ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed a signifi cant growth of interest in ‘spirituality’ within the workplace and, in particular, in spirituality oriented management and leadership development. The literature in the area is replete with unresolved paradoxes. These revolve around how spirituality is defi ned, with advocates variously stressing its religious dimensions, usually from a Christian perspective, and others articulating a more secular approach focusing on non-denominational humanistic values. Much of the literature stresses the value of spirituality as an aid to increasing productivity and so assumes that the values of business leaders refl ect unitarist rather than sectional interests. In exploring these contradictions, I argue that spiritual management approaches seek to abolish the distinction between people’s work-based lives on the one hand and their personal lives and value systems on the other. Infl uence is, once more, conceived in unidirectional terms: it fl ows from ‘spiritual’ and powerful leaders to more or less compliant followers, deemed to be in need of enlightenment, rather than vice versa. It enhances the infl uence of leaders over followers, on the assumption that stable, consistent and coherent follower identities can be manufactured, capable of facilitating the achievement of leaders’ goals. Despite often being couched in emancipatory terms, I argue that spirituality at work promotes constricting cultural and behavioural norms and seeks to reinforce the power of leaders at the expense of autonomy for their followers. Implications for the constructs of ‘leadership’ and ‘followership’ and the need to preserve the distinction between private and public spaces, are considered.
