SPIRITUAL VALUES IN LEADERSHIP AND THE EFFECTS
ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE:
A LITERATURE REVIEW
by

Prem Selver

PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
April 2013

© Prem Selver, 2013

UNIVERSITY of NORTHERN
BRITISH COLU'MBIA

UBRARY

Prince George, B.C.

Abstract
Spiritual leadership is an emerging area of study, with much research
demonstrating the need for spirituality in the workplace. The spiritual literature reveals
five values that are consistent with a spiritual individual. These include finding meaning,
altruistic love, self-awareness, visioning, and authenticity. Certain values act as broad
umbrellas that allow for study of sub values such as; faith, meditation, positive thinking
and humility. This project reviews the literature to show how each of the five values
affect leadership behaviour and how they increase subordinate performance and
therefore produce more profit for an organization. The literature search revealed that
each of the above values produced higher performance in subordinates either directly or
through correlation. I identify twelve propositions that highlight the importance of
spiritual leadership in the workplace. Furthermore, I demonstrate how a leader can
cultivate the five values of a spiritual individual to become a spiritual leader.

Table of Contents
Abstract ..... .. ........... .. ..................... ...................... ... ..... ...... .......... ...... ... ........ .. ....... .. .... ........................ ....... .... i
Acknowledgments ............ ........ ...... ... ................................. .. ...................................................... ....... ........ ... iv
Chapter 1. ........................................ .. ..... ... .. .. .. .... ......... .... ... ..... ... .... .... ..... ... .. ... .. ..... ..... .......... ..... .... .... .......... 1

lntroduction ..................................................... ... ..... ........ .......... ....... ................... ..................................... 1
Chapter 2 .... ......... ........ ....... ....... .. ... ..... .... .... ........ ........ ... .. ........... .... ... .... .. ... .. .... .. .. .............. ................ .......... 3

Literature Review .................... ................................. ................. ........... .................................................. 3
Definition of Leadership .................................. ... .......... ..... ......... .. .......... ... .... ..... .. ...... ..... ... ......... .... ... .... 3
Definition of Spirituality ..... ................................................................................ ..................................... 4
Dissatisfied Work Environments ..... ........................................................ ............................................. 7
The Emerging Study of Spirituality in the Workplace .... .................. .......... .... ......................... .. ...... .. 8
Spiritual Leadership Theory ... .. ........ .................... ... ............................................................................ 10
Leadership and Values Systems ................................................................ ....................................... 12
The Values of a Spiritual lndividual ................................................................................................... 13
Finding Meaning .......... .... .. ...... ............................... ..... .. ............... .. ................................................ ...... 14
A Leader's Personal Sense of Meaning ...... .. ............. .......... ...... ................. .. ..... ...... .... .... ................ 17
The Leader's Sense of Meaning as a Source of Subordinate Motivation .......... ..... ...... ........ ...... 19
Altruistic Love ............. ....... .... ................................... .. .......... .... ........................ ...... ............................... 21
Altruistic Love in Leadership ............................................................................................................... 22
Humility .......................................... ... .. .. ...... ...... ... .. ........................... .......................................... .. ..... 22
Respect for Others ..... .. .. ......... ... .... ............ ..... .. ....... .......... ... .................... ... .. .... ........ .. ................ .... 23
Treating Others Fairly ............... .. ........ ... ......... ........ ....... ......... .. ... .................................... .. ..... ........ . 24
Caring and Concern ..... ...... .. ........... ... .. ... ........... .. ........ .. ...................................... ............................ 25
Appreciating the Contributions of Others ...... ....... .. .............. .................................................... ..... 25
Self-Awareness ................................ ..... ... ..... .. ...... ........ ............ .... ............ .... .... .... .... .... ............. ... ........ 26
Self-Awareness and Leadership ......... .... ......... ..... .... .. .... .... .... ... .. ......... ............................ ................. 27
Meditation and Leadership .... ......................................................... .. .......................................... .... .... 29
Visioning .......... ... ... ............................................................. ........ ........ .... ............ ................................ ... 32
Visioning and Leadership ............. ... .. ........... ... .......... ........... .... ... ........ ..... .... .... .. ....... ........... ............ ... 35
Faith .. ... ... ............. ... ..............................................·..................... .. ....................................................... 35
Positive Thinking .................................. ... ........ ........ ............................. ... ................................. ..... ... 36
Visioning ............................................. ........ .......... ...................................................... ....................... 37
Authenticity ...................... ..... ...... .... ... .... ......... ........ .. ...... ..... .. ..... .. ......... ......... ............................. .......... 38
Authenticity and Leadership ..................... ... ..... ........ ................................ .... ...................................... 39
ii

Leader Authenticity Effects on the Subordinate . .... .......... ........... ..... ........ ... ..... .. .. ... ........ ........ ........ 40
Leader Authenticity and Performance of the Organization ..... ... ................. ... ..... .... ......... .............. 42
Limitations of the Study ..... ..... ... ............... ......... ..... ... .... ...... ..... ...... ... ................ .............................. .. .. 43
Chapter 3 .. ..... ..... .. ......... .. .. .. ........ .... .... ... .. ..... ............ ... ... .... ... .. ... ........ ... .... ... .... .... .... .. .... ..... .. ..... ...... ...... .. .. 45

Becoming a Spiritual Leader ..... ....... ......... .. .... ........ .. ... ..... ................... ........... .. ....... .. ....... ........ ........ . 45
Chapter 4 .. ... .. ...... ......... .... ............. ........................................ .. ........ ......... ................................... .. ... ... ... ..... 48

Discussion & Conclusion ..... .. .. .......... .. ......... .... ... ..... ...... ..... .... .... ...... ..... .................... ........................ . 48
References ................ ................... ....... ........... ...................... .................................................................. ... .. 51

iii

Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I must thank my dear wife lndrani Margolin. Without her
support, my MBA program would not have been possible. I have loved your shared
excitement for this degree, and have appreciated your brilliant mind for editing my
papers. You gave me the courage to pursue this research topic. You are the joy and
sunshine of my life and I am eternally grateful for your love by my side.
I offer my MBA to the All Mighty. You were there through all my exams and
essays, this degree is yours. I am eternally grateful beyond words, you are my
shepherd.
I would like to thank my supervisor Rick Tallman for taking me on. I have greatly
appreciated your support and your guidance.
I am deeply grateful to the entire MBA program at UNBC. This has been a life
changing experience. I have greatly appreciated the professors and their learned
expertise. I would also like to thank the entire MBA cohort, we did this together. I
learned from all of you and will remember you fondly, especially our fun nights at
Muhammad 's.
I would like to thank Future Shop, my part time job while I focused on this MBA
program. Especially Kevin for being the most accommodating with my schedule needs,
Tony for being a great manager, and my team for my inability to cover your shifts.
Lastly, I would like to thank my parents. You have been loving throughout all my
endeavours. And I am happy you finally get to see me graduate Mom.

iv

Chapter 1
Introduction
The purpose of my MBA project is to explore the qualities of spirituality, reflected
as a value system, and the effects they have on leadership. I will conduct a literature
review to answer the question "What are the effects of spiritual values on leadership
behaviour, and do those effects create better performance for the organization?" The
purpose of this paper is not to impose spirituality onto leadership, but to extract best
leadership practices reflective in spiritual behaviour and suggest spirituality as a way of
summarizing total leadership effectiveness. In this way, I examine the overarching idea
of spirituality as a form of influence. Expressing spirituality in terms of leadership does
not refer to preaching or statements of up-liftment for employees, but to the embodiment
of spiritual values in the leader, such as respecting others and the demonstration of
spiritual behaviour, such as ethics or showing compassion.
The development of a spiritual leadership theory, like all leadership theories, is to
create better performance for the organization. By applying spirituality to leadership I
demonstrate the value placed on leaders with spiritual constitutions, and suggest that a
leader may find it beneficial to explore his or her own spirituality to take advantage of its
benefits. Using the literature review I identify five values that a spiritual individual
embodies and will demonstrate how these values benefit an organization.
A note must be made that at no point in my research do I assume that spirituality
is the only component to leadership effectiveness. Just that I seek to find the values that
contribute to its effectiveness that are associated with spirituality. Intelligence, tolerance

for change, desire to lead and communication skills are all prerequisites for effective
leadership but are not studied in this paper.
For this research project I found sources of information from literature in
spirituality in business, leadership, psychology, self-empowerment, philosophical and
religious texts, and neuroscience. I searched for literature predominantly using Google
Scholar but also used Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, Sage Premier and Science
Direct. I researched the theories of Louise Fry (2003), Laura Reave (2005), Tulshi Sen
(2006), and Barsh, Mogelof and Webb (201 0) to build my model of spiritual values. I
prepare the dialogue of my findings by including a brief definition of leadership and
spirituality. I then explain the need for spirituality and its emerging study in the
workplace and the current research on spiritual leadership theory. Then, using the
values that I have labelled as spiritual I provide empirical leadership research that
answered my research question. The following chapter is the results of my findings.

