Master in Management
Electives
Spirituality & Leadership
MM 540
Summer 2006
Steve Schien
944-0526
scheinst@sou.edu
Course Description
Using the expansive perspective on leadership that the first person we lead is ourselves, this course will explore the role of spirituality in today’s work environment, both at the individual as well as organizational level. We’ll discuss recent trends and models currently being used by business leaders and managers to integrate spirituality into their lives and into their organizations.
Throughout the world, the issue of spirituality and work is becoming a more common topic of conversation and a more serious area of study. An article in the Sloan Management Review points out that “most [people interviewed] believed strongly that organizations must harness the immense spiritual energy within each person in order to produce world-class products and services.” Corrine McLaughlin from the Center for Visionary Leadership says “Growing numbers of business people want their spirituality to be more than just faith and belief—they want it to be practical and applied. They want to bring their whole selves to work—body, mind, and spirit.” Renowned leadership expert Warren Bennis states that “individuals and organizations that perceive themselves as more spiritual do better….these organizations are animated by meaning, wholeness, and by seeing their work connected to events and people beyond themselves.”
COURSE FORMAT
Using the three course texts listed below as grist for the mill, the course will be taught in an interactive and experiential workshop format. Using roundtable discussion, small group formats, and online forums on Bb (online forums will be set up and discussed on the first night of class), we’ll explore the three texts and a variety of questions including:
- How do leaders and managers create an environment where the body, mind and spirit can be brought to work?
- Does spirituality have a place in my working life?
- What are the connections between spirituality, leadership, culture, performance, and satisfaction?
- How can companies justify the cost of time and money on this elusive topic?
- Is this a fad or a more significant change for the 21st century?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Explore the relationship between spiritual development and career development.
- Examine the impact of spirituality on the organization, teams, and the individual.
- Examine models of team and organizational development that incorporate spirituality.
- Provide examples of what several leaders and their companies are currently doing in regards to spirituality in the workplace.
- Examine the interaction of spirituality, values, ethics, and leadership.
- Explain why there is such a great interest in this topic in organizations, in consulting, and in the media.
- Define the difference between spirituality and religion.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Mitroff, Ian and Elizabeth Denton, 1999. A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Aburdene, Patricia, 2005. Megatrends 2010, The Rise of Conscious Capitalism. Charlottesville: Hampton Roads Publishing.
Houston, Jean. The Power of Myth and Living Mythically
COURSE SCHEDULE/READING ASSIGNMENTS
Class 1 (Wednesday, June 14, 5-10PM)
Reading due at beginning of class:
Megatrends 2010 – Introduction, Chapter 1
Spiritual Audit – Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1
Bringing Your Soul – Introduction
Class 2 (Monday, June 26, 5-10PM)
Reading due at beginning of class:
Megatrends 2010 – Chapters 2-7
Spiritual Audit – Chapters 2 and 3
Bringing Your Soul – Chapters 7-11
Written self-assessment paper due at beginning of class. You will write a 3-page (double-spaced) self-assessment paper that explores the following issues:
- Your Spirituality: Provide a brief overview of your childhood experiences with spirituality and/or religion. If there were any critical events that affected your feelings about spirituality/religion in a strongly positive or negative way, please describe those events and how they affected you. Then provide a summary of the relevance of spirituality/religion in your life now.
- Your Career: Describe your career path in relation to your spiritual development. How did you select the professional field that you have chosen? What is the connection, if any, to your core values? Is there any connection between your work and your spiritual/religious values and practices?
- Other? If you have any other thoughts on this topic, please feel free to include them in your paper.
This paper does not require research (other than soul-searching). However, if you do draw on other reference material, please make sure that you use proper citations.
Class 3 (Wednesday, June 28, 5-10PM)
Reading due at beginning of class:
Spiritual Audit – Chapters 4-9
Bringing Your Soul to Work – Chapters 1-6
FINAL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE JULY 12 (to be submitted on Bb)
Select one assignment from the following list based on your personal interests and on what will support your personal and professional development goals. This paper is due two weeks after the second class session. All papers should be double-spaced.
- Conduct a “spiritual audit” and write a 5-page case study of an organization that you are intimately familiar with. Describe specific policies, procedures, and practices of the organization and your assessment of their effect on employees. How well does this organization nurture the human spirit and respect the whole person? What could they do to improve?
- Write a 5-page case study on one of the organizations that is well-known in the popular press or in our textbooks for being congruent with spirituality in the workplace. Make sure that you use at least 3 outside references in researching this organization. The references must focus on the spiritual practices of the organization.
- Interview two leaders or co-workers about their spirituality and/or faith and how it affects their work. These may be executives in a for-profit or a nonprofit organization. Select leaders that you know are deeply interested in spirituality and are incorporating it into the way they live. Find out how they became interested in spirituality, what practices nourish them, what spiritual challenges they face, and where they see their spiritual and their professional development headed in the future. Write a 5-page paper summarizing your findings and reflections.
- Design a two-day workshop on some topic related to spirituality in the workplace. Create a two-page outline (one page for each day of the workshop). Design a brochure for the workshop and write a one-page marketing plan. This workshop might be designed for employees of your organization or it might be a public offering. Be clear on who your audience is and price the workshop accordingly.
- Review a movie that is related to spirituality in the workplace and write a 5-page review. What did you learn from the movie about spirituality and what actions can you take in your own work as a result of these findings?
- Suggest a topic that has come to you from the work in class and write a 5-page paper with instructor’s approval.
Assessment
Grades will be based on:
30% Class Participation (in class and on Bb)
30% Self-Assessment Paper
40% Final Paper
Note to Students:
I began my exploration of the Spiritual Perspective on Leadership more than 15 years ago while President of a resort management company in Colorado. Drawing on the teachings of American Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, I discovered the practical stress-reducing benefits of mindfulness meditation along with my senior managers in the fast-paced hospitality service industry. Since then I have been exploring the practical applications of numerous Eastern and Western wisdom traditions to the workplace as an active business leader, as a teacher, and as part of my own spiritual journey. I’ve read widely in the field of spirituality and work and have had the opportunity to visit and study with several renowned spiritual teachers, several of whom live right here in Ashland.
