CHAPTER 9: Spiritual Transformation and Engagement in Workplace Culture

Let us begin with one person in one workplace. There are two general types of psychological models of that person’s nature that an employer might use to regulate his or her behavior while at work. Probably the oldest and most enduring model assumes that a person’s labor is performed only or primarily for one or both of two reasons: (1) for tangible gain, that is, for primary reinforcers such as food, water, or shelter, or secondary reinforcers such as money that can be exchanged for them; or (2) in order to avoid the painful consequences that may result from not working. However, we know from psychological and workplace research and from knowledge of how some of the most successful companies are run that this model breaks down because humans have social cognitive mechanisms that can be engaged to motivate them to behave contrary to the simple dictates, pushes and pulls, of the more primitive model (Anderson, Ones, Sinangil, & Viswesvaran, 2002; Borman, Ilgen, & Klimoski, 2003; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010). That is, people also perform labor for nontangible reasons that emerge from and express what is functionally spiritual for them, such as their values, fulfillment of commitments, higher purposes, consistency of self, personal goals, and worldviews—components of their meaning system—any of which could motivate them to perform the same labor for less, not more, money or access to tangible reinforcers or avoidance of pain (Zimbardo, 1969). In fact, sometimes a person chooses to suffer or possibly die by working for a higher goal, such as accepting torture rather than betraying one’s country while in military service, or risking being shot by crossfire while serving as a relief worker in an area of live conflict. In brief, there are myriad examples of people working long and hard beyond minimum requirements in service of their personal higher order values and strivings (Emmons, 1999) regulated through their meaning system (Baumeister, 1991; Park, 2005, 2010; Silberman, 2005), that is, for what they, not necessarily their employer, see as the higher good.