International Review of Psychiatry, June 2014; 26(3): 263–264
EDITORIAL
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Spirituality, culture and health in management Spirituality has become a popular topic in psychological, cultural, social and medical discourses. The importance of a conscious spirituality and their implications for health and well-being have been explored and discussed at length. Strategic research initiatives have emerged to explore spirituality, health and healing, as well as spiritual practices and mental health. It has been documented that spirituality makes a significant contribution to psychological well-being, social connection and mental health, also in management and in work places. However, the cultural perspective has hardly been considered in these research studies. Many research studies have been published on the topic of culture. Some of them refer to the issue of culture and health, respectively culture and spirituality. However, they often use an essentialist definition of culture and remain on the level of discussion that describes and interprets concepts of health and well-being in connection with (etic) ethnic, cultural and/or racial classifications. In these terms, culture in health research has often been connected with diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of pre-defined ethnic or cultural groups. The various and numerous concepts of culture have largely been criticized with regard to their conceptualization in health research. It has been highlighted that constructivist cultural concepts are needed in health as well as in management research and that the exploration of emic concepts of culture might address health research in management and organizations in a cultural-sensitive way. Obviously spirituality, culture and health are interlinked topics. Attempts have been made to understand the interconnection of these three concepts. However, the question of how mental health is particularly interrelated with culture and spirituality has not yet been answered explicitly. In the past, particularly social and cultural impacts on health have been discussed, but spirituality has often been left unconsidered in the broad scientific discourse and particularly in management, industrial and organizational contexts. This special issue ‘Spirituality, culture and health in management’ aims at reflecting and exploring the interlinkages of these three concepts theoretically
ISSN 0954–0261 print/ISSN 1369–1627 online © 2014 Institute of Psychiatry DOI: 10.3109/09540261.2014.913855
and empirically from interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives. It aims at contributing to exploring new and in-depth insights and to systematizing the interrelationships of these complex concepts. It thereby aims to advance the scientific theoretical discourse. This special issue provides the reader with an indepth insight into the recent theoretical debate and current empirical research pertaining to spirituality, culture, and health in management from an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective. Consequently, it contains articles from authors who argue from different perspectives, including management, industrial, and organizational psychology, positive psychology, cultural anthropology, medical sciences, and others. Scientific research is presented from different countries and different organizational contexts and provides the reader with a broad insight into the complexity of interlinking complex research topics. The articles included in this special issue address the topics using different methodological approaches, ranging from positivist to social constructivist and interpretative paradigms, allowing for a broad variety of research data and scientific argumentations. Claude-Hélène Mayer and Rian Viviers focus in their longitudinal study on the long-term development of spiritual and cultural concepts within a selected individual in Cape Town who has worked in various managerial positions in South Africa during 11 years of field work. The article thereby explores the impact of spirituality, culture and health on an intrapersonal level on the researcher– researched relationship by using a mixed method research approach. The findings show a strong intrapersonal interlinkage of spirituality, culture and mental health within the researched individual and the researcher–researched relationship, having a strong impact on spiritual, cultural and mental health constructions. Frans Cilliers and Landa Terblanche explore the role of spirituality in making sense of the demands of the hospital culture from a positive psychology perspective. The authors aim to describe the role of spirituality in coping with the demands of the hospital culture amongst nursing students. Their findings show
Int Rev Psychiatry Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Newcastle on 01/01/15 For personal use only.
264
C.-H. Mayer
that in future spirituality and its constructs should be included in the training of nursing students. George Honiball, Dirk Geldenhuys and ClaudeHélène Mayer explore the concept of spirituality within selected South African managerial work contexts. The aim of the study is to determine managers’ perceptions of spirituality and health-related aspects in various South African workplaces by using a phenomenological research paradigm. The authors highlight that spirituality promotes the development of health-related aspects of individuals and impacts on teams and teamwork within the described organizational contexts. In their article ‘Following the word of God’, Claude-Hélène Mayer and Rian Viviers present empirical findings on spirituality, culture and health of South African managers from various cultural groups and German expatriates working in a selected internationally operating organization in South Africa. Using an inductive single case study approach, the authors provide insights and responses to the questions how managers rate and define their mental health, their spirituality and culture and how they view the interconnections of these three concepts. Sarah Goldingay, Paul Dieppe and Miguel Farias’ article ‘And the pain just disappeared into insignificance: The response in Lourdes – Performance, psychology and caring’ focuses on the Christian pilgrimage site, Lourdes, in southern France. The authors explore issues of pilgrimage, spirituality and healing in relation to chronic pain and depression, using a mixed method research approach. Authors highlight that significant relief, suffering and distress occur in pilgrims across cultures. Thereby, spirituality seems to be the source that transcends cultural barriers. Walter von Lucadou and Franziska Wald contribute to this special issue by investigating the issues of spirituality and extraordinary experiences in their cultural and theoretical contexts. Experiences which are often interpreted as transpersonal, spiritual and pathological depend on the religious and cultural background of a person. The authors discuss the experiences on the basis of a theoretical model that uses generalized quantum theory and the model of pragmatic information and come up with new insights into transpersonal psychology. By referring to individuals from tradition-oriented Islamic countries, their norms and values, the author, Jan Kizilhan investigates health and disease in the context of spirituality and religion. By using a case study approach, notions of magic, healing ceremonies and religious rituals are taken into consideration and used as an intercultural resource that may help to establish relationships of partnership among therapists
