Organizational Change and Work Spirituality: Expanding the Moral Circle

Work spirituality is a broad academic tent under which two rather different ‘camps’ gather. On one side there are scholars and practitioners wishing to measure and augment the “spiritual capital” of organizations in order to foster innovation, efficiency and profits; on the other those who advocate for the betterment of the human condition in organizations and a re-enchantment of nature beyond any instrumental reasons. The ones, the ‘instrumentalists,’ advance the business case for spirituality; the others, the ‘critical spiritualists,’ advance instead a spiritual case for business, which would lose legitimacy if it prevented the spiritual flourishing of individuals and communities. Organizational change is framed in the two camps according to an analogous epistemological-axiological difference, the ones aiming at identifying objective best practice examples of “spiritual organizations” leading to higher efficiency and profits, the others studying the role of spiritual leadership and practices to emancipate individuals within communities in organizations. What is common to the two camps is their teleological and activist flavor evident in the belief that, by aligning the spiritual values of the employees to those of the organization or by elevating their spiritual awareness, positive change will almost spontaneously come true.