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Spirituality is a concept that explains the spiritual dimension of human beings. Meaning of life, being together, and the bigger one's existence are the components of spirituality. In that manner, workplace spirituality is an area that endeavors to find the meaning of the work together with the community. Research reveals that workplace spirituality has several dimensions, and inner life, sense of community, and meaning at work are validly used. Though developing in the research area, misunderstandings and misuses of the phenomenon causes several dark sides. In this context, this chapter aims to reveal these in five aspects to contribute to enhancing the literature. The ambiguity in defining spirituality and religion is the first dark point in understanding workplace spirituality. Accepting spiritual executions at work as a tool for profitability is the second. The scarcity of awareness of executive leaders about workplace spirituality is the other. Considering the studies on workplace spirituality as a fad and the expected difficulties in developments about the area is the fourth. Finally, workplace spirituality-based misbehaviors at work are the last dark side, addressed in this study. In addition to the explanations in its content, the authors present a bibliometric analysis conducted by R. The chapter concludes with general evaluations and suggestions for future studies.

This study aims to provide insight into how the implementation and management of an integrated workplace concept (IWC) in multiple office locations are affected by local management practices and other contextual and cultural aspects.

A triangulated case study design was applied to evaluate an on-going process to roll out a new branch office concept. The core method was semi-structured interviewing.

The findings indicate that when an IWC meets different local cultures and realities, the concept and its different aspects may transform in different directions – ultimately affecting concept interconnectedness and strategic value. The findings further suggest that the concept’s socio-material implications vary between locations and actors at different levels. For IWCs to serve strategic aims, they must be continuously aligned and re-aligned with changing organisational strategies.

The study was conducted in one organisation. Additional empirical research, investigating implementation and management of different concepts in different organisational contexts, is needed to provide more definite conclusions and to develop guidelines for design, implementation and decision-making.

The findings highlight the importance of applying an iterative process approach in implementation and management of IWCs. Such an approach is essential for striking the right balance between standardisation and local adaptation, and for aligning the concept with organisational strategies.

Although much has been written on IWCs, the role of culture and social negotiations in the implementation and operations phase is often neglected.

Building on fundamental work on usability of workplaces, this paper aims to extend the perspective of usability as an approach in delivering workplace solutions. To explore the content and implications of usability, the concept is differentiated into two sub-concepts: usefulness and user-friendliness.

The theoretical rationale for the proposed conceptual specification is presented and explored using data from two independent research projects: a qualitative interview study in an office relocation project in Finland and a quantitative survey study of 1,420 office users of 43 buildings in Switzerland. The goal of the empirical research is to capture the elements of user experience connected to usability using the distinction between usefulness and user-friendliness.

The results from both studies show that perceived support of work activities by workspaces in relation to work tasks is the main element of usefulness. User-friendliness incorporates comfort and control as the two most important aspects. Correlations between usefulness and user-friendliness and outcomes of usable workspace design are low for self-assessed performance, moderate for job satisfaction and high for work area satisfaction.

Providing useful workplaces supports users’ job performance while designing for user-friendliness is correlated with user satisfaction.

The differentiation of usefulness and user-friendliness of office environments provides a new way to describe user experience. The integration of qualitative and quantitative research strategies strengthens the research evidence.

Anecdotal evidence abounds of people in workplaces who use common sense in their work practices. Until now, the idea of common sense being a key concept in workplace learning and practice has not been valued too highly. Attempts have been made in psychological and philosophical literature to understand how common sense knowledge differs from theoretical knowledge. This study represents an initial attempt to use people’s experience in workplaces to understand how they see common sense as an important element of workplace learning. Using a phenomenographic research approach, it was revealed that people held seven different understandings of common sense in workplace experiences. For them, common sense was experienced as: a gut feeling, an innate ability, knowing how, learning, using others, demonstrable cognitive abilities, and personal attributes. These variations offer a broader approach to thinking about common sense in work practices.

The purpose of this paper is to consolidate the state of extant academic research on workplace innovation (WI) by proposing a comprehensive conceptual framework and outlining research traditions on the phenomenon.

This paper systematically reviewed the literature published over the past 20 years, basing on a predefined research protocol. The dimensions of WI were explored with the help of thematic synthesis, while the research perspectives were studied by means of textual narrative synthesis.

The analysis suggests that there exist four research traditions on WI – built container, humanized landscape, socio-material macro-actor, and polyadic network – and each of them comprises its own set of assumptions, foci of study, and ontological bases. The findings suggest that WI is a heterogeneous process of renovation occurring in eight different dimensions, namely work system, workplace democracy, high-tech application, workplace boundaries, workspaces, people practices, workplace experience, and workplace culture. The analysis showed that over years the meaning of innovation within these dimensions changed, therefore it is argued that research should account for the variability of these categories.