2

Chapter 2
Literature Review
Definition of Leadership
For my paper, I approach leadership as individual behaviour components looking
at a leader's expression of values to subordinates. I do not concern myself with styles of
leadership, except when a value is consistent with a style of leadership to study
empirically. Therefore, the definition of leadership that I use refers to the influence
divulged by an individual on another individual or group concerned with a goal or
achievement (Reave, 2005).
Leadership has been studied since the early twentieth century (Reave, 2005).
Today there are many theories and different perspectives of leadership.
Transformational Leadership and Charismatic Leadership often define the modern
concept of effective leadership (Yuki, 1999). As models and theories continuously
develop, values, emotions, and the leader's role of creating meaning for followers are
becoming emphasized. Yet, finding what constitutes effective leadership is challenging
because of the varying methods one can conduct research, cultural differences, and the
changing circumstances within which a leader may find themselves (Yuki, 1999). I
found the most effective summary of leadership attributes are from Tallman (2011) who
described seven leadership competencies as;
•

Emotional intelligence: this is defined as observing, integrating,
understanding and regulating emotions.

3

•

Integrity: which refers to acting in a way that is truthful and that builds
trust.

•

Inner drive to pursue goals: this includes an inner need for achievement.

•

Motivation to lead: defined as a high need for power in social situations to
accomplish the goals of a teams or a company.

•

High self-efficacy regarding one's ability to lead: this is the self-confidence
required of the leader to believe in his or her ability.

•

Above average cognitive ability: defined as a degree of intelligence that
effectively analyzes and solves problems.

•

Knowledge and familiarity with the industry and/or business environment:
this quality aids in the necessary intuitive decision making that is required
for good leadership.

Definition of Spirituality
Spirituality is complex and abstract and can have different meanings to different
people. It is therefore difficult to capture in a single definition. According to
Narayansamy (2008), a spiritualist sees religious scriptures as signposts on the spiritual
journey. I draw from several religious texts and philosophies to define how I see
spirituality.
Tulshi Sen (2006) defines the word spirit by its Latin root spiritus, which means "I
breath". He says that the life essence within humans is Consciousness, and that

Consciousness is the source and substance of all life. There is no difference between
the individualized Consciousness and Universal Consciousness, associating the two to

4

a drop of the ocean and the ocean, where the drop of the ocean still carries all the
qualities of the ocean though it may appear quite small and insignificant in comparison.
Spirituality can also be framed as a continuous journey about discovering the
true Self. The ancient Hindu text, the Bhagavad-Gita, as translated by Chidbhavananda
( 1997), provides a metaphor for spirituality as a journey for man to understand his true
Self. Arjuna kneels at the feet of his master Krishna at the edge of a large battle.
Krishna is represented as the embodiment of God; he claims;
"I am the Self... seated in the hearts of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle,
and also the end of all beings" (p. 547).
What this statement says is that each human being contains the Supreme
Presence but this is clouded by illusion or ignorance. In between the Supreme Presence
and the individual is an ego or individualized consciousness which believes it is the Self.
What is postulated is that self-realization, or union with the universe, already exists.
Then what is needed is the removal of the ignorance and what remains is our true self.
Therefore the purpose of the individual is to achieve this self-realization of union with
the universe (Narayansamy, 2008). This existing union with the universe is a
relationship, often personified in western culture by the name of God. For a spiritualist it
is a relationship of reliance. A spiritualist is one who depends on spirit, who depends on
this higher power, and seeks the union of individualized Consciousness with Universal
Consciousness to achieve that dependency (Sen, 2006).
The Sufi poet Kabir, as translated by Rabindranath Tagore (2002), says that all
humans are attempting to experience their union with the universe in some way or
another:

5

"For the priest, the warrior, the tradesman, and all the thirty-six castes are
seeking for God ... The barber has sought God , the washer-woman, and the
carpenter. "
(Kabir, as translated by R. Tagor, 2002 , p. 46)
He implies that all people regardless of caste or occupation are all looking for our
spiritual truth, our relationship to the universal Consciousness. Whether this is a
conscious search or not is up to the individual.
For the purpose of studying the values of spirituality in this paper it is important to
make a distinction between spirituality and religion. According to Reaves (2005), religion
focuses on a specific organization or group, yet spirituality is more encompassing and
generic. Spirituality may include a religious approach but could also include several or
none at all. Religion can provide a sense of spiritual definition while spirituality can hold
many divergent perspectives. Spirituality can honour but not follow any one religion, yet
a person of religion can hold the same values of someone who is spiritual.
I use the Christian spiritual researcher Delbecq (1999) to summarize the
definition of spiritualty:
"The unique and personal inner experience of and search for the fullest personal
development through participation into the transcendent mystery. It always
involves a sense of belonging to a greater whole, and a sense of longing for a
more complete fulfillment through touching the greater mystery (which in tradition
I call God). My test of authenticity is the extent to which progress in the spirit of
journey manifests itself in loving and compassionate service." (p. 345)

6

Dissatisfied Work Environments
It is evident in today's world that the business environment is becoming more
complex, fast-paced, demanding and volatile putting business leaders under
extraordinary stress (Barsh et al., 201 0). We are at a time in our economic society
where downsizing and increased temporary and contract employment are more
common. With the higher frequencies of changing ownership of corporations,
employees are less committed, less loyal, angrier and more disaffected (Pfeffer, 2003).
At the same time many leaders are lacking the skills to handle this high stress work
environment therefore undermining the organizational performance and their own
personal satisfaction. Interviews conducted with working people show that many believe
their work environment wounds their spirits and feel subjugated to management
practices that harm their values and are against their nature (Pfeffer, 2003). The 2010
USA labour statistics (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011) showed seventy percent of the
workforce population have an anxiety disorder of some kind. That made up 108 million
workers of the 154 million. Thirty-three percent of the work force is suffering job burnout
and seventy percent of the workers are unhappy in their current employment (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 2011 ). This figure is up from twenty-five percent in 2004. Sixty-two
percent of the workforce population are deeply affected by the high levels of stress from
their job. Additionally, sixty-six percent of Americans welcome help in dealing with
stress in their lives. Lastly, sixty-six percent of the workforce in America suffers from
chronic health conditions induced by stress. The statistics summarized that America lost
$61 billion to the costs of depression. That is $44 billion lost in productivity and $17
billion lost in absenteeism (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011 ). These statistics show the

7

dire effects that negative work places have on employees and the cost to the bottom
line.
When leaders are under stress they may project their frustrations on to their
employees by being ruthless, unkind, bossy or abusive. When this happens the most
common reactions from employees are negative emotions and feelings. The stressful
manager can impact the culture of the organization by creating passivity, silence,
retaliation, disobedience and overall decreased performance (Rego, Cunha & Oliveira ,
2008).
It is clear from the growing body of statistical evidence that management
practices greatly affect quality, productivity and profitability of the organization. But the
value of what occurs at the workplace does not end there. More of our time is spent at
work than awake at home, and coworkers count as among our closest friends, partly
creating our social identities. Therefore what happens in the organization affects our
psychological well-being. For this reason it is crucial that our work environments are
consistent with our human values and psychology (Pfeffer, 2003). At the same time that
business environments continue adding stressors to leaders and employees, it is
becoming evident that our work environment must nurture our well-being . The
importance of finding a way to embrace our deeper needs with the needs of the
business environment has never been more crucial.

The Emerging Study of Spirituality in the Workplace
Spirituality in leadership and workplace spirituality is a recent area of study with
little empirical research (Reave, 2005). It is not a mainstream concept therefore lacking
any shared understanding of its idea in some kind of larger theory. With the lack of any
8

structured theory, the vocabulary in use is still in its development with terms such as
spiritual intelligence, heightened awareness, and elevated consciousness often

meaning the same thing . But the importance of spirituality in the workplace can be seen
by the creation of several international associations such as Spirit in Business,
European SPES (Spirituality in Economic and Social Life) Forum, International Center
for Spirit at Work, and Spiritual Business Network. In the 1990's more than 300 books

on workplace spirituality appeared (Pfeffer, 2003). In 2001 the Academy of
Management in the USA founded a special interest group called Management,
Spirituality and Religion , which espouses its own research journal (Pruzan, 2008). By

2005 there were over 25 MBA programs in North America that offered courses in
spirituality in the workplace for leaders (Phipps, 2012).
Along with the emerging movement of spirituality in the work place, there is a
noticeable increase in finding complete theories and concepts of leadership to handle
the stressors that leaders face. Spirituality is being called on to create the bridge from
practical knowledge of leadership to an emotionally intelligent and centered leader. For
example, according to Narayanswamy (2008), spirituality is necessary in management
education to develop well-rounded managers. Currently education leans towards the
manager's vocation or outcomes with not enough emphasis on challenging how a
manager creates meaning and processes internal information. He believes if a manager
embraces their sense of spirituality he will be able to handle the conflicts , paradoxes
and ambiguities that create much of the stress a leader faces.

