Does Spirituality Belong in Business (Podcast)

Dr. Louis W. (Jody) Fry is the founder of the International Institute for Spiritual Leadership and a professor at Texas A&M Central Texas.  Fry’s most recent book is titled Maximizing the Triple Bottom Line through Spiritual Leadership (Stanford University Press, 2013) and examines business models that integrate ethics, leadership, employee well-being, sustainability, social responsibility, profitability, and organizational growth.  The case studies in the book are informed by more than a decade of research investigating spiritual leadership in organizations. 

According to Fry (2013a), spiritual leadership “is an emerging paradigm within the broader context of workplace spirituality designed to create an intrinsically motivated, learning organization that maximizes the triple bottom line.”[1] The triple bottom line is what an organization is thought to be targeting when it addresses not just the financial consequences of its actions, but also the social and environmental consequences. The triple bottom line refers to people, planet, and profit.

In the following interview, produced by Quiddity at NPR-member WUIS, Illinois Public Radio’s hub-station, Fry discusses how he arrived in the inspired scholarly space that brought forth the creation of a book that tackles a topic not often readily embraced by conventional corporate culture.  He shares a multi-layered journey into the places and spaces where together, head and heart map the mystery of the human experience, and over a decade of academic research charts a path toward the “co-creation of a conscience, sustainable world that works for everyone” (Fry, 2013b).[2]

Download or listen to the interview by clicking here. 

This podcast, and the above introduction, is by Joanna Beth Tweedy, an associate dean of academic affairs at Benedictine University's Springfield campus. She is the founding editor and host of Quiddity International Literary Journal and the author of the novel, The Yonder Side of Sass and Texas, recently published by Southeast Missouri University Press. Tweedy is a current doctoral student with the Center for Values-Driven Leadership. 

---

[1] Fry, L. W. (2013a). What is spiritual leadership? International Institute for Spiritual Leadership. Retrieved from http://iispiritualleadership.com/spiritual-leadership/

[2] Fry, L. W. (2013b). A conversation with Louis W. (Jody) Fry [Interview by J. B. Tweedy]. Quiddity International Literary Journal and Public-Radio Program, 6(2) print edition. Original broadcast January 2013.