The Indian Institute of Technology Varanasi organized an international workshop entitled “Building an Academic Discipline of Spirituality in Management and Society” in February 7–8, 2023. Co-organizing partners were the Free University of Amsterdam, the Nyenrode Business University, and the European SPES.
The objective of the workshop was to move further in the line of thinking of creating an academic discipline of spirituality for the management domain. The existential concerns from the fourth industrial revolution in the VUCA context can be best addressed through spirituality infused in an integrative way. The workshop deliberated on the discipline’s fundamental aspects: ontology, epistemology, axiology, and praxeology. The discussions were oriented to eventually build education, research, and practice elements to develop spirituality as an academic discipline.
Presentations in the workshop included the following:
Sharda Nandram (Nyenrode Business University): Vision of Spirituality as an Academic Discipline: Outgrowth from the Intersection of Management, Spirituality & Religion
Adinarayanan Venkatachalam and Smrithi Rekha Adinarayanan: (Anaadi Foundation): Spirituality Oriented Ethics in the Mahabharatam
Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest): Materialist versus Spiritual Value Orientation and its Consequences for Wellbeing and Sustainability
Sanjoy Mukherjee (Indian Institute of Management Shillong): Evolution of Human Values, Ethics and Indian Spiritual Ethos in Management Education