Spirituality and the Negotiating Ability of Leaders

Introduction

Present-day organizations represent globalized marketplaces that have witnessed the financial crisis, credit crunches, business scandals, mass layoffs, and economic shocks. These together have led to increasing discontent with leadership in organizations that have continued to symbolize monetary success as a major forecaster of true leadership effectiveness, failing to recognize that organizational success does not solely depend on the production of goods and services in hyper-competitive business environments like that of today's (Bondoc, 2016; Padayachee, 2010). The stew of pressure from the employees, communities, and other key stakeholders who perceive success on broader terms calls for a change in outlook, from giving undue weightage to monetary success alone to a holistic perspective, that integrates economic and non-economic factors (Bondoc, 2016). As such, with time, leadership traits such as spirituality, compassion, and respect, integrating certain qualities into an individual's work, family, and relationships, have begun to gain attention. Spirituality has emerged in the literature as a discrete construct underlying the essence of effective leadership.

Many employees consider religion and spirituality as core domains of their lives (Hicks, 2003). A growing number of workers opt for non-work activities such as wellness programs, counseling, self-reflection, meditation, and religious and spiritual practices to do away with the anxiety, insecurity, and stress (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997). This along with some major corporate scandals, market crashes, global shocks, and unethical practices call for far-reaching initiatives to be taken up related to the social and ethical performance of organizations (Frederick, 2006).

A review of the leadership literature suggests that the spiritual and religious dimensions of leadership have only recently entered the leadership discourse. The new evidence on integration of spirituality and leadership at the workplace has brought positive changes in the relationship of leaders with their followers and has increased their effectiveness. There is evidence that organizational interventions in the form of workplace spirituality programs lead to positive outcomes like enhanced job satisfaction, reduced absenteeism, lesser attrition, less deviant behaviour, and more commitment towards the organization. When employees perceive their organization as being spiritual, they tend to be more ethical, have less fear, and are more creative. Spirituality when incorporated at the workplace is now thought to be a source of potential competitive advantage.

Workplace spirituality is about the dyadic relationship between leaders and the led, involving an understanding of each other as spiritual beings and having a sense of purpose that provides meaning. It is about peoples' experience of a sense of belonging and mutual connectedness with their workplace community. It is premised on the fact that people have both an inner and outer life and that the happy and satisfying inner life can have a positive impact on their outer life that in turn can have beneficial consequences for employee well-being, corporate responsibility, and sustainability, as well as financial performance. Integration of spirituality with leadership has given rise to the new paradigm of spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership strives to create a vision through which the followers and leaders experience meaning and establish a culture based on spiritual values such as altruistic love, appreciation, genuine care, and concern, etc.