• Course Details
  • Admin & Secretarial
  • Communication
  • Customer Service
  • HR & I.R.
  • International Trade & Finance
  • Leadership & Management
  • Marketing & Sales
  • Team Building & Motivation
  • Personal Development & Effectiveness
  • Quality Management Systems
  • Safety, Health & Security
• Public Course Calendar
• Training Needs Form

• ILM
• City & Guilds

• “EDITORIAL -What is the role of a supervisor ?”
• INTERESTING ARTICLES THAT MAY HELP YOU IN YOUR DAILY WORK "7 STEPS TO BEING A SAVVY NETWORKER"
• TO: H.R. PERSONNEL IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
• INTERNATIONAL TRADE FINANCE FOR BANKERS, IMPORTERS AND EXPORTERS, ETC.
• English With City & Guilds
• Article from the Institute of Leadership & Management, UK. Spirituality - Corporate Karma
• Spirited Companies
• ONLINE TRAINING
• CONTACT US FOR MORE DETAILS.
• Comments & Suggestions

ARTICLE(S) FROM THE INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT,

At EXCEL INDUSTRIES in Mumbai, India, every working day begins with the company's all-religion prayer. At lunch, each member of staff, from the lowliest recruit to the executive chairman, gathers to eat the same meal at the same time in the same place (which is more than most British families, let alone workplaces, can achieve). The company practises 'spiritual values', and 'love and trust' are key components of its leadership ethos. Excel's approach is all the more surprising in that this is no dewy-eyed start-up, but an industry leader in the manufacture of biochemicals and agro-chemicals, which has been in business nearly 65 years and today employs 1,200 people.
Another hugely successful Indian company, SREI International Finance, has a temple area in the main office, altar spaces for work teams and begins meeting with silent prayers. Job candidates are interviewed to determine if their spiritual values are aligned with those of the organisation. There are spiritual quotations in each employee’s day planner, in the elevators and every team meeting room.
Both these companies are past recipients of the US-based International Spirit at Work Awards, created to honour companies that have 'explicit spiritual practices, policies or programmes'. The driving force behind the awards is the Association for Spirit at Work, which provides information on this area through its website, conferences and other resources. The Awards are co-run by World Business Academy, the European Baha’i Business Forum and Spirit in Business.
Elisa Mallis, the Awards Committee Chair, says they look for companies that are 'nurturing the human spirit and are also very successful – increasing profitability and showing solid, positive direction in terms of growth'. Spiritual principles aren’t necessarily religious ones, says Judi Neal, founder and executive director of the Association for Spirit at Work. 'But we look for concrete evidence that all religious traditions are accepted, and that people with no religious tradition or faith at all are also accepted.'
Most companies honoured since the Awards’ inception four years ago are American, in particular healthcare companies. The list also includes a smattering of banks and manufacturing companies, and some from outside the States. With a total of four awards, India fares better than most. Excel’s executive chairman Sri G Narayana explains this is because spirituality is not just a concept in India but a day-to-day reality. 'We practise spiritual values of togetherness, tolerance, mutual acceptance and belief in divine spirit. Because to serve man is to serve God.' He says, adding that this is not only true of Hindus but all Indians.
But, as the Spirit at Work Awards show, even the more secularised and cynical West, many organisations are beginning to introduce spiritual values into the workplace. Certainly in the US, spirit at work is a 'movement of some significance', say Sue Howard and David Welbourn, the British authors of The Spirit at Work Phenomenon. As well as dedicated networks like Judi Neal’s Spirit at Work, there are innumerable websites, several journals and hundreds of books. The movement has also spawned many consultants, surveys and much scholarly interest, including courses on spirituality at business schools.
'Americans are more open to new ideas and this is pioneering work,' says Georgeanne Lamont, British author of The Spirited Business and managing director of organisational development company, Lamont Associates. British universities were also among the early adopters of spirit at work, with the University of Lancaster running a conference entitled ‘Working with Spirituality in Organisations’ in 1991. More recently the University of Surrey has run an ‘International Conference on Organisational Spirituality’ and offers a course on spirituality.
Though it’s taken a while, the interest in applying spiritual values to the workplace appears to be moving beyond academia in the UK