9

Spiritual Leadership Theory
Business and spirituality may seem like two separate philosophies that are
incongruent, yet business enterprises are the dominant social institution of the twentieth
century. By embracing the study of business it allows a spiritual individual to create the
most effective positive change in the present society. This may explain the increasing
trend in research towards a spiritual leadership theory (Fry, 2003). Many experts
assume that effective leadership contains the traits of strategy, intelligence and
ruthlessness (Reave, 2005). However, much literature shows that the dominant
leadership traits are those associated with spiritual values such as integrity, honesty,
and humility. Spirituality encompasses the whole of leadership and takes into account
character, motivation, and behaviour, therefore providing integration and a much
smoother examination of leader values and practices (Reave, 2005).
A spiritual leader is one who brings their own search for meaning and selfawareness based on one's own spirituality into their role as a leader (Reaves, 2005).
Fry (2003) defines spiritual leadership as "comprising the values, attitudes, and
behaviours that are necessary to intrinsically motivate one's self and others so that they
have a sense of spiritual survival through calling and membership" (p. 695). For him, the
spiritual domain is an important component of leadership. It contributes to the
development of a more integrated leadership model. Leaders who bring their spirituality
to work are able to motivate employees regarding meaning and purpose. Therefore, the
roots of effective leadership lie in the spiritual dimension of the individual leader.
According to Fry spiritual leadership creates a vision and congruence of values across

10

team and individual levels, which fosters higher levels of organizational commitment
and productivity.
Fry (2003) was one of the most commonly cited researchers for her spiritual
leadership theory. Her theory follows an intrinsic motivational model based on task
involvement and goal identification. This means, for an organization, that a spiritual
leader leads them based on faith in a vision and hopeful striving with a background
culture of altruistic love. For Fry, faith is the foundation in the spiritual leadership model.
Faith is a necessary part of the component of the expression of the vision. It is the
endurance of the hardship, facing of opposition, and sense of conviction to fulfill the
vision. This creates the element of spiritual meaning. The outcomes of expressing
altruistic love and spiritual meaning are a work place of joy, peace and serenity. These
outcomes are the sources of high levels of organizational commitment, high
productivity, and reduced stress.
Reave (2005) demonstrates the consistency between spiritual values and
established effective leadership. She notes that leaders who use spiritual values use
similar skill sets that create an environment that achieve goals, motivate employees,
create a positive work environment, display trust and ethical behaviours, and promote
positive relationships. In turn the leader achieves organizational goals, higher
productivity, lower turnover, and greater sustainability. Spiritual leadership also has a
universal approach because subordinates commonly seek out a leader who cares about
relationships with others. In this day of globalization this is most appealing.

11

Leadership and Values Systems
The value system of each human is an important part of our psyche (Russell,
2001 ). Values are created in social contexts, such as culturally, through institutions or
family. The creation of values has been linked to: an event of conflict which evokes selfdiscovery, experiential learning, major life changes, relationships with others, and family
and childhood experiences (Russell, 2001 ). Values make up the core belief system
within us, expressed in thought patterns and in turn, expressed as behaviour. The act of
leadership is intimately tied to the value and belief system of the leader and this value
system, in turn, has a significant effect on subordinates. In fact the value system of a
leader affects almost their entire role in their position; such as their perceptions of
situations, the solutions they generate, their interpersonal relationships, what constitutes
personal and organizational success, differentiating between ethical and unethical
behaviour, and the extent to which to accept or reject organizational pressures and
goals (Russell, 2001 ).
There have been two value cultures that have been identified in the individual
(Russell, 2001 ). One is short-term, that is; looking for rewards in the immediate future,
and is often motivated by monetary or material means, and seeks approval. The other is
long-term and is more morally and spiritually driven. This long-term value system is
called the historical character ethic (Russell, 2001 ). Though traditional management and
leadership styles have made an emphasis on the short-term, spiritual leadership
embraces the concepts of the historical character ethic, emphasising its need in current
management (Russell, 2001 ). Some researchers argue that there are certain values
that are prerequisites for good leadership which include, honesty and integrity, concern

12

for others and fairness (Russell, 2001 ). As I will demonstrate later in this paper, spiritual
leadership includes these values.

The Values of a Spiritual Individual
The values I used to define a spiritual individual came from previous research in
spiritual leadership theory. Though I use elements of Fry's model (2003) , I do not rely
on it. This is because her model uses a path starting with values to motivation, then to
behaviour, while only focusing on two sets of values. I use more than two values and it
would be beyond the scope of this paper to delve into all aspects of the motivation to
each value that I attribute to spirituality. Thus, I simplify my paper by linking value only
to behaviour and not motivation.
I use much of Reave's research (2005) to expand on Fry's theory of spiritual
leadership and as well, add several values I believe are expressed by a spiritual leader.
Tulshi Sen (2006) is a business leader who writes books and lectures frequently and
publicly about spirituality and leadership. I use his theories on visioning, spirituality and
leadership.
Barsh et al., (2010) interviewed 140 executives from all over the world and found
five traits that distinguish a successful leader in their model called centered leadership. I
found values in their model that matched those of a spiritual individual. Therefore I use
them to expand several values from Fry's spiritual leadership.
The values that I found to be embodied by a spiritual individual are:
•

Finding Meaning

•

Altruistic Love

•

Self-Awareness
13

•

Visioning

•

Authenticity

In the following sections I will define each value and explain how I came to link it to
spirituality, how that value may manifest for a spiritual leader in the work place, and
explicate the empirical research that will support my research question.
A note must be made on the development of identifying the values of a spiritual
individual. The labeling of these values is not perfect and there is much cross over.
They are meant to be taken in a general sense and not as a clearly defined language on
the only values of spirituality, nor are they meant to represent a concrete concept of
spiritual theory. As well, the literature review reveals several values that I eventually
labelled as sub values. Such as altruistic love containing the sub values of respect for
others, humility, and caring and concern. Often this is done to make the study of
empirical research easier to conduct. Many authors had varying opinions on the sub
categorization of value systems. Drawing on the literature and my own experience with
spiritual leadership, what follows is a framework of values and sub values a spiritual
leader may embody to enhance employee performance.

Finding Meaning
The research conducted by Maddock and Fulton (1998) on motivation found the
human need to create meaning to be one of the most powerful sources of motivation. In
this section I explore the definition of finding meaning using their research and its
connection to Fry's (2003) model of spiritual leadership.
Maddock and Fulton (1998) conducted organizational and clinical research over
several years to understand human motivation and found in every human regardless of
14

race, IQ, achievement, or any other differences, five dominate non conscious motives.
They called them orientation, survival, adaptation , expectation and play. It is the human
motivation of survival that is broken down into; spiritual, physical, territorial and sexual.
They found that spiritual survival was the most important survival motive. It was the
most powerful , dominant and forceful motives alongside orientation . By finding this, they
recognized the contradiction this created from Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.
Maddock and Fulton ( 1998) explain that Maslow's needs state "if you 're hungry and
cold , spiritual survival is the last thing on your mind. Our investigations indicate
otherwise" (p. 26). Spiritual survival contains the elements of believing that a higher
power listens, that there is order in the universe, a sense of calling , a sense of
belonging or membership, human love, sacrifice or going beyond one's self, having a
meaningful death , and attaining inner peace. Yet in their research because of the
complicated and abstract ways in which non conscious spiritual survival manifests in the
human psyche Maddock and Fulton (1998) summarized the experience of spiritual
survival as "passion". For them spiritual survival is what you are passionate about, and
in most cases what provides you with meaning that you are willing to die for.
Fry {2003) expanded spiritual survival into a value system of a spiritual individual
with her model of spiritual leadership. Accordingly a spiritual person encompasses the
attitudes and values that motivate one into spiritual survival. In a work or leadership
context, spiritual survival is the intrinsic need for calling or being called to work, and for
finding meaning and purpose in one's work. According to her, these desires are
common amongst all people, whether they are fulfilled or not. Therefore , Fry (2003)
defines finding meaning as creating value out of one 's life and is experienced as a form

