Transforming Contemporary Businesses: The Impact of Quaker Principles and Insights on Business in a Volatile World

Abstract

It is well-known that the insights of early Quakers make a significant contribution to ethics and governance within business—issues that other denominations and faiths also address. Less well known is the spiritual impact of Quaker principles on organisational development and performance. The unique gift that flows from the discoveries of early Friends is the way in which Quaker practice and principles enable people to tap into the very best—the divine—within themselves and in the process transform themselves, their work and their lives. In this chapter we will look at how the Quaker practice of turning within can turn soul-destroying workplaces into places that nourish the human spirit in organisations that have become dull in the drabness of a functional, materialist world, and conflictual and troubled in an environment of constant, volatile change.

Look at the Quakers—they were excellent business people that never lied, never stole; they cared for their employees and the community which gave them the wealth. They never took more money out than they put back.

Anita Roddick