Winning over Cynics
'I'm coming across more organisations who seem to be taking some aspects of this notion more seriously,' says Linda Holbeche, director of research and strategy at the Roffey Park Institute in Sussex. 'But things that have a sort of new agey feel or may have religious overtones, are a bit less acceptable over here.'
Holbeche is author, with colleague Nigel Springett, of the report, In Search of Meaning at Work. This brings together the results from analysis of Roffey's 2003 and 2004 Management Agenda surveys, focus group research, a further survey – Quest for Meaning at Work – and a literature study.
The topic arose from a variety of seemingly unrelated responses to Roffey's Management Agenda surveys since 2000. 'We noticed a very strong undercurrent of comment we didn’t know how to group, of the type 'there's something missing', says Holbeche. 'We called the project to look into this sense of loss “Spirituality in the workplace".' However Holbeche changed the project’s name to ‘Meaning in the workplace’ because the 'spirituality' word was found to be an obstacle for many people – a point illustrated by Holbeche’s own experience with the focus groups. The colleague who labelled the doors wasn’t told of the name change. When the 150 or so participants, from the hundreds who responded, turned up to attend their focus groups, many exclaimed on seeing the doors labelled 'Spirituality in the workplace' that they wouldn’t have come ‘if I’d known it was going to be about that’.
Howard and Welbourn agree that the ‘spirituality’ word can be a turn-off. 'It's a risky topic to raise and discuss within the organisational setting – it's considered fluffy or wishy-washy by much of the business community.' They say instead that specific values of 'trust, integrity, authenticity and care of fellow employees' are more likely to attract a sceptical manager’s attention.
Indeed, if there’s one thing that most participants in this area agree on it is that spirituality is difficult to define. ‘There are almost as many definitions of spirituality as there are people writing about it,’ say Howard and Welbourn. But they mirror the feelings of many when they say spirituality ‘helps us to determine who we are and how to live our lives in this world. It combines our basic philosophy towards life, our vision and our values, with our conduct and practices.’
In the workplace, this is often translated as bringing our ‘whole selves’ to work and working for an organisation whose values and purposes are aligned with our own. It’s about knowing what’s important to us and incorporating it into our working lives. And it’s also about recognising that we don’t lead our lives in isolation and building worthwhile relationships with others.
For a few, this is tied up with religious faith – being allowed time to worship or having access to company chaplains – but for most, says Holbeche, it means having the chance to ‘feed the human spirit through the intrinsic worth of the work they’re doing’. ‘Things like very good, open problem-solving approaches to dealing with office politics, or good team building, or the organisation thinking fundamentally about its values and purpose and really trying to shift it’s leaders’ behaviour in particular, to be more true to these,’ she says. Seventy percent of the respondents to the report are looking for more meaningful at work, with 42% currently looking for other employment.
There are several explanations for this workplace malaise. There is much cynicism over employers’ hollow ethical policies and growing criticism that companies just exist to make profit for their shareholders. Issues such as ‘fat cat’ pay, unreliable pensions and financial scandals, like Enron and Worldcom, are causing employees to doubt the purpose of their organisations and integrity of their leaders.

Finding a balance
            Globalisation and increased competition are putting businesses under pressure to be super-efficient, leading to cost cutting, redundancies, downsizing, greater workloads and job insecurity. 83% of respondents to the Roffey report are working longer hours than contracted and 57% have had an increased workload in the last year. ‘People feel increasingly disconnected at work,’ says Holbeche. ‘They’re under pressure to be busy, perform and produce results. They sense a void and want a space where they can ‘be’ rather than ‘do’ all the time.’
Also, as traditional communities fragment, the workplace has become for many their main social network. But people want to belong to a community where they can make a meaningful contribution, helping to build a better world, and not just make money. But all is not lost. Some organisations are reversing this unhappy trend by integrating spiritual tools and practices into their business, with great success. Among the many benefits, they’re seeing increased morale and employee retention; a more engaged, energised and, therefore productive workforce; reduced stress; lower absenteeism; and improved customer satisfaction. For many, this is translating into better  financial performance.
Broadway Tyres, for example, briefed Lamont Associates to take a workforce with 30% absenteeism through a rapid expansion programme while keeping the family feel and buzz of the company, and simultaneously boosting profitability. By incorporating Lamont’s spirit based training and tools, Broadway achieved rapid expansion with a 42% increase in sales and 60% increase in profit within a year. And within just three months absenteeism was negligible. 'Our staff now treat each other with more respect and patience'’ says Guy Beck, Broadway Tyre'’ general manager. 'Lines of communication are conducted openly and productively. Long-standing habits are being questioned and changed. Our staff are happier and more fulfilled.'
'There are many spiritual tools to help human beings make sense of their experience, reflect on it and integrate it into their lives,' says Georgeanne Lamont. 'They are tools that have been used over millennia by all cultures and that have a place in companies.' 'Celebration', for example, encourages employees to ‘enjoy, be thankful, have fun’ whatever the situation. Happy Computers is one of the UK's largest IT training companies, having doubled in size every three years and won a string of awards for customer service. Recently, the company remained true to its 'no-blame' culture when an employee inadvertently wiped out the company’s entire accounts file. Her boss 'celebrated' the mistake and the company learnt to build security into the system.
'What the business wants to achieve in terms of business results and growth can be delivered though this very human-centred approach,' says Lamont. 'Just as we had new technology in the nineteenth century for mining down to remove coal, we now have new technology to mine down and tap into the very finest efforts of every human being, not to exploit them but to release them so they can contribute more at work.’ The spirit at work commentators agree that this approach has to be leadership driven, and that leaders have to have a real commitment to values and putting them in place. 'Spiritual leaders challenge taken-for-granted opinions and ideas but they want to work in a way that develops both themselves and those around them positively,' say Howard and Welbourn. ‘They seek to build a shared understanding of vision, meaning and values. They use their influence and power to support other’ growth.
Leaders like Roger Gundry of IMG, a highly successful building materials manufacturer, who acknowledges that the most important thing in people's lives is their family and not the business. Gundry builds his business on values such as honesty, forgiveness, tolerance, patience and kindness, which employees actively use in daily work situations. 'They are constantly looking at how they can do better using the values as a key,' says Lamont. 'They are doing this not because someone is making them – but because in the process, they get to be the best they can that day, and that is what they enjoy.'

