This chapter consists of two parts, which are discussion and conclusion. The discussion present a brief summary of religious vs. non-religious perspectives, main findings of religious roots, and implications for managerial positions. At last, conclusion and limitations of the studies wrap up this chapter.
Discussion
The primary objective of this research is to study about the factor influences from religious/ non-religious perspectives impact towards the employees’ meaning of work in the company in Thailand. In this section, the results of all respondents above are discussed in depth with possible explanations and implications.
Religious perspectives
This section wraps up the discussion about the ideas that have been generated from last chapter, where it shows the differences in two groups of perspectives towards the meaning of work and purpose. Started with the religious group then on to the non-religious group respectively.
Earning money
Earning money could be summarised up between those two groups as a similar perspective towards the meaning of work, as an important and necessary factor. Needless to say, people need to have money to survive and live on, without money they couldn’t do anything to acquire and purchase all the basic needs. However, it could be concluded that from what the participants answered, those who are from a religious group tend to have an attitude towards the particular factor and considered social interest, public needs, or social contribution more than another group that is more concerned about individualism, capitalism, and person’s own spirituals.
As we can see from the religious participant answers, they stated about being worthy to others and benefits others while still put the ‘earning money’ factor on the top of their priority.
According to one of the belief in Buddhism principle called ‘The four based of sympathy’ under an article three, which was written about ‘Virtues of making good deeds to public and
community' that Buddhism must act accordingly to provide the benefits to public society, conduct a useful devotion or contribution to the public interest, not exceeding on their own limit.
Moreover, under the Buddhism principle called 'The five moral precepts (five precepts) under an article two, where it was written 'To refrain from taking what is not freely given' – as it can be implied that, Buddhists should learn how to take care of themselves, earn money and not taking something from someone if it's not theirs. This can be an influencing factor to filter and shape the religious people's thoughts on how they have the attitude towards life and work, that apart from just earning money, people also considered public needs and contributions as an important factor to live by.
Self-development
Self-development also one of the factors that indicated the differentiation between those two groups in a way that has slightly different in context. The religious group would tend to have the perspective towards the factor in a mild tone, where it perceived as a ‘no need to be stressed too much’ about everything. Due to the belief in Buddhism under the principle called ‘middle path or the eightfold path’ where Buddhism have the belief towards the understanding of ‘right amount and balancing’ in life, where we would avoid the extreme level of self-actions in any regards, as well as the extreme positions of eternalism and annihilationism. The notion of the middle path refers to the Buddha’s resistance to unconditionally accept any extreme ways of practice or theoretical viewpoints and generally refers to the avoidance of two extremes of practical life, namely, indulgence in sensual pleasures on the one hand and severe asceticism on the other. These beliefs might have the effects towards the particular factor. As a ‘right balance or middle path’ principle applied, the sense of self-development in a religious context is more in a ‘gradually developing’ touch, where people would instead do things steadily or moderately and avoid extreme levels of their actions, when compared to another group. This does not mean that the religious group would not go for any hard-works, but for the meaning in a way that they would prefer doing thing slowly, no rush, taking time to do something is not a problem, considered other people’s feelings and avoid going straight forward on each other to make bad feelings.
Valuable to society
Valuable to society is one of the significant key indicators for the religious and non-religious beliefs, as there is a major core in Buddhism principles, where we human should be
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giving others and contribute to the society. Under the Buddhism principle called ‘the four bases of sympathy’ where article one and three indicated about ‘giving to others and to the society’. As article one is about the ‘act of doing favors’ by being generosity and charitable and article three stated about the ‘virtues of making good deeds’ to the public and conduct useful to public interests and so on.
In addition, the ‘six perfections principles’ or we called it ‘baramee’ also emphasizes the importance of putting other people before yourself, always telling the truth and being mindful of other people’s feelings, talking about the necessities of doing morally good behavior which include generosity, morality, patience etc.. these shows how Buddhism beliefs give so much important about the attempt to make oneself useful and benefit to the public.
Lastly, the importance of the ‘karma’ has been stated quite clearly in the context of Buddhism, that it’s encourages Buddhists to be generous, kind and compassionate towards others and ‘doing good, will incur good things, doing bad will also incur bad things.’ These beliefs might lead to a consequences of religious people to be more in considering of a public concerns, social devotion and public interests, where they tend to have much stronger interests in a particular factor towards meaning of work more than the others.
