How Workplace Spirituality Influences Operational Excellence

Research in the idea that spirituality offered by leaders cumulates into operational excellence was added to by Lee (2006) in his doctoral dissertation. Panfilo suggests that the research leading up to the idea that spirituality leads to operational excellence has given him a starting point to prove the idea. He studied manger techniques at several Midwestern manufacturing firms and used the definitions of spirituality from previous literature that discussed the idea of spirituality in the same environment. He correlated the idea of operational excellence as the idea of quality. Using survey instruments he validated the similarities between higher spirituality and higher quality work. He even goes on to state that with high models of spirituality in the workplace, the mangers are better able to cope better with the high behavior issues that exist.

What does this mean to the average workplace? Spirituality goes beyond the material world and gives the believer a connection to the metaphysical world. If the workplace environment the more common the sense of spirituality, the more people have in common and in a larger sense, since they share a common bond work relationships and quality would definitely have to go up in the positive environment. The level of spirituality would have to be examined to make sure a religious environment did not evolve from one that is perceived as spiritual.

To many times a company will hire a zealot that will disrupt the flow of the workplace by the forcing, both verbal and non-verbal, of their religious views on life and worship. This is a catalyst for a person with a less spiritual nature to feel uncomfortable in the work environment. This negative vibe might push that person who is less spiritual to be overall unhappy about his or her environment and operational excellence will lose that one cog in the wheel that helps the organization maintain its level of quality.