While looking for journals in the net about business and spirituality, I find today an interesting research about the relationship between entrepreneurship and spirituality. I am not sure about the author of this research but I find five names on the first page of the paper. I thought, maybe this research is a product of collaborative effort. The names associated with the paper are Dr. Sandra King Kauanui, Mr. Kevin D. Thomas, Ms. Cynthia L. Sherman, Dr. Gail Ross Waters, and Ms. Mihaela Gilea.
The reason I came across with this type of research is because I am searching myself for an answer to the question, “How can I best glorify God and enjoy Him in this life?” And my initial answer to this question is, “By living the person God wants me to be.” Then a follow up question comes next, “What God wants me to be?” I cannot answer this question with 100% certainty. At present, all I can say is that God wants me to be an entrepreneur, a theological educator and a financial educator. If this is who I am, then what shall be my message? The first thing that comes to my mind is the relationship between business and spirituality. And so I stumbled with the above research paper.
Research papers in journals are difficult to understand. They are full of technical jargons, which are not comprehensible to an average reader. But I find their content substantial. And so I decided to write my own thoughts as a result of reading such papers aiming to share their insights to an average reader. By doing this, I intentionally eliminated difficult terms and attempted in my own way to simplify what appears to be complex for a common reader.
I believe that research like this will turn into books in the coming years. It may sound presumptuous on my part to say that in the past, a discussion of spirituality in the business world is either ignored or considered unimportant. But as this research shows, there is now a renewed interest on the subject.
My goal in writing my own thoughts on this research is to share it in parts depending on the availability of my time and the interest of my mind. In this initial writing, I just want to share an overview of three interesting topics that I find in this research paper.
Preliminary Considerations
1. The emerging popularity of workplace spirituality
2. Fundamental definitions of spirituality
3. Three spiritual themes in the context of entrepreneurship.
Factors that Influence a Person to Pursue Entrepreneurship
1. Things Within Us
2. Psychologists as Pioneers
3. Planned Behavior Theory
4. Entrepreneurial Event Model
Three Groups of Entrepreneurs
The original research had two stages. During the initial stage, three groups of entrepreneurs emerged. And during the expanded stage, the original three turned into five groups of entrepreneurs. Due to the similarities of qualities, I just want to limit my sharing into three groups during the expanded stage. These three groups are:
1. “Make me whole” group of entrepreneurs
2. “Conflicting goals” group of entrepreneurs
3. “Strictly business” group of entrepreneurs
So these are the three interesting topics I find in this research paper. I plan to give a detail description of these topics in my next post.
Christian Entrepreneur 