Paper short abstract:

This paper argues scholars of religion can contribute to the developing fields of WPS and ‘meaningful work’ and promote the value of sociological analysis of religion to these fields through anthropological, comparative analysis of the intersection between “work” and metaphysical belief.

Paper long abstract:

Since the early 1990s the intersection between “work” and metaphysical belief has become a growing area of research for organisational scholars. Whilst some call for engagement with classical and contemporary sociological analysis of religion (Bell & Taylor, 2003; Case & Gosling, 2010; Gotsis & Kortezi, 2007), this is seldom answered. Its neglect is significant, however, for it leads much Workplace Spirituality (WPS) and ‘meaningful work’ scholarship to adopt quantitative, techno-calculative approaches that treats metaphysical belief as an instrument to harness greater efficiency, productivity, and profit (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010; Tracey, 2012).

This paper reviews mainstream WPS and meaningful literature, alongside its critical counterpart, to argue that Management and Organisation Studies (MOS) scholarship concerned with metaphysical belief remains reliant on ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions that reflect secular reason and scientific thinking. This leads to an examination of metaphysical belief that does not reflect contemporary manifestations in pluralistic societies, which is exacerbated by a lack of qualitative research. Utilising methodological agnosticism to analyse qualitative in-depth interviews with those who self-identify as religious, spiritual, agnostic and atheist, this paper reveals the rich complexities and subtle nuances of contemporary metaphysical belief and “work” that are obscured by ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions that reflect secular reason and scientific thinking. In particular, it demonstrates the significant role belief plays to the way in which employees respond to organisational attempts to spiritualise work. In doing so, it argues how the “spiritual turn” of work is not simply a capitalism of spirituality that secures competitive market advantage through the pacification of employees. For some, it is a process that is willingly co-constituted through compliant resistance out of self-preservation. For others, it is not a capitalism of spirituality at all, but a spiritualisation of capitalism by those who have faith in the economic cosmos.