Dorothea Alewell, Tobias Moll * An Exploratory Study of Spirituality in German Enterprises ** Abstract Spirituality at work is increasingly attracting attention in management research, es- pecially in the Anglo-Saxon and Asian contexts. However, for the German context, we know little about spirituality at work from scientific research, and findings and results from other sources are broadly scattered. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collect first findings on employer’s perception of spirituality at work and specific HRM practices in German workplaces. We analyse daily newspapers and related best-practice publications and conduct a small-scale qualitative employer survey in Northern Germany. To structure the results, we propose three main impact perspec- tives on spirituality in the workplace (workforce diversity, employee needs, and em- ployer capabilities) as well as different employer stances in dealing with these three perspectives, from faith-avoiding to faith-based (Miller & Ewest, 2015). In all three perspectives and stances, companies already implement different HR activities un- der different expectations and perceptions. Some German organisations already ad- dress the needs perspective by room-related tools, working time-related tools, food- related offers, and instruments that facilitate coordination and cooperation in mul- ti-religious settings. Employer stances differ concerning religious and non-religious spirituality. While employers view nonreligious spirituality in the company as gen- erally positive (faith-friendly), they are often sceptical of religious spirituality at work (faith-avoiding or faith-safe). Keywords: Spirituality at work, employer stances, HR activities, Germany (JEL: M500, M540, M590, Z1) Introduction For some years, researchers – often from Anglo-Saxon countries – have been in- tensely discussing topics of spirituality, faith, and religion at work (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Case & Gosling, 2010; Krahnke et al., 2003; Krishnakumar & Neck, 2002; Miller & Ewest, 2015; Loo, 2017; Mensah et al., 2019; Yang et al., * Prof. Dorothea Alewell (corresponding author): University of Hamburg, Department of Busi- ness Administration, Chair for Human Resource Management, Moorweidenstraße 18, 20148 Hamburg, Germany. Email: Dorothea.Alewell@uni-hamburg.de. Tobias Moll: University of Hamburg, Department of Business Administration, Chair for Hu- man Resource Management, Moorweidenstraße 18, 20148 Hamburg, Germany. Email: Tobias.Moll@uni-hamburg.de. ** Date submitted: April 4, 2019. Date accepted after double-blind review: November 25, 2020. An Exploratory Study of Spirituality in German Enterprises 1 mrev, 32 (1) 2021, 1 – 27 DOI: 10.5771/0935-9915-2021-1-1 https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2021-1-1 Generiert durch IP '172.22.53.54', am 02.11.2023, 03:13:48. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.