Examining the Religious Dimension of Managerial Practices and Discourses in Slovakia

The lecture will analyse management practices and discourses that encourage employees’ personal development and wellbeing and their perception by these employees. Personal development includes different practices and ideas that can be found in bookshops in the sections of personal development, health, religion, spirituality, esoterism, and wellbeing. They can involve the practices of astrology, relaxation, and meditation; participation in different therapies, and so on (Marquis, 2014). Since the 1990s, these practices and ideas have also entered the business environment. Research explores what the religious aspects in these managerial discourses and practices are. To answer this question, it focuses on the case study of Slovakia. The research question was inspired by two hypotheses. Personal development and well-being practices and discourses in business embody the spirit of capitalism and consumerism while offering power to act and happiness to the selves of employees. At the same time, they represent a new form of religion in the capitalist and consumerist society.  Its religious dimension will be discussed in three areas: issues of meaning and identity, the holistic self and symbolic efficacy, and the role of managers.

This presentation is an outcome of the ERC CZ project n. LL2006 (“ReEnchEu”) funded by the Czech MŠMT and led by Dr Alessandro Testa at the Department of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague.

Zuzana Bártová is a researcher at the Institute of Sociological Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, within the project of "Re-enchantment of Central-Eastern Europe“. She also works as a senior lecturer in religious studies at the University of Pardubice. She is a sociologist interested in sociology of religion and sociology of consumer culture. She graduated from the University of Strasbourg in 2019. In her dissertation thesis, she investigated Buddhist religiosity of French and Czech converts in consumer culture as a lifestyle adapted to the middle class. Her current research explores personal development in the workplace in Slovakia. She is particularly focused on its religious dimension.

The seminar will be ONLINE (ZOOM). The registration form is HERE.