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Workplace Spirituality as a Precursor to Relationship-Oriented Selling Characteristics

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Abstract

Very few studies have looked upon the construct of workplace spirituality in sales organization context. This paper integrates workplace spirituality with sales literature. The paper points out that self-interest transcendence is a common aspect in the workplace spirituality concept which emerged a decade ago and in most of the relationship-oriented selling characteristics—customer orientation, adaptability, service orientation, and ethical selling behavior. Based on the common aspect of self-interest transcendence, we propose that workplace spirituality could be a causal precursor to relationship-oriented selling characteristics. We present guidelines for future research, implications for practice and a few potential downsides of workplace spirituality in sales organization.

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Notes

  1. The third dimension of workplace spirituality in the study by Milliman et al. (2003) is “alignment with organizational values,” which is similar to the meaningful work and sense of community dimensions of Ashmos and Duchon’s scale (2000) at the organizational level.

  2. The concept of meaningful work as a dimension of workplace spirituality is different from the conceptualizations of meaningful work in job design/job enrichment literature. Duchon and Plowman (2005, p. 814) clearly states that “we draw on the job design literature to ground the notion of meaningful work but we go beyond the job design/job enrichment focus on meaningful tasks and jobs. Meaningful work is about cognitively meaningful tasks but it is also about work that creates a sense of joy (Wrzesniewski 2003), which connects workers to a larger good and to things viewed by the worker as important in life (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz 2003).” Thus, the concept of meaningful work as a dimension of workplace spirituality is unique and attempts to makes a novel contribution to the sales literature through this paper.

  3. Sense of community is different from organizational identification. In organizational identification, the person identifies with the whole organization rather than with alternative targets such as units, departments, or individuals (Siegel and Sisaye 1997) whereas sense of community is about the feeling of strong trust and personal commitment to the immediate community/work unit and its members (Kinjerski and Syrpnek 2006). Another difference is that in sense of community there is a shared sense of greater purpose while in organizational identification there is a psychological congruence with goals of organization and the goals need not have a greater good. Therefore, the concept of sense of community as a dimension of workplace spirituality is unique and makes a new contribution to the selling literature in this paper.

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  1. Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM K), c/o FPM Office, Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode, 673570, Kerala, India

    Vaibhav Chawla

  2. Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM K), Old Faculty Block, Room No. 102, Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode, 673570, Kerala, India

    Sridhar Guda

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Chawla, V., Guda, S. Workplace Spirituality as a Precursor to Relationship-Oriented Selling Characteristics. J Bus Ethics 115, 63–73 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1370-y

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