International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration
Volume 9, Issue 2, January 2023, Pages 17-29
How to Prevent the Side Effects of Innovation: The Necessity of the Spiritual Exercises
DOI: 10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.92.1002
URL: https://doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.92.1002
Xavier Pavie1, Wasif Iqbal2, Herve Novi3.1 ESSEC Business School, Singapore
2 CEO, Nations Trading, Doha, Qatar
3 Consultant-Gracia Consulting, France
Abstract: Responsible innovation has emerged as a crucial instrument for carrying out the policy, leadership, and governance reform agenda, which aims to develop new ideas and implement them in order to address global challenges. It is crucial to analyze innovation’s negative expectations and ramifications and the historical context and relevance of the technology introduced. However, there is a dark side to innovation that academics and policymakers must be aware of and confront. Plutarch elaborates that one must start at the most fundamental level and work up to a strong and solid character to master anger, interest, conversation, or desire for wealth. Getting back into the world and actively participating in daily life is the real challenge; cultivating one’s spirituality is not the end game. Components of the spiritual environment reflect the three key features of spirituality in responsible innovators: a feeling of spirituality, a sense of purpose in work, and a desire for social involvement or engagement. While a certain kind of analysis may show people how to do things, act differently, make progress, and develop, it does not involve the sort of generosity with which they are unaccustomed.
Keywords: Spiritual Exercise, Responsible Innovation, Policies
1. Introduction
New ideas and policies are needed to address global challenges, and responsible innovation has emerged as a crucial instrument to execute the enhancement agenda of policy, leadership, and governance. Effective technologies, preparing the ground for fundamental change, have originated from diverse contexts and have positive and negative results. So there exists, nevertheless, a dark side of innovation (Cropley et al., 2010; Coad et al., 2020) that both academics and politicians need to know and work on it, as it is important to consider the detrimental expectations and consequences of innovation, and perhaps even the historical background and meaning in which technologies are introduced. Furthermore, it is important to critically and consciously understand the new framework proposed for sustainable development of the corporate culture based on spirituality (Fabian and Fabricant, 2014), in which they are applied, and innovators should be informed and careful of the adverse impacts of the reform they intend to bring about. Individuals must consider and strive to resolve the causes of entrenchment for which spiritual exercises may prove useful instead of attempting to remove so-called obstacles to innovation.
2. The Dark Side of Innovation and Its Effect:
When innovators and policymakers struggle to do it anyway, technologies are likely to remain at the stage of the concept. Innovation, improvement and adoption of new processes or technology mean that current processes, functions, organizations, technology or business models are disrupted or substituted, creating competing interests, with advantages and disadvantages, as a result (Pavie et al., 2014). For instance, technological advances have increased productivity and contributed to economic growth by streamlining and collating jobs manually by the workforce in a traditional way. This directly affects the security of jobs and income, especially if social protection is inadequate or absent. Throughout the research that has described transformative aims, organizational deficiencies and unintended effects as characteristics of poor inventions, this darker aspect of innovation is already beginning to be addressed.
A further result of the uncertainty produced by innovation may be sheer opposition, reluctance or even hostility (Pavie, 2020). It has been observed that the workforce opposes the Implementation of modern working tools and techniques and prefers to work with “traditional” techniques. Even though resistance to reform is not unusual and has many influences, probably one of the reasons in this instance can be identified in the turbulent past in which many structural reforms fell from poor to far worse (Gremmen et al., 2019). With time, the concept that was breaking the status quo might be dangerous and could lead to catastrophe was incorporated by individuals.
In the same manner, while under various regimes, intended and unintended “innovation” tried to create an aristocracy all over the premise of total self-sufficiency, with possible devastating implications, such as dividing families into separate operation teams. So, research has found that part of these processes was a restructuring of training in which the instruction given to the workers had a devastating effect in an obsequious and naive manner, accepting things personally and not challenging the significance. Besides, the effects of bad inventions may impact potential tries at revolutionary change. The painful and transformative effect of these changes can still be increasingly questioned in many cultures. It could well impact the understanding and tolerance of further creativity and innovation. Innovations, irrespective of design, could collapse in such environments before their implementations.
As a result, social change can be unpredictable and obstructive and have long-term detrimental impacts on the view of a community on innovation, as in the case of implementing new technologies. This, in essence, decreases the opportunities for possible technological change, meaning that any prospective innovator needs to be on the action plan to carefully analyze potential losers and minimize negative consequences, and that involves learning from unsuccessful developments (Bryden and Gezelius, 2017). Innovation has become important for organizations to thrive and prosper in response to the rapidly evolving market climate, marked by greater globalization and technological advances. Employees’ imaginative and inventive efforts significantly affect an organization’s success. Innovation involves several individual activities, and creative people need to participate in developing ideas that are fundamental and crucial to innovation and the idea of development and Implementation.
