Facilitating workplace spirituality: lessons from Indian spiritual traditions

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to seek to propose that spiritual traditions of India have enormous wisdom to provide a wholesome spiritual foundation to the modern day management. It can also play a significant role in facilitating the dimensions of workplace spirituality as conceptualized by the western counterparts. The paper does not intend to reinvent the wheel but to present an integrated framework for facilitating workplace spirituality that incorporates the western and the Indian views.

Design/methodology/approach

For this study, the authors maintained an open approach. The authors first reviewed the extant literature on workplace spirituality to explore its dimensions. Thereafter, the authors searched for Indian spiritual traditions that can be suggested to have some similarity with the dimensions of workplace spirituality and can further help in facilitating those dimensions at the workplace.

Findings

The paper presents an integrated framework that suggests that doctrine of Karma Yoga, tradition of Loksangrah, Guna theory, daivi sampat and Pancha Kosha model can help in facilitating the five dimensions of workplace spirituality specified in the study.

Research limitations/implications

The study proposes five dimensions of workplace spirituality which is not an exhaustive list. These dimensions may be facilitated by a variety of Indian spiritual traditions but this study includes only five specific Indian traditions.

Originality/value

The authors have creatively integrated the eastern and the western knowledge to come up with a framework that enriches the concept of workplace spirituality facilitation.

Citation

Pardasani, R., R. Sharma, R. and Bindlish, P. (2014), "Facilitating workplace spirituality: lessons from Indian spiritual traditions", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 33 No. 8/9, pp. 847-859. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-07-2013-0096