Search results

The purpose of this paper is to review Buddhism as a potential reform instrument in the workplace and discuss some obstacles in making that happen.

By the use of literature review and interviews, Buddhism's establishment in the USA is reviewed, a brief overview of Buddhism in general is provided, Buddhism is considered within the light of the spirit at work discourse, and the current discourse on implementing Buddhist practices in the workplace is reviewed.

It is found that Buddhist practices are becoming more widely accepted but the fact that they are called “Buddhist” practices may be a barrier in massive acceptance.

The information was gathered from literature and disputed by pro‐Buddhist individuals (monks and lay persons), which may leave room for some bias in view sharing.

Buddhist practices, when perceived as ethical values, make perfect sense, and could help instigate a positive turnaround in general feelings about work and experiences at work.

Buddhism has not been discussed broadly within the scope of management practices. While Buddhism is generally endorsed in this paper, the discourses here discussed present a realistic view on points of caution when considering promoting Buddhist values in work environments.

This paper aims to contribute or rekindle internal and external dialogues about the interactions, decisions and behaviour in the work environments; while also consider some critical overarching values that can help workforce members cope with the stress and pressure, which augment as the speed of life increases.

The methodology used in this project is an integrative literature review, supported by, findings and reflections from two doctoral dissertations: one in workplace spirituality and one in Buddhist psychology; and the researcher’s analysis and joint application of these two streams over the past decade.

Workplace spirituality and Buddhist psychology share overlapping, multi-interpretable traits, with as the main discrepancies that workplace spirituality is a relatively new concept, while Buddhist psychology has been around for more than 2,500 years; and workplace spirituality focusses only on the workplace, while Buddhist psychology focusses on every area of the life. Yet, the overarching notion of doing right while respecting and accepting others and aiming for an overarching better quality of life remains a strong driver in both realms.

This paper will hopefully entice future researchers to engage in additional studies on spiritual intersections to expand on such databases and enhance awareness, acceptance and implementation amongst scholars and practitioners in business settings.

Exploring intersections of behavioural disciplines such as workplace spirituality and Buddhist psychology addresses an important need within workforce members and therewith also those within their social circles, as they evoke deeper and consistent contemplation on the aspects that connect us together and can enhance overall well-being and happiness at a greater magnitude than, this study experiences it today.

The study aims to deliver a contribution to the database of awareness-enhancing literature, in an effort to help spawn dialogue and critical thinking about the attitudes and behaviours towards ourselves, others and the future.

This paper presents an overview of themes in two psychological streams, both focussing on living and acting with greater consciousness, to make more mindful decisions, improve the overall experience of cooperating towards a common good and understand the responsibility towards creating a future that will be sustainable rather than destroyed.

This chapter invites leaders to tread the Noble Eightfold Path as a constructive and rewarding practice. It discusses two major instructional steps, each including a series of personal reflections and suggested exercises.

Step 1 explains the Four Noble Truths, which confronts us with the many ways we suffer through our challenges. Leader developers are encouraged to clarify the first Three Noble Truths through a process of contemplating, reflecting, meditating and sharing. Step 2 explains the fourth Noble Truth, also known as the Noble Eightfold Path, which offers a pathway to end our suffering. The Eightfold Path consists of eight contemplations we should practise at all times: (1) right view, (2) right intention, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness and (8) right concentration. Participants may obtain best insight into step 2 by focussing on the issues they identified in step 1.

Using the Noble Eightfold Path in the development of leaders illustrates the importance of engaging in leadership practices that elevate wellbeing of the self and others, by practising a set of interrelated behaviours, which could be described as a process of connecting the heart with the mind. The strategy discussed in this chapter may appeal to leaders who aspire choosing the high road and aim to keep their conscience as clean as possible, while paving a constructive and sustainable global path towards acceptance, understanding, respect and collective wellbeing.

