Factoids



In Time Magazine (Nov. 19, 2001), there is a Time/CNN poll that offers the following
statistics:

• 81% of respondents think that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 will impact their lives in
  the future.
• 57% have thought more about the spiritual part of their lives since the attacks
• 62% feel the need to spend more time with family members
  
• 55% experience a greater focus or purpose in life

• Sales of the Bible are up over 42% from this time period last year
  
• Koran sales have quintupled since September 11th
  
• Churches and synagogues report that attendance is up 5-10%, although it is almost doubled in Manhattan.
  
• 66% of non-Christian religious followers believe they have either experienced or witnessed religious discrimination while on the job.
  
• Christians ...constitute 86% of the population.
  

“One division of Elf Atochem, part of the French oil company Elf-Aquitaine, credits InnerWork Co., Chester Springs, Pa., with saving it as much as $2 million in operating costs by showing people how to be more inspired about work.”
Wall Street Journal, 8/13/98 A1.

The “International Workplace Values Survey” found that more than two-thirds (69%) of the respondents expressed a desire to become part of “a formal organization to further new thinking and humanistic values in the workplace.” The study, co-sponsored by The Compass Group, a Silicon Valley-based research group, “The New Leaders” business newsletter in San Francisco and the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, California, also found an average of 55% of the 1200 respondents from 18 countries had experienced what they called a “personal transformation” during the years from 1985 to 1990. More than 70% of them reported they either meditated or prayed. And surprisingly, spiritual development ranked ahead of physical development in order of importance. (Dennis White and John Renesch)

“(A)ccording to the Personnel Journal survey, most HR managers think the spirituality concept has merit. In fact 70% of the respondents say they think spirituality does have a place at work.
Personnel Journal, Sept. 95, p. 74.

“Book publishers – having enjoyed nearly a doubling of religion book sale between 1991 and 1994 when other categories were flat – also have focused on the marriage of work and spirituality in recent years. Publishers Weekly Religion Editor Lynn Garrett says that baby boomers concerned with ethical issues and their own approaching mortality are driving book sales in the category.”
L.A. Times, April 6, 1998, p. 29

“The upsurge in Americans’ interest in spiritual life is documented by pollster George Gallup Jr. His book, Surverying the Religious Landscape, finds that concern with spiritual well-being has surged 40% in just four years, so that 8 in 10 Americans now feed a need for spiritual growth.

The workplace spirituality movement includes 10,000 regular Bible and prayer groups according to the Fellowship for Companies for Christ International in Atlanta. The fellowship, a multi-state network of corporate CEOs, sponsored just one conference on workplace spirituality in 1995. It now holds 30 conferences a year.

Aish Hatora – or Fire of Torah, a worldwide education program – makes rabbis available to Jewish study groups in or near workplaces across the United States.

Marketplace Ministries of Dallas has 726 Protestant chaplains under contract to provide faith-based counseling to 200,000 employees of more than 200 companies in 28 states. Founder of Marketplace Ministries is Gil Stricklin, a retired Air Force chaplain who started applying the military’s model of chaplain programs to the corporate world in 1984. Marketplace Ministry chaplains come from 51 Protestant denominations and call on their Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Buddhist, or Hindu brothers and sisters where needed.

Role of religion in workplace grows, Denver Rocky Mountain News, March 5, 2000,
Mary Deibel:
Company Examples:

Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox have used HeartMath programs.


Bill George, CEO, Medtronic, 20 years ago set up a meditation center that still serves employees. The mission of Medtronic: “restoring people to full health.” Uses mission to motivate workers by appealing to their desire to be part of something bigger than themselves.


At Boeing, top managers listen to David Whyte, the poet who wrote The heart aroused:
Poetry and the preservation of the soul in corporate America


At AT&T: focus on values


At Lotus Development: Soul committee is re-examining the company’s management
practices and values.

More than 70% of U.S. companies are struggling with low morale and trust according to a 1997 Wharton School study.

