The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality (PDF)

University of Wollongong University of Wollongong Research Online Research Online Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Business and Law 11-2008 The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality: evidence from Sri The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality: evidence from Sri Lanka Lanka Mario Fernando University of Wollongong, [email protected] V. Nilakant University of Canterbury Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, and the Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Fernando, Mario and Nilakant, V.: The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality: evidence from Sri Lanka 2008. https://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers/571 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected]  The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality: evidence from Sri Lanka The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality: evidence from Sri Lanka Abstract Abstract The aim of this paper is to develop a self-actualizing spirituality model. It examines the place of self- actualization in the experience of workplace spirituality of Sri Lankan business leaders. The primary method of data collection was in-depth and face-to-face interviews with 13 Sri Lankan business leaders. Within the qualitative tradition and case study method, grounded theory and data triangulation were used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that when the business leaders experience workplace spirituality, they commonly project a need to grow, become and evolve towards the ideal (ought) self. This need is primarily driven by a desire to relate or connect to one’s self. Findings suggest that self-actualizing work arrangements offer a way to implement inclusive workplace spirituality, devoid of the challenges usually associated with the practice of religion-based workplace spirituality. Despite the geographical, cultural and social differences that exist between Sri Lanka and other cultures, this paper provides research implications for spiritual leadership and ethical decision-making in other cultural settings. Keywords Keywords self-actualizing spirituality, self-actualization, workplace spirituality, Abraham Maslow, Sri Lanka Disciplines Disciplines Business | Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details Publication Details This article was originally published as The place of self-actualisation in workplace spirituality: evidence from Sri Lanka, Culture and Religion, 9(3), November 2008, 233–249. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers/571  The Place of Self-actualization in Workplace Spirituality: Evidence from Sri Lanka Dr Mario Fernando, School of Management and Marketing, University of Wollongong, Australia; Dr Venkat Nilakant, Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Abstract The aim of this paper is to develop a self-actualizing spirituality model. It examines the place of self-actualization in the experience of workplace spirituality of Sri Lankan business leaders. The primary method of data collection was in-depth and face-to-face interviews with 13 Sri Lankan business leaders. Within the qualitative tradition and case study method, grounded theory and data triangulation were used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that when the business leaders experience workplace spirituality, they commonly project a need to grow, become and evolve towards the ideal (ought) self. This need is primarily driven by a desire to relate or connect to one’s self. Findings suggest that self- actualizing work arrangements offer a way to implement inclusive workplace spirituality, devoid of the challenges usually associated with the practice of religion-based workplace spirituality. Despite the geographical, cultural and social differences that exist between Sri Lanka and other cultures, this paper provides research implications for spiritual leadership and ethical decision- making in other cultural settings. Keywords: self-actualizing spirituality, self-actualization, workplace spirituality, Abraham Maslow, Sri Lanka  Introduction The growing field of workplace spirituality challenges business enterprises’ overriding goal to maximise profits. Its main influences are psychology and religious studies (Fry 2005; Giacalone, Jurkiewicz and Fry 2005; Snyder and Lopez 2001). Spirituality is an inherent characteristic of all humans, which encompasses the sacredness of everything, is nondenominational, broadly inclusive and embracing everyone, and involves experiencing or achieving a godlike self through connection (Fernando, 2007a; Smith and Rayment 2007; Dent, Higgins and Wharff 2005; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz 2003; Mitroff and Denton 1999). Some identify workplace spirituality with religion (Fernando and Jackson 2006; Kriger and Seng 2005) while others view spirituality as being unconnected to religion, but personal growth based. The literature emphasizing personal growth (Dent, Higgins and Wharff 2005), highlight the role of self in conceptualising spirituality—an internal process involving the evolution of self. For example, the spirit is a distinct state, with cognitive and mystical dimensions (Kinjerski and Skrypnek 2004). Maslow’s peak experiences partner with Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) psychological optimal experiences (flow), making transcendence an achievable goal (Primeaux and Vega 2002). The flow experience is associated with internalising spirituality as a form of intrinsic motivation (Dehler and Welsh 1994, citing Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Some of these writers identify spirituality as a continuous development process that emphasizes meditation, introspection and therapy (Howard 2002; Delbecq 2000). Other writers focus on a series of discontinuous awakening experiences (Mitroff and Denton 1999; Neal, Lichtenstein and Banner 1999).  