Beacons of Business - 35

[Guest guest]

Sairam Sisters and Brothers,

We will continue with Andrè L. Delbecq, D.B.A., Director - Institute for

Spirituality and Organisation Leadership, J. Thomas and Kathleen L. McCarthy

University Professor, Santa Clara University, Alameda, CA, USA.

---

"There are two things I never thought I would see in my lifetime: one was the

fall of the Russian empire; and the other was hearing the word "God" spoken of

in the Academy of Management. So you can imagine, not everyone applauded my

decision to direct my teaching and scholarship toward spirituality. There were

certainly colleagues in the Academy of Management who thought I had gone over

the edge. Some of these colleagues who are secular humanists hold that

spirituality does not belong in the Academy. They feel spirituality isn't

pertinent to the "science of management".

No matter, as mentioned earlier, I arrived at the position that I was willing to

be God's fool. Certainly in the beginning, I had no idea what the outcome would

be. I did not know how the "Spirituality of Organisational Leadership" seminar

would be received by MBAs. I did not know what that the path of scholarly

publication might be. Remember, this was in the late 90's. At that time

journals devoted to this intersection of management and spirituality had not

yet commenced, and traditional journals only occasionally entertained the

subject. The Management, Spirituality and Religion Interest Group within the

Academy of Management that is now so robust did not exist. The large number of

graduate students writing theses and dissertations on this subject matter had

not yet emerged. So I was "going public" before the general movement

legitimating this new field of study emerged. Yet I must admit that everything

was actually easier, because of an act of internal surrender. Once I decided

that I couldn't be humiliated whatever the outcome of my new arena of teaching

and scholarship might be, then moving onto the new path was much easier.

I think God makes good use of each of us. The fact that I - a former Dean of the

Fellows of the Academy of Management, former chair of three divisions of the

Academy, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Academy, a former

president of both the Mid-West and Western Divisions of the Academy of

Management, a former Executive Director of the Organisation Behavior Teaching

Society, a senior scholar with a reputation for rigorous conceptualisation -

was entering this new field did provide courage to others. Later when we

circulated a petition to the Academy to form an interest group to focus on

spirituality, in one afternoon we had the requisite 200 signatures. (At this

time the MSR Interest Group has become a very strong entity with quality

emergent scholarship. All of these good outcomes have unfolded very quickly).

There is a wonderful French word that describes a blossom that suddenly opens:

it symbolises for me the concept of "readiness". Although I was not aware that

it would be the case when I began this programme of teaching and scholarship,

there was clearly great readiness on the part of both practicing professionals

and academics to commence addressing matters of spirituality."

© Global Dharma Center 2004

http://www.globaldharma.org