Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1410736 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Soul food for the corporate soul
One of the constant problems of modern life is the amount of `soullessness' that surrounds us. This has come to be expected from big institutions and bureaucracies, governmental agencies and corporations, but has become so much a part of our culture that it permeates even the way we view ourselves in our own dealings with each other. Being part of a large organisation does not require one to lose one's soul, or even check it at the door. In the Western culture, we likely spend more time at work than at home and/or at leisure, and far more than at church (or other directly spiritual pursuit).

This need not be the case, according to Benefiel. `Soul at work is not a theological abstraction or a dogmatic mantra, but the way that sustained purpose, culture and identity can transcend and enhance an organization's performance and success.' This requires an understanding of certain key elements, such as spirituality, purpose, transformation - words often used but little understood with any kind of fullness or precision. Benefiel's discussion is fully grounded in her own experience both as a teacher and as a person at work in various sorts of environments, but also in the experiences and insights from others. These others can be as diverse as the music group U2 to the corporate giant Southwest Airlines.

Benefiel states that `organisations, like individuals, have souls that transcend and support their practical activity'. This kind of soul-making comes from the collective efforts of those involved in the community created, by recognising a healthy balance of purpose between the individual and the communal, and a wider responsibility of the group to the rest of the world. It does not mean having no care or concern for the purposes of the organisation (even the financial bottom line), but often, `paradoxically, keeping their eyes on the spiritual goal often results in material reward.'

Benefiel looks at specific individuals, who exemplify different elements of leadership in both the spiritual and the institutional senses. She gives practical suggestions as to how these things might be interpreted in other contexts and communities, so that general principles can be derived in many cases.

This is a book that would make an excellent study for any company or organisation seeking to clarify its direction and purpose. The practice of corporate discernment is not a common one, but is deserving of consideration as the task of making life worth living comes be seen in more than bottom-line, paycheck kinds of terms. It is also useful for those who `go it alone', both to help them in their clarity as well as to see the greater connections beyond their own individual work.

Margaret Benefiel has provided a good service to the business world with this text. It introduces spirituality in broad terms, and so can be used in interfaith/ecumenical environments without difficulty.

Soul at Work
This is an accessible, inspiring and confidence-building book. Margaret Benefiel addresses business issues with the insights of a theologian, not in order to promote abstract theories, but to develop and nurture ways of being and doing. It is a remarkable handbook and reference point which expects us to think deeply about spirituality in the workplace. It encourages us to want to do better in bringing our whole selves to our work and in creating organisations which are capable of nourishing spiritual values.

The book describes the way organisations do business, and shows how spiritual essentials can be realised in this process. Benefiel analyses the day-to-day practices of six organisations and the people who run them, ranging from South West Airlines through the band U2 to the Sisters of the Road Café. Research interviews allow the reader to engage with the dilemmas, successes and failures of the leaders of these organisations and the people they work with, and to appreciate the way in which business lives grow, change and develop over time. The profoundly practical final section examines how to nurture yourself as a leader and the organisation as a whole. As the director of a UK-based institution, it was instructive for me to make some of the cultural adjustments necessary to the US examples; I enjoyed realising that apparent differences are only ones of description, not of intent.

If you are in any way interested or involved in organisational transformation, or care about the spiritual basis of the lives we lead, this is a book to guide you. It offers me not just challenges, but comfort - something leaders of organisations too often learn to do without but which we need as much as any one of our co-workers. The best endorsement I can give it? – that it lives on my desk, not on my bookshelf.