Spirituality at Work
The sociologist George Ritzer wrote, concerning workplace situations, "Human beings, equipped with a wide array of skills and abilities, are asked to perform a limited number of highly simplified tasks over and over. Instead of expressing their human abilities.., people are forced to deny their humanity and act in a robot-like manner. People do not express themselves.., but rather deny themselves." [The Mcdonaldisation of Society 26.]
Another said, People are infinitely complex individuals of greater potential than ever imagined. They are seeking for new expressions of what it means to be truly human, of connecting with the Creator in ways that will not only be life-giving for ourselves, but that will empower us to make our distinctive contribution to the wellbeing of the world at large, because that is the primary purpose of life.
With these two quotes ringing in my ears I attended a weekend course on “Spirituality at Work” at Ridley College in Cambridge under the auspices of the ‘Faith in Business’ group led by Dr.Richard Higginson. There were 41 participants there from various fields both lay and ordained. Subjects covered were Spirituality and the New Age, Spirituality and the workplace: A comparative Perspective, The New paradigm, Historical Context.
The foundational argument was that in certain organisations there was a seeking after something more — not just a maximization of profits and the resulting danger of greed - but a seeking for a new way of working and seeking for the best that humans can give toward the wellbeing of the world. They are concerned about the ethical foundations upon which business is built. There is the start of a movement in the USA and in Australia and a small beginning in this country of a’ Spirituality at Work’ group, one of the British groups is called the Trinity Group.
Much time was spent on trying to define what Spirituality is. The best one to come out of it was one written by Rowland Croucher an Australian, "Christian spirituality is about the movements of God’s Spirit in one’s life, in the community of faith and in the cosmos. It is concerned with how all realities relate; enlivened, enlightened, and empowered by the Spirit of Jesus. Spirituality is the dynamic process whereby the word of God is applied by the Spirit of God to the heart and mind of the child of God that she or he becomes more like the Son of God." With the Industrial Mission definition that the Chaplains go to uncover the face of God in industry — the God who has already been there before us - this definition seemed to me to be the most relevant. It did not, however, give space for God working out his plan with others who were not aware of His presence which was a downside to it.
It was said that in today’s world Governments, companies and individuals seem to find themselves in a bind, unable to do the good that they would, doing the evil they really don’t want to do.
Some of the reasons given were:
- The work of everyone, from the senior most executive to the most menial employee, has become increasingly unmanageable in quantity, scope, complexity and uncertainty, with the result that we talk of Corporate Responsibility and of work/life balance, but we are enslaved to the bottom line.
- We talk of the need to ensure long-term sustainability or at least medium-term shareholder returns, but we have a stockmarket system which focuses on immediate returns (this quarter at present, but this will soon shrink to this month as computerization enables companies to present their financial statements, each month and then each day and then each moment.)
- Technology has always promised us power and choice, but we are living in what may come to be called the ETC Century (that of Erosion, Technological Transformation and Corporate Concentration); technological power is becoming concentrated in a corporate elite that seems to be struggling for dominance over the rest of the earth.
Some of the key Issues:
- The purpose of companies in law has moved from that of reducing risk to that of maximizing of returns (what kind of Company Law is appropriate?)
- The meeting needs function has become conflated with the marketing function (should there be much more stringent moral constraints on advertising and marketing?)
- The whole international financial system is now based on a mechanism which is specifically forbidden in the OT, in the Koran, in the Indian Scriptures, in Chinese tradition, among Greeks, Romans, Native Americans...
- Usury inevitably creates a system which grows faster and faster and eventually grows cancerously fast.
The presentations and the group discussions touched on many of the problems but thankfully it was not all doom and gloom as we have a God who loves and cares for us. The working out of the solutions is not done in a vacuum but within the cover of the Holy Spirit who gives wings to the seekers to find the Kingdom of God all around.
I came away from the Conference with a feeling that a new way forward was being presented in that people were becoming aware of their Spirituality and seeking ways to express it especially in the work situation. We, in Industrial Mission, can walk with our people in the workplace and uncover the Kingdom with them.
REV. W. G. H. RAYNE
EDINBURGH.
First published IMAgenda