Spirituality and social responsibility performance: The perspectives of religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss how religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals may view the three core workplace spiritual values: transcendence, existence of a higher power and interconnectedness. Additionally, this paper studies how the contrasts between the views of religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals about the three core spiritual values affect their performance of social responsibility initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual analysis was used.

Findings

This paper suggests that religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals view the three core spiritual values differently. Drawing upon the three core spiritual values viewed by religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals, this paper proposes the following. First, religiously affiliated individuals will focus on implementing social responsibility initiatives for a longer time orientation compared to non-religiously affiliated individuals. Second, when engaging in social responsibility, religiously affiliated individuals will focus on implementing a smaller scope of social responsibility initiatives than non-religiously affiliated individuals. Finally, religiously affiliated individuals will focus on implementing a larger scale of social responsibility initiatives than non-religiously affiliated individuals.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the very first studies addressing how religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals view core values of spirituality. Additionally, this paper advances the literature by contrasting how religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals engage in socially responsible initiatives in accordance with how they view spirituality.

Citation

Barron, K. and Chou, S.Y. (2017), "Spirituality and social responsibility performance: The perspectives of religiously and non-religiously affiliated individuals", Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 63-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGR-07-2016-0020