Archives
The Influence of Religion-Based Workplace Spirituality on Business Leaders' Decision-Making
An inter-faith study
Mario Fernando
School of Management and Marketing, University of Wollongong, NSW
Brad Jackson
Centre for the Study of Leadership, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract
The paper reports the findings of thirteen interviews with prominent Sri Lankan business leaders drawn from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim religious traditions.
The in-depth interviews with the leaders were supplemented by documentary sources. When the leaders were asked why they engaged in religion-based workplace spirituality, their responses were often associated with decision-making. Although they had an array of management tools with which to deal with day-to-day management situations, they all indicated that, in 'difficult' moments, these tools needed to be complemented by processes by which they connected with the ultimate-variously identified as the transcendent reality, god, or truth that is more powerful, better, and good.
The outcomes of decisions, both good and bad, were usually attributed to that connecting experience. The findings suggest that religion plays a significant role in influencing the judgment, emotional and motivational qualities of Sri Lankan leaders' decision-making-in that a frame of reference based on a connection with a transcendent and ultimate reality is likely to be a source of solace, guidance, and inspiration to leaders' critical decision-making.
Keywords
workplace spirituality, decision-making, inter-faith, ethics
References
Arasaratnam S (1964) Ceylon, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Asian Tribune (2005) Sri Lanka crosses US$ 1 000 per capita mark. Accessed at http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=14297 on 23 February 2006
Baesler E (2001) The prayer of the Holy Name in eastern and western spiritual traditions: A theoretical, cross-cultural, and intercultural prayer dialogue. Journal of Ecumenical Studies 38(2/3): 196-217.
Barnett J and Karson M (1987) Personal values and business decisions: An exploratory investigation. Journal of Business Ethics 6(5): 371-383.
Batten J, Hettihewa S and Mellor R (1999) Factors affecting ethical management: Comparing a developed and a developing economy. Journal of Business Ethics 19(1): 51-60.
Bazerman M (2002) Judgment in Managerial Decision-Making. New York: John Wiley.
Beazley H (1998) Meaning and Measurement of Spirituality in Organisational Settings: Development of a Spirituality Assessment Scale (Honesty, Humility, Service to Others). Dissertation Abstract. Washington: The George Washington University.
Beyer J (1981) Ideologies, values, and decision-making in organizations. In Nystrom PC and WH Starbuck (eds) Handbook of Organizational Design Vol 2. New York: Oxford University Press.
Burke L and Miller M (1999) Taking the mystery out of intuitive decision making. The Academy of Management Executive 13(4): 91-100.
Burkhart L (2001) Spirituality and religiousness: Differentiating the diagnoses through a review of the nursing literature. Nursing Diagnosis 2(2): 45-54.
Carter JR (1979) Religiousness of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Marga.
Chandrakumara A and Sparrow P (2004) Work orientation as an element of national culture and its impact on HRM policy-practice design choices: Lessons from Sri Lanka. International Journal of Manpower 25(6): 564-589
Charmaz K (2002) Qualitative interviewing and grounded theory analysis. In Gubrium J and J Holstein (eds) Handbook of Interview Research. London: Sage.
Daft R (2001) Organization Theory and Design. Cincinnati: Southwestern.
Dent E, Higgins E and Wharff D (2005) Spirituality and leadership: An empirical review of definitions, distinctions, and embedded assumptions. The Leadership Quarterly 16(5): 625-653.
Easterby-Smith M, Thorpe R and Lowe A (1991) Management Research. London: Sage.
Elliott CB (1938) The Real Ceylon. Ceylon: Caves.
Fernando M (2004) Spirituality at Work in Entrepreneur-Led Business Organisations: A Multi-Faith Study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington.
Fritzsche D (1991) A model of decision-making incorporating ethical values. Journal of Business Ethics 10(11): 841-853.
Fry L (2003) Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 14 (6): 693-727.
Fry L (2005) Toward a theory of ethical and spiritual well-being, and corporate social responsibility through spiritual leadership. In Giacalone RA, CL Jurkiewicz and C Dunn (eds) Positive Psychology in Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility. Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Giacalone RA and Jurkiewicz CL (2003) Toward a science of workplace spirituality. In Giacalone RA and CL Jurkiewicz (eds) Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance. New York: ME Sharp.
Giacalone R, Jurkiewicz C and Fry L (2005) From advocacy to science: The next steps in workplace spirituality research. In Paloutzian R and C Park (eds) Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Gibbons P (2000) Spirituality at work: Definitions, measures, assumptions, and validity claims. A Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada.
Goddard N (1995) The fourth dimension: Conceptualisation of spirituality. Dissertation Abstract. University of Alberta.
Gombrich R and Obeyesekere G (1988) Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Harrison E (1999) The Managerial Decision-Making Process 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Miffin.
Hicks D (2002) Spirituality and religious diversity in the workplace. Implications for leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 13(4): 379-396.
Huitt W (1999) Conation as an important factor of mind. Educational Psychology Interactive. Accessed at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/conation.html on 4 June 2005.
Hunt S and Vitell S (1993) The general theory of marketing ethics: A retrospective and revision. In Smith NC and JA Quelch (eds) Ethics in Marketing. Homewood, IL: Irvin.