15

of transcendence in making a difference through service to others. Meaning can derive
from a calling. She states that calling is a response to a call within one self whether that
is believed to come from a higher source or not and may or may not directly or indirectly
involve others, such as when an artist indirectly impacts his or her audience through the
medium of their art.
It would appear that spiritual meaning exists within each of us on either some
conscious or unconscious level and that we are all looking in some manner to express
that meaning. Newberg and Waldman, in How God Changes Your Brain (201 0),
demonstrate using neurobiology, that the human brain is constructed to perceive and
generate spiritual realities. Since the brain has no way of ascertaining the reality of
these perceptions, the brain relies on logic, reason, intuition, imagination and emotion to
piece together a sense of God, the universe and ourselves. This creates a complex
system of beliefs, behaviours, and personal values, all of which generates our personal
sense of meaning. By extracting and applying this theory to the workplace, one could
deduce that all subordinates look to create meaning from the work they do. This is then
an opportunity for the leader to create meaning that motivates.
Meaning can manifest in the work place in several ways. Research has shown
that the most important way employees seek to create meaning in a work environment
is by realizing their full potential as a person (Pfeffer, 2003). People do not seek just to
be competent but to master their potential. As people we do this to enhance our selfconcept, which results as a strong form of motivational desire. Meaning is also created
for employees through making sense of their work as a form of social meaning or social
value. In this way meaning is created for the employee by feeling like they are part of a

16

larger interconnected community. Lastly people seek to make meaning through
employment by building integration between work and life (Pfeffer, 2003).
Finding meaning manifests as finding a personal connection for a job and
understanding the purpose and meaning it either generates in one's own life and/or
understanding the meaning and purpose it generates in society. Finding meaning in
ones work therefore creates value in one self to perform that work.
Finding Meaning and Leadership
My literature review found substantial evidence on the effects of meaning on
leaders and on subordinates. First, I will discuss the effects on the leader when they
experience meaning in their role, then , I will discuss the effects on the subordinate and
the organization as a whole.

A Leader's Personal Sense of Meaning
When a leader feels a sense of meaning for their role it appears to act as a form
of motivation , providing job satisfaction . The research conducted by Barsh et al., (201 0)
found that the most important value for a leader to create personal satisfaction with their
life work was when they felt their role had meaning. When a leader feels their role is
meaningful they convey an energy that the goal they are pursuing is personally
important to them, which reflects that they are actively enjoying its pursuit. The same
research found that meaning towards work was most important as a value, acting as a
strong motivator, for a leader to deal with challenging times, discomfort and fear of
change:
Plenty of research shows the connection between the leader's sense of meaning
and ability to handle stressful events. Collins (2005), says that when a leader
17

subjugates to an ambition larger and more lasting than themselves, they appear to have
an ability to sustain difficult times. In an empirical study on executives (Quick, Gavin ,
Cooper, Quick & Gilbert, 2000) the more "spiritually alive" the executives were, the more
they were capable of overcoming crises and coping with stressful events. The
researchers discovered that this was because the executives felt a sense of meaning,
knowing that there was more to life, and that it carried a greater objective than the
position they were in right now. They were capable of moving beyond themselves and
having a global view of their personal lives.
Lastly, Delbecq (1999) looked at CEO's who had a Christian background and
observed how they integrated their spirituality with their work. He found that leadership
was a call to service and not just a career. Leaders integrated their spirituality with their
work rather than making their private life and work life separate. He also found that, like
Collins, Barsh et al., and Quick et al., leaders who had a conviction to their Christianity
had persevered through challenging times with dignity.
To summarize , the research surrounding finding meaning suggests that a
spiritual person will integrate their role as a leader within themselves and intertwine that
role with their sense of spirituality. This will turn their form of leadership into a sense of
service, which will not only improve their enjoyment but also act as a motivator to help
the leader deal with stressful times. Therefore the first proposition I put forth is: a
spiritual leader will have a deeper integration of their role with their identity than a
non-spiritual leader.

18

The Leader's Sense of Meaning as a Source of Subordinate Motivation
A spiritual leader has an inner perspective of meaning and purpose within one's
life. This is the foundation of the decision making process therefore, making actions
from an inner spiritual perspective (Pruzan, 2008). When a leader has this sense of
meaning, research suggests subordinates are positively affected. Meaning in one's
work provides an engagement with the environment, applying significance and order
when at times there appears to be none. Workers can turn mundane tasks and
challenging problems into an enjoyable sense of work when they perceive that what
they do serves a higher purpose and higher spiritual calling (Paloutzian et al. 2003).
This can be accomplished when they find the larger meaning and significance of their
job. When the leader is the medium encouraging the employee to find meaning, this in
turn helps the manager view himself as a vehicle for purpose that is larger than himself,
making the manager a service driven manager (Narayanswamy, 2008). Barsh et al.,
(201 0), found that when a leader shares their sense of meaning with their subordinates,
it was a source of motivation for both.
The effects of meaning on subordinates can be seen by a study that was
conducted by Paloutzian, Emmon and Keortge (2003). The study looked at employees
over a wide range of occupations and found those who perceived their work to have a
spiritual calling where less absent, less burnt-out, and the work place experienced less
turnover. Also, when those workers were happy and felt their well-being was taken care
of, there were positive associations with performance, morale and commitment.
Another study found that when employees experience a sense of meaning for
their job they bring their entire selves to the work, increasing commitment (Gavin &

19

Mason, 2004). Pfeffer (2003) makes the connection that high-commitment has been
shown to create beneficial economic performance in a variety of industries, such as
automobile assembly, apparel manufacturing and oil refineries to name a few. It has
been found that when there was a style of leadership that created commitment in
employees, a start-up company was twelve times more likely to advance to an initial
public offering. When the leader of the organization focused on people-centered values
and espoused commitment between the organization and its people, the company
performed better (Pfeffer, 2003). Therefore it is through the medium of commitment,
generated by the employee's sense of meaning, which can increase organizational
performance.
In summary, the research suggests that when a leader experiences meaning
towards their role, there is a correlated increase with organizational performance. The
literature also discussed the effects of subordinates who came to their work with
meaning, independent of the influence of the leader. When employees have a sense of
calling, they were more committed to their work and that commitment creates better
organizational performance. Though more research is required, a hypothesis could be
drawn that if a leader generates meaning for subordinates they will experience greater
commitment, therefore increasing performance. Thus, I put forth my second and third
propositions: a spiritual leader who experiences a sense of meaning for their role
will increase organizational performance more than a leader who experiences no
meaning for their role, and subordinates that experience a sense of meaning for
their role will have better performance. I validate the importance of the value of

20

finding meaning by linking the connection between finding meaning in spiritual
leadership and the benefits of employee commitment to organizational performance.

Altruistic Love
I define altruistic love by drawing from research on the psychology of love. Love
contains the element of need, yet when need is separated from our experience of love,
we experience unconditional love. Unconditional love is the essence of giving and
receiving unconditionally. Psychology has been affirming that separating out need
overcomes the four destructive emotions: fear, anger, sense of failure and pride. These
destructive emotions come from the fear of losing something one values or not getting
something one deserves, whether they are unconscious reactions or conscious
decisions. Love removes fear and heals these emotions. By focusing on care and
concern for self and other, the negative emotions of fear, anger, failure and pride are
driven out and a foundation for joy, peace and serenity is produced (Fry,2003). This
process of separating need from love as well as overcoming the four destructive
emotions is espoused by many spiritual traditions around the world. Many spiritual
people seek to express the values of altruistic and unconditional love. Therefore the
definition of altruistic love is the humble and honest expression of unselfish, loyal ,
unconditional , benevolent care, concern and appreciation of self and others (Fry, 2003).
When manifested in a work context altruistic love is expressed as a sense of
wholeness, well-being and harmony, which is produced through caring , and having
genuine concern for others (Fry, 2003). I use the model by Reave (2005) to study the
effects of altruistic love in the work place. She breaks down altruistic love into five sub
values that allow for a more thorough study. They include; humility, showing respect for
21

others, demonstrating fair treatment, expressing caring and concern, and appreciating
the contribution of others. The sub values identified follow a progressive path. The
value of humility, will lead to respecting others, which leads to demonstrating fair
treatment. These values are then summarized by expressing caring and concern and
appreciating the contribution of others. I will demonstrate how the organization benefits
from a leader who expresses these values.