The paper includes implications for developing and implementing WI programs. Moreover, it discusses the role of HR in the WI process.

This paper for the first time systematically reviews literature on the topic of WI, clarifies the concept and discusses directions and implications for the future research.

Building on the conceptual foundations suggested in the previous two papers in this issue, this article describes the application of a workplace learning cycle theory to the construction of a curriculum for a graduate‐level course of study in workplace education. As a way to prepare chief learning officers and heads of corporate universities, the piece argues, one can engage students in the process of analyzing the learning and knowledge‐use in a work environment through the lenses of the pedagogical and curricular concepts in these and other writings. Moving beyond the traditional concept of “training” for specified competencies, the graduate program aims to enable students to understand and use the more generative concepts of workplace knowledge‐use, and to promote learning as an essential feature of organizational life.

This chapter aims to consider workplace spirituality from a cross-cultural perspective. The terms workplace spirituality and culture are so intangible, and both start with the attitude and behavior of humans but are meaningful in a community. Because of the constraint of understanding these abstract settings, it is necessary to define and specify the dimensions of both concepts to achieve the aim of this chapter. In this regard, the section starts with the conceptuality of workplace spirituality and the dimensions of the term, which cumulate at individual, group, and organizational levels. It goes with the part of cultural dimensions in the light of Hofstede's (2001) direction, Chhokar, Brodbeck, and House's (2007) extension, and Sharma's (2010) derivation of cultural dimensions for national, organizational, and individual levels, respectively. After joining the dots, the chapter focuses on one of the most sacred research areas for academic literature, cross-cultural differences, and workplace spirituality. The last part of the chapter is the conclusion to point to final notes about the concepts and help guide future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of meaningfulness at the workplace, according to the perceptions of hospitality employees from different national cultures in one US‐based hotel, based on Dimitrov's empirical study about the features of the humane organization.

This was an exploratory research that employed a single embedded case study. There were 17 employees, selected via purposeful convenience sampling. The process of data gathering involved: personal statements, interviews, complete observations, and document analysis. Data were coded using open and theoretical codes. Content and constant comparative analysis was used to link the emerging themes.

The respondents felt that sources of meaningfulness in the workplace are: work itself and pride in the product; the social environment; the self and spirituality at work; and becoming a humane organization.

The main recommendations for future research are to: explore the meaning of work and meaningful workplace human resource development concepts in more culturally diverse organizations in different counties and economic sectors (government and non‐profit); study the national cultural differences more specifically per cultural type, utilizing systematic methodologies for cultural differentiation; and explore other study designs.

Organizations are advised to: create flexible schedules and WFB policies; exhibit social responsibility; and broaden the cultural horizons of their workforce.

The discussion in this paper will further enhance the understanding of international human resource development as it provides a focused review of the sources of meaningfulness in the workplace found in the study of one US‐based organization, populated by the international influences of a global industry in a global world.

To enable facility management to define workplace strategy basing on organizations strategy and operations.

In facility planning the workplace strategy process is subject to conditions of continuous change and uncertainty. The theory of workplace planning is constructed on the basis of production and commitment making concepts in order to link workplace to organization's general strategy. Workplace planning process includes computer‐aided applications for practical work. They measure owner needs such as user functions, geometrical and temporal needs, spatial performance and associated costs, thereby enabling activity‐based cost management.

The customer workplace is linked to a complex social system. Achieving a final commitment of an organization is an iterative process of commitments, withdrawals and new approaches. The workplace planning process displays evidence of supporting group collaboration in terms of fostering stakeholder engagement, developing high quality information, supporting innovation in the owner's functions, and the appropriate sharing of facility spaces among owner groups operating with limited resources. In the project case, the need for space (and life cycle costs) decreased 20 percent. All the activities can still be supported because of improved utilization.

This research is concentrated on workplace needs, use and costs. It does not cover user operations efficiency or costs (like salaries, education etc.)

Workplace planning process and applications have been in practical use for several years. The results have been in concordance with case project findings.

In a world teeming with concurrent processes and associated chaos, organizational working procedures have adapted to new trends; employees must keep up with everything while maintaining their mental health. Spirituality lends a person's life significance. Spirituality in the workplace can both physically and psychologically engage employees. Spirituality in the workplace is reflected in the organizational culture, which is founded on fundamental values such as trust, honesty, appreciation, innovation, care, respect, and loyalty. Workplace spirituality encompasses the pursuit of one's ultimate purpose in life, the development of a solid connection to colleagues and other people associated with work, and the consistency or alignment between one's fundamental beliefs and the organization's values. To have a competitive advantage and attract the best personnel, an organization's working environment must be based on strong ethical and spiritual values such as compassion, integrity, respect, harmony, trust, teamwork, and forgiveness, among others.