Ethics and Spirituality at Work: Hopes and Pitfalls of the Search for Meaning in Organizations

Studies show that nearly 90% of managers and executives in North America alone are seeking ways to integrate ethical and spiritual values into their organizations--while remaining skeptical of New Age thinking, dogmatic religions, cults, and moralizing intolerance. Pauchant’s book emerges from a forum on International Management, Ethics, and Spirituality, the first of its kind to be held at an internationally recognized business school, and represents the thinking of six CEOs and six scholars of ethics and spirituality from Australia, Canada, the United States, and Switzerland.

With case studies from five organizations in banking, food, health, education, and municipal governance, as well as dialogues culled from the remarks of 200 academic and business practitioners, this book proves that there is a true search for meaning in today’s organizations, one which inevitably leads to a search for ethics and spirituality. Managers in search of these desiderata need help. This book suggests that a model proposed by Ken Wilber provides that help. Direct, concrete, theoretically and scientifically rigorous, and with an openness to inter-religious and non-religious viewpoints alike, the book is a compelling, non-didactic contribution to a vital discussion, long-needed but seldom found in a world as governed by economic values as our own.

THIERRY C. PAUCHANT is Professor of Management at HEC Montreal, the oldest and largest business school in Canada, and Director of the Forum for International Management, Ethics, and Spirituality./e Well known as a consultant to organizations in the U.S., Canada, and France on the ethical management of risk and crisis, he is the author of more than 100 articles and eight books.