Reasons Against Spirituality in the Workplace

Employers face what organizational behavior authorities call an ethical dilemma (Judge & Robbins, 2007); namely, whether or not spirituality should exist in the workplace. Although the knee jerk reaction of the employer would be to promote workplace spirituality as a means of improving productivity, morale and ethics, not all workers agree that spirituality in the workplace is a positive thing, for a variety of reasons.

Some people purposely keep their work and personal lives separate, and do not feel that they should have to be exposed to anyone else's personal values and beliefs while earning a living. Also, there is the very real fear that an employee could be discriminated against if their spiritual mindset differs from that of superiors or co-workers. A word should also be said about the concept of religious freedom.

While it is true that there is a difference between spirituality and religion (Fairholm, 1997), thereby preventing one religious belief system to be promoted in the workplace over another, the very idea of any...

Whatever the case regarding spirituality in the workplace, in closing, few could argue that this is yet another dynamic issue in organizational behavior that will challenge organizational leaders for many years to come.
References

Cited, N. (1952). The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Revised Standard Version (Rev. ed.). Toronto: Thomas Nelson & Sons.

Fairholm, G.W. (1997). Capturing the Heart of Leadership Spirituality and Community in the New American Workplace. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Judge, T., & Robbins, S. (2007). Organizational Behavior (13th ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.

Spirituality in the Workplace