In search of excellence: spiritual training program and junior managers' counterproductive work behavior in China

Purpose – Describes an organizational spiritual‐development program run for junior managers at the giant Guangxi State Farm Agriculture Group (SFAG). Design/methodology/approach – Draws on the inside information of the author, who is a course tutor, and some of his trainees. Findings – Reports how the program can help junior managers to avoid “counterproductive workplace behaviour” and find greater meaning in their work. Practical implications – Reveals how the course can help to promote: honest, warm and harmonious relationships in the workplace; loyalty to the company and social sanctions against employees who try to undermine their colleagues and sabotage production; participation in the cultural life of the organization; and a more unified enterprise spirit. Social implications – Details how the tenets of the course chime with the wider objectives of Chinese society. Originality/value – Contains a particularly interesting section about two volunteers who, having practised counterproductive workplace behaviors the past (one served a prison sentence for it), now lead discussion groups on the program.