Altruistic Love in Leadership
Humility

Humility is an important part of spirituality and most paths emphasize its need. It
is a value that stresses not having pride over other people. It arises naturally from a
spiritual realization of one's larger connection to the universe, producing an internal
feeling of "awe". In empirical research, humility was studied by comparing the selfratings of the leader and then the ratings of how the leader was perceived by the
subordinate. The leaders who rated themselves lowest were rated highest by their
subordinates. Leaders who rated themselves highest were rated lowest by their
subordinates. This research showed a tendency for humble leaders to be more liked by
their subordinates (Reave, 2005).
Leaders who are humble appear to be effective leaders because of their ability to
accept feedback. The opposite of humility is having a high opinion of oneself and those
who have a high opinion of themselves have been shown to not be able to accept
negative feedback. They may also show hostility to others, interrupt others and irritate
others more often (Reave, 2005). In research that was meant to espouse the benefits of
charismatic leadership, a striking polar opposite was discovered. Humility, where the
22

leader is quiet, humble and stays in the background has been shown to be a more
effective form of leadership, compared to the commonly held assumption that a
personality cult will be more effective in an organization (Reave, 2005). Collins (2001)
verifies this in his study of good-to-great organizations where more than two-thirds of
the companies that failed, or at least remained mediocre, did so due to a presence of a
leader with a large ego. It was found that the most effective leaders where not the
stereotypical high-profile personalities, but leaders that used modesty, restraint and
humility.
Therefore, a spiritual leader expressing altruistic love will be a humble leader
who will not seek to create a culture of public attention and devoted followers. By being
a more reserved, quiet, and modest leader, more of the emphasis is on the company
and goals, which creates a more effective leader. As well, their sense of humility will
make a spiritual leader open to accept negative feedback. Therefore I put forth my
fourth proposition: a spiritual leader will be a more effective leader by creating an
emphasis on company values and goals rather than creating a personality
culture.
Respect for Others

If a person experiences humility, respecting others is a natural progression that
follows. Leadership that respects the values of the employees creates empowerment as
opposed to dependency, and it creates sustainability as oppose to short-term success
(Reave, 2005). Rego, Cunha and Oliveira (2008) conducted research on an array of
diverse leaders. They observed performance, using a variety of measures, in
employees whose leaders showed negative traits such as speaking to the employees
23

offensively, or openly abusing their power. The researchers then observed performance
of employees whose leaders showed respect and cared for the employees' personal
and inner life. In this latter scenario, employees experienced an increased sense of
psychological well-being when cared for and treated with respect. Psychological wellbeing is described as a sense of gratitude, happiness, contentment and calmness. This
psychological well-being in turn created a greater sense of commitment to the leader
and was shown to create better individual and team performance.
Treating Others Fairly

Treating others fairly manifests out of respecting others. This value is linked to
most spiritual paths because to not treat others fairly would be showing disrespect. In
cases of fairness it has been seen that employees attend to the fairness of the leader
very closely. Two surveys conducted in 1999 and 2001 that looked at 2800 workers
found fairness of their manager to be the employees' highest priority (Reave, 2005).
Though I could not find any direct literature on the performance of subordinates whose
leaders treat them fairly, I did find that employee perception of fairness has been shown
to be empirically related to leadership trust (Reave, 2005). Thus, looking at this
leadership value, a large meta-analysis conducted by Dirk and Ferrin (2002) on
leadership trust, found it to have a slight but noticeable increase in performance and a
larger increase on commitment and worker satisfaction. In summary, when employees
are treated fairly, they perceive they trust the leader and in turn, they have a more
positive working experience and an increase in production

24

Caring and Concern
Caring and concern is emphasized by virtually all spiritual paths and appears to
be crucial for leadership success as well. When Collins (2001) looked at good-to-great
leaders, he assumed to find that outstanding business leaders would start with a vision
and strategy first. He instead found that outstanding leaders attended to the needs of
people first, and dealt with strategy second . Looking at the research conducted on
Transformational Leadership, caring and concern can be described as the element
known as individualized consideration (Reave, 2005). Individual consideration is
described as containing the ideas of attending to individual desires and needs, coaching
followers and listening attentively. In Bass and Avolio's research (1989) where 87
subordinates rated their immediate superior, individual consideration was highly
correlated with being an effective leader.
In the research conducted by Rego, et al. , (2008) the leader displaying kindness
and compassion produced psychological well-being in the subordinate. As confirmed
before, psychological well-being creates greater commitment and committed employees
tend to be better performers. Keller (1992) conducted research on the performance of
groups led by Transformational Leadership . He found that when leaders showed caring
and concern towards others it was positively correlated with group performance. In fact,
the groups would create higher quality projects and would finish faster.
Appreciating the Contributions of Others
Many spiritual paths teach the appreciation of others. As the final value that
culminates into the expression of altruistic love, appreciating the contributions of others
is found to be important in the work place. In A Leaders Guide to Rewarding and
25

Recognizing Others (Posner, 2008), the reason to appreciate and encourage

employees is simple; they perform better. Research shows that when the employees'
contribution is recognized, there is a powerful effect on motivation and performance.
This can be accomplished by the leader's use of motivational language, such as
expressions of compassion and praise and a clear explanation of tasks, rewards and
cultural values (Mayfield , Mayfield & Kopf, 1998). When workers feel there is recognition
of contributions, they feel a sense of community, feel better about the organization, and
are more likely to be committed and perform better (Reave, 2005).
In summary, a spiritual leader will respect the subordinates and treat them fairly
which will create trust, and in turn, increase job satisfaction and performance. He will
express caring and concern and appreciate the contribution of employees, which
creates commitment and better performance. Therefore I put forth my fifth proposition: a
spiritual leader will create more commitment, better performance and higher job
satisfaction from subordinates than a non-spiritual leader.
Altruistic love, is thus, an important key element to spirituality within leadership.
validate the importance of the value of altruistic love by connecting increased
commitment, increased organizational performance, and higher job satisfaction.
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness can be defined as the "sense that enables individuals to have
more precise and accurate insight of his or her own moods and emotions" (Khosravi,
2011, pg. 95). To achieve self-awareness one will often engage in reflective practice, as
in reflecting on ones emotions and inner state of being. Reflective practice has long
been associated with spirituality. It can be conducted through many methods including
26

prayer, meditation, spiritual reading or journaling (Reave, 2005). Often self-awareness
manifests itself in the work place not just through understanding one's own moods and
emotions but understanding how those moods and emotions affects others (Khosravi,
2011 ).
The research surrounding self-awareness shows that it promotes leader
resilience and performance (Reave, 2005). I focus on existing research on selfawareness and its benefits, and particularly concentrate on meditation as a tool to
achieve this. I choose meditation because of its recent popularity and abundance of
research on its benefits. In addition, I personally I espouse the psychological and
spiritual benefits of meditation. I will look at these and examine their effects on leaders
and the organization.

Self-Awareness and Leadership
Barsh, Cranston and Craske (2008) conducted interviews with leaders all over
the world and found managing energy to be one of the five main concepts that made an
effective leader. Managing energy is described as being aware of your own energy
levels, knowing where you get your energy from, being conscious of what takes your
energy and knowing how to manage it. Khosravi (2011) says that self-awareness makes
managers more effective because it allows them to have a clearer vision of their own
feelings and emotions. This allows for better decision making and more capability to
perform their role because they are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. In this
study of effective management delegation and emotional intelligence, self-awareness
was crucial to proper delegation.

27

The connection between self-awareness and the benefits produced in the
interactions one has with other people are clear. Contemplative practices strengthen a
neurological circuit that generates compassion, social awareness and peacefulness
(Newberg & Waldman, 2010). These affects would be beneficial for leaders. The
research conducted by Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2001) supports this. They claim
that self-awareness is the most essential of the emotional intelligence competencies.
This is because it allows the leader to understand and gauge their personal limitations
and strengths, at the same time, understand how they affect others. For the researchers
self-awareness is an aspect of emotional intelligence, but because one has emotional
intelligence does not mean they have self-awareness and vice a versa. Leaders that
displayed self-awareness coupled with emotional intelligence made their organizations
perform better than those leaders without (Goleman et al., 2001 ). The researchers claim
the emotional mood of the leader has an electric like trickle-down effect on the entire
organization and affects the bottom line. Leaders with emotional intelligence create
nurturing growth based environments while non-emotional intelligent leaders created
the opposite. The argument, therefore, in the paper is not the importance of emotional
intelligence but the importance of the leader's level of self-awareness on his or her own
mood, and an understanding on how a leader's emotions affect his subordinates and
the organization. Their article also calls for leaders to have the discipline to adjust their
behaviour. When leaders were clear about how their own emotions effected the
emotions of others around them and properly managed those emotions, those
organizations performed better.

28

Therefore, my literature review found that self-awareness is crucial to effective
leadership because it allows one to manage their emotions and understand the impact
he has on those around them. The research conducted by Goldman et al. (2001)
suggests that leaders who have self-awareness make their organizations perform
better. Therefore I put forth my sixth proposition: a spiritual leader will make an
organization perform better than a non-spiritual leader because of his or her
sense of self-awareness.

