The integration of faith in business is our research responsibility as an institution of higher Christian education. A controversy reported in the news involved a finance professor at Iowa State charged with introducing Biblical content in his finance course. The instructor, who is well-published and respected in finance scholarship, was challenged by both faculty and administration when he shared the content of the course as using Biblical principles to support decision-making in crisis situations.
Those challenging the class came to the conclusion that the instructor “did not have formal training” to teach it. “This was not an issue of academic freedom,…This violates two principles: the Constitution and academic rigor … That is what we are objecting to.” (quoted from an education faculty member at Iowa State University).
Administration and other faculty agreed, saying, “The instructor has no expertise in either academic biblical studies or religious studies, and this raises the question of whether Finance 290X is simply a means to obtain college credit for religious instruction rather than for an objective academic study of different Christian viewpoints about business.”
Opponents of the course argued that the class might be a valid course topic at a private institution, but not at public universities like Iowa State. With such opposition at public institutions of learning, faculty at Christian institutions have the responsibility to integrate Biblical principles in practically every discipline, in every course.
I have honored this need by guiding research efforts through MSR in conducting relevant and rigorous research in management, spirituality and religion. A number of conference papers included on my CV acknowledge extensive work conducted in this area.
Representative samples of research I have conducted in Faith Integration are included in the following peer-reviewed works:
Past Works
Organizational hybridization: A business model to integrate best practices of for-profit and non-profit organizations. Journal of Biblical Integration in Business (Spring 2012), Vol. 15, Issue 1, pp. 29-45, with J. Brister.
This research was conducted in collaboration with Jozell Brister, an economics professor at ACU, and published in the Journal of Biblical Integration in Business (JBIB). In this work, we interview a group of experts in for-profit and non-profit organizations who are guided by Biblical principles in guiding and developing strategies for business. The outcome of this research was to provide a model for businesses interested in integrating principles of faith into their organizational framework. This published work was an extension to a conference paper presented at the Christian Business Faculty Conference (CBFC) entitled:
Conference Paper: Educating the Head, Heart, and Hand to Support Missional Processes in Change Management. Christian Business Faculty Conference, October 2010, Rogers, AR. With J. Brister, J. & R. Lytle.
This paper received an award for Best Conference Paper Award as part of the 2010 conference. Another paper was presented at the same conference that was co-authored with a graduate student in the College of Biblical Studies:
Conference Paper: Defining the concept of being “missional” in business management, Christian Business Faculty Conference, 2009, Rogers, Arkansas, with Andrew Greenberg. Andrew is now a high school English teacher at Dallas Christian Schools.
Burton, O., Evaluating the role of a non-profit in missional change management. (revise and resubmit), Journal of Management, Spirituality, & Religion.
This paper is a work in progress that I would like to include in the list of research, as it is fully developed and was submitted to JMSR. This work was supported by research conducted by Kyle Smith, who was an undergraduate student who completed studies in the law school at Pepperdine after completing the literature review for this paper. I received a revise and resubmit for this work, which is on schedule to submit with two papers presented at the Christian Scholars conference in 2012 at Lipscomb University.
This paper, along with several of the works listed in this section, were supported through continuing ABE Grants offered by COBA. I greatly appreciate Dr. Lytle’s leadership in supporting this much needed research stream.
Recently Completed Works
Special Issue Journal: Innovative Research Methods in Management, Spirituality, and Religion. Management Research Review (August 2017), Vol. 40, Issue 8, with K. Miller, C. Tackney, T. Ewest, T. Issa. (H-Index of 38)
Book Chapter: Burton O., Jeong S., Saini K.M. (2018). Dark Spirituality: Its Impact on the Strategic and Operational Efficiency of Organizations. In: Dhiman S., Roberts G., Crossman J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Fulfillment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61929-3_36-1.
Conference Paper: Third Person Spirituality. Academy of Management Conference, August 2015, Vancouver, BC, with S. Jeong. Investigates the use of third party spiritual interventions used in corporate decision making.
