Title: Conceptualising spirituality for management

Authors: Sharda S. Nandram; Puneet K. Bindlish; Gunjan Joshi

Addresses: Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Straatweg 25, 3621 BG Breukelen, The Netherlands; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands ' Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands ' Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Straatweg 25, 3621 BG Breukelen, The Netherlands

Abstract: To progress spirituality research and increase its applicability for a wider range of topics in business and management common ground around its ontology is of utmost importance. We propose a definition schema for spirituality to help researchers identify the key themes and concepts that must be incorporated when defining or understanding the concept of spirituality. A novel approach has been introduced to define spirituality and enhance scholars' discussions from an integrative perspective. We revisited the literature around the concept of schema and examined 142 definitions of spirituality using Atlas.ti to generate themes. The paper also uses a unique approach adapted from the Tarka method belonging to Indian philosophical approaches to definitions and empirical validation from international experts in the field of spirituality. Through the proposed definition schema, we further enrich the ontology of spirituality and contribute to the epistemological scholarly debates on spirituality for management research.

Keywords: spirituality; ethics; conceptualisation; integrative approach; definition schema.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2024.140099

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2024 Vol.32 No.3, pp.330 - 356

Received: 30 Jan 2023
Accepted: 02 Feb 2023
Published online: 24 Jul 2024 *

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