Judi Neal

Work as Service to the Divine Giving our Gifts Selflessly and with Joy

This article begins with a brief overview of trends in spirituality in the workplace and then reports qualitative results of research interviews conducted with people who see work as service to the Divine. Issues of work as prayer, service to others, ego and selflessness, and making a difference are discussed. A brief summary of research by Kurth (1995) is provided. The article concludes with a description of spiritual practices that support an attitude of service.

Introduction: the leading edge in research on spirituality and organizations

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.

Research that matters: helping organizations integrate spiritual values and practices

This paper introduces the second issue of the special issue on research issues and research findings in spirituality in organizations. The first issue explored issues of definition and methodology, and included empirical research studies (published as Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 16 No. 4, 2003). This second issue continues and deepens that exploration, with further refinement of definitions, interdisciplinary approaches to methodology and the selection of constructs, and reports on quantitative and qualitative studies. This introduction contains an overview of the aims and themes of this special issue, summarizes the state of play in the field of organizational research and provides synopses of the papers presented.

Family Firms as Incubators for Spirituality in the Workplace: Factors That Nurture Spiritual Businesses

This paper proposes that family firms typically possess specific cultural characteristics that stimulate the development of spirituality in the workplace more than those of non-family firms. We briefly list the trends that have led to a growing appreciation of spirituality in organizations, and provide a description of the characteristics of spiritual businesses. We offer an analysis of the connections between the cultural characteristics of family firms, and the characteristics of spiritual businesses. In the last section we provide the analysis of two different case studies of family firms, the first one as an example of incubator for spirituality in the workplace, and the second one as a clear example of a spiritual business. We propose suggestions for further research.

An Exploratory Study on the Effects of Learning Organization Characteristics on Internet Usage

The Internet is becoming a very important new technology in all organizations, including universities. Many in academia are adopting this innovative technology to aid in their teaching, research, and consulting. In this study, using the learning organization theoretical framework, the effects of learning organization characteristics, other organizational factors, and individual variables on the use of the Internet by a random sample of 245 business school faculty members in the United States were examined and analyzed. Some support for learning organization characteristics, as well as support for individual and other organizational factors, was found.

Spirit at work in faculty and staff organizational commitment

This study examines the impact of four dimensions of spirit at work on organizational commitment: (1) engaging work, (2) sense of community, (3) mystical experience, and (4) spiritual connection. Eight hundred and forty participants from two universities – one faith-based and one secular – were surveyed using the Spirit at Work Scale and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. On average, employees at the faith-based university were significantly more committed to their institution and had higher spirit at work than did employees of the secular university (p < 0.000). While there have been studies on this relationship in health care settings, this is the first such study in higher education. This study adds to the literature in the workplace spirituality field, where few empirical studies on the connection between spirit at work and organizational commitment exist.

The role of individual and organisational factors in the adoption and use of new technology: the case of internet use by business school faculty in Thailand

Even though many academics and practitioners around the world look to the USA for ideas and mechanisms for the creation and adoption of new technologies, many related innovations are occurring in Asian countries, including Thailand. Using a sample of 99 faculty members drawn randomly from Thai business schools, we investigate ways in which the internet is used for teaching and research, as well as the individual and organisational factors associated with faculty adoption of the internet. We found that: the World Wide Web, e-mail and internet search engines are the three major aspects of the internet used in business schools in Thailand; several individual characteristics explain the degree to which faculty adopted the internet (namely, computer literacy, faculty attitude concerning the importance of the internet, the highest degree earned by faculty, and age); and organisational characteristics which affect internet use are: having computers in offices, information technology (IT) staff support, and reward systems. Implications for management and future research areas are discussed.

FORTUNE SR. WRITER MARC GUNTHER ON “THE ROLE OF VIRTUES IN SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP”

AbstractA three-part movement begins with Neal, founder and CEO of the International Center for Spirit at Work, setting the stage for an interchange of ideas relating to virtues and leadership. Gunther, a senior writer for Fortune Magazine, is the dialogue partner. He draws upon his journalistic interviews with CEOs and especially upon the case of exemplary leader and CEO, Ricardo Levy, to examine the interaction between spirituality and business practice. The Levy case is followed up with a short interview whereby Neal asks pointed questions about the capacity of organizations to exhibit virtuousness and what may contribute to virtuous performance.

EAM Outstanding Papers A Focus on Managerial Learning

An overview of this special issue is provided, including a description of the Eastern Academy of Management’s (EAM’s) Outstanding Paper selection process and a brief description of the papers that received this recognition. These papers were peer reviewed for the EAM conference and peer reviewed again for this special issue of Group & Organization Management.