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Gilbert W. Fairholm: Associate Professor of Public Administration, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Introduction
Work has become the centrepiece of our lives. Whether we like it or not, work has become the fountainhead of values in our society, the site of our most useful social contributions. Work is the place where most of us find our sense of full meaning. The organization (community) within which we work is becoming our most significant community. For some, work is replacing family, friendship circles, church and social groups. Yet in 1994 only one in four workers were extremely satisfied with their work compared to 40 per cent in 1973. According to Renesch (1995) more than 40 million people in the US are seeking a more "intrinsically valued" lifestyle and the numbers are growing. While work is critical to economic wellbeing, these numbers suggest that it is not meeting our needs as human beings.
It is hard today for many of us to separate our work from the rest of our being. We spend too much of our time at work or in work-related social and leisure activities for us to expect to continue trying to compartmentalize our lives into separate work, family, religious and social domains. As one result, the pressure many of us feel to recognize and respond to the sacred in us must find outlet in the secular workplace. If personal or social transformation is to take place, it will most likely take place at work. For, after all, life is about spirit and we humans carry only one spirit that must manifest itself in both life and livelihood.
Research by Jacobson (1994) and confirmed by the author, strongly suggests that mature leaders and other workers in our organizations are seeking more than merely economic rewards on the job. They are redefining work to include satisfaction of their inner needs for spiritual identity and satisfaction. Jacobson's survey of national leaders, and the author's survey of mid-level managers using similar questions, confirm a growing need for workplace cultures, leadership and work processes that celebrate the whole individual with needs, desires, values and a "wanting" spirit self. Respondents in the author's study unanimously agreed that spirituality is a part of...