CSR and spirituality at work: convergent or divergent?

Abstract

This paper reviews the history, meaning, assumptions and expectations ascribed to the respective concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Spirituality at Work (SAW). Although the movement towards integrating spirit into the workplace is more recent than the debate on the social responsibilities of business, both have raised important questions that could challenge the existing economic system and the fundamentals of contemporary business practice. Our aim is to examine those questions and assess whether each concept, as it is now understood, can play the critical role it purported to play. We also explore whether CSR and SAW converge in goals and processes or whether they aim for different outcomes. We discuss recent models that have integrated CSR and SAW and argue that sustainable spiritual and socially aware organisations must start with individual development of the ego-self