Spirituality - RoundTable

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Any other thoughts/views you would like to share with our readers?

Prabhu Guptara

Spirituality is not only for our private or individual lives. Spirituality has also historically shaped things that we take for granted today, such as democracy and literacy and science and technology and economic progress and company law and monetary practice and banking and women's rights and children's rights and animal rights and environmental care. Spirituality also shapes (or can shape) families, communities, businesses, economics and politics. Atheistic views have contributed nothing of value to any of these areas.

Wayne Visser

I find that "meaning" or "purpose" are less alienating concepts for many people than "spirituality", even though they refer to similar ideas. Everyone is searching for meaning or purpose in their life, and work is one of the main places through which meaning can be discovered. My research suggests that people find meaning in many ways in business, for example: Through embedding or living values in the workplace, through making a contribution to society using business as a channel, through being a catalyst for constructive change in the organization, through empowering people in their careers, and through embracing the goals of responsibility and sustainability. This avoids the danger of categorizing people or businesses into "spiritual" versus "unspiritual". Rather, it affirms the existential journey that we all have in common, but which we express in different ways in our lives, in business and through work. Hence, spirituality in business becomes whatever allows the human spirit to thrive, irrespective of what we call this sacred endeavor.

Alex Pattakos

Bringing spirituality to the workplace should not be perceived as a destination. In fact, the nature of "spirit" requires that business leaders, and the entire community of stakeholders for that matter, embrace the process more than the product. In Prisoners of Our Thoughts, I emphasize that human beings don't really "create" meaning, they find it. And since the "logos," as I have already mentioned, represents both meaning and spirit, the same thing applies to spirituality at work. One doesn't create spirituality in the workplace; one finds it. The role of business leaders, in this regard, is to create an environment whereby spirit can be rediscovered and set free for everyone inside and outside the organization to experience. This is difficult to articulate in words, but, trust me, one "knows" it when one "feels" or experiences it.

Linda Sue Grimes

For the best guidance in spirituality, I recommend the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of Self-Realization Fellowship. Information about that organization and those teachings is available on the SRF website at www.yogananda-srf.org

Linda Sue Grimes

2005, ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic or mechanical, without permission.