Scholarly and popular authors of leadership talk more about spirituality than about religion in the workplace. Their writings tend to accept uncritically a strict distinction between spirituality and religion. In this frequently repeated view, religion is institutional, dogmatic, and rigid; spirituality is personal, emotional, and adaptable to an individual's needs. Spiritual language, symbols, and rituals should be acceptable in the workplace, but religious talk and action remain unacceptable. Adherents of this approach to workplace leadership tend to downplay the potentially contentious nature of things spiritual, even as they maintain that religious matters are divisive.

This chapter critically examines the spirituality–religion dichotomy. The chapter builds a case to argue that the mantra “spirituality unites, but religion divides” is much more problematic than scholars or proponents of spiritual leadership would have us believe. Further, the chapter asserts that the corresponding definitions of spirituality are too broad to be coherent and that the frequent emphasis on the potential of spirituality to create unity or common ground in the workplace overlooks difficult issues.

The ensuing critical exploration of the spirituality and leadership literature will help clarify the myriad issues of the increasingly diverse contemporary workplace. Acknowledging the complex nature of the phenomena (and the difficulties of imposing a simple distinction) will allow for more rigorous analyses of the role of religion and spirituality in the workplace.