Vocation of a Business Leader: a Reflection

Maria Cristine Cassandra Ralbovsky

MMC

“Vocation of a Business Leader: A Reflection”

        According to a journal on religion and business ethics, several corporate scandals over the past two decades have proven the need for strong moral guiding principles in corporate governance (Aldohni, 2014). Such corporate scandals include manipulation of prices or rates, theft and fraud. In particular, the LIBOR Scandal strengthened this argument. The LIBOR or the London Interbank Offered Rate is the most trusted and relied in ‘benchmark for interest rate’ for banks all over the world (McBride, Alessi, & Sergie, 2015). However, investigations found out interest rates were manipulated. This scandal affected the public trust in the marketplace and in turn, affected the financial market enormously. The incident explains why the business culture needs to be changed and should be looked in another perspective.

As early as 1905, the impact of religious values in the workplace has already been suggested by Max Weber (Miller & Ewest, n.d.). For the longest time the traditional or the mainstream approach has been taught in many universities and business schools. It is also the current management system that is being practiced by most businesses. The mainstream emphasizes materialism and individualism (Dyck & Neubert, 2012). However, recent crisis brought about challenges in this traditional form of leadership. The paper “Vocation of a Business Leader” talks about handling business in a different approach. Business leaders should be guided with ethical social principles which are illuminated for Christians in the Gospel. This means integrating faith and spirituality in the business profession.

        A person cannot be stripped of his/her own value when entering the workplace – a person is and will always be guided by his/her own principles, beliefs, perception, values and motivation. The paper posits that faith should be incorporated in work and faith should be used to set these guiding principles in decision making for the common good. The concept of faith based ‘servant leadership’ is introduced because of the perceived dichotomy of faith and business practice. The three stages: seeing, judging and acting was then discussed to be what is needed to be explored in this type of leadership.

In general, seeing is being aware of the existing concepts and factors affecting the market – globalization, communications technology, finansialisation and cultural change and how these affect business practice (Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection, 2014). The mentioned factors have brought great impacts not only in the economy but in the society as a whole. The dynamic setting of the business industry proves to be an opportunity yet also a pressing challenge.

Judging is being able to make good decisions which are rooted in principles of caring for the well-being of various stakeholders. Through this stage, a business leader would provide an environment where workers and employees could not only ‘produce more’ for the company but ‘become more’ (Jr., 2012) The mainstream management approach which is more evident in today’s businesses only focuses on material and financial success. Although, financial gain is a perfectly legitimate aim of a business, it should not be the only one. The concern for the well-being of various stakeholders is essentially more meaningful to the community.

Human input into the corporate actions cannot be denied. It is of great importance that those who are in control are guided with their actions. The last stage, acting, speaks about seeing the profession as a calling or vocation in the same par as priestly work, imbuing jobs with theological importance. The notion of ‘vocation’ means that an individual views work as a gift of grace from God therefore responding with willingness and industriousness (Miller & Ewest, n.d.).  A person’s behavior towards a job changes – viewpoints, goals, attitude and especially motivations. It believes in the concept of ‘steward leadership’ – where work becomes so much more than just a means to gain profit in order to fulfil material success. It becomes an avenue for self-betterment and development. A business when properly practiced cultivates virtue. In acting with accordance to one’s vocation, one can provide a service which “truly serve” and goods which are “truly good” for the various needs of all stakeholders (Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection, 2014). Good corporate governance success should not only be objectified by profits but instead should be measured against other criteria such as social good, corporate responsibility and the protection of the stakeholders. The integration of the three stages – seeing, judging and acting ensures this.

In addition to the three stages – seeing, judging and acting, the six practical principles for Business were also discussed. In general, these six principles talks about how each person has an irreducible dignity and at the same time moral obligations for the good of the community. Thus, business leaders have a duty to respect both the human dignity and the common good (Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection, 2014). The six practical principles aim to guide entrepreneurs to the multi-dimensional facet of success. Furthermore, these six principles recognize that all participants in a business organization should be treated fairly and justly.

A research that was conducted by David Miller, author of “God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement”, found out that people desire to live a holistic life (Miller D. W., 2007). This means, among other things, includes the integration of faith and work. In similar, the problem to begin with was that business professionals in the current setting are living a “divided life” or the “split between faith and daily business practice” (Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection, 2014). It has already been proved by studies, research and recent events that this creates an imbalance and wrongful acts. Furthermore, Miller said that faith serves as a guide and inspiration for doing ethical actions. Work as a spiritual calling adds more purpose, meaning and value in it. The importance of recognizing this and applying it in everyday setting is that, not only it is timely, but it encompasses other issues such as ethics, leadership, globalism, and human rights. Therefore, it has great impact not only inside the business but in the whole of society as well.

Christian traditions represent the fundamentals of morality. Although the paper mentioned that this can also apply to diverse religion because in general, all are inclined with a set of rules in hopes to guide human behavior to attain certain values. Religion, according to Adam Smith in “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”, enforces the natural sense of duty to God through supervision and punishment (1790). For example, managers who are abusing their powers aims at higher remuneration and stakeholders are not a priority. More often than not, this is driven by self-interest and pride. By integrating spirituality in work and using Smith’s statement, religion in a way utilizes the fear factor of God’s supervision. In a way, this further strengthens the framework of faith in work in terms of a compliance mechanism (Aldohni, 2014). A person who knows that his or her decisions are answerable to God will act accordingly with His teachings and values.