Meditation and Leadership
Meditation has been used for thousands of years for the purpose of managing
stress and as a tool to aid self-awareness. It does this by heightening internal
awareness and bringing mental processes under voluntary control. By observing
thoughts one can become aware and detached from fears and worries. By focusing on
breath the individual learns to watch , accept and let go of thoughts (Anderson ,
Levinson , Barker & Kiewra, 1999).
There is much research on the physiological benefits of mediation that would
benefit a leader or subordinate in their daily lives. Meditation has been shown to reduce
stress and its symptoms, lower emotional arousal levels, and lower anxiety (Anderson ,
et al , 1999). It has been linked to the healing and strengthening of the nervous system ,
which would allow a person to cope with a stressful work environment. Meditation has
been shown to provide a greater sense of emotional control, and a greater sense of
control of emotional responses. Meditation has been connected to increase selfconfidence, allowing the individual to deal with problems more calmly, and have a
general positive outlook on stressful situations. Newberg et al. (201 0), highlights that
29

meditation stimulates the anterior cingulate part of the brain, which generates empathy
and compassion and helps regulate feelings and thoughts. With a developed anterior
cingulate you will have greater empathy and react less with anger or fear.
Research conducted on meditation in the work place found that when
participants, who had high-stress work environments, meditated, they experienced
reduced feel ings of stress and generated positive feelings (Reave, 2005). In another
empirical study (Anderson , Levinson , Barker & Kiewra, 1999) the effects of mediation
was examined on teachers who were experiencing burn out and found that after five
weeks of applying a meditation practice in their lives they began to respond to their
students more personally and with more feeling . This study shows that a leader in a
position of power can positively impact those under them when a meditation practice is
undertaken .
McCollum (1999) used a form of meditation to see what kind of result would
occur on leadership behaviour. He found that meditation significantly improved
leadership behaviour and effectiveness at work. In his research he conducted an 8
month pretest-posttest control group study where the individuals learned a meditation
technique. McCollum discovered that the scores of the leaders for modeling the way,
encouraging the heart, effectiveness, enabling others to act and inspiring a vision all
increased significantly. General observations and interviews made mention of the effect
of the research on the organization. For over a year after the meditation research was
conducted, employees experienced a more upbeat mood in the organization , enjoyed
their work more, and experienced less crisis. The organization experienced a shortage
of sales people yet experienced record growth in their sales, suggesting that sales per

30

employee grew. The focus of the research was on the perceived experience of the
employees and the scores of the leaders post-test measurements. The research did not
measure performance output of the organization, yet suggests meditation may have had
an impact on profit. With no measurement conducted on output, it is not clear what
impact the leaders had on the organization as a whole.
I could not find a direct influence on organizational performance and a leader
who meditates, but I did find empirical research on employees who meditate and the
effects of their performance. Delmonte ( 1984) found that when manufacturing
employees, who were encouraged to meditate, had substantially better performance.
Hundred and twenty six employees were broken into three groups; a control group that
did not meditate, one that was shown a meditation technique and another that just sat
quietly. All groups except the control group practiced their assigned technique twice a
day for 15 minutes for eight weeks. The meditators had substantially better performance
in their work than the other groups, including their well-being and social satisfaction.
Interestingly the gains per session of meditation were greater for performance than for
well-being and physical health.
Looking at the work of Newberg et al. (201 0) it is no wonder that the employees
performed better after meditating. He found that meditation enhances the experience of
loss of self. This is caused by the decrease of the parietal lobe which governs our sense
of identity. What was not understood by Newman and his team is that when one loses
their self-identity they perform tasks better and with greater pleasure (Newberg et al.,
2010).

31

In summary, meditation has been found to have many physiological and
psychological effects such as; greater capacity to handle stress and emotional control.
Connecting this research to Goldman, et al.(2001) suggests indirectly that leaders who
meditate could make their organization perform better because of the benefits of selfawareness and control of emotions that meditation provides. The research on
meditation on leaders is positive showing an increase in their effectiveness. The
research on meditation on employees shows an increase on their performance.
Whether a leader meditates or simply encourages employees to meditate, it appears to
be beneficial to the performance of the organization. Therefore I put forth my seventh
and eighth proposition: a spiritual leader who meditates will make an organization
perform better than a leader who does not meditate, and subordinates who
meditate will perform their tasks with more effectiveness than subordinates who
do not.
I validate the importance of the value of self-awareness in spiritual leadership by
connecting increased organizational performance to self-awareness and meditation.

Visioning
Visioning has become a trend in the modern spiritual culture with such books as
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (2007), Cash in a Flash: Real Money in No time by Robert
Allen and Mark Hansen (201 0), Creative Visualization: using the power of your
imagination in your life to get what you want by Shakti Gawain (2008), and Ancient
Secrets of Success for Today's World by Tulshi Sen (2006). I place this value in this
paper because of its unique rise in interest in spiritual circles. I am interested in
connecting empirical research to its value on leaders and the workplace.
32

To define visioning requires understanding the connection between having faith,
controlling thoughts and visioning. Faith is defined as "the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen" (Fry, 2003, pg. 21 ). It is the firm belief in
something with which there is no proof. Some may think faith is the same as hope, yet
the difference between hope and faith lie in the certainty that faith represents. Hope is
desired fulfillment, while faith is the conviction with which something still yet unproven is
true. Faith requires perseverance, endurance and a will to maximize one's potential.
Controlling the mind is a critical component to visioning. The concept of
controlling the mind has long been a part of spiritual teachings. The Katha Upanishad of
the Vedas used the symbol of the rider and the chariot to describe the relationship the
individual has with his or her higher self. The physical chariot is the body, the intellect is
the driver of the chariot, the bridle reins which guide the horses is the mind, the horses
are the senses, and the Consciousness/soul is the passenger (Sen, 2006). This symbol
is used to describe the relationship of mind and its importance to be controlled by the
intellect which interprets its cues from Consciousness. Controlling the mind can be
defined as the avoidance of negative thoughts, including worry or doubt. In the
Bhagavad Gita (Chidbhavananda, 1997) Krishna tells Arjuna; "For him who has
controlled the mind, the mind is the best of friend, but for one who has failed to do so,
his mind will remain the greatest enemy." (pg . 363)
According to Sen (2006) thoughts have the power to create. Throughout the day
we are continuously living in subconscious visions. Imaging the dinner prepared as we
make it, or someone's response before we tell them good news. Understanding how to
consciously control those subconscious visions is the key to manifesting the thoughts of

33

choice. Our thinking processes are rooted in our identity, our purpose, and direction in
life. Therefore controlling our thinking process starts with understanding who we are
spiritually, and being conscious of our purpose and our direction in life. A firm
understanding of these and we will have a grander experience of our self-identity and
how daily thoughts create our life direction. Sen ascertains that total reliance on the Self
provides a genuine sense of peace and security within one's self. And that this creates
the foundation for relying on visioning which can create prosperity. The concept, though
looks like the roots of childish fantasy, has its roots in physics. Tulshi Sen uses the work
of physicist Nick Herbert (1985) that points to the continuous reference in modern day
quantum physics that brings together human consciousness and the physics of the
modern world into intimate relation.
To define visioning requires understanding that visioning is creating a positive
mental image of a goal not yet accomplished but imagined as if it is already achieved,
and living in a state of being of the accomplishment, all the while controlling the mind by
resisting against mental imagery of doubt and failure (Sen, 2006). Visioning adds a
dimension of creativity to faith. At the same time the vision must come from an internal
space of unconditioned thinking, that is having no limitations to the mental imagery. This
broadened perspective entails one's imagination to be stretched and then have the
power of faith to believe in the vision (Sen, 2006).
Therefore to summarize and define; visioning is creating a mental image made
from unconditioned thought, having faith in the vision by maintaining positive thinking
and controlling one's mind , resisting against negative mental imagery, all the while
living in and believing in the positive mental imagery of the goal already achieved.

34

Since visioning needs faith in the vision and the ability to control thoughts to
discourage negative thinking, I broke this next section into three topics to make the
study thorough; having faith, positive thinking, and visioning. Faith manifests in the
workplace as; expectation of reward or victory, perseverance, doing what it takes, and
stretching goals (Fry, 2003). Since controlling thoughts is the avoidance of negative
thinking I researched positive thinking. Positive thinking manifests as valuable tool for
leaders to remodel challenges and hardships into learning opportunities (Barsh, et al.,
201 0). Visioning manifests in the workplace by setting large goals and having the faith
that they can be accomplished. I will look at these values and show how they benefit
the organization when expressed by a leader.