and patients with special regard to Muslims in a German health context. Vineet Kumar and Sandeep Kumar focus on spirituality as the concept of an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being. In their article, the authors report results on the moderate effect of workplace spirituality on relationship between stress and health in managers in various organizations in India. They find that there is a positive effect of workplace spirituality on stress and health relationship. This study shows that a better understanding of workplace spirituality is needed to improve health conditions and stress reduction programmes. By addressing the question how alcohol use and misuse are particularly interrelated with culture and spirituality within medical studies, the article of Joao Mauricio Casteldelli-Maia and Dinesh Bhugra approaches an important field of interest that has barely been researched until now. The authors use a meta-analysis, analysing articles, and state that spirituality and cultural aspects both play a role in alcohol consumption among minorities in certain cultures. The purpose of Freda van der Walt and Mias de Klerk’s article on ‘Measuring spirituality in South Africa: Validation of instruments developed in the USA’ aims at validating two instruments measuring personal spirituality and workplace spirituality for a South African sample. The authors contribute with their article to a differentiated view on measurement instruments on spirituality in the South African context and thereby provide culture-specific insights. In a second article, the authors Mias de Klerk and Freda van der Walt refer to ‘Spirituality and job satisfaction’ and determine the relationship of these two constructs. Using a cross-sectional study approach, the authors find that spirituality plays a significant role in the described contexts and emphasize that there is a huge need to create spiritual workplaces with spiritual leaders which promote spiritually based values to ensure job satisfaction. The articles introduce new theoretical, empirical and practical thoughts and ideas in the interdisciplinary health, culture and spirituality debate, and stimulate further research and discussion on the topic. You are now invited to read on and be stimulated to move the discussion forward. Claude-Hélène Mayer Unisa, Pretoria, South Africa and Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) and Dirk Geldenhuys Unisa, Pretoria, South Africa
EDITORIAL
Int Rev Psychiatry Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Newcastle on 01/01/15 For personal use only.
Spirituality, culture and health in management Spirituality has become a popular topic in psychological, cultural, social and medical discourses. The importance of a conscious spirituality and their implications for health and well-being have been explored and discussed at length. Strategic research initiatives have emerged to explore spirituality, health and healing, as well as spiritual practices and mental health. It has been documented that spirituality makes a significant contribution to psychological well-being, social connection and mental health, also in management and in work places. However, the cultural perspective has hardly been considered in these research studies. Many research studies have been published on the topic of culture. Some of them refer to the issue of culture and health, respectively culture and spirituality. However, they often use an essentialist definition of culture and remain on the level of discussion that describes and interprets concepts of health and well-being in connection with (etic) ethnic, cultural and/or racial classifications. In these terms, culture in health research has often been connected with diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of pre-defined ethnic or cultural groups. The various and numerous concepts of culture have largely been criticized with regard to their conceptualization in health research. It has been highlighted that constructivist cultural concepts are needed in health as well as in management research and that the exploration of emic concepts of culture might address health research in management and organizations in a cultural-sensitive way. Obviously spirituality, culture and health are interlinked topics. Attempts have been made to understand the interconnection of these three concepts. However, the question of how mental health is particularly interrelated with culture and spirituality has not yet been answered explicitly. In the past, particularly social and cultural impacts on health have been discussed, but spirituality has often been left unconsidered in the broad scientific discourse and particularly in management, industrial and organizational contexts. This special issue ‘Spirituality, culture and health in management’ aims at reflecting and exploring the interlinkages of these three concepts theoretically
ISSN 0954–0261 print/ISSN 1369–1627 online © 2014 Institute of Psychiatry DOI: 10.3109/09540261.2014.913855
and empirically from interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives. It aims at contributing to exploring new and in-depth insights and to systematizing the interrelationships of these complex concepts. It thereby aims to advance the scientific theoretical discourse. This special issue provides the reader with an indepth insight into the recent theoretical debate and current empirical research pertaining to spirituality, culture, and health in management from an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective. Consequently, it contains articles from authors who argue from different perspectives, including management, industrial, and organizational psychology, positive psychology, cultural anthropology, medical sciences, and others. Scientific research is presented from different countries and different organizational contexts and provides the reader with a broad insight into the complexity of interlinking complex research topics. The articles included in this special issue address the topics using different methodological approaches, ranging from positivist to social constructivist and interpretative paradigms, allowing for a broad variety of research data and scientific argumentations. Claude-Hélène Mayer and Rian Viviers focus in their longitudinal study on the long-term development of spiritual and cultural concepts within a selected individual in Cape Town who has worked in various managerial positions in South Africa during 11 years of field work. The article thereby explores the impact of spirituality, culture and health on an intrapersonal level on the researcher– researched relationship by using a mixed method research approach. The findings show a strong intrapersonal interlinkage of spirituality, culture and mental health within the researched individual and the researcher–researched relationship, having a strong impact on spiritual, cultural and mental health constructions. Frans Cilliers and Landa Terblanche explore the role of spirituality in making sense of the demands of the hospital culture from a positive psychology perspective. The authors aim to describe the role of spirituality in coping with the demands of the hospital culture amongst nursing students. Their findings show
Int Rev Psychiatry Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University of Newcastle on 01/01/15 For personal use only.
