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How Managers Can Showcase their Spiritual IQ in Business
By Daryl D. Green and Dr. Gary Roberts

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How does a Believer take his faith into a highly secular environment? For the Christian manager, the postmodern workplace provides the ultimate test of our commitment to become more Christ-like. How can Christian managers apply scriptural attributes in the secular marketplace? Servant leader workplace spiritual intelligence (SLWSI) is an important element in promoting these Great Commission and Commandment objectives. It helps managers develop a capacity for transcendence, achieve a higher state of God consciousness, interject the sacred into everyday events, use scriptural principles to solve workplace problems, and engage in ethical and virtuous behavior. Given this premise, an integrated life of faith requires overcoming the traditional barriers of a “church on Sunday,” while living a worldly life Monday through Saturday. Workplace spiritual intelligence consists of the following attributes: 1) an overall life orientation that is in harmony with the will of God, 2) a love-based, altruistic work motivational system, 3) God-honoring, golden-rule work behaviors, and 4) the employment of scriptural “performance” standards to assess motives, behavior, and outcomes. Workplace spiritual intelligence positively influences a wide range of desirable servant leader and follower’s attitudes and behaviors. This article introduces the concept.

The Workplace Dilemma
Why should Christian managers be concerned with their witness on the job anyway? Secularists fail to see that God intervenes everyday in the workplace. Several of the problems that managers of faith routinely encounter include (a) using the wrong methods for success, (b) pursuing the wrong objectives, and (c) setting the wrong examples for the workplace. For example, some managers use the wrong strategy of comparing themselves to other managers. When a manager compares his or her level of success using a self-developed standard of performance excellence, this creates chronic insecurity given that our metrics are rarely complete, reliable, and accurate. This spirit of judgment generates deceptive emotions such as pride when deemed “superior,” envy, insecurity, and fear when we do not “measure up” to others, and a misleading sense of complacency when performance is equal. The result is clear diminution of life quality inhibiting a closer communion with the Lord.

Second, some managers forget that Christianity comes with a great cost. Unfortunately, many managers fail to understand their commitment to a cause greater than themselves. In Luke 14:28, Jesus warned his disciples about the cost of success: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it…” In fact, Jesus’ own disciples had left their families, fortunes, and a predictable lifestyle to follow Jesus. Likewise, today’s managers must count the cost of any decision. Numerous managers forget how to turn workplace problems into learning opportunities based upon scriptural teachings. Hence, our trials serve a greater good by inculcating elevated levels of faith, self-knowledge, and problem solving ability, thereby equipping us for greater Kingdom service as we enrich subordinates, coworkers and clients/customers as we share the comfort and knowledge we are given, a knowledge dissemination approach (2 Corinthians 1:4). Last, Christian managers must be careful of any spirituality that damages our witness. There is much public attention on spirituality in the workplace. Researchers Hanna Ashar and Maureen Lane-Maher maintain that individuals are striving to experience higher levels of meaning and transcendence in the workplace in the desire to receive “more” out of life. Christians sometimes often display a spirituality that appears false and judgmental. For example, the sex scandals that rocked the Catholic Church demonstrates how Christians respond to workplace issues can damage their witness. Researchers Mario Fernando and Michael Gross further argued that the widespread silence and denial by the Catholic Church was due to its organizational structure and culture. In this case, workplace spirituality becomes a testament of hypocrisy. However, spirituality for devout Christians cannot be a buzzword. Christians must understand that every workplace problem is an opportunity toward becoming more Christ-like.

Manager’s Spiritual Intelligence
Managers with higher servant leader workplace spiritual intelligence often produce more positive workplace outcomes. From a Christian leadership worldview, our spiritual job description requires we practice servant leadership in all life domains and settings. Today’s managers are out of spiritual balance and overworked with the many problems associated with leadership. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, 68% of workers report feeling burned out at the office. SLWSI is associated with a variety of stress reducing strategies and behaviors applicable to a diversity of life circumstances and settings that reduce the likelihood of burnout on the job. What are the elements of SLWSI? There are nine dimensions consisting of accountability, forgiveness, humility, faith, teachability, integrity, empowerment, support, and patience. To assess your degree of SLWSI, Roberts developed a 42 item additive scale.

The survey should be supported by other sources of information such as independent “360-degree” peer, subordinate, client reviews and direct behavioral observations. A preliminary analysis of 74 government and private sector managers and personnel officials confirmed the influence of SLWSI. Managers with higher SLWSI scores reported lower levels of job stress and higher levels of work commitment and effectiveness. Hence, the results suggest that knowledge and practice of servant leadership spiritual intelligence is associated with more effective coping and adaption strategies to the many anxiety-producing issues associated with the modern workplace. This endows managers with greater resiliency and ability to resist adopting dysfunctional coping mechanisms. When we rest in the Lord and connect to His Vine, our ability to resist temptation increases and we can make decisions that are more effective. When employees and managers accept responsibility and are committed to the greater good, they are more likely to demonstrate effective leadership behavior as the situation dictates.

The Path Forward
As the economic crisis continues to spiral, workers are looking to their leaders to provide a reassuring presence to address an uncertain future. The central focus of workplace spiritual intelligence research is to document the Holy Spirit’s influence in the workplace believer at the individual, group, and organizational levels. The benefits from a physical, mental and spiritual dimension are profound. However, these attributes are pale in comparison to the individual and aggregate Great Commission and Great Commandment benefits. Furthermore, strong levels of SLWSI may enhance the manager’s work focus by reducing the frequency and intensity of distractions produced by job stress thereby reducing the presence of dysfunctional workplace attitudes and behaviors. In addition, more effective stress coping strategies can increase work productivity by reducing the incidence of mental and physical illness. Consequently, the main reason to promote workplace spiritual intelligence is that it helps us to obey the Great Commandment by loving our neighbor as ourselves. Our obedience is pleasing to God and produces a pleasant fruit of righteousness that blesses employees, customers, and the community at large. Therefore, managers can greatly be a witness to others in a secular workplace.

Daryl D. Green, a professor at Knoxville College, is an ordained deacon, bible lecturer, and youth advisor at his church with over 10 years of leadership experience in religious environments. Mr. Green has written over 100 professional and commercial articles. For more information, you can reach him at darygre@regent.edu.

Gary E. Roberts is a faculty member in the Regent University Robertson School of Government. Dr. Roberts occupied a variety of positions in the field of human resource management. Current research interests center on the influence of religion and spirituality; he has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters. For more information about Servant leader workplace spiritual intelligence, please contact Dr. Roberts at garyrob@regent.edu.

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