Mindful reflexivity: Unpacking the process of transformative learning in mindfulness and discernment

Can spiritual practice encourage transformative learning? In this article, we unpack how spiritual practices from the Buddhist tradition—mindfulness—and the Quaker tradition—discernment—encourage the attainment of moral reflexivity and the capacity to transform self in individual and relational organizational contexts, respectively. We also show how moral reflexivity and self-transformation are mutually reinforcing and promote a transformational cycle of management learning. We propose that “mindful reflexivity”, a foundational model of spiritually informed moral reflexivity, can contribute to new ways of management learning through its context sensitivity and ethical orientation to foster the kinds of reflexivity needed for responsible management. Our article concludes with implications for management learning theory and practice, and we offer pathways for future research

Moral identity and the Quaker tradition: moral dissonance negotiation in the workplace

Moral identity and moral dissonance in business ethics have explored tensions relating to moral self-identity and the pressures for identity compartmentalization in the workplace. Yet, the connection between these streams of scholarship, spirituality at work, and business ethics is under-theorized. In this paper, we examine the Quaker tradition to explore how Quakers’ interpret moral identity and negotiate the moral dissonance associated with a divided self in work organizations. Specifically, our study illuminates that while Quakers’ share a tradition-specific conception of “Quaker morality” grounded in Quaker theology and the Quaker testimonies to truth, integrity, peace, equality, and simplicity, they often foreground the pursuit of an undivided self through seeking work that enables an expression of Quaker moral identity, or by resigning from work organizations that do not. In most cases, however, Quakers’ face moral dissonance at work and engage in either identity compartmentalization and draw upon the metaphor of a ‘spiritual journey’ as a form of self-justification, or reframe, compartmentalize and engage in work tasks that are both subjectively moral and meaningful. We present a model that elaborates these negotiation processes and invite further research that examines how the spiritual traditions influence moral identity construction at work

Spiritual Leadership: A Buddhist Approach

This study examines spiritual leadership from a Buddhist perspective in the context of a transitional economy: Vietnam. Vietnam is undergoing significant changes in blending traditional values with contemporary ones, which creates a complex and dynamic social setting for exploratory research. Changes include incorporating traditional spiritual practices and engaged Buddhism in the contemporary context. The study explores and examines how spiritual leaders in organizations interpret and enact Buddhist teachings and principles in Vietnam. The outcome of the preliminary quantitative study examining spiritual leadership in the context of Vietnam informs a mixed methods study in which the qualitative phase is guided by a critical-realist-informed grounded theory approach. This mixed-methods study explores how spiritual leadership is distinctively interpreted by organizational leaders who are Buddhist practitioners. The findings suggest that Buddhist-enacted leadership is a process of self-transformation and operates as a skilful means involving multiple leadership identities to flexibly and mindfully respond to contextual challenges. Context emerges as having a primary role in the understanding and application of Buddhist principles in leadership, manifested by the Buddhist concepts of impermanence, non-attachment, and wisdom. Buddhist-enacted leaders’ authenticity was challenged and moderated by the adoption of multiple identities, resulting in inconsistencies in leadership styles, the overall skepticism in Vietnamese society due to the lack of trust of the Vietnamese people as a result of the political and social features of the country’s regime, and the level of maturity of leaders in respect of Buddhist practices. The study introduces a Buddhist-enacted leadership model that contextualises spiritual leadership and reaffirms that neither the promotion of commonly known good practices nor any mimetic isomorphism of social responsibility or Western sustainability practices would be able to address the complex nature of a developing nation like Vietnam

Fusion leadership: A transcultural interpretation and application

This article introduces a new perspective that challenges well-known leadership styles that have flourished in hitherto stable environments. ‘Fusion leadership’ integrates Eastern and Western values and mindsets to establish an approach that may more effectively respond to the challenges and dilemmas of leadership and organizational issues in contemporary situations in the context of globalization. Our approach contributes to the literature on leadership by providing skills, techniques and practical wisdom for leaders to consider and develop their leadership values, styles and practices to respond to cross-cultural challenges

Trust Issues and Engaged Buddhism: The Triggers for Skillful Managerial Approaches

