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Invoking the spiritual in campus life and leadership
The Move Toward Wholeness
As organizations in the 21st century are influenced by the new science and seek to transform themselves to incorporate a quantum perspective, the idea of seeing a "system as a whole" is taking hold. The drive to create wholeness in organizations compels organization members to accept the whole person in the workplace, that is, to take account of people's emotional and spiritual lives, as well as the intellectual and physical (Mirvis, 1997). In this new paradigm, organization members recognize that the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of people's lives are interwoven and that more enlightened organizations would nurture all four aspects. What is to be gained from this shift of focus? In a study conducted on spirituality in the workplace (Mitroff & Denton, 1999), a survey of managers revealed that those associated with organizations perceived as more spiritual also saw their organizations as more productive. They reported that they were able to bring more of their complete selves to work. They could deploy more of their full creativity, emotions, and intelligence: in short, organizations viewed as more spiritual get more from their participants and vice versa. (p. 83) These managers also recognized that organizations that seek excellence in what they do must learn how to tap into the immense spiritual energy that is at the core of everyone.
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Neck and Milliman (1994) corroborated these findings and stated that people desire to experience spirituality not only in their personal lives, but also in their work where they spend a large amount of their time. It is a desire to devote one's whole being toward a higher purpose in work. Briskin (1998) said that individuals seek awareness of the multiple selves of which each is comprised and to be comfortable with their complete self. People want to bring the multiplicity of selves, their souls, to work. This literature on spirituality in the workplace demonstrated that the focus on wholeness emanating from the physical sciences is also emerging on the organizational level in Western society.
A Focus on Relationships
Another significant aspect of the quantum perspective that is manifested in the spirituality in the workplace movement is the emphasis on relationship. The new science teaches that the world is fundamentally inseparable, "We are all one" (Bohm, 1980). Bell's theorem in essence demonstrates that separation without separateness exists (Jaworski, 1998). In a relational universe people see themselves in the other and the other in themselves. The physicist, David Bohm (as quoted in Jaworski), eloquently captured the idea of this interconnection with all others.
Yourself is actually the whole of mankind [sic]. That's the idea of implicate order-that everything is enfolded in everything. The entire past is enfolded in each one of us in a very subtle way. If you reach into yourself, you are reaching into the very essence of mankind. When you do this, you will be led into the generating depth of consciousness that is common to the whole of mankind and that has the whole of mankind enfolded in it. The individual's ability to be sensitive to that becomes the key to change of mankind. (p. 80)
