Author Archives: Joshua David

Freedom at work starts with empowerment and collaboration. Instead of viewing workers as resources to manage, decolonized workplace spirituality redefines organizations as shared spaces where spirit, sovereignty, and collective purpose can thrive. This essay examines the second “river” in the decolonizing workplace spirituality framework—emancipation, empowerment, and concrete action—and demonstrates how decolonization, self-determination, and critical loveContinue reading “River 2: Emancipation, Empowerment, and Collective Action”

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, andContinue reading “River 1: Confronting the Colonial Spirit of Work”

Decolonizing workplace spirituality is like a river fed by many tributaries. It does not arrive as a single, all-encompassing paradigm, but flows into a field through distinct currents that reshape its contours over time. When scholars introduce decolonizing perspectives into a discipline, they rarely replace the entire field. Instead, decolonizing theory enters through specific questions,Continue reading “How Decolonization Flows Into Workplace Spirituality”

Decolonizing is not a metaphor – it is an action. It is work performed in real communities, on real lands, and within real systems of knowledge and power. As movements for Indigenous sovereignty and epistemic justice continue to grow, “decolonizing” must remain grounded in material change, relational accountability, and Indigenous-led praxis. What follows is anContinue reading “Decolonizing: From Theory to Material Change”

Critical Indigenous Theory (CIT) brings Indigenous relationality, responsibility, and sovereignty into conversation with Western thought. As an intellectual tradition, critical Indigenous theory (CIT) does more than critique dominant systems; it reorients how we think, research, teach, and lead. Rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and land-based relationality, CIT offers an alternative to Eurocentric assumptions about knowledge, power,Continue reading “Indigenous Wisdom as Critical Theory”

What if workplaces treated meaning, connection, and compassion as essential to productivity? Emerging research on workplace spirituality suggests that when organizations nurture employees’ inner lives (not as a marketing strategy but as an ethical commitment), burnout decreases, trust grows, and productivity becomes more sustainable. This essay synthesizes current scholarship to help human resources development (HRD)Continue reading “What Happens When Work Becomes Sacred?”

What does “spirituality” really mean beyond religion or belief?  For many, spirituality immediately brings to mind ritual practices or doctrinal faith. However, spirituality is much broader, more human, and more universal than any single tradition. It is a process of creating meaning, forming connections, and personal growth. Its a way of exploring the deeper aspectsContinue reading “Defining Spirituality: Meaning, Connection, and Healing”

Many organizations offer “spiritual wellness” programs that soothe but never transform. In workplaces seeking solutions to burnout, conflict, and disconnection, spiritual language has become an attractive tool. However, when spirituality is used to comfort employees without addressing the structures that harm them, it risks becoming just another way to uphold the status quo. This essayContinue reading “When Workplace Spirituality Becomes Manipulation”

Modern work drains more than time, it depletes spirit. Burnout, stress, and workplace toxicity are not personal failings but symptoms of deeper structural imbalance. For those who care for others (clergy, HR professionals, social workers, etc.) and for workers who are barely holding on, spiritual disconnection at work may be saying something urgent: something largerContinue reading “The Perilous Workplace: Why Burnout Isn’t Just About Stress”