Nurturing the Whole Person: The Ethics of Workplace Spirituality in a Society of Organizations |
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Authors: | Mathew L Sheep |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Management, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210165, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0165, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | In a world which can be increasingly described as a “society of organizations,” it is incumbent upon organizational researchers
to account for the role of organizations in determining the well-being of societies and the individuals that comprise them.
Workplace spirituality is a young area of inquiry with potentially strong relevance to the well-being of individuals, organizations,
and societies. Previous literature has not examined ethical dilemmas related to workplace spirituality that organizations
might expect based upon the co-existence of multiple ethical work climates, nor has previous literature accounted for the
relevance of the cosmopolitan (external, societal) source of moral reasoning in the ethical treatment of workplace spirituality.
The purpose of this paper is to address these gaps by articulating two such ethical dilemmas related to workplace spirituality:
the “quiet desperation” dilemma and the instrumentality dilemma. Moreover, I propose two theoretical contexts that foster
“both-and” rather than “either-or” thinking, thereby mitigating (moderating) the relationships between climate combinations
and conflictual aspects of the ethical dilemmas. For the “quiet desperation” dilemma, I propose a person–organization fit
perspective to emphasize diversity of individual preferences instead of a managerially prescribed uniformity of spirituality.
For the instrumentality dilemma, I propose a multiparadigm approach to workplace spirituality research to avoid the privileging
of one research interest over another (e.g., instrumentality, individual fulfillment, societal good). I conclude with suggestions
for future research. |
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Keywords: | workplace spirituality social systems ethical work climate ethical dilemma person– organization fit multiparadigm research |
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