Conference Symposium: Innovative Research Methods in Management, Spirituality and Religion, Academy of Management Conference, August 2018, Chicago, IL. (Voted 2018 Showcase Symposium Award). This work was an extensive research effort supported and published by Management Research Review. Although listed as a symposium, this was a presentation of six published papers identified as innovative research approaches supporting the MSR domain.
Conference Workshop: Improving Lives by Creating a Culture of Mentoring, Academy of Management Conference, August 2018, Chicago, IL, with J. Burkey. This was a true workshop and not a conference paper/presentation
Conference Presentation: Using Network Analysis / Theory to Re-Engineer the Justice System, Christian Scholars Conference, June 2018, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN.
Conference Presentation: Blind Spots: How Spiritual Euphemisms Erode Academic and Business Value. Academy of Management Conference, August 2017, Atlanta, GA, with S. Jeong and K. Saini.
Conference Presentation: Using Network Analysis / Theory to Re-Engineer Organizational and Social Change, Christian Scholars Conference, June 2017, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN.
Conference Presentation: Cultivating Spirituality and Leadership through Student-focused Use of Technology. Leadership, Spirituality & Education Conference, International Association of Management Spirituality & Religion, May 2017, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, with J. Weaver.
Conference Workshop: Identifying Sources of Workplace Spirituality. Academy of Management Conference, August 2016, Anaheim, CA, with S. Jeong and K. Saini.
Conference Presentation: A Design Thinking Approach to Assessing Economic and Social Justice in America. Christian Scholars Conference, June 2016, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN with A. Nyandoro.
Conference Presentation: Personal Spirituality for Creativity: A Christian and Hindu Perspective. ESADE Spirituality and Creativity Conference, International Association of Management Spirituality & Religion, March 2015, Barcelona, Spain, with K. Saini and J. Weaver.
Conference Presentation: Spirituality that Shapes Identity. Academy of Management Conference, August 2013, Orlando, FL, with J. Weeden.
Conference Paper: The Ethics of Gender Neutral Work Environments. Christian Scholars Conference, June 2013, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN, with J. Weeden.
Conference Paper: Socioemotional Wealth’s Influence on Business Success.Christian Scholars Conference, June 2012, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN, with J. Brister.
Conference Paper: Restoring Public Trust through Women in their Natural Role as Manager/Entrepreneur. Christian Scholars Conference, June 2012, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN, with J. Weeden.
Conference Paper: Educating the head, heart, and hand to support Missional Processes in change management, Christian Business Faculty Conference, 2009, Rogers, Arkansas, with J. Brister and R. Lytle.
Conference Paper: Defining the concept of being “missional” in business management, Christian Business Faculty Conference, 2009, Rogers, Arkansas, with A. Greenberg.
Conference Paper: Assessing the Structural Development & Propagation of Information in Natural Communication Processes, Christian Business Faculty Conference, October 2007, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA.
PENDING PUBLICATIONS
Research Paper: Spirituality, mindfulness and entrepreneurship: A critical realist analysis, with J. Brister, B. Teehankee, and K. Saini. Involves an interview with April Anthony as a CEO and recent ACU Board Chair. Prepared for Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, August 2018. Status: under revision for research method.
Research Paper: A Mixed Methods Approach to Recognizing the Spiritual Identity of Women as Managers and Entrepreneurs, with J. Brister, B. Teehankee, and J. Weeden. Submitted to for Journal of Management Research Review, December 2017. Status: under revision
Research Paper: 3RD Person Spirituality: The Role of Spiritual Agents in Management Decisions, with S. Jeong and K. Saini. Submitted to Academy of Management Perspectives, August 2018. Status: under revision
Book Chapter: The Internal Conversation of How Human Objects Speak. (Link includes abstract only). Status: Submitted to Book “Well-Being and Human Flourishing. Pending Publication – February 2019.
Book Chapter: How Modern Psychology and Organizational Behavior Inform Mindfulness at Work, with K. Saini, August 2018. Status: Submitted to Palgrave Publishers. Pending publication – May 2019
Book Chapter: Mindfulness + Spirituality: An Enhanced Leadership Perspective, with K. Saini, August 2018. Status: Submitted to Palgrave Publishers. Pending publication – May 2019