Passion
Passion is a key to determine whether the person is loving what they are doing or not. As what we’ve got from the interview, we found that both of the two groups of participants would tend to view the particular factor as of a way to choose their jobs, to live their life and to make their life meaningfully and purposefully. By considering this, there still a difference between the context of religious and non-religious, as those who are religious will take Buddhism principles into account where ‘a right balance or a middle path of actions principle’ would be filtered through their thoughts. Results in not doing anything too extreme or avoid reaching to the maximum side of the scale, that some of them would prefer to maintain their own matters in a ‘balance feeling’
of not too much, not too little. Example as such, they might be going to work, tackle their job as a day-to-day basis job, finish, go home and repeat, where not much of ‘big motivations’ or
‘striving forward those success very strongly and passionately’, when compared to another group.
Buddhism society or majority would tend to avoid themselves being shine out, they would probably avoid doing something too extra or standout, that is the reason why they always prefer something in a moderate tone, where right amount of things is still exist in Buddhist cultural and societal norms.
Avoid being a burden of a family
Avoid being a burden of a family can be a very significant factor for those two groups, by expressing their attitudes towards their families. As in Buddhism beliefs under a principle called
‘six directions to respect principle’ that point out about being grateful for those who have been doing you a favor or those who you respected, article one stated ‘parents’. Under a mentioned principle, article one stated ‘parents’ to be the first, second is ‘teacher’, third is ‘husband and wife’, fourth is ‘friend’, fifth is ‘monk’ and sixth is the ‘employees or employers’. There are clearly written in the order of importance on who should be given the respect and gratitude to, first to last.
Moreover, under a principle called ‘five morals precepts’ where it is seen as a guidelines to be followed by Buddhists, to ensure that they accumulate good karma and as such are able to come closer to achieving enlightenment, it was written in article three about to ‘refrain from taking what is not freely given’ and can be applied to Buddhist in many aspects, such as when you reach to the certain age of life, where you can be able to earn money and responsible for your own self, the ideas of still asking favors from your parents or family shouldn’t occur in the Buddhism beliefs, where in contrast, the children should be the one who returns the favor to those benefactor ones, as they shouldn’t be received anything anymore and should not cause any burden to a family or loved ones if possible. This factor showed that the religious group of belief has a stronger sense of response towards this matter when comparing to the other group.
Obligations to the family
Obligations to the family is a key distinguishing factor indicated the dissimilarity between those two group of participants, affecting the reason behind the motivation towards the meaning of working. As the religious group has quite a clear formative sense indicating about this factor, as the ‘gratitude’ factor was appeared in many of the above Buddhism principles of the ‘six directions to respect principle’ where there indicated the order of the people who should be giving a gratitude for, starting from parents and so on. Also, the principle called ‘four sublime states of mind’ where there are including the loving, compassion, and sympathy to express loving to one another and should give others strength of sympathy to those who needed. Moreover, the ‘six perfections beliefs (baramee)’ also stated about being generosity, morality and patience as a structure to follow and behave in a morally good way with being mindful of other people’s feelings, sincere and selfless desire to give others with no expectations.
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As these are mostly the beliefs to govern people in religious society to be living together peacefully and unitedly. Buddhism also emphasize on the meaning of ‘gratitude’ separately, to shows how importance it is, for being grateful for what others have done for oneself, and returning their favors back from what oneself have been received to the benefactor ones. Religious beliefs has been emphasizing on this factor so much that it influences the people in the society to know how valuable it is to possess this aspects. We can see from the answers from the interview that the religious participants tend to be very much aware of what they have been received from their benefactor ones, as they would try to return back the favors and it is the promising that they should be taking care of their benefactor ones for the rest of their life, at least this is what the society and religious beliefs, and if not being able to, you might be perceived as an ‘ungrateful one’ which would be less in social acceptance and the feeling of unease inside the individuals’ mind of not being able to follow the religious norms and pay back what they should be paying for.
Thai culture praise the person who is grateful and blames the person who does not know the gratitude toward others. Thais believe that those who are grateful to their parents, teachers, will prosper in life in any aspects as wished. As for the ungrateful one, will suffer mischief in the society. These might affect towards the motivations behind this factor as ‘religious ones’ would tend to be expressing this perspective clearly and in a strong sense than the other group.
Sense of achievement
Sense of achievement is another key indicator to distinguish between those two groups of participants behind the (non) religion towards the meaning of work, and as there appeared the differences between those two groups in a way that the non-religion would tend to have a significantly strong sense in a particular factor, whereas the religious participants shows no response in this matter. However, in the religious context, where there is no respondent answered in the interview, shows that the religious ones might put this particular factor far behind in their motivations of the meaning of working.
