The role and need of offering workshops and courses on workplace spirituality

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the experiences and findings of a university course in workplace spirituality in a time and stage where corporate greed and organizational instability run rampant.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed workshop dialogues and reviewed of participants' findings on corporations as well as their own changed perceptions.

Findings

There are some interesting common factors in corporations that perform according to spiritual guidelines and a highly interactive program on organizational analysis contributes tremendously to the levels of responsibility and awareness of participants.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations to the research are: the population used for data was limited, as it consisted of business and management students at the MBA level; and the findings were only gathered from one cohort, and might provide increased themes when extended over multiple courses in multiple semesters. Future research could apply this study on other populations for a greater foundation in findings.

Practical implications

Organizations that adhere to the spiritual mindset are more successful, have happier employees, and are more aware of their environmental responsibilities.

Originality/value

The paper shows that in these times when corporate greed, dishonesty, and environmental neglect have been exposed so dramatically, courses on workplace spirituality are of high importance and lead to valuable insights for immediate and non‐immediate stakeholders.

Citation

Dhiman, S. and Marques, J. (2011), "The role and need of offering workshops and courses on workplace spirituality", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 30 No. 9, pp. 816-835. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711111164312