A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America:  Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace

After years of studying and practicing ways to help organizations change for the better, authors Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton came to a surprising conclusion:  All the conventional techniques in the world cannot produce fundamental change. 

Today’s organizations are spiritually impoverished, and only when companies find ways to integrate personal beliefs with organizational values will meaningful change occur.  With this book, authors Mitroff and Denton become the first researchers to offer hard, scientific data regarding the effect of spirituality-or the lack of it-on corporate America, that is, on the performance of organizations and executives at large.  Their “spiritual audit” is based on surveys and ingterviews with over 200 leaders of organizations including the YMCA, Tom’s of Maine, Ben & Jerry’s, and Alcoholics Anonymous. It identifies those beliefs to which employees are most committed and to what degree they are being met on the job. 

What the authors found is that spirituality is one of the most important determinants of organizational performance.  People who are more spiritually involved  achieve better results.  In fact, spirituality may well be the ultimate competitive advantage.  However, most workers don’t know hop to express their spirituality in the workplace.  Employees and employers alike are hungry for positive models.

Based on their research, Mitroff and Denton present five non-religious, non offensive models for bringing people-body and soul-to work.  Recounting the best practices of organizations that have learned to harness the power of spiritual energy, they show managers, executives, and organization designers how to establish policies and procedures that accommodate spirituality and leverage it as a powerful force for positive change.  Finally, through a series of critical questions, they help leaders address and correct the lack of spirituality in their organizations in order to make them more creative, competitive, and profitable.

(This review from Forbes Leaders Book Club)