, 2008; Kolodinsky, Giacalone, & Jurkiewicz, 2008;

Konz & Ryan, 1999; McLaughlin, 1998; Pawar, 2009a). The phenomenon of connecting

spirituality to work has now become a part of the popular culture. Evidences of workplace

spirituality have become a significant movement and can be easily found (Conlin, 1999;

McKee, 2003). Garcia-Zamor (2003) stated that over 300 books on workplace spirituality

were in bookstores in 1999 which in 2001 captured a niche market of $2.2 billion (Lewis,

2001). Some examples of such books are: A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America

(Mitroff & Denton, 1999a), Liberating the Corporate Soul (Barrett, 1998), Spirit at Work

(Conger, 1994), The Soul of Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good

(Chappell, 1993), Leading with Soul (Bolman & Deal, 1995), and The Heart Aroused:

Poetry and Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America (Whyte, 1994). Aburdene

(2007) in her latest book, Megatrend 2010, stated that the presence of spirituality in

business has become so pervasive that it is the greatest megatrend of this decade. Further,