264
C.-H. Mayer
that in future spirituality and its constructs should be included in the training of nursing students. George Honiball, Dirk Geldenhuys and ClaudeHélène Mayer explore the concept of spirituality within selected South African managerial work contexts. The aim of the study is to determine managers’ perceptions of spirituality and health-related aspects in various South African workplaces by using a phenomenological research paradigm. The authors highlight that spirituality promotes the development of health-related aspects of individuals and impacts on teams and teamwork within the described organizational contexts. In their article ‘Following the word of God’, Claude-Hélène Mayer and Rian Viviers present empirical findings on spirituality, culture and health of South African managers from various cultural groups and German expatriates working in a selected internationally operating organization in South Africa. Using an inductive single case study approach, the authors provide insights and responses to the questions how managers rate and define their mental health, their spirituality and culture and how they view the interconnections of these three concepts. Sarah Goldingay, Paul Dieppe and Miguel Farias’ article ‘And the pain just disappeared into insignificance: The response in Lourdes – Performance, psychology and caring’ focuses on the Christian pilgrimage site, Lourdes, in southern France. The authors explore issues of pilgrimage, spirituality and healing in relation to chronic pain and depression, using a mixed method research approach. Authors highlight that significant relief, suffering and distress occur in pilgrims across cultures. Thereby, spirituality seems to be the source that transcends cultural barriers. Walter von Lucadou and Franziska Wald contribute to this special issue by investigating the issues of spirituality and extraordinary experiences in their cultural and theoretical contexts. Experiences which are often interpreted as transpersonal, spiritual and pathological depend on the religious and cultural background of a person. The authors discuss the experiences on the basis of a theoretical model that uses generalized quantum theory and the model of pragmatic information and come up with new insights into transpersonal psychology. By referring to individuals from tradition-oriented Islamic countries, their norms and values, the author, Jan Kizilhan investigates health and disease in the context of spirituality and religion. By using a case study approach, notions of magic, healing ceremonies and religious rituals are taken into consideration and used as an intercultural resource that may help to establish relationships of partnership among therapists
and patients with special regard to Muslims in a German health context. Vineet Kumar and Sandeep Kumar focus on spirituality as the concept of an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being. In their article, the authors report results on the moderate effect of workplace spirituality on relationship between stress and health in managers in various organizations in India. They find that there is a positive effect of workplace spirituality on stress and health relationship. This study shows that a better understanding of workplace spirituality is needed to improve health conditions and stress reduction programmes. By addressing the question how alcohol use and misuse are particularly interrelated with culture and spirituality within medical studies, the article of Joao Mauricio Casteldelli-Maia and Dinesh Bhugra approaches an important field of interest that has barely been researched until now. The authors use a meta-analysis, analysing articles, and state that spirituality and cultural aspects both play a role in alcohol consumption among minorities in certain cultures. The purpose of Freda van der Walt and Mias de Klerk’s article on ‘Measuring spirituality in South Africa: Validation of instruments developed in the USA’ aims at validating two instruments measuring personal spirituality and workplace spirituality for a South African sample. The authors contribute with their article to a differentiated view on measurement instruments on spirituality in the South African context and thereby provide culture-specific insights. In a second article, the authors Mias de Klerk and Freda van der Walt refer to ‘Spirituality and job satisfaction’ and determine the relationship of these two constructs. Using a cross-sectional study approach, the authors find that spirituality plays a significant role in the described contexts and emphasize that there is a huge need to create spiritual workplaces with spiritual leaders which promote spiritually based values to ensure job satisfaction. The articles introduce new theoretical, empirical and practical thoughts and ideas in the interdisciplinary health, culture and spirituality debate, and stimulate further research and discussion on the topic. You are now invited to read on and be stimulated to move the discussion forward. Claude-Hélène Mayer Unisa, Pretoria, South Africa and Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) and Dirk Geldenhuys Unisa, Pretoria, South Africa