Visioning and Leadership
Faith
In general Fry (2003) says that faith is a necessary part of the component of the
expression of a company vision and that faith is necessary to endure hardship, face
opposition and provide a sense of conviction to fulfill the vision.
Fry and Slocum (2008) did a controlled study on the effects of spiritual
leadership. They looked at the distributorships of the company Interstate Batteries,
which espouses to be implementing spiritual leadership . The company called on the
researchers to conduct the experiment. Among other findings, when the leader had faith
in the vision of the organization the employees also had a greater sense of faith in it as
well. The end result of the experiment found that spiritual leadership increased
performance but there were no controls to understand what influence that spiritual
leadership had in creating this increase.
35

Fry herself admits (2003) that the effects of employee faith on motivation in
striving towards the organizations vision, and the impact the leader has on that faith,
has room for empirical testing. It follows that I could not find any further research on
faith of the leader and the effects on organizational performance, but this is a promising
beginning that further investigation could strengthen.
Therefore, the literature review suggests when the leader has faith in the vision, it
will increase the degree of faith the employees have in the vision, and that faith will act
as a strong conviction against opposition to the vision. Thus I put forth my ninth
proposition: a spiritual leader's degree of faith positively impacts the degree of
faith of the subordinate more than a leader who does not express faith.
Positive Thinking
Positive Thinking has been found to be an important leadership attribute. For
Barsh, et al (201 0) positive framing, which is essentially the ability to turn negative
events into positive growth opportunities, was found to be one of the top five attributes
of successful leaders.
The research suggests that leaders benefit physiologically from optimism as well
(Barsh, et al, 2010). When the brain is overwhelmed with stress it creates a modern
version of fight, flight or freeze. For a leader, this places his body in a survival mode
which is not conducive to coming up with creative solutions, even though this is usually
what is called for during stressful times. When the leader acts in a stressed out manner
they can spread negativity and fear creating a toxic culture. It is a fundamental
neurological truth that the brain maintains healthiness by taking on a viewpoint of
optimism. Healthiness is self-perpetuated by positive thoughts. This means positive
36

thoughts neurologically supresses negative thoughts (Newberg & Waldman, 201 0).
Therefore, a leader who has positive thoughts will neurologically wire himself to resist
negative thoughts. This research in the brain on positive thinking is helpful considering
research conducted by McColl-Kennedy and Anderson (2002) who found a direct
relationship between the degree of optimism of the leader and the degree of optimism of
the employee. The research also found that when workers feel optimistic they tend to
engage in more effort to achieve goals than when they do not. When the output of the
employee was measured, the optimism of the leader correlated positively with the
output of the employee.
Therefore, it was found that a leader's level of optimism has a direct influence on
employee performance. Thus I put forth my tenth proposition: a spiritual leader's

degree of optimism positively impacts organizational performance more than a
leader who is not optimistic.
Visioning
Margolin, Pierce and Wiley (2011) conducted research on visualization and its
ability to manifest desired outcomes. They used the Sen System, as originated from
Tulshi Sen, which combines meditation with visualization. Though they could not
quantify visualization and the manifestation of their participant's desires, they did notice
that visualization put in motion the desired change in participant's lives and gave them
the courage to overcome challenges that opposed their vision.
Research conducted on mental imagery has found that if a mental image of the
results is held in the mind of a worker while performing the task, the quantity of the task
increases (Neck & Manz, 1992). The literature review in this same article also show the
37

overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of mental imagery on performance in
research conducted in sports, education and psychiatry. Though it would be virtually
impossible to find any empirical evidence that the results of the performance had in
some way manifested through the materialization of thought, this research does show
that holding a mental image of the outcome increases performance.
I found no connection between a leaders ability to hold a vision and the impact
on performance of the organization. Yet a connection could be drawn that if a leader
helped his subordinates to hold a mental image of the task completed then this would
lead to better performance of the organization.
Therefore, my literature review on visioning found that visioning does increase
worker performance and the leader could influence the worker by encouraging and
assisting in the development of the mental imagery. Thus I put forth my eleventh
proposition: subordinates who vision the outcome of their task before it is
complete will perform better than subordinates who do not.
No research was found on the leader's degree of faith and organizational
performance. Yet I was capable of connecting visioning and optimism to organizational
performance, I therefore validate the importance of the value of visioning in spiritual
leadership .
Authenticity
Spirituality is about finding one's true inner self and expressing those values. For
Reaves (2005), authenticity is one of the values that define spiritual behaviour.
Authenticity can be defined as owning one's thoughts, beliefs and emotions and then
acting in a way that is true to one self (Gardner & Schermerhorn, 2004). Authenticity
38

manifests in the work place through a degree of personal relation or connection with
subordinates and could be expressed in these other values; integrity, honesty, and
moral and ethical behaviour (Reave , 2005). When a leader performs authentically, that
is, they say what they think and feel , they are performing with transparent intentions and
with a clear visible connection to their values.
My literature review into authenticity is intertwined with the values of honesty and
integrity because of the close relationship these values have with each other, therefore I
do not separate them in my research. I define integrity as a secure observance to a
value system of ethical and moral principles (Reave, 2005). When I speak of it I
consider it an aspect of authenticity. This is because, as much of the research has
suggested one cannot act with authenticity without acting with integrity and vice a versa.
The same holds true with the value of honesty and the value of authenticity which are
both considered aspects of each other (Reave, 2005). There is evidence that when a
leader comes from a place of authenticity they create better performance for the
organization . I will look at this research and discuss the effects on the organization as a
whole.

Authenticity and Leadership
Many theories of leadership investigate leader's actions but it has been found
that many subordinates look at who a leader is as a person (Narayanswamy, 2008).
Much research claims that authenticity, honesty and ethical behaviour are the
foundation of successful leadership . And integrity is the most commonly mentioned
value for successful business leaders (Reave, 2005). Wagner-Marsh and Conley (1999)
looked at firms that claimed to have a spiritually based corporate culture and what key
39

values were driving their success. When the leader acted with honesty, with themselves
and their subordinates, it was found to be the first key ingredient to a successful
spiritually based corporate culture.
Successful leadership and integrity appear to be highly connected. Hendricks
and Hendricks (2003) conducted thirty years of leadership research, which involved
thousands of subjects, and their leadership model begins with integrity as the most
important value. They found that, if leaders learned how to act and speak with integrity,
they were more successful at their roles , and that leaders can lose authenticity if their
character and behaviour are not integrated.
The largest case for integrity was one in which fifteen thousand twenty two
middle managers were studied, from sixty different cultures and seven hundred seventy
nine organizations (Den , House , Hanges, Ruiz-Qu intanilla , Dorfman , 1999). In this
study the researchers were looking for the universally held attributes of transformation
and charismatic leadership across cultures. It was found that in all cultures several
attributes reflecting integrity, such as trustworthy and honesty, were the number one
universally endorsed attributes of leaders. This study highlights the value of spiritual
leadership and integrity in this modern era of corporate globalization.

Leader Authenticity Effects on the Subordinate.
Leaders are often in situations they don 't know how to handle but feel pressure to
pretend like they do. Subordinates will often see this discrepancy. By being honest, a
leader may admit they don 't know how to handle a given situation . An honest leader will
be honest with themselves and with their subordinates. This can be a challenging place

40

to be in for leaders because many have ascended the ranks on success and selfconfidence.
The benefits are clear for leaders who have the courage to be authentic with their
subordinates. Barsh et al. , (2008) noticed that risk aversion and fear are common
emotions for CEO's but a lack of ability to acknowledge these emotions create a culture
of mistrust. In their research, they found when leaders were capable of acknowledging
and confronting their own emotions of fear and risk aversion , they indirectly helped their
subordinates to do the same, which acted as an agent for motivation. The leader's
expression of authenticity has also been found to form a bond of trust with the
subordinates (Gardner & Schermerhorn , 2004)
Leader authenticity has been linked not only to trust and motivation but also to a
subordinate's level of ethics through leadership integrity. Leader integrity clearly affects
the climate of ethics in an organization , which therefore influences the ethical decisions
of the workers (Reave, 2005). The research of Weaver, Trevino and Cochran (1999)
support this view. A survey conducted of all Fortune 500 industrial and service
companies found that leaders defined the values of the firm. This is largely because the
ethical programs and implementation came from them. But the true values of the firm
were reflected in the leader's commitment to these ethical programs. Further into this
research, Morgan (1993) found that through four separate workplace surveys,
immediate supervisors are the main influence of ethics and peers are second.
Therefore, employees' perception of the leader's integrity has the greatest influence on
the organizational climate of ethics in the organization.

