In search of excellence: spiritual training program and junior managers' counterproductive work behavior in China

Abstract

Purpose Describes an organizational spiritual‐development program run for junior managers at the giant Guangxi State Farm Agriculture Group (SFAG). Design/methodology/approach Draws on the inside information of the author, who is a course tutor, and some of his trainees. Findings Reports how the program can help junior managers to avoid “counterproductive workplace behaviour” and find greater meaning in their work. Practical implications Reveals how the course can help to promote: honest, warm and harmonious relationships in the workplace; loyalty to the company and social sanctions against employees who try to undermine their colleagues and sabotage production; participation in the cultural life of the organization; and a more unified enterprise spirit. Social implications Details how the tenets of the course chime with the wider objectives of Chinese society. Originality/value Contains a particularly interesting section about two volunteers who, having practised counterproductive workplace behaviors the past (one served a prison sentence for it), now lead discussion groups on the program.