On the corporate innovations and implementation side, contemporary companies frequently rely on team members to be more creative because producing innovative goods and services is becoming increasingly sophisticated while expensive and often surpasses an individual’s skill. So, innovation calls for joint participation and involvement from all teammates collaborating on a trusting relationship. Developing a creative team and combining abilities with complementary abilities requires sharing data and resources, assisting each other, and collaborating for prolonged periods. Spiritual exercise, here, may prove as a mechanism through which group-level innovative habits can be encouraged and facilitated, embracing groups as an individual entities.
The perfect antidote for this predicament is responsible innovation. Responsible (research and) innovation (Responsible Innovation) is emerging as a powerful science policy discourse, particularly in Europe (Macnaghten et al.,2014). Although interpretively flexible, Responsible Innovation framings have largely developed to date in Europe and North America, promising a framework in which Responsible Innovation processes become responsive to societal challenges in the face of the inevitable uncertainties, ambiguities and questions that innovation creates (Owen et al., 2012; Von Schomberg, 2013). The idea of responsible innovation has played a crucial role in research and innovation practice, although the concept has differed significantly with both time and place (Stilgoe et al., 2013).
A common interpretation of innovation is that it is not a single action but an entire process of interrelated sub-processes (Myers and Marquis, 1969). Innovation is a chain of processes that begins by theoretically visualizing an idea, then a conceptualized invention, and finally, commercializing the idea (Trott, 2008). This interlinking of processes leads to the growth of a new market and organization and, not necessarily, the destruction of an existing one. The notion of responsibility gives innovation an important dimension (Burget et al., 2017). One needs to realize that humans play a dual role by being both an employee whose prime responsibility is to churn profits and a citizen with duties towards society and the environment (Pavie et al., 2014).
Often, innovators neglect the consequences an innovation has on social well-being and the environment (Pavie, 2020). Instead, they focus primarily on the economic outcome, unaware that such innovations will eventually fall out (Pavie, 2020). This is why responsible innovation suggests that the innovator considers all aspects of his innovation, not just the economic aspect. The whole process of thinking about every possible consequence of the innovation might look like asking the innovator not to be himself. Instead, it is about making sure they understand the consequences of their actions and that they can no longer act without the necessary discernment, without the responsibilities of self-care and of caring for others. (Owen et al., 2013).
The policy of innovation, if implemented properly, involves an inner force beyond experience and expertise that forces workers to endure the inevitable difficulties during innovative work. Spiritual exercise is a type of opportunity in humans, and its Implementation at work leads to the growth of confidence, trust and respect among teammates, which improves responsible innovation. It is also likely to have substantial consequences for promoting workplace innovation. Therefore, a spiritual exercise in the workplace is the quest for significance or deeper intent, interpersonal relationship, emotional self, and oneness or a task at work at a greater level.
3. Spiritual Exercises in Philosophical Approach:
According to Chase et al. (2013), Hadot’s consistent interpretation of the Hellenistic philosophical traditions, especially Stoicism and Epicureanism, points out how the subject has become all about theorization of the way of the world and the lives of all in its usual approach. His study is intended more as an explanation of the many streams of western philosophy that promote their discrete propensity and their intent in prominence to function as a systematic approach to a “society and culture” but more as a precise prediction to discovering spiritual exercises and their place in objectively similar ideologies. It offers greater clarification about philosophical thought’s often mystical and difficult-to-comprehend essence.
As Pierre Hadot clarifies, Epictetus’ offered three demonstrations or elements of the spirit: judgment, want, tendency, or impulsion (Branch-Trevathan, 2020). Since every one of these exercises of the spirit relies upon us, we can train them. We can decide whether to pass judgment or not with a specific goal. We can decide to want or not want, to will or not to will. The objective of profound activities is to impact yourself, to create an impact in yourself. In each profound exercise, it is important to roll out oneself to improve one’s perspective, disposition, and set of feelings, hence to discourse with oneself, subsequently to battle oneself (Hadot, 1998)).