Average CEO compensation:
In 1989 – $1.2 million, 45 times the blue-collar wage.
In 1999 – $12.4 million, 475 times the blue-collar wage.
Source: report on CEO pay from United for a Fair Economy, "The Bigger They Come, the Harder They Fall,"www.ufenet.org. For more on CEO pay at individual companies see www.AFLCIO/paywatch/index.htm

The number of businesses owned by minority women is growing three times as fast as the overall rate of business growth, says the National Foundations for Women Business Owners, Using Census Bureau data, the group estimates the number of firms owned by Hispanic women rose 206% between 1987 and 1996, 138% for Asian, American Indian and Alaskan Native women; and 135% for black women.
Wall Street Journal., p. 1, 1/22/98

It’s little wonder that mainstream publishers are finally looking to tap the powerful religious book market. As fiction sales flatten nationwide, several big publishers are producing their own Christian fiction, a market estimated by the Christian Booksellers Association at more than $40 million per year.

For mainstream publishers, the move is no leap of faith. From their favorite TV shows to their choice of compact disks, Americans increasingly are drawn to spiritual subjects. Publishers have been hitting home runs with religious memoirs, biographies, essays and self-help books. Now they’re looking at fiction as the next frontier. “All kinds of answers to the question, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ are selling,” says Susan Petersen, president of Penguin Putnam Inc.
Wall Street Journal., B1, 1/20/98

Harrington, 1997, mentions a UK study which found in 1996 that one in ten said that they went to church regularly, while two out of three said that they had a personal spirituality.
Harrington, Donal, Parish Renewal, Vol. 1 (Dublin : Columbia, 1997)

At 6:15 a.m. Sunday, as PepsiCo Inc. prepared to announce its $13.8 billion acquisition of Quaker Oats Co., Indra Nooyi boarded a plane for Pittsburgh. The PepsiCo chief financial officer was going to offer thanks at a Hindu temple modeled on one in southern India that members of her family used to visit when something big was happening in their lives.

There’s no doubt something big is happening in Ms. Nooyi’s life. Not only did she play a key role in PepsiCo’s proposed acquisition of Quaker, but she will become the beverage and snack-food giant’s Nol. 2 executive, behind Chairman and CEO-designate Steven Reinemund, when the deal closes next spring.
(“After Quaker, PepsiCo’s Nooyi to Add Top Job,” Wall Street Journal., 12/5/00, B1,
B4).

In a major study at Duke, researchers found that people who attended services at least once a week had stronger immune systems than those who didn’t. Another study, at the University of Colorado, found that people who attend services frequently are likely to live an average of seven years longer – about the same amount of time, coincidentally, that some studies say refraining from smoking is supposed to add.

In fact, of the 1,200 studies in a new compilation on the subject published by Oxford University Press, about two thirds suggest some connection between religious involvement and better health. One prominent researcher in the field, Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School, has even argued that regular repetitive prayer, along with general stress management, can reduce visits to health-care professionals by up to 50%). 46% of employees leaving a company do so because they feel unappreciated 61% said their bosses don’t place much importance on them as people 88% said they do not receive acknowledgement for the work they do (Barbara Glanz, 2001)

Gallup Poll: Over 80% of people in the US dread going to work on Monday morning. In Europe the percentage is even higher.

Brenda Rarey: Less than 1/3 of stock market value is derived from financial and physical assets, the growing share is from intangible assets. Workforce Magazine recently named Intangible Assets and Measuring Human Resources as two of the top 80 trends, events, and people that have shaped HR. May 2002.
From ‘Memo to CEOs’ article, Fast Company, June 2002: For full text of this article, go to http://www.fastcompany.com/online/59/ceo.html. This article was actually excerpted from a longer paper authored by Henry Mintzberg (McGill University), Robert Simons (Harvard Business School), and Kunal Basu (Oxford University), which can be found at www.henrymintzberg.com (click on ‘Beyond Selfishness’ link in the ‘What’s New’ section). This paper is 26 pages and is in Adobe Acrobat format.

One recent survey reported that only 34% of employees worldwide felt a strong sense of loyalty for their employers- in the US, only 47% of employees saw the leaders of their companies as people of high personal integrity - and that was before Enron, Andersen, and Global Crossing.

During the 1990s, CEO pay rose by 570%; profits rose by 114%. Average worker pay rose 37%, barely ahead of inflation, which was 32%.

In 1989, there were 66 billionaires, and 31.5 million people in the United States living below the official poverty line. In 1999, 10 years later, the number of billionaires had increased to 268, and the number of people living below the poverty line had increased to 34.5 million.

