Can we mix spirituality and business?

From April 23rd-25th, business leaders from around the globe participated in the Spirituality & Creativity in Management World Congress in Barcelona. Organized by ESADE, this international conference gathered keynote speakers such as Peter Senge, Chris Lowney and Naomi Tutu, among others, to share about the importance of studying spirituality from a management perspective and cultivating the inner freedom of managers and employees to contribute to making creative choices and sound decisions in the workplace.
Simon Dolan, the Future of Work Chair at ESADE Business School said that the idea for the conference emerged out of a personal interest and curiosity. He wanted to see how other business leaders define spirituality and whether it should be taught in business schools. Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian who served as a senior executive at JP Morgan until 2001, observed during the conference that “Leadership is extremely spiritual. The qualities of great leaders – including the internal freedom to make decisions – are spiritual qualities.”
In an article written in preparation for the international conference, Simon Dolan says that to talk about spirituality and leadership is risky business when currently most world business leaders are judged based on their capacity to generate results and wealth. However, to be a leader and to follow a vision is “inherently risky”. He concludes by highlighting some words of wisdom that can help leaders on the path to developing an organizational culture based on shared values: “We are all spiritual beings. Unleashing the whole capability of the individual — mind, body and spirit, gives enormous power to the organization. Spirituality unlocks the real sense of significance of the organization’s purpose.”(Deshpande & Shukla, 2010, p. 848)
For more information about the #SCM2015 conference, you can take a look at the final program and download the published papers from the conference website.
Below are some highlights from the conference via Twitter:

"Our job as managers is to contribute to the well-being of society – making money for a company is just an indicator" – @petersenge #SCM2015

— ESADE (@ESADE) April 24, 2015

Chris Lowney, ex jesuita y ex directivo de JP Morgan, habla de la libertad interior en el #SCM2015 de @ESADE pic.twitter.com/QtXVpiduS5

— Enrique San Juan (@esj) April 24, 2015

Photo via Flickr