This paper sees workplace spirituality as a process of development of the self towards higher consciousness, and reports a study of workplace spirituality in a non- Western setting, using Maslow’s concept of self-actualization. Employing a qualitative, case study approach, we investigate conceptions of spirituality in 13 Sri Lankan organizations. Our model involves the stages of growing, becoming and evolving towards an ideal self through self-reflection (or contemplation), a process driven by the need to relate or connect to an internal self, which leads to activities broadly categorised as accommodating others and practising values. We first review the literature on workplace spirituality using a self-actualization perspective, and examine cross-cultural perspectives on workplace spirituality. We then discuss the methodology of data collection and analysis, report findings and present our model. The paper concludes with the implications of our findings to the theory and practice of workplace spirituality and ethical decision-making. Self-actualization and spirituality Maslow’s writings have significant implications for spirituality in the workplace (Quatro 2002). He claimed that a spiritual life is a defining characteristic of human nature: …from what we know of developments within individuals and within societies, a certain amount of spirituality is the extremely probable consequence of a satisfied materialism (Maslow 1971, 136). A spiritual life is well within the jurisdiction of human endeavour, attainable by their efforts:  A search for the actualization of this our fundamental identity with the cosmos, human motivation, at its highest and deepest, is a reaching out for the ultimates of truth, beauty, goodness, justice, and the like. Such Being-values are said to form the heart of true religion: the human being is naturally religious. Maslow’s “naturalism” is thus an invitation to savor the splendor of all things, to bear witness to the extraordinary in the ordinary (unitive consciousness), including in this mortal flesh of ours. Maslow’s psychology, addressing the ultimately spiritual or cosmic character of human life, is a courageous and bold undertaking (Fuller 1994, 179). The highest human values are associated with self-actualization. Self-actualizers: (a) accept and express the inner core or self; (b) have minimal ill-health, neurosis, psychosis and loss (or diminution) of basic human and personal capacities; and (c) are motivated by values they strive for and are loyal to (Maslow 1971, 1968, 1954). This involves striving for health, searching for identity and autonomy and yearning for excellence. It concerns the development of the essential human nature — a unified personality, identity and full individuality (Maslow 1970), and the attainment of full humanness (Maslow 1971). Employment allows people to become self-actualized (Maslow 1998). When businesses apply the hierarchy of needs model under conditions such as trustworthiness, responsibility and accountability, the undamaged human being naturally strives to become self-actualized (Maslow 1965). Maslow’s ‘eupsychian management’, an enlightened management theory, identified human’s understanding: …more and more of the world, moving toward the ultimate of mysticism, a fusion with the world, or peak experience, cosmic consciousness etc. a yearning for truth, beauty, justice, perfection and so on (Maslow 1998, 42).  Eupsychian management improves people’s health and wellbeing, and benefits an organization’s finances, and the whole society’s success (Payne 2000). Several barriers to self-actualization in the workplace exist (Maslow 1998), including loss of freedom, self-esteem, status, respect, love objects, being loved, belonging, safety, physiological needs, value systems, truth and beauty. According to Maslow, businesses need a ‘truly growth fostering, and truly better personality producing’ management policy (1998, 107), to produce managers who: ‘become more philanthropic in their communities, more ready to help, more unselfish and altruistic, more indignant at injustice, more ready to fight for what they thought to be true and good etc.’ (Maslow, 1998). Similarities between Workplace Spirituality and Maslow’s work The workplace spirituality literature shares some common themes with Maslow’s writings. Although several writers from non-management fields (Lerner 2000; White 2000, Fox 1991), and an increasing number of workplace spirituality researchers (Fernando, 2007a; Barrett 2003; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz 2003; Korac-Kakabadse, Kouzmin and Kakabadse 2002; Burack 1999) acknowledge these similarities, our electronic database searches found no prior published empirical work directly assessing the link between self-actualization and workplace spirituality. Spirituality is not an esoteric concept (in both the workplace spirituality literature and for Maslow), but an inherent characteristic of all humans — the intangible essence or the deepest part of ourselves (for example, Joseph 2002; Mitroff and Denton 1999). Spirituality is basic to our biology, the most essential aspect of our humanity, and a  defining characteristic of human nature (Maslow 1971). Every individual is capable of spiritual or higher animality, which is not an end state, but a process. Maslow’s ideas on psychopathology are also associated with spirituality (1970). Two forces test the individual: pressures towards health and self-actualization, and regressive pressure backwards to weaknesses and sickness. The absence of spiritual life leads to neurosis, a ‘spiritual disorder’ — the loss of meaning and hope, the awareness that one’s life is wasted and the impossibility of joy or love (Maslow 1971). These failures to measure up to full humanness (self-actualization) lead to psychopathology. Both schools contend that spirituality is commonplace, and everyday, mundane