Eclecticism and commonality in employee constructions of spirituality

Abstract

Determining how to manage spiritual diversity in a globalized Australia and developing organizational strategies to that end is a complex undertaking. As a starting point, the process requires empirical evidence around how employees and managers construct and perceive spirituality in Australian workplace contexts. Much of the literature around workplace spirituality and the theorizing about spirituality as a concept has been generated in the United States. Whilst this body of work provides rich insights, little is known about its transferability across cultures or more specifically, whether spirituality is perceived in working Australia in ways comparable to the United States. This paper reports on a grounded theory study that aimed to discover how participating managers and professionals constructed spirituality in the context of their workplace experience. The findings revealed a high level of individual spiritual eclecticism and dynamism in the way participants perceived and experienced spirituality. Common spiritual values were also identified across the data. The author concludes that spiritual eclecticism appears to be an under-researched and possibly under-appreciated concept and argues that common values may well provide the necessary “glue” for managing spiritual diversity and fostering spiritual inclusiveness in organizations.