Out of the shadow of organization: An exploration of work and the human spirit.

Abstract

Recently, the organizational literature has acknowledged the human spirit and the need for organizations and their leaders to tend to the spiritual needs of organizational members. There is agreement that human beings at work have spiritual needs in this emerging body of literature. However, there is no clear consensus about what constitutes this "spirit." In this research, the primary question is: What is the human spirit within the work experience? The secondary question is: What is the significance of spirit for the administration of organizations?

The result of this study was that noumena was captured by way of phenomena in that empirical evidence suggests that the experience of work and the human spirit is both expressively diverse and existential in nature. That creativity, contribution and competency are common factors in the experience. Also, that empowerment, autonomy, trust, authenticity, reciprocity, and the absence of fear appear to be necessary conditions for the experience to occur. The most often reported result of the experience is people working energetically beyond contract.

This study arises from three theoretical traditions: philosophy, psychology and organization theory. The purpose of this study is to discover the human spirit in the work experience through the use of a mixed form research methodology, or a triangulated research design: Heuristic Inquiry, Qualitative Data and Statistical Analysis.