Social and environmental accounting research manifests varying levels of awareness of critical global problems and the need to develop alternative approaches to dealing with economy and society. This paper explores Buddhist thought and, specifically, Buddhist economics as a means to informing this debate. We draw on and expand Schumacher's ideas about ‘Buddhist economics’, first articulated in the 1960s. Our analysis centres on Buddhism's Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and associated Buddhist teachings. The examination includes assumptions, means and ends of Buddhist approaches to economics; these are compared and contrasted with conventional economics.To consider how thought and practice may be bridged, we examine a practical application of Buddhism's Middle Way, in the form of Thailand's current work with ‘Sufficiency Economy’.Throughout the paper, we explore the implications for the development of social accounting, looking for mutual interactions between Buddhism and social accounting thought and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to look behind the veil of the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which has been initiated by the fourth King of Bhutan as an alternative to the traditional development concept of gross national product, by analyzing it as an expression of a particular view of leadership originated in the philosophical tradition of Mahayana Buddhism and exploring its relevance for leadership of sustainable development and sustainable (business) organizations.

Review of literature on GNH in a historical and current context, linking it to trends and concepts in sustainability and leadership. Complemented by author’s observations on regular visits to Bhutan since 2003.

The GNH leadership view consists of a set of principles: first, interrelatedness of economy, society and eco-systems; second, the economy, society and eco-systems can flourish if their needs are served; third, governance is the agent for serving these needs by the creation of societal happiness; and fourth, societal happiness should include the enhancement of subjective happiness and well-being of people. By tracing these principles to the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, especially the Bodhisattva ideal, and comparing them to the principles driving sustainability, the paper argues that GNH leadership signifies an innovation in leadership for sustainability.

This paper examines how GNH leadership can be applied to organizational and business sustainability, and how it contributes to the emerging theory and practice of sustainability leadership.

The social relevance of the paper lies in the examination of how GNH leadership can be applied to organizational and business sustainability, and how it contributes to the emerging theory and practice of sustainability leadership.

The paper concludes that GNH leadership – as it corresponds to the principles driving sustainability – represents a new model for sustainability leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate paradoxes in the development of organizational cultural problems – paradoxes that go undetected by people involved in them. The paper explains why these paradoxes remain undetected, and shows how their “invisibility” is a foundation for the development of “cultural problems”.

The approach is phenomenological, in that it explores how actors in cross‐cultural settings understand “difference” and thereby socially construct “cultural problems”.

Three interrelated paradoxes are uncovered: In dyads, actors perceive two‐way “cultural difference” as being one‐way. “Difference” thus becomes embodied in the “other” – “the other” alone is “different” and “difficult”. In bi‐cultural organizations, perceptions of “the other” as “different” and “difficult” encourage the formation of in‐groups and out‐groups that lead to “cultural problems”. “Difference” becomes embodied in “the others” while “cultural problems” that are the results of their own actions are also embedded in “the others”. In multicultural organizations these understandings break down. “Difference” becomes disembodied, and “cultural problems” become embodied in “difference”. More cultural differences thus engender fewer “cultural problems”.

The novel theoretical part of the study is so far untested. The paper thus calls for studies that apply the developed theoretical approach. The ethnographic observations that support the existence of the multicultural paradox are preliminary and ongoing.

The novel theoretical approach can immediately be applied to other organizational issues.

This paper introduces, for the first time, the Buddhist concept of anatta in the analysis of organizations. The theoretical approach is new, and can be applied to further studies of organizational problems.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a specialist at a research institution turned into an unwilling manager who lost her Jungian self under the managerial persona and shadow pressures of the organization. The findings lead to a personal development model.

The problem and solution are translated into Jungian language, which fits with the Buddhist approach chosen by the interviewee. The case study looks for answers to questions: How responsible should individuals be? How far should they go: blow the whistle? Is responsible leadership possible in an organization whose ego is in the powerful grip of its persona and shadow? What is the role of individual/group/organizational/societal unconscious in striving for responsible leadership? Can an organization become aware of its persona and shadow and develop into an enlightened self?

Individuals can take responsibility for the less powerful but not always for the more powerful. Whistle‐blowing may be counterproductive. Responsible leadership is possible, if individuals/groups/organizations/societies are mature enough to become aware of their persona and shadow to free this energy for responsible behaviour. A Jungian‐Buddhist personal development model is built.

Single case study results are not generalizable, but the presented problem may be common in research organizations. The model requires further empirical support.

Holistic personal development: “Loose (don’t lose) your self. Shelve your persona! Don’t fear your shadow; learn to know it!”