According to the Chronicle of Education (August 29, 2003) the attitudes and characteristics of freshmen at 4-year colleges for Fall 2002 ranks "Integrating spirituality into my life" #7 of twenty survey items identifying "objectives considered to be essential or very important".
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Almanac Issue 2003 - 4. "Attitudes and Characteristics of Freshmen." 29, August 2003. Vol. L, NO. 1.: Page 17. Note: The statistics are based on survey responses of 282,549 freshman entering 437 four-year colleges and universities in the fall of 2002.

A new survey of college students across the country found that 73% think religion or spirituality is important to their identity, but 62% said their professors don't encourage discussion of religion or spiritual beliefs. The study, by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, also found that 77% of college students pray, and 71% think religion is helpful.

Though religion is important to students, the study did find a marked decrease in religious participation during four years of college. While 52% of those polled said they attended religious services frequently during the year before they entered college, only 29% did so by their junior year.
Posted by Rebecca Phillips | November 24, 2003 | 5:29 pm
LA Times

88,000+ hours* you're likely to spend working at a job over your lifetime: The statistic came from an article by R. Paul Stevens in the current Marketplace Magazine (see Resources below). 88,000+ hours equals about 43 years of working for pay at about 37.5 hours per week for 48 weeks a year. But 88,000+ hours doesn't count overtime, commute time, recuperating from work time, or all the extra, unpaid hours spent by executives, business owners or professionals. Nor does it account for at-home time spent tending family and the house, personal or spiritual development, taking out the garbage, etc. Marketplace Magazine, a bi-monthly magazine on spirit at work from the Mennonite Economic Development Associates, is both true to its evangelical faith and filled with insights that are valuable to people of all faiths. See www.meda.org for information. Subscriptions are $25.00 (US) from Marketplace, 302-280 Smith Street, Winnipeg, MB R3C 1K2.

USA Today reported on Nov. 17th that 61% of respondents in a study for www.spirituality.com said they would benefit if workplaces had a greater sense of spirit.

A study conducted by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported in Human Resource Executive Magazine found that 37 percent of 428 human resource professionals surveyed had increased training to prepare for the skilled worker shortages forecast by 2010 and expected to be apparent before that. Demographics and the economic demand predicted as we witness the turnaround leads to the conclusion that there is no denying the upcoming shortage of the most desired, highly skilled knowledge workers. So what is being done? What is being done at your firm?

Another problem is lack of compelling engagement in work and strong commitment to the employer. A Towers Perrin study found that almost 20 percent of the workforce was not "connected psychologically" to their employers. That indicates a need for building stronger interpersonal relationships at and through all levels of an organization - and that needs to be an important part of training and development of talent. The Herman Trend Alert advises that companies will bring in more trainers and coaches to integrate learning with personal engagement and to follow up with learners and managers to assure follow-through to professional and career development.

• “5 years ago - only one conference on spirituality and the workplace; now there are hundreds.” - 1999 Business Week magazine
• 10,000 Bible and prayer groups in workplaces that meet regularly” – 1999 Business Week.
• 79 Books Published on Faith & Work in Year 2000, “24 Books A Month Published in 2002“ - Pete Hammond, Intervarsity Press                 
• “… a mostly unorganized mass of believers--a counterculture bubbling up all over corporate America--who want to bridge the traditional divide between spirituality and work. Historically, such folk operated below the radar, on their own or in small workplace groups where they prayed or studied the Bible. But now they are getting organized and going public to agitate for change.”  Fortune Magazine, July 16, 2001
•  "People who want to mix God and business are rebels on several fronts. They reject the centuries-old American conviction that spirituality is a private matter. They challenge religious thinkers who disdain business as an inherently impure pursuit. They disagree with business people who say that  religion is unavoidably divisive.  Fortune Magazine, July 16, 2001
• “Today, a spiritual revival is sweeping across Corporate America as people of all stripes are mixing mysticism into their management, importing into office corridors the lessons usually dolled out in churches, temples, and mosques. Gone is the old taboo against talking about God at work. – BusinessWeek Magazine, November 1999
• “Ten years ago we could identity only 25 national or international workplace ministries; today we can identify more than 900.” Mike McLoughlin, YWAM Marketplace Mission   
• Only 34% of employees worldwide feel a strong sense of loyalty to employers
• In US, only 47% see leaders of their companies having high personal integrity
• More than 70% of US companies struggled with low morale & trust (Wharton study)
• Again, these surveys were before Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, Andersen

Fast Company, June 2002, “Memo to CEOs” p. 117.