Spirit of Success
            This approach challenges IMG's staff to grow, continuously develop, and meet higher standards and financial targets. A key driver, says Lamont, is respect for their MD, who openly practises these values himself. 'They know they are in an environment where their best will be welcomed and recognised.'
'Spirit at work' clearly means different things to different people. It can be religion-based for those whose faith is a driving force in their lives. But for most it's about having a meaningful working life, where their values are aligned with their company's and they feel they’re making a difference. 'Spirit is not a Polyanna-style panacea for all organisational woes' say Howard and Welbourne. 'What it offers is a perspective to help us discern wisely and deal with our work lives, particularly in the face of current business realities.'

Back to Top

SPIRITED COMPANIES

Back to Top

 "Do-It-Yourself" – Train Yourself to become a complete and changed person by enrolling into our “On-Line Self Study Program”

The above On-Line training modules on Leadership & Management has been launched with the view of helping up-coming and progressive team leaders, executives and even managers who have supervisory or managerial duties. In line with our effort to contribute our expertise and experience, we are offering the first module i.e. "Managing Self for Optimum Performance & Effectiveness" absolutely "FREE OF CHARGE" during the promotion period which will run until 31st. August 2010. So register now for the FOC module. Click here to register on-line.

For your information, to qualify for the “Certificate in Management” awarded by the Institute of Leadership & Management, U.K. you need to enroll for all the 10 modules and go through an assessment process conducted by ILM, UK to be a certified professional manager.

SO, LET TRAINING NETWORK INC. TAKE YOU TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF YOUR CAREER IN:

If you wish to complete all 10 programs (modules) to qualify for the award in ILM’s Certificate in Management, the PROGRAM FEES are as follows:

THE PROGRAMS ARE SPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE:
Line managers, Executives, Supervisors, Aspiring Managers, Team Leaders, & Fresh graduates.

TO ENABLE YOU TO LEARN, THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS ARE NECESSARY:

• You must be able to work on a computer
• Able to read and write English. Perfect grammar is not considered essential
• No formal education required, but we expect the person to have at least achieved SPM standards.
• You must be committed to arrange for spare time to do self study, as you are expected to complete each program within 5 weeks.

BENEFITS

• You would have acquired the skills to become a complete manager and leader
• Learning is made flexible as you can do it at home, in your office, at your own pace.
• You do not have to take leave to attend training courses.
• E-Learning has reduced training cost considerably, therefore it is possible to price the programs within affordable means of a working adult.
• These programs are able help you in your self and career development.
• Helps build your self-confidence and personality, so that work issues and problems can be addressed positively and confidently.
• Learning is a continuous process, therefore you will get more from your work life by using the above programs to help you in whatever role you are playing.
• Experienced and  qualified Trainers will be made available through the email to coach and guide you through the whole process.

“THE FIELD OF MANAGEMENT CAN BENEFIT TREMENDOUSLY FROM HANDS-ON CERTIFICATION  - NOT JUST FROM ACADEMIC PROGRAMS”
(Dr. Tarcisius Chin)

“LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE”

CONTACT US FOR MORE DETAILS

TNI is a resourceful training provider who is capable of helping employers and individuals to identify training and development needs for their people.

Contact person: Mr. Jimmy Ong
Tel. No: 03-2330 8000 (Office)
 (Please leave a message if Mr. Jimmy Ong is not in the office, or you may call his mobile phone)
Mobile: 016-216 1383
Fax: 03-2330 8133
Email: info@tnimalaysia.biz or jim@tnimalaysia.biz
Website: www.tnimalaysia.biz          

End of News!
Cheers

Jimmy ong