life is actually imbued with sacredness, with the literature describing this as the sacredness of everything, the ordinariness of everyday life (Mitroff and Denton 1999); ability to see the sacred in the ordinary, to feel the poignancy in life, to know the passion of existence (Elkins 1999). Maslow finds the sacred in the ordinary too, in people and their backyard (Maslow 1970), and argues people can discover the sacred everywhere. Both schools argue that spirituality transcends all religions. In the literature, spirituality is nondenominational, broadly inclusive and embraces everyone (Fry 2003; Mitroff and Denton 1999). For Maslow, religious or spiritual values are not exclusive to one religion or group (Maslow 1970), and all religions originated from experiences. ‘God’ means pure cosmic beauty, truth and goodness, a being or entity to awe, identify with and serve. God ‘is getting reborn, redefined’, and the transcendent, transhuman or godlike self is alive ‘within human beings’ (Lowry 1979, 524). Alongside several researchers, Maslow views spirituality’s purpose as achieving or experiencing a godlike self through connection or connectedness. The literature  associates spirituality with interconnectedness (Kinjerski and Skrypnek 2004; Joseph 2002) and faith relationships with the transcendent (Beazley 1998). Interfaith studies of spirituality in diverse cultures and in different fields such as health care (Burkhart 2001), neurotheology (Newberg et al. 2001), theology (Rose 2001) and psychology (Piedmont 2007) also find connection a central idea in the conceptualisation of spirituality. A Cross-cultural Perspective Increasingly, management researchers are using Eastern thoughts and practices in their theory and model development. For example, Weick and Putnam (2006) observe that an enriched view of mindfulness, jointly informed by Eastern and Western thinking, suggests that attentional processes in organizing have been underspecified. Similarly, little research exists on workplace spirituality in non- Christian and non-Western settings. The major models were developed in the United States, and most studies were conducted on American organizations. Maslow claims that ‘So far, I have been studying self-actualization via autonomy, as if it were the only path. But this is quite Western, and even American’ (in Hoffman 1988, 243). Maslow (1971) was concerned that the theory of self- actualization might not apply to relatively poorer countries such as Mexico, where few people find self-fulfilment through their livelihood. He also considered Czarist Russia, Batista’s Cuba and Duvalier’s Haiti, and concluded that people there only partially express their highest qualities by transcending the existing social order (Maslow 1971, 315).  Asian studies (Rangaswami 1994; Chang and Page 1991) support Rogers’ and Maslow’s theories of self-actualization, indicating universality in human experience. Comparing the Chinese Taoist and Zen Buddhist view of the development of human potential with Rogers’ and Maslow’s shows that a cross-cultural comparison of views on developing human potential offer a perspective broader than isolated considerations of either Western or Eastern perspectives. Methodology Cross-cultural challenges This paper adopts a country-based definition of culture. The research was conducted in Sri Lanka, where Theravada Buddhism, ‘the doctrine of the elders’ is widely practised. This doctrine credits Buddha as achieving enlightenment and fosters monks as accomplished followers. Sri Lanka’s 19 million people comprises mainly Sinhalese (74 per cent), Tamils (17 per cent) and Muslims (eight per cent). The connection between religion, culture, language and education and their combined influence on national identity are pervasive forces for the majority Sinhalese Buddhists (Tambiah 1986). Buddhism appeals directly to the masses, leading to the growth of a collective Sinhalese cultural consciousness (Gombrich and Obeyesekere 1988). Buddhism in Sri Lanka is a syncretic fusion of various religious elements into a unique cultural system — a key reason for situating this study in Sri Lanka.  The first author interviewed four chairpersons, six managing directors (one retired) and three directors heading organizations in the consumer, industrial and service sectors, with a total of 14,315 employees. Seven leaders were Buddhists, two Hindu, three Christian (two Roman Catholic and one Anglican) and one a Muslim. Each had either started or owned a business venture, or been a board director for at least fifteen years. The participants were all born, raised and (mostly) educated in Sri Lanka, and their primary business, family and social networks were in Sri Lanka. All 13 publicly acknowledged spiritual motivations in their business approaches, and were identified as such by others. Data collection The primary method of data collection was through in-depth face-to-face interviews. Participants were interviewed face-to-face for approximately 90 minutes. A grounded theory approach was used to identify emergent themes through early data analysis and discover basic social processes within the data (Charmaz 2002), by identifying the role of spiritual practices in the daily lives of participants. Participants were requested to relate their daily routine to examine how and when their spiritual practices take place. We generated themes and theories based on the inductive construction of categories that explained and synthesized these processes, then integrated these categories into a theoretical framework that specified causes, conditions and consequences of enacting workplace spirituality (Strauss and Corbin 1990).  