Spirituality and corporate ethics : a critical application of Danah Zohar’s construct of spiritual intelligence

Abstract

This dissertation aims to elicit interest and raise awareness on Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) as proposed by Danah Zohar, an author, physicist, philosopher, and management thought leader. More specifically, it will analyse the potential of her construct to be integrated in a model of Corporate Ethics that has the scope of human flourishing. In her work, Danah Zohar recounts the true story of a young man who was faced with ethical dilemmas in his role as a corporate executive. Anders was in his mid-30s and occupied the post of senior business executive in a large and successful company. He confided with Zohar that, despite his successful career and good life, he was preoccupied about the state of the world, especially about the global environment and the breakdown of community. He felt uncertain of what he was doing with his life and questioned if his career was the right path to pursue. Anders’ preoccupation was that big businesses like his were especially guilty of not carrying the responsibility for the problems he observed. He wanted to do something about it, and expressed his will to use his life to serve. His purpose in meeting with Zohar was to seek guidance on how to go about turning his life around from being the source of such problems to providing solutions for them. Zohar was intrigued by Anders’ description of his dilemma as a ‘spiritual problem’ that caused him unrest. She observed that this dilemma had become typical amongst sensitive young people. These observations, together with her personal experiences, spurred her to develop a practical way to apply spiritual intelligence in corporate activity to create Spiritual Capital. The corporate world would thus generate wealth that has the wider scope of being economically, socially, environmentally and morally sustainable. Through my personal experience working in different fields over the past twenty years, I can identify with Anders’ dilemma. Finding answers to his questions is largely why I sought help in deepening my spirituality and eventually, also how I developed an interest in Business and Organisational Ethics. I believe that constructs such as the one analysed in this dissertation have much to offer to deepen the scope of any endeavour, be it in business, government or nonprofit organisations.