Certain individuals are half Stoic and half Epicurean, who acknowledge and join “Luxurious sensualism” and Stoic fellowship with nature, “who practice both profound Stoic activities of carefulness and Epicurean otherworldly activities focused on the genuine joy of existing. Apathy and Epicureanism appear to compare to” (Vella, 2019) two inverse however indivisible posts of our internal life: strain and unwinding, obligation and tranquillity, moral awareness and the delight of existing. The typical, normal condition of men ought to be in sight, for intelligence is simply the vision of things as they are, the vision of the universe for what it’s worth in the light of reason, and astuteness is additionally just the method of being and experiencing that ought to compare to this vision (Koch, 2019).
Every scholastic pattern is designed to ensure a transcendental progression toward an ideal state of wisdom, including all actions of the explanation that are destined to be, for the spirit, strikingly similar to the competitor’s preparation or the use of a clinical fix. And yet, self-control boils down to paying attention. Plutarch elaborates on the concept of poise, explaining that it entails “controlling one’s indignation, interest, conversation, or desire of money, beginning by dealing with what is easiest all together continually to obtain a strong and steady character,” according (Nussbaum, 2016). One should strive to have these expert judgments and life guidelines. “In order to have the freedom to behave like a thinker despite any circumstances, one must be “prepared to hand.” Do it every day and soar! At the very least briefly, in any length at all, so long as it is remarkable. Never a “light” activity, whether done alone or with other men who share the goal of personal development. .. Abandon traditional time. Make an effort to break rid of the vested interests… Be immortal by generating amazement in others. Aiming high and working hard on the inside are both commendable endeavors.” (Del Nido, 2018).
The fundamental premise of existence is learning to tell what parts of our lives depend on us and what parts do not. We must face life’s challenges head-on, remembering that they aren’t catastrophes since they don’t depend on us. Reminiscing and thinking need fuel. Here we enter the realm of the more overtly edifying pursuits Philo outlines: reading, listening, examining, and critiquing (Hadot, 2002). To recover is to return one’s mind and heart to the simple pleasure of being alive. According to Epicureans, people feel depressed because they worry about things they don’t need to be worried about and desire things that aren’t vital to want and are beyond their control (Hadot, 1998).
On stress, which tears us toward the future, stows away from us the exceptional estimation of the basic truth of existing: We are conceived once and can’t be conceived twice. However, forever should be no more. Be that as it may, you, who is not an expert of tomorrow, defer your joy: life is squandered in hesitation, and every single one of us bites the dust overpowered with care. If one needs to know the idea of a thing, one should inspect it in its unadulterated state since each expansion to a thing hinders the information on that thing (Hadot, 1998). When you analyze it, at that point, eliminate all that isn’t itself; better actually eliminate all of your stains from yourself and inspect yourself, and you will have confidence in your everlasting status.
4. Spiritual Exercises Impact Innovation Practices:
According to Bartsch and Wray (2009), all schools agree that man is in a desperate condition of misery before the shift that man goes through in his philosophy. His life’s struggles and pursuits have torn him apart, so he can no longer lead a regular life or be himself. This prevents him from doing either. In addition, most of the world’s ideologies subscribe to the idea that it is theoretically possible for a man to be redeemed from his fallen state, transform into a better version of himself, and realize his full potential. This is why extensive preparations are now being made (Tiwari, 2019). Instead of demonstrating how to live following human biases and social norms – after all, public action is a result of interests – their goal is to arrange themselves in a manner that opposes the notion of man. This is because the public activity is a byproduct of interests (Leary, 2007).
Why individuals are troubled: People are miserable because they are the captive of their interests. They are miserable because they want things, but they will be unable to get them since they are outside, outsiders, and pointless to them. It follows that satisfaction comprises sluggishness, opportunity, and self-sufficiency. Joy is the re-visitation of the fundamental: genuine “ourselves,” which relies upon us (Nussbaum, 2016). Goethe on figuring out how to peruse: “Normal individuals don’t have the foggiest idea what amount of time and exertion it requires to figure out how to peruse. I’ve gone through eighty years at it, and still can’t say that I’ve arrived at my objective.” (Cremonesi, 2015). Surprisingly, Marcus Aurelius felt similarly. (Sharpe, 2015),
Everything exceptionally valued in life is unfilled, insignificant, and rotten: a bunch of little canines gnawing one another, small kids who battle, at that point chuckle, at that point burst out crying and consider what they resemble when they’re eating, dozing, making love, crapping. Then, at that point, consider what they’re similar to when they act glad and significant when they blow up and scold their inferiors (Kruger, 2017).
