Nature of the publicationBook Chapter
Title of the publicationOrganizational Change and Work Spirituality: Expanding the Moral Circle
Journal name/Book publisherDe Gruyter
DOIdegruyter.com
Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is not only to offer a bird’s eye view on the understanding of organizational change within workplace spirituality literature and on the reception of work spirituality within the organizational change literature, but also to point to the need for future research in addressing the role of nonhuman animals (NHAs) in contemporary organizations. In the following, we first discuss the sparce reception of workplace spirituality in organizational change by analyzing two important handbooks and two specialized journals. We then analyze two work spirituality handbooks and the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion (JMSR) to ascertain how organizational change is treated in this field. Further, we focus on how the relationship between human and nonhuman animals has been framed and theorized within the workplace spirituality literature. Finally, we sustain that “care, compassion and support of others” (MSR Division, 2018, p. 2) would require the recognition of suffering as a common experience across the species including sentient NHAs among the “others” for whom we should feel compassion. We advance that such extended care and compassion, as well as a longtermist ethical approach, should be adopted in the quest for the universalizing stage of spiritual development (Fowler, 1981). We complement these considerations with personal observations derived from our own involvement as participants or researchers in climate movements.

Author #1Giuseppe Delmestri
Affiliation Author #1Vienna University of Economics and Business
Author #2Schneeberger Doris
Affiliation Author #2Vienna University of Economics and Business