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Searching for Spirituality in All the Wrong Places

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Abstract

This paper examines three popular and important books on spirituality in business: Mitroff and Denton's A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, Nash and McLennan's Church on Sunday, Work on Monday, and Lerner's Spirit Matters. Interestingly, none of these books can find satisfactory examples of legitimate spirituality in business.

This paper suggests that one reason these authors can not find acceptable models of spirituality in business is that they are all employing an unnecessarily restrictive definition of spirituality.

The paper concludes by suggesting that a definition of spirituality based on John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy is more appropriate for today's businesses.

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References

  • Badaracco, Joseph L.: 2002, Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide To Doing the Right Thing (Harvard Business School Press).

  • Searching for Spirituality in All the Wrong Places 399 Barnard, Chester: 1938, The Functions of the Executive (Harvard University Press).

  • Buchholz, Rogene A. and Sandra B Rosentha: 2002, 'Spirituality and the Spirit of American Pragmatism: Beyond the Theism-Atheism Split', Working Paper.

  • Dewey, John: 1934, A Common Faith (Yale University Press).

  • Heifetz, Ronald A. and Marty Linsky: 2002, Leadership on the Line (Harvard Business School Press).

  • Lerner, Michael: 2000, Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of Soul (Hampton Roads).

  • Mitroff, Ian and Elizabeth Denton: 1999, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America: A Hard Look at Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace ( Jossey-Bass).

  • Nash, Laura and Scotty McLennan: 2001, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life ( Jossey-Bass).

  • Wuthnow, Robert: 1996, Poor Richard's Principle: Recovering the American Dream Through the Moral Dimension of Work, Business, & Money (Princeton University Press).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sy Syms School of Business, Yeshiva University, 500 West 185 Street, NY, 10033, New York, U.S.A.

    Moses L. Pava

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  1. Moses L. Pava
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Pava, M.L. Searching for Spirituality in All the Wrong Places. Journal of Business Ethics 48, 393–400 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000005730.37745.07

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BUSI.0000005730.37745.07

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