Characteristics of Organizational Spirituality and Corporate Culture: An Exploratory Model

Phillip V. Lewis Posted on
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.64010/QFQU3462

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine how organizational spirituality influences corporate culture. The first step was to review research on the meaning of organizational spirituality, and its relationship to corporate culture. The intent was to advance academic conversation on spirituality in organizational life by offering a description of how spirituality interacts with and influences corporate culture. The second step was to construct a model of the characteristics of entrepreneurial or organizational spirituality and corporate culture. The discussion of these characteristics should provide a means to comprehend the relationship between spirituality and corporate culture. The third step was to provide suggestions for continuing research on the relationship and the impact of entrepreneurial and organizational spirituality on corporate culture.

An exploratory model was designed based on the following elements: (a) the extent to which life purpose and involvement require meaningful work, sense of community, and organizational values; and (b) the extent to which entrepreneurial or organizational spirituality is a component of corporate culture.

Organizational Spirituality

The topic of spirituality continues to gain traction in academic literature (Benefiel, et al., 2914, pp. 175-176), and it is viewed as benefiting business at the societal, organizational, and individual levels (Moore & Casper, 2006, p. 109). One reason is that people often seek meaning focused on basic and deep-rooted human values and a relationship with a universal source, power, or divinity (Pruzan, 2004, p. 4). A descriptive research survey of 275 individuals, for example, showed that meaningful work, purposeful work, sense of community, and interconnectedness had positive significant impact on employee wellbeing (Ajala, 2013, p. 3). At the same time, there are those who argue an increase in “spiritual talk” is a controversial issue in organizations seeking legitimacy rather than a genuine commitment to authentic spirituality (Fernando, 2005, p. 2). An attempt is made in this study to report only scholarly research and not popular press or blog resources.

What is Spiritualiuty

So what is “spirituality?” A number of studies indicate that professionals and executives support a relationship between spirituality and organizational commitment (Marschke, et al., 2009, pp. 33-47) and work attitudes (Milliman, et al., 2003, pp 426-447). We should note, however, that spirituality does not mean the same thing in religion as it does in business, nor does it mean the same thing in western and eastern cultures.. Spirituality in Western Civilization is characteristically described as an inner experience when someone senses a Beyond (something or someone supernatural) and actively attempts to harmonize life with the Beyond (Clark, 1958, p. 22). It has been defined as an interconnectedness, shared by everyone involved at the work place, triggered by a sense of honesty, kindness and courage (Marques et al, 2005, p. 83).

There are at least three popular views of spirituality: the intrinsic-origin view – spirituality originates from the inside of a person, (b) the religious view – spiritual views about work are specific to individual religions, and (c) the existentialist view – the search for meaning is about what we are doing at work (Krish-nakumar & Neck, 2002, pp. 154-156). Other views include the culture of trust, inclusion, and innovation (Daniel, 2010, p. 444), as well as meaningful work, sense of community, and alignment with organizational values (Gupta, et al., 2014, pp. 80-81).

Developments in management theory and practice recommend management can be better understood and integrated through a view of spirituality as the context for purposeful behavior (Pru-zan, 2004, p. 1); it also includes compassion, right livelihood, selfless service, meditative work, and the problem of pluralism (McCormick, 1994, p. 6). Other value constructs are managerial affirmation, intrinsic affirmation, personal belonging, co-worker belonging, personal competence, and managerial competence (Fawcett, et al., 2008, p. 429). Longer values lists include ethics, truth, belief in God or a Higher Power, respect, understanding, openness, honesty, being self-motivated, encouraging creativity, giving to others, trust, kindness (e.g., bonding, conviviality, compassion), team orientation, few organizational barriers, a sense of peace and harmony, aesthetically pleasing workplace, interconnectedness, encouraging diversity, and acceptance (Marques, et al., 2005, p. 86). Spirituality also has been related to the values of benevolence, generativity, humanism, integrity, justice, mutuality, receptivity, respect, responsibility, and trust (Jurkiewicz & Giacalone, 2004, p. 131).