The method of participant selection was purposive: to learn about workplace spirituality from typical business leaders known to practise workplace spirituality (Patton 2002). We linked three levels of understanding: (a) the meanings and interpretations of the participants; (b) the interviewer’s interpretation of those meanings; and (c) confirmatory theory-connected operations (Miles and Huberman 1994). Triangulation was a key tactic used to ensure data quality — triangulation (diverse sources) and methodological triangulation, using multiple collection methods (Seale 2000). Secondary sources were used to compare individual case studies. Additional information was sought via relevant company documents (annual reports, photographs, newspaper cuttings, certificates and websites) and public documents (media reports since 1970 of participants and their organizations). Findings After grouping the responses, 81 statements were collected and labeled under a statement file, coded, then further condensed. The major representative statements were identified and grouped into themes, including: source of guidance, self-reflection, saving animals, right conduct, prayer, meaningful charity, connecting to others/things, living values, inner wellbeing, developing the mind, spirituality in regulations and satisfaction of doing. These were numbered and the data was further reduced systematically, using selective or focused coding (Charmaz 2002). Using grounded theory framework, each theme was raised to a category and subsequently to a concept level. For example, if several participants mentioned ‘helping  the poor’ as a way of enacting workplace spirituality, a theme was derived, categorized under ‘altruism’ and raised to a concept level, ‘accommodating others’. Meaning of spirituality Most participants defined their spirituality under religious faith: For me, [spirituality] is the inner wellbeing. In my case, the Catholic religion, my feeling for the Buddhist philosophy and both those combined is my interpretation of spiritual wellbeing. An action based on your convictions — whatever right is to be accepted and I don’t think spirituality comes only from my religion. I think spirituality comes from everybody else who does the right thing with any religious practice or whatever it is… There is sacredness — and spirituality to me is God fearing. [Spirituality] is a source of guidance to my conduct. I seem to identify spirituality built by a concept of Buddhist faith. Others defined workplace spirituality in non-religious terms: Spirituality, to me, is basically a guide system — the ethics. Dos and don’ts to rule your life and family, and whatever you are in charge of. The value principles, which are held near and dear to me. Relying on my own values, my own self. Although spirituality had elements in common, there was no universal definition of the concept amongst participants. Responses reveal they believed spirituality was possible without believing in or affirming a higher power or god. However, most participants explicitly included a higher power in their definition of spirituality. Some participants spoke of a world devoid of purpose:  The total sum of life is zero — we come with nothing, we take nothing. Everything that happens in between is an illusion. Connection All participants referred to a connection with a transcendent reality, god or truth, an object or source variously described as god, the divine, deity, reality, truth or entity (we use the term ‘ultimate’ to cover all these). When participants connected with the ultimate, they reported feelings of inspiration, solace, protection and guidance. By experiencing this connection, they could make meaning of the uncertainty and mystery of life and identify their lives with a higher purpose. An external connection with the ultimate meant it resided outside the individual; an internal connection meant it resided within. Participants identified the ultimate as powerful and good, and connecting gave them increased wellbeing. Some respondents needed the help of a religion, astrology, or other belief systems to connect with their selves; others connected without the help of these structures. To them, religion, astrology and other beliefs guides them towards a connection — either internally or externally. This paper focuses on participants who made a connection internally — within themselves — to experience workplace spirituality. One participant mentioned ‘important’ self-reflection, which he demonstrated by closing his eyes and remaining perfectly still. After a minute he claimed: Now, what you saw was a very silent man. When the body is quiet, the mind also goes quite. Then there are no thoughts of sex, money, vehicles and employees. In a spiritual way, I become I.  Participants who made a connection internally rejected any role for religion in the management of their organizations. They claimed that business people are not competent to deal with religious issues in the workplace, and emphasized the difficulty of catering to religious diversity. If an organization’s leader promoted religion-based spirituality in the workplace, ‘it is loss making’ and ‘a foolish thing’: Religion and spirituality is a fine line, sometimes it is not clear. And often spirituality could be perceived to be the religion of the person who is driving it. But a set of values, a set of principles that portrays culture, values and spirituality can be a means of enacting spirituality. Another respondent enacted a non-religious workplace spirituality that fostered employees’ realization of their full potential at work. He discussed the link between full potential and enacting spirituality: A lot of us are regimental in following a set pattern. Then you’re never going to develop into your full potential — it stifles creativity for all time, probably. They almost become a cog in the machine. Promoting his 3,000 employees full potential was an important business goal, and he wished them to break out from set patterns and ‘blossom’. All participants, whether they practised connection externally or internally, engaged in certain common behaviour. Broadly, these behaviours emerged as practising values and accommodating others. Practising values