Abstract
This article, the first of a two-part series, examines how Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s (1548/1991) nearly 500 year-old approach to the transformation of others in their leadership journeys is still being actualized, with applications to transformations in workplaces and the graduate education of business leaders, by drawing upon both the handbook Ignatius wrote to guide his work—called the Spiritual Exercises—and upon the account of his own transformation experience captured in his Autobiography. Our exploratory prelude to practice is guided by the following questions that approximate (both in content and order) Ignatius of Loyola’s approach to personal and spiritual transformation: First, “What are my deepest desires?” (and this question has two distinct parts: “What don’t I want?” and “What do I want?”); once that has been clarified, the next question is “What does this require of me?” (In other words, what must be done to avoid the things you don’t want and achieve the things that you do want?); and finally, the last question requires an answer that lasts a lifetime: “How does this shape the person I am becoming?”. After characterizing the stages of Ignatius of Loyola’s (1548/1991) own transformation as: Deconstruction (the cannonball at Pamplona); Choice (while convalescing at Loyola); Reconstruction (during his retreat at Montserrat); and Integration (actualized by his mystical experience in Manresa), our contribution concludes by returning to the questions that frame our interrogative inquiry, but with an eye toward the professional formation of online graduate students of organizational leadership. In the second article (Tran and Carey 2023), our exploration continues by integrating academic theory with andragogical practice. Particular attention is paid to the qualitative reflections from online graduate leadership education students at a Jesuit university in the Inland Northwest of the United States.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aguado, R., and L. Albareda. 2016. A new approach to humanistic management education based on the promotion of justice and human dignity in a sustainable economy. In Human centered management in executive education: Global imperatives, innovation, and new directions, eds. M.T. Lepeley, E. von Kimakowitz, and R. Bardy, 182–201. London: Palgrave.
Alford, H., and S. Signori. 2014. Brief considerations on the effectiveness of shareholder activism: A virtue ethics approach. Impresa Progetto - Electronic Journal of Management 3: 1–10.
Arrupe, P. 1973. Men for others. https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/men-for-others.html.
Baviera, T., W. English, and M. Guillén. 2016. The ‘logic of the gift’: Inspiring behavior in organizations beyond the limits of duty and exchange. Business Ethics Quarterly 26 (2): 159–180.
Benedict XVI. 2009. Caritas in veritate. https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html
Byron, W.J. 2011. Humility, magis, and discernment: A Jesuit perspective on education for business leadership. Journal of Jesuit Business Education 2: 9–20.
Byron, W.J., and J.L. Connor. 2016. Principles of Ignatian leadership: A resource for a faith-committed life. Paulist Press.
Carey, M.R. 1999. Heraclitean fire: Journeying on the path of leadership. Kendall Hunt.
Clark, M.J. 2014. The vision of Catholic Social Thought: The virtue of solidarity and the praxis of human rights. Fortress Press.
Clayton, E.A. 2022. Cannonball moments: Telling your story, deepening your faith. Loyola Press.
Cline, E.M. 2018. A world on fire: Sharing the Ignatian spiritual exercises with other religions. Catholic University Press.
Darmanin, A. 2005. Ignatian spirituality and leadership in organizations today. Review of Ignatian Spirituality 109: 1–14.
de Aldama, A. M. 1990. The formula of the institute: Notes for a commentary (I. Echaniz, Trans.). Institute of Jesuit Sources.
Dierksmeier, C. 2016. What is ‘humanistic’ about humanistic management? Humanistic Management Journal 1: 9–32.
Dufresne, R.L., K. Botto, and E.S. Steele. 2015. Contributing to an Ignatian perspective on leadership. Journal of Jesuit Business Education 6 (1): 1–19.
Finn, D.K., ed. 2021. Business ethics and Catholic Social Thought. Georgetown University Press.
Francis. 2015. Laudato si. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
Francis. 2021. Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2021. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/migration/documents/papa-francesco_20210503_world-migrants-day-2021.html.
Habito, R.L.F. 2013. Zen and the Spiritual Exercises. Orbis.
Haight, R. 2012. Christian spirituality for seekers: Reflections on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Orbis.
Himes, K.R., ed. 2018. Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and interpretations. 2nd ed. Georgetown University Press.
Kelly, T.M., and J. Moss Breen. 2020. Ignatian leadership and the contemporary leadership landscape: An exercise in counter cultural engagement. Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal 9 (2): 16–29.
Lee, J.L., and J.P. Koeplin. 2018. Using the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm to form ethical leaders. Journal of Jesuit Business Education 9 (1): 1–12.