Organizational Spirituality and Corporate Culture

The question to be pursued is whether organizational spirituality is related to corporate culture. Corporate culture is the shared training of the mind to differentiate members of one group from another (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005, p. 28). It is the collection of internal shared values and beliefs that an organization learns as management and employees work together to solve problems. Corporate culture may be thought of as “the taken-for-granted values,” the underlying assumptions, expectations, collective memories, and definitions present in the organization (Schein, 2004, pp. 24-37). It is often a framework of unwritten rules; however, the internal culture must fit the external environment.

Certain aspects of culture have been identified as antecedents to productive workplaces: affirmation, belonging, and competence (Fawcett, et al., 2008, p. 424). Corporate culture shapes individual consciousness and imposes routines that reflect socially approved and purposive action (Jackall, 2009, pp. 18-43). Corporate culture is based on involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission (Denison & Neale, 1996, pp. 1-9). Likewise, it is based on the extent to which the external environment requires flexibility or stability and the extent to which a company’s strategic focus is internal or external; specifically, adaptability, achievement, involvement, and consistency (Daft, 2018, p. 92).

In studies of organizations with strong corporate culture vs those with weak cultures, correlations exist between the strength of a corporate culture and profitability-stronger spirited companies outperformed weaker spiritued companies by 400-500 percent in terms of net earnings, investment return, and shareholder value (Garcia-Zamor, 2003, p. 361). Research also suggests that spirituality is expressed in the broadest sense as organizational and personal aspirations, values and ethics; and observations about treatment of employees, the environment and community (Weston, 2002, p. 28). It involves a sense of completeness, connectedness at work, and deeper values (Gibbons, 2000). One of its central qualities involves the meaning of one’s work; it is a way of experiencing the divine presence in the world (Neck & Millman, 1994, pp. 9-16).

Thus there appears to be a horizontal spirituality that encompasses a desire to be of service to others, heighten employee commitment, and exhibit efficiency and effectiveness; it encompasses a sense of wholeness that goes beyond just a survival instinct (Ajala, 2013, p, 3). An individual spirituality seeks to nurture the creativity, imagination, and intuition besides improving the trust and honesty; an organizational spirituality has the potential to improve organizational performance (Aravamudhan & Krishnaveni, 2014, p. 63). Three dimensions of workplace spirituality have been uncovered: self-work immersion-the ability to bring one’s whole self to the workplace, interconnect-edness-the feeling of being part of something bigger than the self, and self-actualization-the experience of spiritual and mental growth through work (Moore & Casper, 2006, pp.110-112).

A study of the effects of personal spiritual values, perceptions of organizational spiritual values, and their interaction on both attitudinal and attachment workplace outcomes indicates strong support for an interactive conceptualization of workplace spirituality; however, there is little evidence of an interaction between personal spiritual values and organizational spiritual values for worker consequences (Kolodinsky, et al., 2008, pp. 474-475). Regardless, a tension toward spiritual contentment exists in the workplace.

Spiritual values have shown escalation of organizational commitment, productivity, and efficiency (Dehaghi, et al., 2012, p. 160). The encouragement of spirituality in the workplace leads to benefits in the following areas: creativity, honesty and trust, personal fulfillment, and commitment; all lead to increased organizational performance (Krishnakumar & Neck, 2002, p. 156). Other perceived benefits are feeling at ease, self-confidence, a positive mood, being open-minded, and feeling valued (Fawcett, et al., 2008, p. 430). Finally, spirituality should not be confined to high performance or profitability but also should be tied to matters of increased physical and mental health, personal growth, a higher level of self-esteem, and overall life-satisfaction (Gotsis & Kortezi, 2008, p. 592).

You may have noticed that many of the connections to and outcomes of organizational spirituality are similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (see Shock, 2015, pp. 1-3; Fernando, 2013, pp. 1-4). As one moves from lower needs to higher needs, corporate culture could be affected. On the other hand, a spiritual corporate culture could impact a person’s movement up or down the need hierarchy, impacting attitude, efficiency, performance and productivity.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine how organizational spirituality influences corporate culture. The first step was to review research on the meaning of organizational spirituality and its relationship to corporate culture. The intent was to advance the academic conversation on spirituality in organizational life by offering a description of how spirituality interacts with and influences corporate culture. The second step was to construct a model of the characteristics of spirituality and coporate culture. The discussion of these characteristics provides a means to appreciate the relationship between spirituality and corporate culture.

