Be"gees"terde werknemers as boublok vir 'n gesonde samelewing : navorsings- en oorsigartikels : voorwaardes vir 'n gesonde samelewing (gemeenskap)

Spirited employees as building block for a healthy society In the first part of this article it is indicated that society lost its spiritual character. Throughout the course of history (until the dawn of modernity) spirit and spirituality were an integrated part of society and openly confessed and promoted. Spirituality was linked to the inspiration behind human activities such as science, art and religion. More importantly, spirit and spirituality are associated with care - for the self, fellow human beings and the world itself. With the arrival of modernity and the accompanying rationalism and linear thinking, spirituality was eroded and forgotten in society. The consequences of this erosion were disastrous. It caused a loss of the principle of care and led to exploitation of fellow human beings and nature on a global scale. De Beer (2013:498) describes it as the absence and loss of meaningful human existence. He then asks for a strategy to be found for a re-enchantment of society. As part of the de-spiritualisation of society, modern organisations were subjected to the same forces of rationalism, linear thinking and standardisation and the dismissal of spirit from the workplace. Similar to society spirituality (also religiously - such as the principle of "calling" and "vocation") had to make space for "scientific" ways of organising and managing the modern organisation. Looking now at organisations and corporations, it is clear that the majority of them got stuck in principle and applications that were conceived and developed from the first part of the previous century. Modern organisations are based on rational thinking, bureaucratic and hierarchically structured. It became a bit more sophisticated during the course of the twentieth century with more emphasis on the human side of organising. However, these attempts to humanise the organisation were mostly done to serve the interest of the organisation to impact on productivity, cost effectiveness and finally, the bottom-line. In the postmodern environment there is an increasing call for making sense and asking for meaning. The focus of this revival of asking spiritual questions is in the workplace. Employees are looking for meaning in what they do there where they spend most of their productive hours. They also want to purposefully make a difference and have an impact. Many organisations are already aware of the need of their employees but don't have the insight nor are they really willing to transform