The paper presents a novel account of presenting and solving a real‐life managerial problem through integrating Buddhist and Jungian knowledge, and introducing a Jungian‐Buddhist model.

The USA is witnessing a conflict between LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) consumers/supporters and Christian fundamentalist service providers/opponents regarding whether service can be denied based on religious values. The purpose of this paper is to make a timely investigation into this conflict between marketplace inclusion (for LGBTQ consumers) and freedom of religion (for religious service providers).

The intersection of marketplace inclusion for LGBTQ consumers and religious freedom for service providers is examined by identifying appropriate strategies that address this conflict and reviewing how differing religious perspectives influence perceptions of LGBTQ consumer rights, all building off the social identity threat literature.

LGBTQ and religious identities often conflict to influence consumer behavior and service provider interactions. Such conflict is heightened when there is a lack of substitutes (i.e. only one service provider in an area for a specific service). Common LGBTQ consumer responses include changing service providers, providing justification for the provision of services and pursing legal recourse. Suggested strategies to address this conflict include highlighting common social identities and using two-sided messages for service providers, using in-group interventions for social groups and using government interventions for public policy.

Research has yet to examine the conflict between marketplace inclusion and religious freedom, particularly for the inclusion of LGBTQ consumers. Thus, this paper provides a novel conceptual model detailing these relationships to stimulate discussion among consumers, service providers, social groups and public policy in addition to serving as a foundation for future research.

This article aims to present the findings from data gathered from 1,160 individuals who participated over the course of five years in a series of workshops, university courses and business dialogue sessions on the subject of personal and professional excellence.

Data were gathered from dialogue sessions and workshops with LA‐based workforce members, and classroom sessions in higher business education. The shift from general management teaching to focused self‐management dialogues was explained, emerged themes from five years of data gathering were examined and the themes and keywords were visualized and results noted.

The paper finds that in today's rapidly changing world of work, people are seeking ways to reinvent themselves in order to become more resilient. The findings listed in this paper are not exhaustive but should rather be used as a pragmatic tool for further research on the topic.

The population used for data was large, yet geographically limited, as it consisted of members of the Los Angeles workforce and business and management students in Los Angeles. The themes to be formed could have been named differently, as the clustering process was done by the author and not the audience. It is suggested that future research should concentrate on applying this study among other geographical and cultural audiences for a greater foundation in findings and for capturing additional, possibly deviating, perspectives.

Four main themes are presented as a result of the analysis of the collected data: right action, right thinking, right mindfulness, and right connection, along with 20 keywords. Personal and professional excellence is not a one‐time achievement, but a continuous effort in which multiple aspects need to be addressed at the same time. It could be seen as an ongoing paradigm renewal.

The paper tailors a model for personal and professional excellence in the twenty‐first century AD to a model that was developed in the twenty‐fifth century BC.

The purpose of this paper is to explore adaptable Buddhist teachings in economic circumstances, and provide a firm theoretical foundation for a possible Buddhist management approach. It aims to show that the application of Buddhist practical wisdom is contributing to achieve more beneficial economic outcome and management practices.

The paper is overviewing the Buddhist teachings, which aims at the cessation of suffering. It emphasizes tenets influencing right livelihood and economic practice. Further it investigates the mainstream economic system and Buddhist economics. It compares the two economic approaches by making parallel constructions of them, and reveals the foundation of a new management approach stem from the Buddhist view of economic affairs.

The application of the Buddhist values of mindfulness, non-harming and compassion in management practice serves adequate solutions to the most pressing issues of economics, since it is inherently fair, just and economically efficient. It allows an individually-, socially- and environmentally friendly management praxis by employing a minimizing framework.

The evidence that doing business in the Buddhist way is economically efficient is the foundation of an alternative management practice. Thus, managers and entrepreneurs are encouraged to employ a Buddhist way for management.

Applying Buddhist teachings to economics alleviates the most pressing problems of the society. It contributes to equality, justice and the cessation of poverty by ensuring basic necessities to people.

The paper sets up a parallel investigation of Buddhism, mainstream economics, and Buddhist economics by making a parallel model of them. It contrasts neoclassical economics with Buddhist economics, and ensures a firm foundation for Buddhist management approaches.