Pauchant, Thierry and Associates (2000)
Ethical and Spiritual Management Addresses the Need for Meaning in the
Work place, in T.C. Pauchant and Associates, Ethics and spirituality
at work. Under revision in the U.S.
Integrating ethics and spirituality into all facets of management
and leadership of organizations has become an urgent need expressed by
managers themselves. How to reconcile economic value and ethical or spiritual
value becomes the fundamental question.
This is a fascinating, serious and slippery subject. The potential
pitfalls are numerous: ethics can devolve into legalism, dogmatism or
abusive moralisation; spirituality can lead to fundamentalism, archaic
superstitions or the growth of abusive sects; and both ethics and spirituality
can be co-opted to manipulate people, employees and managers as a way
to maximize profits.
Yet, introducing ethics and spirituality into the work place, the first
more rational, the second more transcendent, could meet a fundamental
human need: a need for meaning, a need for integration, a need for establishing
roots, a need for transcendence.
In this introduction, I propose several reasons why the integration of ethics and spirituality is requested today, as well as proposing strategies for avoiding certain potential pitfalls. After presenting some of the reasons behind the present "crisis of meaning" in organizations, I describe the positive and less positive ways in which people generally react to crises. I then suggest that four major trends support the idea that introducing ethics and spirituality in the work place is not just another management fad but rather that it meets a deep and lasting need. I end by presenting the international network that we have put in place in order to promote the simultaneous attainment of economic value and ethical and spiritual value in organizations, the International Forum on Management, Ethics and Spirituality and I present the chapters of the book.