Besides, Marcus on declining to add emotional worth decisions guarantees that consistently make a definition or depiction of the item that happens in your portrayal, to have the option to consider it to be it is in its embodiment, both all in all and as a profit into its constituent parts, and say to yourself its appropriate name and the names of those things out of which it is made, and into which it will be disintegrated (Cremonesi, 2015).
We will never give our consent to anything other than that of which we have a goal portrayal. The Epicureans on silly individuals: “Silly individuals live in trust for the future, and since this can’t be sure, they are devoured by dread and tension. Their torture is the most extreme when they understand past the point of no return that they have endeavoured to no end after cash or force or greatness, for they don’t get any joy from the things which, aggravated with trust, they had attempted such incredible works to get” (Del Nido, 2018).
Milliman et al. (2003) emphasized the individual-level idea of spiritual exercises to the collective individual and organizational frameworks as “the employee’s mutual understanding of the workspace that promotes alignment and solidarity with ‘self’ throughout productive work. It develops from the minimal self and functions following the cultural and physical environment. So, the relationship between spiritual exercise and innovative behaviors at the team level possesses a self-concept at the core and applies constructively to loyalty, job engagement and customer support. In addition, numerous practices through cultures and civilizations can be connected to guided meditation and the positive nature of practice and self-development (Rogers, 1995).
In the sense of “spiritual life”, the profoundness of function and self-developments, or certain-oriented principles and aims, are apparent. Institutionally, revolutionaries like Martin Luther posited that the entire spectrum of professions should be used as a spiritual life (Duffy and Dik, 2009). According to Ali and Al‐Owaihan (2008), the principles of Muslim work also consider that the value of life is realized through dedicated work and encourages personal development and social ties. Furthermore, the concept of job ties with corporate peace and stability to social well-being is supported by religious propositions. The closest concept that illustrates substantive and meditative work is functioning for world maintenance is one of the most renowned Hindu philosophies for work ethics (Radhakrishnan, 2008).
Since education and training are methods of exposition and analysis, a recurrent principle in the teaching process is the role of meaning and its importance. Spiritual exercise and learning must go to the essence of becoming divine despite performing various roles and duties. Various religions like; Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism adherents constitute much of the nations of the state and demonstrate strong associations with the ideals of intrinsic moral ethics work, such as strengthening and deepening one’s knowledge base and perspectives, contributing to society and economy, and doing work efficiently. At employment service, faith draws more attention to the inner realm of consciousness, the outside workplace and commitment to everybody else. A representation of the inner world of consciousness is important for purposeful activity.
According to Bryden and Gezelius (2017), in the context of management practices of responsible innovation, a spiritual perspective makes us even more responsible. It helps us ask about concerns and issues, focusing on self-development that contributes to organizational development. It helps to raise crucial questions associated with employee self-discovery, like our goals, objectives and purpose or the purpose of our effectiveness and success (Pandza and Ellwood, 2013).
Today, it is the philosopher’s challenge to help the innovator act according to the good, convert him to something other than what he is used to doing, and direct him towards other behaviors and actions. The goal for the philosopher is not to change the innovator for himself, as with rulers, the goal is to ultimately change the City. As an actor in the world, the innovator has the power to manage it. It is precisely what concerns the philosopher that the City as a whole, the world in the broad sense of the term, is moving towards benevolence and wisdom rather than exploitation and degradation. That is why; moreover, it is indeed the philosophical conversion that must be followed, the other types of conversion do not lead to man as a man here, and now, they can lead to transcendence, but what we need is conversion to man here and now and his environment.
At this point, one might think about how philosophical thinking can directly help innovate for a better world. First, we need to understand the concept of conversion. Spiritual exercise and self-care prepare oneself to be ready to change radically, which is a new way of being. The objective is to trigger a new way of acting, shedding any passions that prevent us from being free. Hence it is the philosopher’s challenge today to help the innovator act according to what is good, to convert him/ her to something other than what he/ she is used to doing, to direct him/ her towards other types of behaviors and actions (Pavie, X., 2020). The aim is not to change the basic principles of the innovator but be able to help him/ her change the city/ environment.
Moreover, to be able to change the world around them, innovators need to break free from daily life by applying spiritual exercises. To break free is to be able to change the habits and reflexes the innovator always applies. They should be able to think differently and perceive the world differently to bring it to a changed state. This change isn’t temporary and needs to be achieved through constant practice and determination. More definitively, an individual who practices spiritual exercise, imagines the power to change, questions himself/ herself and remembers their actions and consequences become a different person by action and behavior. It’s also important that the innovator sticks to spiritual exercise for constant growth and change into a new, more sustainable and innovative lifestyle.