Lonergan, B. F. 2017. Collected works of Bernard Lonergan: Method in theology, eds. R. M. Doran & J. D. Dadosky, Vol. 14. University of Toronto Press. (Original work published 1972).
Lowney, C. 2003. Heroic leadership: Best practices from a 450-year-old company that changed the world. Loyola Press.
Loyola, I. 1991. The spiritual exercises. (G. E. Ganss, Trans.). In Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual exercises and selected works, ed. G. E. Ganss, 113–214. Paulist Press. (Original work published 1548).
Lozano, J.M. 2017. Leadership: The being component. Can the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius contribute to the debate on business education? Journal of Business Ethics 145 (4): 795–809.
Martin, J. 2010. The Jesuit guide to (almost) everything: A spirituality for real life. HarperOne.
Massaro, T. 2016. Living justice: Catholic Social Teaching in action. 3rd ed. Rowman & Littlefield.
Melé, D. 2016. Understanding humanistic management. Humanistic Management Journal 1: 33–55.
Moberg, D.J., and M. Calkins. 2001. Reflection in business ethics: Insights from St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. Journal of Business Ethics 33 (3): 257–270.
Nicolás, A. 2009. Companions in mission: Pluralism in action. https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/documents/lmu2009m-daykeynote-companions-in-mission-pluralism-in-action.doc.
Nullens, P. 2019. From spirituality to responsible leadership: Ignatian discernment and theory-u. In Leading in a VUCA world: Integrating leadership, discernment, and spirituality, eds. J. Kok and S.C. van den Heuvel, 185–207. Springer.
O’Brien, D.J., and T.A. Shannon, eds. 2016. Catholic Social Thought: Encyclicals and documents from Pope Leo XIII to Pope Francis, 3rd ed. Orbis.
O’Malley, J.W. 2016. Historical perspectives on Jesuit education and globalization. In The Jesuits and globalization: Historical legacies and contemporary challenges, eds. T. Banchoff and J. Casanova, 147–168. Georgetown University Press.
Pirson, M. 2017. Humanistic management: Protecting dignity and promoting well-being. Cambridge University Press.
Pirson, M. 2021. A humanistic perspective for management research: Protecting dignity and promoting well-being. In The Palgrave handbook of workplace well-being, ed. S. Dhiman, 1187–1208. Palgrave.
Retolaza, J.L., R. Aguado, and L. Alcaniz. 2019. Stakeholder theory through the lenses of Catholic Social Thought. Journal of Business Ethics 157 (4): 969–980.
Rothausen, T.J. 2017. Integrating leadership development with Ignatian spirituality: A model for designing a spiritual leader development practice. Journal of Business Ethics 145 (4): 811–829.
San Juan, K. 2007. The spiritual formation of leaders based on the Ignatian tradition. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Gonzaga University.
Silva, J.B.d., P. Quattrone, and N. Llewellyn. 2022. Turning to mystery in institutional theory: The Jesuit Spiritual Exercises. Organization Studies 43 (9): 1355–1529.
Sosa, A. 2021. Walking with Ignatius: In conversation with Darío Menor. Loyola Press.
Teehankee, B., and Y. Sevilla. 2020. Managing for good work: Principles and practices of humanistic management based on Catholic Social Thought. In Virtuous cycles in humanistic management: From the classroom to the corporation, eds. R. Aguado and A. Eizaguirre, 121–134. Springer.
Tran, D.Q. 2021. Attention, reverence, and devotion: An Ignatian method for fostering mindfulness at work. In The Routledge companion to mindfulness at work, eds. S.K. Dhiman, 463–478. Routledge.
Tran, D.Q., and M.R. Carey. 2018. Toward a discerning mind and heart: An Ignatian approach to workplace spirituality and spiritual leadership. In The Palgrave handbook of workplace spirituality and fulfillment, ed. S. Dhiman, G.E. Roberts, and J.E. Crossman, 753–772. Palgrave.
Tran, D.Q., and M.R. Carey. 2023. Shaping theory and practice: The impact of Ignatius of Loyola’s approach to transformation on transformational leadership and online graduate students at a Jesuit university in the United States. Humanistic Management, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-023-00155-7.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Carey, M.R., Tran, D.Q. Deconstruction, Choice, Reconstruction, and Integration: Insights from Ignatius of Loyola’s Conversion Process on the Professional Formation of Organizational Leaders. Humanist Manag J 8, 181–190 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-023-00153-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-023-00153-9