Workplace Spirituality: A Complete Guide for Business Leaders - Softcover

Smith, Nancy R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0977804739 ISBN 13: 9780977804733

Publisher: Axial Age Pub, 2006

Synopsis

Workplace Spirituality: A Complete Guide for Business Leaders explains the ins and outs of workplace spirituality to business executives, managers, educators and students who are on the cutting edge of business leadership, and to all workers who want to bring their spiritual selves to work along with their bodies and minds. The book includes basic definitions, an overview of the workplace spirituality movement, specific spiritual traits and resulting on-the-job behaviors, the changing understanding of business in the 21st century, issues of ethics and corporate social responsibility, principles for a spiritual workplace, and tasks involved in incorporating spirituality into leadership and management practice. Included are relfection questions and exercises, four appendixes and an index.

About this title

About the Author

Nancy Smith has 20 years’ experience as a technical writer, supervisor, and manager in high tech software companies. She also has more than 15 years in Christian ministry as an educator, course designer, retreat leader, spiritual director, and coach. With her extensive experience in both secular and religious work, Smith recognizes the huge gap between business and any kind of faith expression. She is dedicated to bridging that gap through the acceptance and expression of inter-religious spirituality in the workplace.

Smith has her M.Div. from Boston University. She is a graduate of the ecumenical Guild for Spiritual Guidance and is currently enrolled in a post-graduate program in the Practice of Spirituality (Spiritual Direction) at Boston College.Smith also offers Coaching and Spiritual Direction. Her passion is to help people and workplaces become open to the gifts of all spiritualities at work and be comfortable participating in respectful dialogue.

Smith’s experience has uniquely prepared her for writing this book. She has:

-- Written software user documentation, both as a direct employee and as a contract technical writer
-- Supervised and managed as many as 30 writers at a time in a software group
-- Provided career counseling
-- Developed and written a course in career decision-making
-- Evaluated and counseled applicants for government-funded vocational training
-- Offered life/career coaching and spiritual direction
-- Developed and led spirituality retreats
-- Developed workshops on workplace spirituality
-- Served in lecturing, teaching and preaching opportunities
-- Published articles in religious publications

Smith’s knowledge and expertise in the area of Workplace Spirituality are recognized in the media. She has been a guest on The Business Shrink talk show and has been quoted in several publications, including Sales and Marketing Management and Interpreter magazines. Her platform includes workshops and retreats.

Nancy Smith and her husband Bob live in Peabody, Massachusetts. They have two married sons and four grandchildren.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From "Questions for Reflection" from Chapter 1:

As a movement, spirituality in the workplace does not focus directly on God or theology. Instead, it looks to the morality and ethics that are common to most of the world s religions. It endorses creating sacred space in your cubicle or office. It insists on social re-sponsibility and environmental awareness. It encourages tutoring students, offering yoga in addition to aerobics, and meditating at work (along with an even more recent acceptance of napping at work).

One Dallas-based store tells its workers that they have a moral obligation to provide help to their customers, not just to sell to them. A large business in Atlanta now uses only recycled materials in its work and draws its energy only from renewable sources. A symposium on business and spirituality is held each spring at Babson College in Boston. Specialized websites are new examples and results of this movement.

If workers are spiritually nourished in the workplace, will work become a substitute for faith communities as experienced in churches, synagogues, etc.? How will this affect family life and community involvement? Will it ease or increase individual isolation? As one writer asked, "Who is this spirituality serving God or the corporation?"

Is spirituality being used to give the person more stamina to work longer in the office and therefore spend less time with spouse and children?

Is this religion? New age stuff? Quasi-religion? A substitute for faith? An expanded consciousness? Or is it a movement toward accepting a diversity of religious beliefs, faiths, and practices and valuing their contributions in the workplace?

Edition details

• Publisher: Axial Age Pub
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0977804739
• ISBN 13: 9780977804733
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260