Kathy Lund Dean

Research in spirituality, religion, and work: Walking the line between relevance and legitimacy

While spirituality and religion in work (SRW) as an inquiry field has been gaining interest in the popular press, it has only recently been recognized by the academic community. Consequently, its relevance to important research and its legitimacy in contributing scholarly work is not ensured. Part of the problem is that many SRW concepts resist being tested with “approved” positivist research models. This paper explores the tension between relevance and legitimacy, focusing on research methods, models, and traditions that may serve both well. It suggests that many methodologies and traditions that support such work already exist. It discusses some of these methods and offers operational blueprints for alternative forms of excellent research. It argues that combining such methodological underpinnings with experimental models and new forms of data representation allows for scholarly work to emerge, thus facilitating SRWs desire to stay true to important research questions while respecting sound research traditions.

Theorizing the Dark Side of the Workplace Spirituality Movement

This article constructs an alternative analytic lens by which to consider the “everyone wins” conclusions drawn within most workplace spirituality (WPS) research. The article offers a critical 2 × 2 matrix that makes visible two potentially negative organizational dimensions of WPS: control and instrumentality. The article investigates into the four quadrants of WPS: seduction, evangelization, manipulation, and subjugation, through practical examples. It concludes with implications for the workplace and offers an agenda for future research.

University Professors and Teaching Ethics: Conceptualizations and Expectations.

After the spectacular ethical breaches in corporate America emerged, business school professors were singled out as having been negligent in teaching ethical standards. This exploratory study asked business school faculty about teaching ethics, including conceptualizations of ethics in a teaching context and opinions of the extent to which teaching ethics could positively affect student behavior. This research also identified respondents’ various pedagogical approaches to teaching ethics. Major results indicate that faculty generally do not believe they can change students’ ethical behaviors and that faculty’s conceptualizations of ethics do not match their classroom approaches. Discussion and possible explanations are offered.

Systems thinking's challenge to research in spirituality and religion at work

Empirical research in spirituality and religion in work (SRW) offers special challenges in construct conceptualization, operationalization, and data analysis. For this special research methods issue, accomplished researcher and SRW champion Ian I. Mitroff shares his thoughts, criticisms, and models for current research as well as his hopes for SRWs empirical future. Mitroff, co‐author of the most prominent empirical SRW study to date (Mitroff, I.I. and Denton, E.A., A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America: A Hard Look at Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace, Jossey‐Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1999), holds trans‐disciplinarily grounded views of how SRW researchers need to overcome methodological impasses to stay interesting and relevant. This article contains excerpts from three recent interviews with Mitroff about the current and future states of SRW research, and how such research can move forward with integrity and respect for SRWs special subject matter.

Philosophy Rediscovered Exploring the Connections Between Teaching Philosophies, Educational Philosophies, and Philosophy

Teaching philosophy statements reflect our personal values, connect us to those with shared values in the larger teaching community, and inform our classroom practices. In this article, we explore the often-overlooked foundations of teaching philosophies, specifically philosophy and historical educational philosophies. We review three elements of pure philosophy and five seminal educational philosophies to help readers ground their personal philosophies in both a theoretical and historical context. We illustrate how core elements of ones teaching philosophy can influence course design and the classroom environment. We suggest that teachers can develop greater authenticity in the classroom by deepening their understanding of their own philosophical ideas and beliefs.

Philosophical Concerns About Interpreting AACSB Assurance of Learning Standards

The new Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) accreditation guidelines specify standards regarding the development of goals and learning objectives for various content areas and “soft” skills such as writing and oral presentation. These standards are being interpreted in a variety of ways across accredited schools of business. The authors argue that these standards are likely to be interpreted and actioned in ways that do not support best practices in education. To frame the discussion, they compare the more traditional model of liberal arts education to the predominant model evolving in schools of business today. They also include a discussion of how “differences” such as learning styles and epistemology become subordinated in the accreditation process. The authors end the article by sharing a “live” example of how some of the AACSB standards have been operationalized and the implications therein.

No Harm, No Foul? Organizational Intervention in Workplace Spirituality*

Abstract Both academic and popular literature report that employees wish for soul-enriching fulfillment at work, and that employers have at least recognized, and in some cases embraced, this wish. The increasing incidence of spirituality and religion at work (SRW), however, creates an interesting balance for organizational administrators to strike: how should SRW needs be accommodated when crafting policy, given the legal reality of Title VII and the tradition of American workplace secularism? We discuss this tension and suggest that relying on legal compliance or historical organizational secularism is insufficient. Recent evidence offers insight into a “non-interventionist” approach that may assist policy makers in going forward with SRW opportunities.

Diapers to Car Keys: The State of Spirituality, Religion and Work Research

The a priori “newness” of research in the spirituality, religion and work (SRW) field has been generally accepted, even though the domain of SRW credibly overlaps with well-established inquiry traditions, such as education, psychology, and theology. Because of this multi-disciplinary nature of SRW, we asked: How truly new is research work in this domain? Following the philosophy of science literature, this paper explores five hypotheses related to the research methodologies in all peer-reviewed empirical work published within the SRW domain during the initial years of its popular emergence, 1996–2000. Chi-square and text analysis (N=26) revealed mixed results with respect to hypothesized norms, and that many dynamic and varied empirical approaches are already in use within more established fields. Findings also suggest that work in the SRW domain may be further along than generally thought in the literature. Detailed discussion and implications for SRW research methodologies conclude the paper.

How to Create and use Experiential Case-Based Exercises in a Management Classroom

The popular case-discussion teaching method provides a real-world, decision-oriented focus that can capture complex problems in bounded scenarios. Unfortunately, the method can de-emphasize important process aspects of organizational decision making. Furthermore, overuse of cases can make them formulaic and repetitive. The case-based role play is an interactive technique that engages students in experiential, process-oriented activities based on the familiar case format. This article discusses the pedagogical benefits of the activity and describes the process of choosing appropriate cases, preparing for the class session, and running the role play. It also provides sample debriefing questions and some options for using the format.

Foundations, lessons, and insider tips for MSR research

Any new field of inquiry struggles with issues such as domain uniqueness, research methodologies, construct definition and operationalization, and foundational literature identification. Following Hambricks (1990) seminal study of strategic management, we similarly examine the management, spirituality, and religion (MSR) field. Using Hambricks methodology for citation analysis and a dataset of the founding decade of MSR empirical articles, we offer a guide for those doing MSR research. Study outcomes include the 50 most cited MSR works, the 50 most cited journals that MSR scholars use as the foundation of their research, and a theme analysis of the 50 foundational works. Our goals are threefold: to list the seminal works that should inform the framing of future work, to list a variety of possible MSR journal scholarship inspirations and outlets, and to empirically demonstrate current and past MSR research topics so new and experienced MSR scholars can move beyond extant work.