Corporate Spirituality Encourages Inclusion

Sep 22, 2004, 12.00am IST
William and Debra Miller.

If you are a corporate leader and you would like to include spirituality in your organisation's culture, you are not alone. Business leaders we've met, and management students sometimes ask us if it's really possible to make spirituality an overt and explicit part of an organisational culture — without causing religious conflicts or being inappropriate to an otherwise secular way of operating.


We've interviewed spirituality-inspired leaders around the world, and have found that for some, leading by example and keeping spirituality implicit in their leadership, works best. A European corporate executive said: "The explicit part of business is the house-holding, or economic operation, and the implicit part of business is to support the employees' spiritual quest in opening up".


Others we've interviewed bring spirituality quite explicitly into their organisational culture. We've found that this is a popular trend. In the 1920s, Marion Wade founded ServiceMaster in Chicago, USA. Wade and the executives who followed him in building a Fortune 500 company made their Number One company objective to "Honour God in all we do".

Every person — regardless of personal beliefs or differences — has been created in the image and likeness of God. We seek to recognise the dignity, worth and potential of each individual and believe that everyone has intrinsic worth and value. This is not an expression of a particular religious belief, or a basis for exclusion. Rather, it is a mandate for inclusion, and a constant reminder for us to do the right thing in the right way.

Kyocera, a Japanese company that makes cellphones, prominently displays these spiritual covenants on their website: Corporate Motto : Respect the Divine and Love People. Preserve the spirit to work fairly and honourably, respecting people, our work, our company and our global community. Management Philosophy : To coexist harmoniously with nature and society. Harmonious coexistence is the underlying foundation of all our business activities as we work to create a world of abundance and peace.
To encourage more leaders to have confidence in bringing spirituality explicitly into their organisations, four international business organisations began sponsoring the "International Spirit at Work" award in 2002. In honouring various organisations, the intention is to "bring to public recognition organisations whose spiritual-based practices, policies and procedures help to make the world a better place". The award honours organisations throughout the world that explicitly nurture spirituality inside their organisations.


One of this year's award winners is an Indian company that sees spirituality as "self-improvement and world service" with the Divine lighting the way, where every human can become the Divine light. Employees exercise this spirituality through a strong focus on social responsibility and sustainability — demonstrated by conscientious attention to concerns such as natural waste management.


Another awardee, a Philippines-based company, serves the financial needs of small and medium enterprises. Senior management regularly acknowledges the role of Divine Providence in the organisation's success, and the employees are committed to serving their customers with their "whole heart and mind".


There are many corporate leaders around the world who are blazing that spiritual path — albeit independently — providing examples to inspire and guide others to do the same. So, ask yourself: Do I feel called to bring spirituality more overtly and explicitly into my organisation's culture? What can I learn from other leaders and companies to help bring this about?