41

Leader Authenticity and Performance of the Organization
The importance of authenticity in leadership lies in the expression of the leader's
values. Barrett (2005) studied value congruence in two hundred organizations and
several hundred employees over a four year span. Value congruence is a high number
of matching values between the values of the organization and the personal values of
the employee (Barrett, 2005). The company values they focused on were not
organizational and performance in nature, but how much the company culture reflected
employees' own sense of values. Barrett found that for an organization to achieve longterm success it must achieve value congruence. The more values that come from
consciousness spectrum, a set of values he defined as spiritual, and the higher the
degree of congruence of those values, the higher the level of employee fulfillment,
customer satisfaction and levels of profit. This demonstrates that it is important for
organizational performance to have aligned values between the organization, leader
and worker. And only through authentic behaviour will the values expressed be
believable.
The perceived integrity of the leader has been shown to have a substantial effect
on the bottom line of an organization. Mayfield (as cited in Reave, 2005, pg. 669) found
that worker loyalty and commitment increases when employees believed in the integrity
of their leader. His research found that loyalty and commitment boosted productivity by
11% while lack of worker loyalty and commitment caused 34% of employee turnover.
Some research emphasized the importance of integrity to build trust with the
subordinates. Becker, in his research, discovered that high levels of integrity were
matched with high levels of trustworthiness in the leader. When leaders acted with

42

integrity they developed trust, created positive working relationships and business
profited from the outcomes (as cited in Reaves, 2005, pg. 669). The research
conducted by Dirks and Ferrin (2002) would hypothesis then that a leader who comes
from integrity and creates trust creates better organizational performance. Their
research was mentioned previously and applies here. In their research, on studying the
effects of leadership trust, there was a clear relationship between trust of the manager
and a variety of different measures of performance of the organization which are all tied
to profitability, such as; job satisfaction, performance, commitment and lack of turnover.
In summary, the research suggests that a spiritual leader, acting from a place of
authenticity, honesty and integrity, will be a source of ethical influence in the
organization as well as create trust with subordinates. This, in turn, will create better job
satisfaction, performance, commitment and reduce turnover. Therefore, I put forth my
twelfth proposition: a spiritual leader, who demonstrates authenticity, will create
better organizational performance as well as increased commitment and job
satisfaction for employees than a non-spiritual leader.
I validate the importance of authenticity by confirming that an authentic spiritual
leader will create better performance for the organization.

Limitations of the Study
The limitations placed on this literature review lend to the subjective nature of
spirituality. Though I have often spoken in general terms, the values that I have chosen
could be expressed in a manner that could negate findings in this literature review. For
example, some may equate passivity with humility and allow peers to walk all over
them, loosing respect from their subordinates. Faith in a vision may come off as preachy
43

"putting off' subordinates which may reduce performance. Alternatively, spirituality may
mean putting on false emotions of happiness, which would lose authenticity. Spirituality
is a complex, abstract and challenging subject to quantify. For this reason the subject
would benefit from more research on spiritual values, the effects on subordinates, and
most of all from a viable spiritual leadership theory.

44

Chapter 3
Becoming a Spiritual Leader
I now demonstrate how a leader can become spiritual after defining the
aforementioned values that make a spiritual leader.
Spirituality must be an authentic desire within the leader. The creation of a
spiritual leader cannot come from a place of forced behaviours. One cannot look to
spiritual leadership only to get the benefits associated with employee performance. It is
a natural discovery and expression of a personal value system. A spiritual leader is
authentic; therefore, the discovery of the transcendent mystery of the universe in
oneself needs to be a real desire. If not, the leader begins from a place of inauthenticity
and will likely lose trust and commitment of the subordinates (Gardner & Schermerhorn,
2004).
Once the desire to pursue spirituality is genuinely cultivated within oneself, the
next step is to engage in contemplation . The purpose of contemplation is to develop a
relationship with the self and with a Higher Power (Reave, 2005). This could manifest in
thoughts that contemplate one's purpose in life and one 's relationship with the Higher
Power. According to Newberg and Waldmen (201 0) , contemplative practices strengthen
a neurological circuit that generates compassion, social awareness and peacefulness in
the brain. By encouraging contemplation a leader would cultivate the values of finding
meaning , altruistic love and self-awareness, and in this manner gain the benefits of
organizational performance associated with it.
A leader can further embrace spiritual leadership and its benefits by meditating.
Newberg and Waldmen (2010) say that meditation stimulates a part of the brain called
45

the anterior cingulate, which generates empathy and compassion . The anterior
cingulate sits in the middle of our brain and communicates with the frontal lobe and the
limbic system. The anterior cingulate, therefore, helps regulate feelings and thoughts.
With a developed anterior cingulate one will have greater empathy and react less with
anger or fear. Therefore, meditation will further increase the benefits of self-awareness
in a leader.
Lastly, I would summarize how a leader can become a spiritual leader by
examining the research of Margolin et al. (2011) and their work on the Sen System,
which combines mantra, meditation, and visioning, created by Tulshi Sen. The mantra
component is used to encourage the contemplation of an individual's identity and their
relationship to the Conscious Universe (Sen, 2006). One mantra is Pragyanaam
Brahman which means; Consciousness is the creator. This mantra infuses the meditator

with the contemplation that the conscious Universe is made of the same consciousness
which creates one's self-awareness (Sen , 2006). This system is combined with
meditation and is meant to provide both the benefits of mediation and contemplation.
Visioning is another critical competent to the Sen System (Sen, 2006). In this
system , the mantras and meditation helps the individual become aware of deeper, inner
thoughts and gives them the power to control them, providing the tools to guide the
visions that are truly desired.
Thus if a leader wants to become a spiritual leader, the desire for spirituality must
be real in their heart, validating their own value of authenticity. Then by embracing
contemplation, meditation and visioning, such as through the Sen System of meditation,
a leader will cultivate the other four values of a spiritual individual. The cultivation and

46

development of meaning , altruistic love, self-awareness, visioning and authenticity will
bring about the desired change from a leader to a spiritual leader.

47

Chapter 4
Discussion & Conclusion
The values expressed by a spiritual individual appear to have beneficial effects
on the leader, and in turn create better performance for the organization . I conducted
this literature review to answer the question "What are the effects of spiritual values on
leadership behaviour, and do those effects create better performance for the
organization?" The values I found expressed by a spiritual leader: finding meaning,
altruistic love, self-awareness, visioning and authenticity, each benefitted the
organizational performance either by direct causation or correlation. For example,
finding meaning was not found to directly create organizational performance but was
correlated with commitment, which increases organizational performance.
The propositions outlined in my literature review demonstrate the effects spiritual
values have on leadership and show that spiritual leadership does create better
performance for the organization.
For review these propositions are;
Proposition 1: A spiritual leader will have a deeper integration of his role with his

identity than a non-spiritual leader.
Proposition 2: A spiritual leader who experiences a sense of meaning for his or her

role will increase organizational performance more so than a leader who experiences no
meaning for their role.
Proposition 3: Subordinates that experience a sense of meaning for their role have

better performance.

48

Proposition 4: A spiritual leader will be a more effective leader by creating an

emphasis on company values and goals and rather than creating a personality culture.
Proposition 5: A spiritual leader will create more commitment, better performance and

higher job satisfaction from subordinates than a non-spiritual leader.
Proposition 6: A spiritual leader will make an organization perform better than a non-

spiritual leader because of his or her sense of self-awareness.
Proposition 7: A spiritual leader who meditates will make an organization perform

better than a leader who does not meditate.
Proposition 8: Subordinates who meditate will perform their tasks with more

effectiveness than subordinates who do not.
Proposition 9: A spiritual leader's degree of faith positively impacts the degree of faith

of the subordinate, more than a leader who does not express faith.
Proposition 10: A spiritual leader's degree of optimism positively impacts

organizational performance more than a leader who is not optimistic.
Proposition 11: Subordinates who vision the outcome of their task before it is complete

will perform better than subordinates who do not.
Proposition 12: A spiritual leader, who demonstrates authenticity, will create better

organizational performance as well as increased commitment and job satisfaction for
employees than a non-spiritual leader.
The conclusions that can be drawn from my literature review demonstrate the value
of spiritual leadership in the work place. Each value was studied individually, yet the
picture that forms is a leader that has multifaceted benefits for an organization. If these
values are integrated wholly, then the benefits for the spiritual leader are a greater

49

sense of enjoyment from their role and an ability to separate themselves from the
stresses of their position . The organization benefits by having an effective leader that
makes the focus of their role the organizations goals, and not the leader's personality.
Lastly, the greatest benefit of the spiritual leader is with the subordinates. They will
enjoy their work more and will be more committed. They will trust their leader, which will
open them to the leaders influence of optimism and faith in the vision , and possibly
meditation and visioning. They will have increased performance which in turns benefits
the organization. I would hope these finding draws attention to the need for spiritual
leaders in the work place and demonstrates the significant competitive advantage for
any organization .

so

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