As a transitional economy, Vietnam has undergone tremendous changes over recent decades within a ‘fusion’ context that blends both traditional and modern values from its complex history. However, few studies have explored how contemporary issues in the context of Vietnam have brought both obstacles and skillful initiatives to managerial approaches to doing business. We draw on the concepts of social trust and institutional theory to explore how informal institutions such as religious forces can contribute to the development of individual trust and whether individuals are willing to extend trust beyond familial networks. We contribute to the notion of a moral conception of trust by exploring how Buddhism in particular has initiated distinctive managerial approaches in the context of Vietnam, in response to dilemmas of social trust. Our findings highlight that as an informal institution, engaged Buddhism yields significant impact on the formation of social trust. We carried out in-depth interviews in Vietnam with 33 organizational leaders who were Buddhist practitioners, using thematic analysis to elucidate our findings and arguments. The study reveals how the incorporation of Buddhist principles has fostered context-sensitive, non-extreme, and reflexive managerial approaches to enhance morality as a response to social trust issues

The light and the dark of mindful social capital: right mindfulness and social capital development

Despite the literatures on spirituality and social capital development remaining largely disconnected, we address how right mindfulness encourages organizational‐level social capital. We connect the philosophical foundations of ‘right mindfulness’ to bonding and bridging social capital, and the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital. We conclude that a skilful approach to right mindfulness, coupled with organizational learning heuristics, has much to offer the conversation on social capital development, and yet its potential has not been fully recognized. Despite this promise, we draw attention to a ‘dark side’ to the co‐optation by organizations of mindfulness practices and draw some further boundary conditions. We argue that a secular interpretation of right mindfulness limits its potential in organizational contexts. We conclude with managerial implications and pathways for future research

How the contextual constraints and tensions of a transitional context influence individuals’ negotiations of meaningful work – the case of Vietnam

This study explores meaningful work in the transitional context of Vietnam under Đổi Mới–the renovation policy implemented in 1986. Based on 60 in-depth interviews with participants from various industries, the study emphasises how features of a transitional context can deeply influence the way people make sense of meaningfulness in the workplace. Institutional constraints (institutionalised corruption and lack of institutional support), social constraints (low social trust and sense of insecurity), spiritual yearnings (engaged Buddhism) and other tensions relating to occupational, gender and age differences are found to influence and shape participants’ distinctive views of the qualities of meaningful work (pragmatic, reflexive, self-transcendent, and ethical). These views differ from Western ways of conceptualising meaningful work, and affect individuals’ negotiation of meaningful work. This study contributes a non-Western perspective on meaningful work, introducing meaningful work through the lens of Buddhist principles and offering a contextualised framework

Sensemaking and spirituality: The process of re-centring self-decentralisation at work

This study explores sensemaking as grounded in identity construction in the context of workplace spirituality to uncover how individuals make sense of the process of self-decentralisation. The paper adopts the Buddhist notion of non-self as an analytical tool to explore how Buddhist practitioners in organisational contexts ‘empty out’ and de-centre the self in constructing and negotiating self-identity in the workplace. Through 104 interviews with both executives and employees who are Buddhist practitioners, the study reveals a phenomenon of re-centring self-decentralisation emerging in the pursuit of self-decentralisation. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how individuals make sense of work in the context of a spiritual practice and highlight practical implications for HRM practices to manage dynamic interpretations and enactments of spiritual practices in organisations

Spiritual practice and management education pedagogy: exploring the philosophical foundations of three spiritual traditions

Can the philosophical foundations of spiritual practices inform management education pedagogy and in the long-run support emotional development and more ethical and responsible business practice? In this article, we introduce the essential aspects of three different spiritual traditions—Daoist inner work, Buddhist mindful reflexivity, and Quaker discernment—and lay out some foundations between these essential aspects and management education pedagogy. We offer examples of utilizing these concepts in teaching business ethics in order to offer a foundational discussion for future elaboration. Our experiences also illuminate that instructor preparation is a key ingredient if the kinds of teaching we advance are to gain traction and contribute to the repeated calls for pedagogical innovations that challenge dominant paradigms. We offer some concluding remarks, pathways for future research and indicate a list of resources that can support potential instructors