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Book review by James W. Bronson. Rob van der Horst, Sandra King-Kauanui, and Susan Duffy, ed., Keystones of Entrepreneurship Knowledge, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. ISBN 9781405139212

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between entrepreneurs who see a connection between spirituality and work and those who do not.

Data are collected and analyzed in two stages from in‐depth interviews of 112 entrepreneurs. Key differentiators explored are related to money, ethical decision making, definition of success, and the entrepreneurs' desire to live an integrated lifestyle.

No significant differences are found between the two groups along key demographic attributes; however, when applying characteristics of flow and play to the entrepreneur's work experiences, distinct differences between the groups are found.

These findings suggest that holistically oriented entrepreneurs utilize the business as part of their spiritual path, and create an environment in which work and play are not perceived as separate work‐related elements.

Since the dawn of history, when man first put to sea, he has been fighting a constant battle: waged not against a powerful adversary or even the elements, but against an array of seemingly insignificant sea creatures. These organisms create the nuisance of marine fouling.

This verse, dating back some fifty years, illustrates how it used to be possible for someone being promoted to a supervisory position to perceive that he was crossing a major class boundary. Up until the inter‐war years, the position of supervisor in British industry, typically the “foreman”, was clearly differentiated from that of the manual worker, even though both parties usually shared a manual background. Supervisors were still the main agents of capitalist ownership over the labour force. As such they were granted considerable control over conditions of employment and methods of work. They enjoyed favourable job security at a time when unemployment often brought personal economic disaster to manual workers. A distinctive mode of dress, particularly the bowler hat, symbolised this superiority over labour. Within their local communities, many supervisors had superior standing as minor property owners and rentiers.

In today’s world of heightened change, many individuals are suffering from a perceived loss of meaning and purpose in their lives, engendering a sense of spiritual desolation and impelling a spiritual quest. The work environment, so central to their existence, often contributes to the sense of desperation and thwarts individual growth. However, if management recognizes the potential for mutual benefit in the nexus of the individual’s spiritual odyssey and the structure of the organization, the organization’s contribution can be truly positive. The paper proposes an integration of the theoretical frameworks of Carl Jung and Elliot Jaques as a source of managerial insight into the process of individual spiritual growth within the context of the organization. With such perspective, management not only enhances its prospect for precluding the dysfunctional behavior of the spiritually bankrupt, but also enhances the organization’s capacity to foster heightened initiative and productivity from its members.

Following September 11, 2001, spirituality has become an even more important issue. Research projects have been done to address the need of spirituality in the corporate workplace. The issue of spirituality in the academic workplace is even more vital since it is from within the higher academic institutions that the leaders of tomorrow emerge. Yet, little has been done. This research is an attempt to fulfill this need. This project examined the spirituality of professors and the spiritual culture found in a private secular college, a private Christian college and a state university, all located in southern California. The design of the research was based on the work of Ian Mitroff and Parker Palmer. The results showed that there was a difference in the spiritual culture between these three campuses and that the spirituality of the professors was a reflection of the spiritual culture found on the campuses.

This paper is an introduction to the special issue on “The leading edge in research on spirituality and organizations”. The paper discusses some of the issues concerning the outer world of worldly activities and the inner world of spirituality and religion in modern Western society, with particular emphasis on how this affects organizations. The aims of the special issue are put forward and the papers within it are briefly discussed.

Corporate takeovers have become a prominent feature of global business. Merger and acquisition activity in the United States alone climbed from $32 billion in 1980 to $300 billion in 1988, an annual rate of increase of 32 percent. The individual size of these transactions has reached an all‐time high. Any company, whatever its size, may be vulnerable as a target.