Colonial systems have long influenced how societies view labor, authority, and control. Modern organizations often inherit these ideas, emphasizing hierarchy, extraction, and compliance while overlooking relationships, trust, and collective well-being. Decolonized workplace spirituality challenges these inherited beliefs by revealing how colonial power functions within organizations and by suggesting alternative models based on justice, reciprocity, and ethical responsibility. Using the river metaphor, this essay examines how decolonizing flows into workplace spirituality through the first “river”: challenging colonialism.
Decolonizing rarely replaces an entire field wholesale. Instead, it enters through critiques, methods, and practices that begin reshaping assumptions from within. As Decolonizing Theory flows into workplace spirituality, it unsettles dominant views of labor as mere productivity and reframes work as a relational, moral, and spiritual activity embedded in histories of power. This perspective is particularly relevant for anti-racist educators, organizational reformers, and theologians attentive to how control becomes normalized in everyday work life.
River 1: Challenging colonialism confronts colonial indoctrination and its ongoing effects in institutions. Decolonizing Theory examines the impact of colonization on communities and organizations, highlighting how colonial logics continue to shape norms, hierarchies, and definitions of value (Grant et al., 2022; Marsh et al., 2015). Rooted in Indigenous sovereignty (Doyon & Boron, 2021; Mathaba, 2023), it critiques both historical colonialism and contemporary neo-colonial practices (Didier, 2025; Uleanya et al., 2019). In organizational contexts, this requires interrogating management structures, productivity metrics, and “neutral” professional standards that often reproduce racialized power relations.
Because Decolonizing Theory emphasizes social justice and intersectionality (Rosario, et al., 2024), it aims to dismantle institutional hierarchies, racism, and deficit narratives rooted in colonial worldviews (Grant et al., 2022; Mills et al., 2018). When these structures are challenged, colonial segmentation gives way to relational inclusivity and mutual respect (Marsh et al., 2015). A qualitative study of Indigenous educators in Mexico found that accountability for challenging colonial thinking, promoting Indigenous knowledge, and leading social transformation are central to decolonizing practices (Anthony-Stevens & Buitron, 2022). Across various fields, communities are reclaiming ancestral traditions (Marsh et al., 2015), highlighting cultural relevance (Fangupo et al., 2023), and adopting community-centered methods that oppose extractive labor models (Uleanya et al., 2019).
Critical Indigenous theory (CIT) flows alongside this river, centering power, colonial legacies, and sovereignty (Ufodike, 2025; Vass & Adams, 2021). It advances transformation through decolonizing (Garcia & Shirley, 2012) and reorients institutions toward Indigenous futurity (Bargallie & Lentin, 2021). Hayman et al. (2017) demonstrate this shift by integrating Western cartography with Taglish and Tlingit mapping, producing an aquacentric map later used in legal water-rights cases. CIT thus links epistemology to material justice through political and moral inquiry (Garcia & Shirley, 2012; Banerjee, 2022).
Critical workplace spirituality forms another tributary. Unlike technical spirituality, which is performative, critical spirituality resists conditions that diminish human dignity (Wolf & Feldbauer-Durstmüller, 2023). Brooks and Ezzani’s (2021) study of an Islamic school shows how critical consciousness, reflection, and love inform justice-oriented leadership. Shah (2022) similarly finds that spiritual dialogue fosters trust, vulnerability, and the integration of spirituality and justice, echoing Duchon and Ashmos’ (2005) focus on meaning, inner life, and relationship.
Together, these currents show how decolonized workplace spirituality challenges colonial legacies of labor and control. By centering justice, trust, and reciprocity, organizations can move beyond domination toward relational, equitable, and spiritually grounded forms of work
Joshua David Kingsley 