Through a $2 million gift from the Tyson Family Foundation and Tyson Foods
Inc., the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas is
establishing the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace.
 Judith
A. Neal has been appointed the first director of the proposed Tyson Center for
Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace. The $2 million gift was matched from
the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation in the University of Arkansas
Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, creating a $4 million endowment for the
proposed center. The center will focus on curriculum development; outreach
programs to business, churches and civic organizations; and research program
support. Neal reports to Don Bland, Walton College senior managing director of
outreach.
Walton College Dean Dan Worrell said, "Faith and spirituality are very
important, yet underdeveloped dimensions of diversity in the workplace. The
Walton College is very grateful to John Tyson for helping us become a top school
in this emerging discipline, and we believe that Judith Neal is the right person
to lead this effort. There is tremendous interest in this area of inquiry not
only in academia but also in the business community."
Neal holds a doctorate in organizational behavior from Yale University. She
came to the Walton College as a management professor at the University of New
Haven and academic director of the master of arts program in organizational
leadership in the Graduate Institute, Milford, Conn., which was established in
2005 to offer graduate programs in emerging fields of academic inquiry. She is
also president of Judith Neal and Associates, a management consulting firm
focusing on employee empowerment, leadership and team development and
spirituality in the workplace.
Neal said, "The creation of this proposed new center by John Tyson and the
Walton College is a very important event in the field of management. This is the
first time a center like this will exist in a state university, and it will send
a powerful message to the business, academic and faith communities that faith
and spirituality have a legitimate and valuable role in the workplace. The
mission of the center will be to advance the state of research, practice and
teaching in the field of faith and spirituality in the workplace. We are looking
forward to being a resource center for business leaders, academics, spiritual
and faith leaders, and practitioners. Our reach will be regional, national and
international. I am very honored to have been selected for this position at the
University of Arkansas."
Alan Ellstrand, associate professor of management and director of the MBA
program, headed the Tyson Center director search committee, which included
representatives from all college departments as well as Archie Schaffer III,
senior vice president of external relations for Tyson Foods Inc.
Ellstrand said, "We feel this new area of study is important for our students
to help them understand what it is like to manage people with different faith
and religious backgrounds. The subject is a source of inspiration for many
employees, and business leaders have been discussing faith and spirituality in
the workplace for several years now - although this means different things to
different people.
"Within the Academy of Management, the Management Spirituality and Religion
interest group is one of the fastest growing," he added.
When it began the search for the center director, the Walton College invited
four well-know scholars and thought leaders to campus to discuss faith and
spirituality in the workplace with faculty and staff, including Martin Rutte,
president of Livelihood, a management consulting business in Santa Fe, N.M., and
chair of the Centre for Spirituality and the Workplace, Sobey School of
Business, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada; Robert A. Giacalone,
professor of human resources management, Fox School of Business, Temple
University; David Miller, director of the Princeton University Faith and Work
Initiative, president of the Avodah Institute, and author of God at Work: The
History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement; and André J. Delbecq, the
Thomas and Kathleen L. McCarthy University Professor, management department,
Leavey School of Business and Administration, Santa Clara University.
Neal was founder, president and chief executive officer of the International
Center for the Spirit at Work, a nonprofit membership organization for people
who are integrating spirituality and work. She was previously director of the
Center for Spirit at Work at the University of New Haven. She co-founded and
serves on the editorial board of Journal of Management, Spirituality and
Religion. She co-founded and served as chair of the Management, Spirituality
and Religion Interest Group at the Academy of Management. She was elected a
fellow of the Eastern Academy of Management in 2001 and served as president in
1992. She has been widely interviewed by the business trade press on the subject
of faith and spirituality in the workplace.
Neal authored Edgewalkers: People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build
Bridges and Break New Ground and Creating Enlighted Organizations: A Practical
Guide to Spirituality in the Workplace. Neal was consulting editor for
The Virtuous Organization: Insights from Some of the World's Leading Management
Thinkers.
In addition to her Yale University doctorate, Neal holds a bachelor of
science in business administration from Quinnipiac College, Hamden, Conn., where
she graduated summa cum laude. She has hands-on business experience working as a
manager in organizational development and training for Honeywell Defense
Systems.
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