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The Center for Business Excellence
Call for Papers for "The Passionate Enterprise"In The Passionate Organization (1999), James R. Lucas states: "There is a drive today, in people of various ages, cultures, and professions to find the meaning of life, to have relationships based on something unchangeable, and to struggle to do the right thing. Organizations that help people do these things -- or, as a minimum, don't place obstacles in the way -- will be the ones that will attract and retain the best and the brightest and most enthusiastic in the twenty-first century."
Since this was written, events have only served to deepen this perception. The collapse of the "Internet bubble," the corporate scandals engulfing Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Adelphia, Tyco, and others, and the events of 9/11 have left many Americans disoriented and disillusioned. While we all know that businesses must, in our economy, make a profit, we also feel and intuit that they must do a great deal more than this. They must supply the goods and services we want, contribute to the sustainability of the planet, and provide environments where those who work in them can excel and strive for their own self-actualization.
In the wake of 9/11 especially, many people started asking themselves whether they were truly living up to their core values, and whether business could do more as agent of world benefit to alter the divisions of class, religion, and ethnicity that keep us from recognizing our oneness in the human family. This questioning has spawned a variety of programs and initiatives, including our own Spirit in Business Forums.
In the course of these conversations, it has become apparent that we need to issue a call for companies to do more to liberate the minds and spirits of their employees and of their leaders. We need to restore morale, courage, and vision.
To explore the many aspects of this multi-faceted and challenging topic, we are inviting both scholars and practitioners to submit essays on the broad theme of "The Passionate Enterprise." We hope to provoke inspiration, insight, and debate.
Our intention is to produce both a conference and a publication on this topic.
To become involved in this effort, simply send an email to tpe@cbe-nj.org and let us know what you can contribute. We'll update this page as more elements are identified, and the details of this initiative are worked out.
"Most people have jobs that are too small for their spirit." -- Studs Terkel: Working
"The most exciting breakthrough of the 21st century will occur not because of technology, but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human." -- John Naisbitt: Megatrends 2000
"We in the corporate setting tend to believe that we are supposed to check our deepest personal selves -- our inner selves, our soul's development -- at the door of the workplace, at least publicly. This assumption prevents us from bringing some of the most powerful and creative parts of ourselves to our jobs. In corporations, fear, anxiety, a sense of isolation, apathy, and despair are the results of spiritual poverty." --Barbara Shipka
"All the case studies and other research results that have come out about excellence and peak performance confirm that both members and observers of excellent organizations consistently feel the spirit of the organization and the activity, and that this feeling of spirit is an essential part of the meaning and value that members and observers place on that activity." --Peter Vaill: Managing as a Performing Art.
"Whatever else high performance and excellence may be based on, they would seem to have something to do with the quality of spirit …human Spirit, our Spirit, the Spirit of our organization." --Harrison Owen: Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations.
Spirituality is the basic desire to find ultimate meaning and purpose in one's life and to live an integrated life. --Mitroff and Denton: A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America
"This book is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying." --Studs Terkel: Working
"I heard a professor from a prominent business school say, Capitalism is not about caring for people. It's about making money." I thought, "Why does it have to be an either/or dilemma. Can't it be both/and?" An employee…told me, 'They (the management) treat the physical plant better than they treat us. We are expendable things.' The valuing of profits over people fosters abuse. Not that profit in itself is wrong. The words of Henry Ford ring true. He wrote, 'Business must be run for profit. But when anyone tries to run a business solely for profit, then also must the business die.' Business dies when it loses it humanistic touch. --Dr. Cedric Johnson, professor and author of four books.
"As we enter the twenty-first century, it is timely, perhaps even critical, that we recall what human beings have understood for a very long time, that working together can be a deep source of life meaning. Anything less is just a job." --Peter Senge, Foreward to A. de Geus, The Living Company, Harvard Business School Press
"This isn't about making people happy nor about struggling up Maslow's pyramid of needs, though happiness and even self-actualization could be reasonable byproducts. It's about man reconnecting with his true nature and purpose -- in the corporation." -- W. Matthew Juechter
Quotes compiled by Ron Bell
February 2004
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