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We invite you to join the following Sunday Discussion Paper Session

Discussion Paper Session

Program Session: 601 (MSR)

Scheduled: Sunday, Aug 7 2016 12:45PM - 2:15PM at Anaheim Convention Center in 205A

http://my.aom.org/program2016/SessionDetails.aspx?sid=19595

Spirituality, Religion, Mindfulness and Theology in the Workplace

Contact Chair: Avi Kay, Jerusalem College of Technology

Contact Discussant: Don Doty, Northwest U.

Contact Discussant: Elizabeth Ann Luckman, Washington U. in St. Louis

Workplace Spirituality in Social Services Departments

Anat Freund, U. of Haifa

Rivka Yahav, U. of Haifa

Bar Gilboa, U. of Haifa

"Spirituality is concerned with those qualities of the human spirit – such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony – which bring happiness to both self and others..." (The Dalai Lama). This study enrich two primary research fields: exploration of "Spirituality in Organizations" and "work attitudes" which focuses mainly on public administration organizations, With the participation of 179 social workers. Findings show correlation between spirituality and work attitudes, Specifically, between "Workplace Spirituality" and "Spirit of Work" to both "Job Satisfaction" and to "Affective Organizational Commitment". The study findings and their implications on the social work profession are discussed.

Paper is Available

Role of Religious Coping in the Lives of Rural Working Women

Jatin Pandey, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Manjari Singh, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Religion holds a unique position in personal lives of individuals but is often ignored in organizational context. The study positions the importance of religious coping in lives of rural working women by proposing the Positive Religious Coping Model. Results from the multisource longitudinal study on accredited social health activists in India show the three functions of religious coping in this model viz. Work Life Positive Religious Coping Function, Stressor Moderated Religious Coping Function and Religious Coping Moderated Performance Enhancement Function. It shows enhancing effect of religious coping on job satisfaction and job performance, the diminishing effect on work to family conflict and exhaustion. Further, the moderating role of work to family conflict and exhaustion in the relation between religious coping and job satisfaction was established. Lastly, the enhancing effect of religious coping in the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance was studied. The theoretical, philosophical and practical implications are also discussed. The recognition of religion as an important facet of employee life would make working in organizations more meaningful. By ignoring positive aspects of religion, organisations may limit their employees' ability to cope with undesirable outcomes and enhance positive outcomes.

Paper is Available

U.S. Roman Catholic Archdioceses "At Will" Employment Patterns and Roman Catholic Social Teaching

Charles Thomas Tackney, Copenhagen Business School

Alexander Turøy, Copenhagen Business School

Theology of the workplace root cause analysis of employment practices by Roman Catholic archdioceses and dioceses in the United States indicates a systematic and near universal domestic policy commitment to "at will" employer dismissal prerogative in the workplace as direct or indirect employer. While this is valid U.S. employment law, comparative policy analysis indicates that most industrial nations follow a "just cause" practice, where employers are bound to prove just cause for dismissal of employees. In a peculiar contrast, "at will" is inconsistent with Roman Catholic social teachings (RCST) for the direct and indirect employer; it is inconsistent with the Church Code of Canon Law; it is at variance with U.S. Roman Catholic domestic employer advocacy by the bishops themselves. The outcome is a contradiction between teaching and practice, and the emergence of a dual- class employment regime: one of just cause employment for clergy, the other of a fundamentally contingent, often explicitly anti-union, domestic U.S. status for teachers, staff and other employees. Two exceptional archdioceses, however, practice justice in employment, as does the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. To ensure RCST authenticity in employment, training of the U.S. hierarchy and clergy in RCST and human resource management seems indicated.

Paper is Available

Skillful Means, Right Action and Mindfulness

Mai Chi Vu, The U. of Auckland

Rachel Maunganui Wolfgramm, The U. of Auckland

Chellie Spiller, The U. of Auckland

Mark P. Kriger, BI Norwegian Business School

This paper investigates Buddhist teachings and practices that help to create meaningfulness and happiness in organizations. It proposes that skillful means is a powerful "raft" to drive one to overcome obstacles in the ocean of challenges prevalent in complex business environments. In this sense, meaningfulness and happiness may be experienced not only in life but also in the workplace through enacting skillful means. In the world of Buddhism, happiness and meaningfulness are achieved by not being attached to pursuits or purposes. Skillful means is an art and a significant key to flexibly realizing Buddhist qualities that are needed in contemporary business management. A substantive review of literature in the field (Schroeder, 2004; Mitchell, 2008; Govinda, 1991; Hanh, 1976; Marques, 2012; Levinthal & Rerup, 2006; Weick et al, 2008) combined with critical insights from qualitative research involving case studies of corporations in Vietnam, informs the contribution of our conceptual model. The business cases highlight how intentionally enacting "skillful means" through Buddhist qualities of non-attachment, consciousness and mindfulness leads to creating meaningfulness at work. The intent of the paper is to create a framework for future substantive research along with practical implications. Further research with larger samples is needed to understand the practice and effectiveness of skillful means in the workplace. The main concentration of the paper is based on specific Buddhist principles and teachings that are well-studied in the literature. These include the Four Noble Truths, the Eight Fold Noble Path, the Middle Path, and the laws of nature. Some Buddhist teachings, however, receive little attention due to their challenging nature and the diversity of interpretations. The Ten Stages of Perfections with its paramitas have received little attention in scholarly enquiry as regards the workplace. Only six among the ten paramitas have been well documented and analyzed within the Mahayana path (citations needed), while the remaining four are considered "hard to realize" qualities. Among those, "skillful means" still remains behind closed doors within the literature.

An intended contribution of this work therefore is to understand better the art of skillful means in organizational studies.

Paper is Available

Religion as a Guiding Light for Morally Responsible Sustainability in Organizations

Susan S. Case, Case Western Reserve U.

Edward Chavez, Case Western Reserve U.

This paper explores ways the sacred and other canonical texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (the Torah, Talmud, Bible, and Qur'an) can provide a mindset for behaving in morally responsible ways in business around social and environmental sustainability. Religiously derived ethics are relevant to managerial behavior, even for individuals unaffiliated with organized religion, forming one source of our earliest ethical education about doing what we believe is the right thing required for virtuous behavior across the religions. The unrecognized commonalities in how these religions discuss behavior required to create a better world can guide sustainable development in every aspect of a business, from raw materials to the human element, in our rapidly globalized world where religious tension is increasing and workers often confront and have to resolve moral challenges in the workplace about right and wrong. The religions' similar conceptualization of marketplace integrity around sustainability is discussed, followed by comparisons of religiously derived ideas for responsible behavior that can be applied in helpful ways to embedded sustainability and social innovation. These include the notions of mutual responsibility and dignity of work; environmental integrity and stewardship; and business social justice and social responsibility. The paper concludes with ways managers' can benefit from a contemporary applications of this traditional wisdom for guiding more morally responsible and sustainable behavior in business.

Paper is Available

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