Spirituality as reinforcement of people-focused work: a philosophical foundation

ABSTRACT

This conceptual article aims to provide a philosophical foundation for why spirituality reinforces prosocial motivation and people-focused work (PFW). Much research refers to the fact that many workers’ reasons for working are spiritually based. Research has shown that spirituality provides a motivation oriented to the needs of others and an intellectual and affective “openness” to those around us that reinforces cooperation, acting as a “social glue”. Explanations have been given for this effect of spirituality, particularly psychological explanations. However, there is still no philosophical explanation. This article provides a philosophical foundation for the motivation oriented to the needs of others (prosocial motivation) generated by spirituality, previously discovered and analyzed by philosophers like Plato, and in particular Aristotle, by explaining what it is and how the human spirit acts. The paper concludes that the reinforcement of PFW produced by spirituality derives from the “openness to … ” that essentially constitutes the activity of human spirit as “actuality”.

KEYWORDS:

• Aristotle
• people-focused work
• people service
• prosocial motivation
• spiritual capital
• spirituality in the workplace

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Magdalena Bosch Rabell

Magdalena Bosch Rabell is a Titular University Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and holds the position of Agregada in the field of Moral Thought at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain). She teaches Ethics in the Humanities and Business faculties at her university. She studied Philosophy at the Universitat de Barcelona and holds a PhD in the theory of knowledge and metaphysics from the same university. Throughout her academic career, she has studied several topics related to Applied Ethics such as Desire and Florishing, Spiritual Capital, Integrity or Intellectual virtues. She has published more than thirty indexed papers.

Miquel Bastons

Miquel Bastons is Ph.D. in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Management.  He is associate professor of organizational behaviour  and ethics at the School of Economics and Social Sciences of the International University of Catalonia (Spain). His research focuses on organizational decision-making and business ethics. He has published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management and Organization, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Science and Engineering Ethics and Long Range Planning. He has been Section editor of the Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management (Springer), and editor of the book Purpose-driven Organizations. Management Ideas for a Better World.