From Thursday, 23rd April to Saturday, 25th April, ESADE will be hosting the 1st Spirituality & Creativity in Management World Congress. The congress will focus on the following ideas: How is spirituality measured? Are spiritual people better leaders? Are spiritual people more creative?

"Through business schools, the management field must make a dual contribution. We mustn’t concentrate exclusively on helping executives to develop as professionals," explains Eugenia Bieto, Director General of ESADE. "By focusing on spirituality, we provide organisations with free people and help executives to understand that they have a purpose beyond themselves. They become free to accept criticism, to avoid idleness, to innovate, to find new opportunities, and – as the title of the congress suggests – free to be more creative."

High-profile international speakers

The three-day congress programme will feature talks by various high-profile international figures. The line-up includes Peter Senge, a leading scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Naomi Tutu, daughter of the African peace activist Desmond Tutu. Richard Boyatzis, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Psychology at Case Western Reserve University and in ESADE’s Department of Human Resource Management, and Richard Barrett, founder and CEO of the Barrett Values Centre and former Values Coordinator at the World Bank, will discuss recent trends in the understanding of leadership and its links to spirituality. A talk by Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian who later became a senior executive at JP Morgan, one of the world’s largest financial consulting firms, will focus on the Christian approach to spirituality.

The congress will also feature talks by founders of "proactive training", a school of thought within the coaching field that is currently in vogue. And Jaume Gurt, CEO of Infojobs, will discuss the spirituality-based measures that he implemented to help his company grow even during the economic downturn.

Can spirituality be taught?

Simon Dolan, Professor in the Department of People Management and Organisation at ESADE and congress organiser, explains: "The idea for the conference was basically born out of personal curiosity: I wanted to find out how people define spirituality, whether it can be taught, and whether we should bring it into business schools."

"At ESADE, we are committed to building a more just world," concludes ESADE Director General Eugenia Bieto. "Our goal is not to train professionals concerned exclusively with their personal success but to instil in our students the importance of cultivating their inner selves and staying true to their core values." Hence the importance of a congress of this sort.

Click here to see the full congress programme.