To convert, the innovator must first tear himself away from daily life through spiritual exercises. It is a question of breaking away from the habits that the innovator may have, changing his reflexes, those he has always applied. He has to leave the ordinary world to start thinking differently. Faced with a large number of competitive pressures, his shareholders, his ecosystem, his management, his partners, his customers, his members, his supporters, his patients, his suppliers, the innovator never has the opportunity to leave his sphere exclusively dedicated to the production of offers, new ideas, new services intended to survive and, let us say, at any price. In other words, changing how you perceive things and acting differently cannot be done from one hour to another. It cannot be done in a few hours, a few days or a few weeks.
It is a real asceticism that the innovator must implement to hope to arrive at a new way of being. And so, it involves this tearing away from everyday life, from what makes up his world today. This is made possible through spiritual exercises, meditation, preparation for what may happen, and consideration of the ‘Tetrapharmakos.’ However, also through the specific exercises of the Ancients in their reading, writing and recollection approaches. If the innovator exercises his mind, he will change it. Through the mind’s work, the exercise of his consciousness, and introspection, the innovator will succeed in becoming another. He will become converted to philosophy as a way of life and its attributes of seeking wisdom and benevolence. The challenge is the return to the world. The necessary involvement in daily life and the practice of spiritual exercises is not an end in itself.
If it leads to conversion, it is to act differently. In other words, the converted innovator must have learned to behave differently. And it is important to stress that this is a conversion taking place, not just behavior to adopt. This is why the notion of “ethics” seems inappropriate, the Greek origin reminding us that ethics refers to the idea of right behavior that could perhaps make sense in the context of innovation, but it is not so much a question of acting ad hoc, temporally in regards to a question, a problem, a precise point, a particular issue. Instead, it is a way of being, of living according to the wisdom that it is a question of reaching, a way of life that only conversion to philosophy through spiritual exercises can bring.
Concretely, an individual who practices spiritual exercises, who wonders about the interest of glory and power, for example, what depends on him or her, who practices meditation, who practices introspection to question himself or herself, who remembers his actions and instructions in the form of ‘Hupomnêmata’ – those little personal notebooks that ancient philosophers always had on them and which were used to take notes, but also to record quotations, to include excerpts from books, stories, to write anecdotes, aphorisms and reflections to be read and contemplated – became a man not only different but above all one who acted differently. However, this does not mean a man excludes himself from the world. On the contrary, if he has been able to escape it out of necessity, to change himself, it is to return to it better. And it is not a question of abandoning one’s functions because of the risk of not being able to do so, by rejection in the end, after the established conversion, far from it, because others, certainly more malicious, will take its place. What is needed is not the absence of innovators, but another form of innovator, the kind of caring innovator that can be expected.
Therefore, the innovator must continue to fulfill his mission by practicing this philosophy of spiritual exercises. He will certainly continue to innovate. No one can prevent – and perhaps it is not necessary to do so – a political leader from launching a new innovative proposal, a doctor from bringing a new form of protocol, an association leader from finding a new way to attract his members, an entrepreneur from formulating services or products that his competitors had not imagined. That being said, perhaps this leader, this doctor, this entrepreneur, this person experienced in the practice of spiritual exercises will consider his innovation in a different, benevolent way, and if risks can be prevented, for him as a man, for his ecosystem, he will rethink it at new costs. Perhaps he will even give up on a planned innovation that could have put him and his environment at risk. Perhaps he will postpone it to improve it in the meantime.
5. Discussion
The pursuit of or acknowledgment of spirituality in an employee’s life is related to the search for answers that add alignment and consistency to our lives with corporate objectives. Overall, spirituality for all individuals is linked to whether we build value in our interactions. For example, self-esteem strengthens behavioral intentions, judgment management, commitment to priorities, and performance responses important to priorities while working.
According to Osburg and Schmidpeter (2013), the core of spiritual exercises is inherently related to learning, involving participants, and developing an ideal environment that leads to integration and combining consciousness with behavior. They can surpass the emotional tension faced at the workplace as employees consider their work a priority, feel pleasure, and are invested in their role. The satisfaction of working extends normal ways of thought or behaving. In addition, the relational advantage of constructive and spiritual exercises has a calming impact and increases the cognitive accessibility of teammates with one another.