As well as, put in the context of being able to, follow the obligations to the family, avoid being a burden of a family and valuable to the society first. This shows that the two groups have a contrast in a self-based behind motivations, and the religious ones have less interest in the sense of self-achievement if comparing to other factors and would rather choose other options as their influences towards the meaning of work. As religious people possess a strong belief about doing
something in a ‘right amount of balance and avoid going extreme level in actions or thinking’ or
‘considering of others such as family and public interests’ this also might affect less in interest about a particular factor from the religious group of participants.
Non-religious perspectives
This section discussed the ideas of the influences on Thai peoples towards the meaning of working under non-religious perspectives and related ideas and purposes.
Earning money
In a non-religious group of participants showed no less in the strongness of the importance on the attitude towards the particular factor, only in a slightly different manner and we found that in a non-religious context, they’d be more in a sense of earning money and working towards their own passion, in more of an individualism spirituals, capitalism sense without stated much about considering the public interest or the social contribution, as much as the previous group does. The motivations behind oneself can be more personal and unique, where there are no rules or principles to govern or follow clearly in the non-religious context, like the religious one does. The individual motivations or spirituals in this group might be unique and personal, depends on what each of the person in this group set their mind in to and the attitude towards those particular factor or what their perceptions have towards the ideas are subjective and personal.
Self-development
The non-religious one would express in more of a strong level in this factor as its represent the person own’s passion and desire and it shows that the non-religious participants would tend to be more in the way of ‘let the passion and desires be the motivations to lead’, more in the sense of reaching up to their spirit of actions and willingness to develop their skills. They preferred to reach to the fullest levels, where there are no rules to indicate the limits, unlike the religious ones that having the belief in Buddhism principles or a middle path. As the non-religion doesn’t have rules to govern, they perceived this factor as quite an essential thing to pursue, and no limit of the striving levels to achieve the goals, anyhow, this also depends on each person limited. However, in this interview, the non-religious participants who respond to this factor tend to replied in a strong sense of this idea, where it shouldn’t be anything but go forward to the highest levels.
57 Valuable to society
In the context of being valuable to the society, where there are no rules to govern the non-religion, they are driven by their own passion, desire and individual’s motivations, it’s appeared that they don’t have the strong context or beliefs indicated significantly as the religious one does.
As well as, less in strongness in mentioning the particular factor, it showed that this is not their priority to have when asking about their motivations behind the meaning of work, and it’s not a mandatory thing needed to be done or considered, which the religious one does. The religion would have a clear written belief indicated in their Buddhism principles. However, due to the fact that the non-religious ones might position other dominant factors as their motivations towards the meaning of work, where they based their best self-interest or self-belief as a supported ground, to create and perform the actions. The so called factor has been implied as a speaking of the idea, but not significantly, in a non-religious priority of meaning of work context.
Passion
The non-religious ones would tend to have much in a stronger sense of this context, and there is an intense level in the sense of the way the participant responds to the idea than another group does, where they would tend to pursue their desire and passion based on what interests them, there is no limitation or rules to govern, in which extent should or should not they must comply in. By this, may lead to the results of throwing yourself in and going for it wholeheartedly, possessing a very strong in the passion of what they wanted to do, or what their desire and passion.
There are also pros and cons about this, where a stronger in passion when doing something usually gives people power the higher to reach to the fullest level of perseverance and persistence. Most importantly, the ability to stick to the goals and keep on going, never stop in the middle of something, especially when a thing doesn’t work out as what we were expected. In contrast, if you lack of ‘passion’ it’d probably take you to a certain level, where your hard-works and perseverance might be limited, so do your motivations to reach up to the goals and stick to it.
Especially when things don’t work out well or when the obstacles come along. Lastly, as this is a very personal factor to track on and religious or non-religious factors also affects both groups of participants personally and individually regardless of the beliefs, there can be similar or different in a way. However, the interview results can be implied as above mentioned.
Avoid being a burden of a family
In non-religious participant terms, they tend to take this factor into consideration. Still, the attitude toward this might not be as strong as the above group mentioned, but more likely in a mild tone and less significant when comparing to another group. The Non-religious belief of free spirits and individualism, might as well resulted in less of self-awareness and less in the importance of the particular factor, in a way to pursue the ideas of ‘gratitude’ in their life as there are no rules or
In non-religious participant terms, they tend to take this factor into consideration. Still, the attitude toward this might not be as strong as the above group mentioned, but more likely in a mild tone and less significant when comparing to another group. The Non-religious belief of free spirits and individualism, might as well resulted in less of self-awareness and less in the importance of the particular factor, in a way to pursue the ideas of ‘gratitude’ in their life as there are no rules or