Analysing the career concerns of spiritually oriented people: lessons for contemporary organizations Marjolein Lips-Wiersma Department of Management, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Introduction Although definitions of spirituality vary, they have in common that they are concerned with the process of finding meaning and purpose in our lives as well as living out one’s set of deeply held personal beliefs (Neck and Milliman, 1994). ``Spirituality is the feeling individuals have about the fundamental meaning of who they are, what they are doing, the contributions they are making’’ (Vaill, 1996, p. 218). Contributing to our knowledge on the meaning of work is important as increasingly scholars argue that the basic dilemmas of managerial and work life ``revolve in one way or another around the meaning of work’’ (Jackall, 1988, p. 194). Although it is extensively argued that there are potential benefits for individuals and organizations in aligning spirituality and work, there is as yet little evidence that spirituality does actually influence work behavior. Nor do we know whether in the current diversity of spiritual beliefs there is a common agenda identifiable for organizations to respond to. The research reported in this paper attempts to answer both these questions and the paper explores how organizations might respond to the career needs of spiritually oriented people. Battlista and Almond (1973), in ``The development of meaning in life’’, suggest four basic characteristics of meaningful living. First, when individuals state their lives are meaningful, they have some belief that means they are committed to meaningful living. In this paper I investigate the role of spiritual belief. Within management literature a distinction is usually made between religion and spirituality: ``Religion is a personal or institutionalized system grounded in a set of beliefs, values and practices. In contrast spirituality is a personal state or manner of being. Hence religious practice may moderate one’s spirituality or religious practice may itself be moderated by one’s spirituality’’ (Barnett et al., 2000, p. 574). In the past one justification for not studying workplace spirituality has been a concern with the divisive role of religion. A question is therefore not only whether spirituality influences work behavior but whether, regardless of the source of the diverse spiritual belief systems of the research participants, a common agenda is identifiable for organizations to respond to. Second, according to Battlista and Almond (1973), this commitment to meaningful living provides individuals with a framework from which life events can be interpreted in some coherent fashion, and from which a set of specified purposes is derived. The study presented in this paper is concerned with eliciting these specific purposes in the context of a person’s career. Third, if individuals state that their lives are meaningful they can see themselves as having fulfilled or being in the process of fulfilling these purposes. This study is therefore not only concerned with espoused meanings, but whether these influence career decisions. Finally the process of fulfilling purpose in life confirms that life has existential significance. The ability therefore to enact purpose, in itself, makes life more meaningful. I therefore discuss the findings in the context of possible responses of contemporary organizations to enhance the ability of spiritually oriented people to enact their purposes. Individual or organizational spirituality? Initially I made a choice to analyse career stories rather than organizational Section 1: Academic papers The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1362-0436.htm [ 385 ] Career Development International 7/7 [2002] 385±397 # MCB UP Limited [ISSN 1362-0436] [DOI 10.1108/13620430210449911] Keywords Careers, Organizational culture, Self-development Abstract The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the meaning of work. The study is concerned with eliciting work meanings of spiritually oriented individuals with a view of establishing whether there is a common agenda identifiable and whether spirituality influences work behavior. It was found that in spite of their diversity, all research participants desired to express spiritual life purposes of ``developing and becoming self’’, ``unity with others’’, ``expressing self’’ and ``serving others’’ in the workplace. A second finding is that they seek to balance these over time. Furthermore it was found that spirituality clearly influences work behavior as research participants make career transitions if they cannot express their spirituality. Lessons are explored for contemporary organizations interested in retaining spiritually oriented employees. Received: April 2002 Revised: August 2002 Accepted: August 2002