The outward concept of meaningful and productive activity is to work for a greater benefit toward self-development. The spiritual atmosphere may be established in both the group and organizational stages of the study. The sense of being a part of the group and honesty encourages influences at the societal level to sustain a spiritual atmosphere (Flipse, 2012). As Benefiel et al. (2014) propose in their analysis of faith and religion at work, aspects of the spiritual environment correspond similarly to the three central aspects of spirituality in the responsible innovators – a sense of spirituality, feeling a purpose in employment, and a desire for social interaction or participation.
The importance of self-care shouldn’t be understated. Self-care in antiquity was a way of life followed throughout one’s life because, for ancient philosophers, “one must be for oneself, and throughout one’s existence one’s object” (Foucault, 2001c). Epicurus, therefore, advocated a lifelong philosophy of self-care and the Stoic Musonius Rufus or Galen also explained that: “To become an accomplished man, everyone needs to exercise for most of his life, even if it is better, to have looked after his soul from an early age.” (Foucault, 2008). Self-care did not appear spontaneously, conceptually, in Greek philosophy. It was rather called a common principle. Additionally, it should be noted that epithelia heautou was fundamental in all Hellenistic and Roman philosophy, whether among Epicureans who advocated that every man, night and day, and throughout his life, must take care of his become soul (Epicurus, 1977), as among Cynics or Stoics, like Seneca for whom the Latin notion of the cura sui was essential throughout the Entretiens.
Self-care, therefore, generates a certain number of acts that one exercises on oneself: meditations, memorization, and examination of conscience – with a view to self-modification, purification or transformation. Epicurus, Musonius and Socrates alerted us to the importance of self-care, caring for ourselves, whoever we are, and whatever we do (Subirana, 2021). Because if one does not take care of oneself, then the possibility of developing is limited, there is no reflection on what is being done, and this can have dramatic consequences on society. Therefore, this disposition to self-care must be a permanent activity throughout one’s life. And, as Epictetus pointed out, the idea is not at all the extraction of the world, but on the contrary, to understand what is role to be played in the world.
What are the duties that the innovator must take on and carry? This question is only possible with the awareness of self-care, only if the person questions and practices spiritual exercises daily, both at home and at work, alone or with teams, and if the examination of consciousness about what one is doing, for example, becomes a reflex. It is through spiritual exercise one can attain self-care. Foucault has explained the relationship between self-care and self-knowledge, where he demonstrates knowledge as the participant in the life of an organization and care as a means to achieve its goals (Foucault, M., 2001d). Simply put, innovating or developing new ideas is limited if one cannot care for oneself. The philosophy of spiritual exercise is at the helm of learning to be responsible and growing oneself. Hence, spiritual exercise is an appropriate tool for achieving self-care.
Spiritual exercise for innovators is about strengthening one’s frame of reference, the basis of comparison, identity and self-ego (Osburg and Schmidpeter, 2013). Perceptions that transform expectations, standards and values as core elements of spiritual learning are created by advancing one’s reference frame. For example, the principle of holistic learning (Yang, 2004) discusses the role of principles in training based on emotional attachment. Similarly, Productive ambitions and desire to learn are created by the potential and ability to lead to something greater than oneself and success at practice.
Now talking about innovators. If the innovator can be alone, solitary in his desire to change the world, he is not in all his actions. An innovator could be directly interacting with others and contributing to their lives. On the contrary, even though an innovator might be alone, in solitude, he/ she is still pointed towards responsible innovation (Pavie, 2020) or innovation where the community will face the consequences. Any innovation has consequences, as we have pointed out with responsible innovation. If he must take care of himself, it is also because he must take care of others: he has become a soul community of human beings, his ecosystem in the broad sense. It starts with those around him: customers, employees, and all stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by his innovation and with whom he must converse. Because he will exchange with them, he will understand their demands, needs, risks, and fears.
The innovator must constantly be in a Socratic process of discussion of dialogue with others. Again, not to be right, but to seek agreement and mutual consent between risks and opportunities. The absence of dialogue today between the innovator and civil society results in contempt and a lack of attention. On the contrary, there is a need for a shared path to ensure the best innovations for all, for the benefit of everyone. Hence such a contribution also requires the innovator to first take care of oneself and then be able to help the broader ecosystem at large.
The true meaning of constructive and meditative work is also a reflection of the innate motivation and job satisfaction of employees that generates the urge to develop initiative and commitment based on the interest and satisfaction of the task. Grant and Berg (2012) indicate that positive social motivation relates to resilience, success and competitiveness in a higher intrinsically motivated frame of reference. A positive social inspiration increases tolerance to various views fostering an ability to experiment and understand. Truthfulness and sincerity are also magnitudes of spiritual exercise.
