Spirituality and Public Administration
ShaTara T. Ambler
Columbia Southern University
Public Administration Ethics
22 January 2016

Abstract
When in the workplace there are a few things that people try not to discuss and religion or spirituality is one of those. It is often a touchy subject because of differing beliefs and opinions. Does spirituality help or hinder productivity in the workplace? Will someone that is spiritual be a better leader than someone who is not? I will explore two articles Spirituality and Public Service and In the Study of Leadership, Spirituality Is the Unexpected Elephant in the Room. I will show how the authors relate spirituality to leadership. They tend to sway to the opinion that spirituality is needed in the workplace and is effective in leadership. I will tell my opinion on the subject and how I feel spirituality relates to leadership in public administration.

Spirituality and Public Administration
When discussing great leadership traits, a lot of people do not use the word spiritual. You will hear words like charismatic, strong, leader and great work ethic. Those are the types of people you would want to lead an organization. Does it matter if they are spiritual or not? People will have differing opinions on that subject mostly depending on their own personal position on spirituality. A person that is spiritual is considered ethical and caring. So whether you are spiritual or not most people would want someone like that as a leader in their organization. You do not have to be spiritual to have those same values however.
When reading the article “In the Study of Leadership, Spirituality Is the Unexpected Elephant in the Room. They were reviewing a book by Simon Robinson and Jonathan Smith Co-Charismatic Leadership: Critical Perspectives on Spirituality, Ethics and Leadership. They went over the different models of leadership accessing the weaknesses and strengths of each approach. In their review they found that Robinson and Smith found weaknesses in both transactional and transformational models of leadership. “Transactional models which involve the negotiation of contracts and the pursuit of fairness, lack mechanisms for meaning making. Transformational models make the flawed assumption that the values of the leader are the only correct ones (Frutcher, 2014).” In their view spirituality is one part of a holistic approach to “Co-Charismatic Leadership” In their definition of spirituality they used the terms belief, concepts, value, character and practice. The authors talk about leaders using creative action which saying if we are going to use spirituality in our leadership each leadership situation must be approached with fresh eyes. They talk about the challenges introduced by bringing spirituality into the workplace and warn against using it as the latest trend. They discuss having open dialogue and how the vision of the organization should be constantly revisited in meetings and private conversations. Another level of spirituality is proposed other than ethics, they add another important dimension which is giving meaning to a group’s activities. This has been used in other leadership models we well. In the end they provided a new theory for spirituality and leadership. The author of this essay concluded that spirituality is an untapped resource for organizational leaders of all kind. However they say “ to draw the charismata out of a community and to implement a theory of leadership that is rooted in spirituality requires a great deal of practice, reflection, and cultivation of virtues (Fruchter, 2014)”.

My second article goes into specifically spirituality and public service. It shows a correlation with spiritual leaders in public service and other career where spirituality has received a substantial amount of attention in such fields as business management, social work and health care. They reference a career in public service as a calling which mirrors a spiritual chord. They feel the subject of spirituality is not addressed in recent research when it comes to public service careers. “According to theories of public service motivation, public employees are “public servants” who are committed to the public good and characterized by an ethic that is built on benevolence, life in the service of others, and a desire to affect the community (Cartwright, Houston, 2007)”. They put a very high regard to public servants because of their commitment to the communities they serve and refers to their character as spiritual. Public service motive assumes that those who answer the calling are characterized by and ethical conscience that is based on the importance of the common good, service to others, and social equality. They go on to study the motivation of public and private sector employees and the rewards they sought. Public sector employees placed higher value on intrinsic rewards while private sector employees valued extrinsic rewards. So it concludes public employees place a greater emphasis on the importance of meaningful work and service to society. They do tend to stay on the spiritual side versus the religious side when speaking of the traits in public servants. They view religion as more community focused, formal and orthodox and spirituality being the exact opposite. Spirituality tends to be more emotionally oriented and inwardly directed. They conclude to say that individuals that pursue public service compared to private sector, for-profit individuals are individuals that are inclined to address a need to fulfill a higher purpose, to meet their own needs through service to others. They also seek personal growth in the process.

I love how the authors explained spirituality in their articles. They did not use a particular religion or say what one’s personal beliefs should be in a higher power. I feel no matter an individual’s personal belief or religion they can be spiritual. How spiritually was levied in these articles it was a person with a moral compass and sense of obligation to help. That explains someone who is a public servant very well. Whether you are in law enforcement, fire protection, military or even politics those individuals normally want the greater good for their communities. They want to help at all cost and would not normally intentionally cause any harm. So in their definitions of spiritually I would agree that a good leader should be spiritual not necessarily religious.

References
Houston, D. J., & Cartwright, K. E. (2007). Spirituality and Public Service. Public Administration Review, 67(1), 88-102. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00699.x
Fruchter, D. (2015). In the Study of Leadership, Spirituality Is the Unexpected Elephant in the Room. Public Administration Review, 75(1), 171-174. doi:10.1111/puar.12324

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