Jones A (1997) Balasuriya's ideas on Asia's future jolt the single-path Vatican view. National Catholic Reporter 33(16): 9-11.
Joseph M (2002) Leaders and spirituality: A case study. Doctoral Dissertation. United Kingdom: University of Surrey.
Korac-Kakabadse N, Kouzmin A and Kakabadse A (2002) Spirituality and leadership praxis. Journal of Managerial Psychology 17(3): 165-182.
Kriger M and Seng Y (2005) Leadership with inner meaning: A contingency theory of leadership based on the worldviews of five religions. The Leadership Quarterly 16(5): 771-806.
Kriger M and Hanson B (1999) A value-based paradigm for creating truly healthy organisations. Journal of Organisational Change Management 12(4): 302-317.
Longenecker JG, McKinney and Moore CW (2004) Religious intensity, evangelical Christianity, and business ethics: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics 55: 373-386.
Miles M and Huberman M (1994) Qualitative data analysis. London: Sage.
Mitroff I and Denton E (1999) A study of spirituality in the workplace. Sloan Management Review 40(4): 83-92.
Nanayakkara G (1997) Some reflections of Buddhism on morality in business and management. Sri Lankan Journal of Management 2(3): 217-232.
Newberg A, D'Aquili E and Rause V (2001) Why God won't go away. New York: Ballantine.
Niles FS (1994) The work ethic in Australia and Sri Lanka. The Journal of Social Psychology 134(1): 55-60.
Obeyesekere G (1975) Sinhala Buddhist identity in Ceylon. In De Vos G and L Romanucci-Ross (eds) Ethnic identity: Cultural Continuities and Change, California: Mayfield Publishing.
Paloutzian R and Park C (2005) (eds) Handbook of Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Parry K and Proctor-Thomson S (2002) Perceived integrity of transformational leaders in organisational settings. Journal of Business Ethics 35(2): 75-97.
Patton M (2002) Qualitative evaluation methods. CA: Sage.
Pellebon D and Anderson S (1999) Understanding the life issues of spiritually-based clients. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services 80(3): 229-238.
Perera T and Buddhadasa S (1992) Characteristics of Sri Lankan entrepreneurs: How valid is the Schumpeterian model? Paper presented to the Postgraduate Institute of Management Conference on Management Studies, Colombo.
Piedmont R and Leach M (2002) Cross-cultural generalizability of the spiritual transcendence scale in India - Spirituality as a universal aspect of human experience. American Behavioral Scientist 45(12): 1888-1902.
Ranasinghe S (1996a) Work centrality and job satisfaction: Applicability of the protestant work ethic in the Sri Lankan context. Sri Lankan Journal of Management 1(1): 19-36.
Ranasinghe S (1996b) Entrepreneurship education and training in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Journal of Management 1(3): 262-277.
Rose S (2001) Is the Term 'Spirituality' a Word that Everyone Uses, But Nobody Knows What Anyone Means by it? Journal of Contemporary Religion 16(2): 193-208.
Seale C (2000) The quality of qualitative research. London: Sage.
Shakun M (1999) Consciousness, spirituality and right decision/negotiation in purposeful complex adaptive systems. Group Decision and Negotiation 8: 1-15.
Shakun M (2001) Unbounded rationality. Group Decision and Negotiation 10: 97-118.
Simon H (1955) A behavioural mode of rational choice. Quarterly Journal of Economics 66: 99-118.
Simon H (1956) Rational choice and the structure of the environment. Psychological Review 63: 129-138.
Simon H (1978) Rationality as a process and product of thought. American Economic Review 68(2): 1-16.
Singhapakdi A, Salyachivin S, Virakul B and Veerayangkur V (2000) Some important factors underlying ethical decision-making of managers in Thailand. Journal of Business Ethics 27(3): 271-285.
Smart N (1989) The World Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations. London: Cambridge University Press.
Smart N (1991) The Religious Experience. New York: MacMillan.
Snyder CR and Lopez J (2001) (eds) Handbook of Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford.
Sperry L (1997) Leadership dynamics: Character and character structure in executives. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 49(4): 268-280.
Steele S (2000) Christian insight meditation: A test case on interreligious spirituality. Buddhist - Christian Studies 20.
Strauss A and Corbin J (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. London: Sage.
Strauss A and Corbin J (1994) Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In Lincoln Y and N Denzin (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, CA: Sage.
Tambiah SJ (1986) Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Teasdale W (1997) The interspiritual age: Practical mysticism for the third millennium. Journal of Ecumenical Studies 34(1): 74-92.
Vivekananda S (1893) Paper on Hinduism, world parliament of religions, delivered on 19 September 1893. Accessed at http://www.itihaas.com/modern/vivek-speech3.html 16 February 2004.
Walker S (1987) (ed) Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists on the Contemplative Way, New York: Paulist Press.
Weick K (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
Weick K (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations. California: Sage.
Wheat L (1991) Development of a Scale for the Measurement of Human Spirituality. Dissertation Abstract: University of Maryland.
Whittington JL, Pitts TM, Kageler WV and Goodwin VL (2005) Legacy leadership: The leadership wisdom of the Apostle Paul. The Leadership Quarterly 16(5): 749-770.
Zinnebauer BJ and Paragament KL (2005) Religiousness and spirituality. In Paloutzian R and C Park (eds) Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
eContent Home