These dimensions are processes at the structural level, arising “not within the employees, tasks, or even in the environment, but in the complex relationships between these different elements.” Spiritual exercise dimensions encourage employees to responsible innovations (Cropley et al., 2010; Pandza and Ellwood, 2013), both individually and professionally, to make informed decisions and focus on their tasks. The spiritual exercise can also support control and assessment of responsible innovation based on the following:
Figure 1: Ethical framework for innovative project
This essential system is useful when it is utilized to spike inquiries concerning specific activities, which cross the spaces of innovation, business, and improvement—questions, for example,
Figure 2: Issues of ethics in innovation
Like working on a task or research, innovation contributes to changes in the environment and acts as a base for improving the productivity of an institution. So, innovative jobs are variable and unpredictable and require complex action courses that are time-tested. Work inspiration also contributes towards responsible, innovative practices that spiritual exercises can further enhance. However, according to Kahn (1992), three factors are important for a person to feel inspired and engaged at work: level of responsibility, availability and protection. Availability may have various components, such as taking the requisite emotional, physical or cognitive capabilities to work. At the same time, protection may concentrate on the degree to which people accept and support those around them while believing that everyone else accepts and values them.
6. Conclusion
Employees will be motivated in their respective organizations with an emphasis on introducing and developing a spiritual atmosphere that, in turn, influences self-fulfillment with a sense of belonging. This is enlightening through instilling a purpose to participate in responsible innovation tasks that make employees associate with broader social and natural ecosystems (Flipse, 2012; Pandza and Ellwood, 2013). Furthermore, workers who contribute through their response efforts in such companies find more significance and are expected to be more innovative in their professional practices. They value their job more while sharing a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
It is suggested. Thus, nature made essential things simple to get, things that are difficult to acquire, superfluous. The crucial Stoic disposition can be perceived as consideration, watchfulness, and constant pressure concentrated upon each second, not to miss anything despite reason. In this way, what may be referred to as sufficient for achieving goals is pointed out below. (Koch, 2019);
- the judgment you are bringing to bear right now upon the real world, as long as it is unbiased;
- the activity you are completing right now, as long as it is cultivated with the assistance of the local human area; and
- the inward aura in which you end up as of now, as long as it is a demeanor of delight notwithstanding the combination of occasions brought about by incidental causality.”
Zero in on the current second is similarly significant, which is featured by Seneca (Bartsch and Wray, 2009); Two things should be stopped: the dread of things to come and the memory of past distress; the one doesn’t concern me any longer, and the difference doesn’t concern me yet. Menippus additionally has comparable musings, and rich individuals are glad for totally immaterial things (Asma, 2018).
To live, humankind must “refine” the world; at the end of the day, change it, by activity just as by his insight, into an outfit of “things” valuable forever. Subsequently, we manufacture the objects of our concern, fights, social ceremonies, and ordinary qualities. It is what our reality resembles; we do not imagine them as a qua world at the time. In the expressions of Rilke, we presently don’t see “the Open”; we see just “what’s to come.” (Doringer and Felderer, 2018)
Intellectual disciplines in antiquity gave rise to spiritual exercises, albeit these activities ultimately developed and advanced (Pavie, 2012c). They survived through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Classical Period, and even contemporary thought. The writings of Montaigne and his Essays, Descartes and his Meditations on First Philosophy, Shaftesbury and his book Exercises, as well as those of Kant, particularly the Métaphysique des murs, and Rousseau, particularly his Reveries of a Solitary Walker, have all influenced modern philosophical thought to vary degrees. This comprehension is crucial because it explains why this is the case. This connection to the spiritual past’s ancient rites and concepts does not stop there. Far into the twenty-first century, traditional religious rites maintained a substantial impact and presence in the modern world. In the second part of the nineteenth century, this pattern emerged.
Philosophers such as Wittgenstein, Peirce, Foucault, and Thoreau, among others, have contributed greatly to the spread of spiritual activity. Emerson’s contributions to our knowledge of the development of American business, which we have previously analyzed, are also known as the “founding father” of current philosophical and spiritual practices. In this instance, “founding father” refers to the one who initiated the practice. Emerson absorbed the philosophy of the Ancients and passed it on to Thoreau and other American intellectuals in the disciplines of reading, writing, the aesthetics of life, and meditation, including Hilary Putnam, Stanley Cavell, Richard Shusterman, and others. Thoreau was one of the 19th century’s most prominent American philosophers (Pavie, 2012c). This argues that spiritual activities must have old philosophical underpinnings to be appropriate in society. Innovation and its practical implications led to the growth of these practices, which is one of the key causes for this. Traditional spiritual rituals passed down through the decades and are now part of our culture demand, at the absolute least, that we honor them by participating in them. The most efficient way to put them to work is to confront them with a problem in which there is currently a dearth of common sense.