A proposed model has been constructed and is illustrated in Exhibit 1.1. The model is based on the following elements: (a) the extent to which life purpose and involvement requires meaningful work, sense of community, and organizational values; and (b) the extent to which organizational spirituality is a component of corporate culture. Six categories associated with these two dimensions are wellbeing, interconnectedness, achievement, affirmation, shared values and beliefs, and balance.

Wellbeing includes a personal sense of meaning, contentment, feeling at ease, a positive mood, a feeling of worthiness, self-confidence, self-motivation, aspirations and goals achievement, values fulfillment, completeness, feeling valued, sense of wholeness, life satisfaction, mental health, joy, affective attachment to an organization, and possibly a feeling of divine presence in the workplace. Interconnectedness embraces belonging to a group or organization, having good colleagues, positive emphasis on relationships, fun and enjoyment on the job, empowerment, openness, inclusiveness, and diversity. Achievement refers to performance, productivity, profitability, efficiency, quality work, creativity and innovation, imagination and intuition, mental growth, realization of full potential as a person, engaging in reflective practice, flexibility, and celebration of successes.

Affirmation is a feeling of self-esteem, self-confidence, encouragement to be all one can be, support and coaching of others, being competent, trust, honesty, responsive listening, ethics and integrity, and respect. Shared values and beliefs involve vision, mission, clarity, purposeful action, initiative, positive HRM practice, team orientation, underlying assumptions and expectations, consistency, adaptability, responsibility, encouraged employee expression, receptivity, steadiness, grounded change, working together to solve problems, justice, open-mindedness, understanding, and improvement of strategic direction. Balance refers to harmony, being even-keeled, peace, compassion, kindness, selfless service, benevolence, loyalty, obligation, socially responsible to the community, serving humankind and future generations, caring for the environment, creating a better world, and sustainability.

Each of these six categories of organizational spirituality can be successful within corporate culture and influence it dramatically. These dimensions can help leaders be successful by instilling the organizational spiritual values in which management and employees wish to engage. Furthermore, it is possible to view each component of the exploratory model in terms of the spirituality axis from limited to inspirational and the corporate culture axis from weak to strong (spirited).

In Exhibit 1.2, for example, if we look at wellbeing on the corporate culture axis, it could be influenced as people move on the bottom from weak to strong. If we look at wellbeing on the spirituality axis, it could be influenced as people grow positively on the left from limited to inspirational. The same would be true of the other five categories. A question to consider: Are there tangible descriptors that could be used on the vertical and horizontal scales as one moves horizontally or vertically on an individual axis? Could a numbered grid be formed on each axis with descriptors for the meaning of (for example) 1-1, 1-5, 1-9, 5-1, 5-5, 5-9, 9-1, 9-5, or 9-9?

Alternatively, could the strength of corporate culture move toward the right by the movement of organizational spirituality towards inspiration or vice-versa? Several scholarly works indicate the positive movement of spirituality increases commitment and efficiency, impacts unit performance and productivity positively, and causes a rise in profits (Fry, et al., 2011, pp. 259-270; Garcia-Zamor, 2003, pp. 314-335; Markow & Klenke, 2005, pp. 8-27; Rego & Cunha, 2008, pp. 53-75). Would the reversal of that movement provide unexpected negative results? Perhaps this is an area for further research and study?

The third step in this study was to provide suggestions for continuing research on the relationship and the impact between entrepreneurial and organizational spirituality and corporate culture. Future research could focus on each of the six characteristics presented in Exhibit 1.1. These six components could be (a) building blocks toward a model of organizational spirituality or (b) a framework for engaging in broader discussions of organizational spirituality’s influence on corporate culture. And, as previously mentioned, it would be interesting to see more research concentrate on the effect of the left axis as people move upward from limiting to inspiration (or vice-versa) and on the effect of the bottom axis as people move to the right from weak to strong (or vice-versa).

The fact that spirituality can be a major influence on corporate culture seems undeniable, and more research would enlighten spirituality’s relationship to organizational leadership and followership. Perhaps this study provides an open door for unique research that contributes to the field of organizational spirituality.

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