Religion, an obstacle to workplace spirituality and employee wellness?

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Religion, an obstacle to workplace spirituality and employee wellness?
 
Creator Bester, Alan M, Julian C.
 
Subject Theology; Practical Theology Postfoundational; Spirituality; Wellness; Religion; Workplace Spirituality; Employee Wellness; Religious Plurality; Secularism
Description A desperate need for employee wellness is echoed in work-related stories. Workplace spirituality is presented as an integral part of achieving and maintaining employee wellness. However, there is an observed gap of spirituality in employee wellness programmes and in the absence of the workplace spiritual helper in multidisciplinary wellness teams. Using a postfoundational notion of practical theology, I have explored one of the reasons for this gap, namely workplace spirituality’s association to religion. When spirituality is viewed through the lens of religion, it is overlooked as a vehicle of help. This is a consequence of the obstacles of the taboo of religious discussion, the complexity of religious plurality, the dominant voice of secularism and unhelpful religiosity. A proposal is made for a definition of spirituality that describes the relationship between spirituality and religion that overcomes the religionrelated obstacles to the development of workplace spirituality and so enable spirituality’s contribution in wellness.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research includes an interdisciplinary collaboration with a Human Resource (HR) manager, social worker, arts therapist, clinical pastoral counsellor, medical practitioner, psychologist, businessperson and two psychiatrists that underscores the collaborative effort in wellness. There is an intradisciplinary challenge to those who restrict the view of spirituality to the experience of religion.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2017-11-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Postfoudnational notion of practical theology
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v38i1.1779
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 38, No 1 (2017); 9 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1779/3331 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1779/3330 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1779/3332 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1779/3327
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Alan Bester, Julian C. M https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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