The issues we have identified as being related to innovation demand us to find answers, and the tools and methods supplied by philosophy seem to be the most appropriate. This is also owing to the healing capacity of philosophy, one of its fundamental advantages. In his Sentences Vatican, Epicurus highlights the necessity for therapeutic salvation via philosophy to restore one’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. This message permeates his whole body of work. Consequently, he offers the following warning: “One must not appear to be philosophical; rather, one must be philosophical.” Because what we want is the appearance of health and actual health (Ghisalberti, 2018). It has played a crucial role in comprehending the significance of philosophical inquiry since antiquity, and it continues to play that function now (Pavie, 2012c). He argues that it is insufficient to absorb philosophical knowledge, give philosophical interpretations, or instruct others in philosophical thought. Philosophy as a practice is an exercise in experience. Using a philosophical standpoint as a guiding element in one’s life.
Since the innovator has no idea how to break out of their “offer generator” rut, they must do their duties thoughtlessly. Since the environment has numbed them, they cannot see beyond their self-imposed blindness. They can only be taught a new way of doing things, behaving, advancing, and evolving via a certain kind of analysis; nevertheless, this method of thinking does not entail compassion that is alien to them. It will not be enough to just inform kids that their work should demonstrate responsibility, compassion, knowledge, and respect; these traits should be instilled in their thoughts. The basics of their education, which can be traced back to philosophical inquiry, need to be rethought from the bottom up. For the 21st-century innovator to evolve, the creative destruction that characterizes the innovation process must be applied to the innovators themselves; they must perish. This is essential for the advancement of innovation.
This 21st-century innovator could only be a philosopher. Individuals can only ensure their welfare by adopting a philosophical stance. To be more explicit, individuals may and should adopt two distinct mentalities. First, the phenomenological essence that enables the innovator to suspend judgment and examine themselves — something they haven’t done in decades — and second, the philosophy of the spiritual exercises, which has roots in ancient philosophy and is gaining increasing popularity in contemporary society. The innovator has not performed either of these activities in decades. Before identifying future innovators, we must rethink innovation, minimize its scope, and rediscover its fundamental purpose. Taking this into account right now, it seems that the uncommon perspective is the most appropriate.
The good effects of international laws, statutes, treaties, and agreements will likely be insufficient. Caring for oneself and others is one of the most significant philosophical tools for correctly steering the world. Those who desire to improve the world via innovation must seek guidance from philosophy and spirituality. Even if all of this philosophical thought may seem abstract and impractical, the information offered here may be important in the future. Individuals may be persuaded to consider the consequences of their acts beyond the present by exposing them to philosophical ideas. People with an unquenchable need for knowledge are more analytically and artistically inclined than those without such a drive. In this way, people can appreciate the complexity of a situation, learn to take a step back and examine it from several perspectives, and then take action for the good of humanity as a whole. When discussing innovation, we must entirely reconsider what this phrase entails. Everyone is responsible for carefully monitoring the results of their choices. If innovators engage in spiritual practice, which assists individuals in becoming the best versions of themselves, it will be simpler for them to consider the greater ecosystem and its inhabitants. They are also better able to anticipate the consequences of their actions, making them more accountable. Innovators who include a regular spiritual practice in their lives can adjust to changing circumstances, enhancing their ability to create.
This field has stood the test of time because it is essential to understanding complexity and encouraging reflection on our actions. It is vital for making people consider our actions. In order to solve the obstacles that have developed in a world that no longer listens to or hears itself, its processes and procedures, as well as its advice and knowledge, must be heard. The purpose of the history of philosophy is to examine issues and problems to grasp what has happened, is happening, and will occur in the future. Philosophy can examine things with the critical distance necessary for asking questions. Complexity may be problematized and made comprehensible if one is willing to put out the work required to navigate it. The current research has ramifications for many philosophical perspectives and practical applications. In addition, the causal connection between spiritual practices and their impact on responsible innovation is studied and evaluated. In addition, it examines the function of the spiritual environment as a mediator, which is an additional negative feature of creative techniques (Cropley et al., 2010; Coad et al., 2020). In conclusion, safeguarding oneself from unintended outcomes of innovation offers a more nuanced view of spiritual practices’ contribution to responsible innovation activities.
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