Reawakening the Spirit in Work: The Power of Dharmic Management

"The key questions for today's managers and leaders," writes Jack Hawley, "are no longer issues of task and structure, but questions of spirit....not religion, spirit." We all yearn for spiritually rooted qualities at work - integrity, character, inspiration, belief, and even reverence - qualities that are key factors in an enterprise's success. Hawley provides a direct response to the widespread desire for spirituality at work, offering a practical vision of work permeated with "dharma" - deep integrity fusing spirit, character, human values, and decency. He shows how successful leaders or managers who are motivated by a spiritual vision liberate the best in people, and explains why all leadership is spiritual. He provides many examples of people actually living by their inner truth at work, and shows how such people can create an improved place to work and a better life as well as a more resilient, effective organization that is prepared to meet the challenges of the present and future.

"The key questions for today's managers and leaders, " writes Jack Hawley, "are no longer issues of task and structure, but questions of spirit....not religion, spirit." We all yearn for spiritually rooted qualities at work - integrity, character, inspiration, belief, and even reverence - qualities that are key factors in an enterprise's success. Hawley provides a direct response to the widespread desire for spirituality at work, offering a practical vision of work permeated with "dharma" - deep integrity fusing spirit, character, human values, and decency. He shows how successful leaders or managers who are motivated by a spiritual vision liberate the best in people, and explains why all leadership is spiritual. He provides many examples of people actually living by their inner truth at work, and shows how such people can create an improved place to work and a better life as well as a more resilient, effective organization that is prepared to meet the challenges of the present and future.

Publishers Weekly

Recently, numerous business books have appeared emphasizing transcendental themes while no doubt also prodding managers to wonder if spirituality really has a place in our profit-oriented business culture. Hawley, a California consultant who spends half the year in an Indian ashram, maintains that these qualities do matter. ``The key questions for today's managers and leaders'' he writes, ``are no longer issues of task and structure but are questions of spirit.'' Hawley urges managers ``to feed the roots of integrity and nudge toward spirit,'' in order to increase business-wide leadership, creativity, cooperation and stability. He describes how dharmic theories could enable managers to harness the power of heart, spirit, happiness and belief, accompanied by successful examples (e.g., Hard Rock Cafe). This is a thought-provoking crossover book that could generate sales in both business and self-help markets. (June)