Cheat the Notion Spirituality Means Honesty

“He’s a good Christian.”
     Over the years as I’ve consulted with retailers far and wide, I’ve occasionally heard that phrase used to signify honesty in a merchant or vendor. My reaction, generally confined to inside my head, is that the speaker probably thinks spirituality guarantees business ethics.
     Research at Appalachian State University and University of Nevada-Reno suggests that the precise opposite is true, at least in America. The researchers administered to 149 MBA candidates in the U.S. and Europe the Human Spirituality Scale (HSS). The HSS asks a person how strongly they agree or disagree with each of a set of twenty items that have been found to reflect three themes generally accepted as constituting spirituality:

• A reverent compassion for the welfare of others 
• A larger context or structure in which to view one's life 
• An awareness of life itself and other living things 

     The study participants were also presented with a set of situations measuring business ethics, such as reactions to a case of an auto dealer overcharging for repairs.
     For the European MBA candidates, there was no relationship between the HSS score and evidence of ethics. For the Americans, there was an inverse relationship: Overall, those scoring highest on the HSS showed the lowest adherence to business ethics. The researchers conclude that the current generation of students of business are more likely to consider spirituality in personal terms than in terms of what benefits society.
     A patina of religiosity can lead consumers into assuming honesty. This may have been true over the history of American retailing. According to researchers at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, itinerant peddlers during the mid- to late 1800’s, who were often Jewish, would sometimes dress as Quakers because Quakers had a reputation for being shrewd, but fair.
     Look deeper within yourself, your staff, and your consumers than spirituality to sincerely project ethics. In fact, the rigidity associated with some religiosity can undermine the efforts.
     A couple of years ago, Kmart offered selected customers a half-price discount coupon. Missing from the coupon was a notice that it could be used only in certain locations. When shoppers presented the coupons in the wrong locations, many store staff rigidly believed the coupons were fraudulent. Store staff said to customers, “This coupon is fraudulent,” and the customer heard, “You’re a dishonest cheat.”
     …which would naturally result in the customers thinking these store staff were the cheats.

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