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Reimagining Faith and Management
Much contemporary research ignores or is dismissive of the growth of global religiosity, even though 90 percent of the global population sees the world through a commitment to some kind of faith. Reimagining Faith and Management addresses this issue and extends research on the impact of faith in various aspects of management, such as negotiation, leadership, entrepreneurship, governance, innovation, ethics, fnance and careers. Faith impacts how individuals and organisations envision, manage and respond to various stakeholders, communities, the natural environment and the world around them. This book presents various facets of how faith, values and/or ideological outlook informs, infuences and adds mystery to inspire and impel individuals and organisations. The 21 chapters are based on academic research and ofer practical managerial recommendations. The book is divided into three sections: faithful futures impacting individuals; faithful futures impacting organisations and faithful futures impacting society. Each chapter presents a theoretical base and includes practical implications. The book is ideal reading for educators, practitioners, researchers and students of business, management, career studies, faith-based organisations, corporate governance and business ethics, as well as religious studies, including applied theology. Edwina Pio is New Zealand’s frst Professor of Diversity, and University Director of Diversity at Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa/New Zealand. A Fulbright alumna, recipient of a Royal Society Medal and a Duke of Edinburgh fellowship, she is a trustee of the national Religious Diversity Centre, New Zealand. Robert Kilpatrick has travelled extensively in his work in both international mission and aid and development. For several years he co-chaired the Joint Learning Initiative of Local Faith Communities. Timothy Pratt serves as a lead chaplain at the University of Auckland and has a background in management and governance of civil society, or nonproft organisations. He chairs the Global Fellowship of Christian Youth.
Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society
This series presents innovative work grounded in new realities, addressing issues crucial to an understanding of the contemporary world. This is the world of organised societies, where boundaries between formal and informal, public and private, local and global organizations have been displaced or have vanished, along with other nineteenth-century dichotomies and oppositions. Management, apart from becoming a specialized profession for a growing number of people, is an everyday activity for most members of modern societies. Similarly, at the level of enquiry, culture and technology, and literature and economics, can no longer be conceived as isolated intellectual felds; conventional canons and established mainstreams are contested. Management, Organizations and Society addresses these contemporary dynamics of transformation in a manner that transcends disciplinary boundaries, with books that will appeal to researchers, student and practitioners alike. Recent titles in this series include: Public Sector Reform and Performance Management in Developed Economies Outcomes-Based Approaches in Practice Edited by Zahirul Hoque Organizational Gamifcation Theories and Practices of Ludifed Work in Late Modernity Edited by Mikko Vesa Efective Management Teams and Organizational Behavior A Research-Based Model for Team Development Henning Bang and Thomas Nesset Midelfart Reimagining Faith and Management The Impact of Faith in the Workplace Edited by Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick and Timothy Pratt For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com
Reimagining Faith and Management The Impact of Faith in the Workplace Editors Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick and Timothy Pratt
First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick and Timothy Pratt; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick and Timothy Pratt to be identifed as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pio, Edwina, 1955– editor. | Kilpatrick, Robert, editor. | Pratt, Timothy, editor. Title: Reimagining faith and management : the impact of faith in the workplace / Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick, Timothy Pratt. Description: 1. | New York : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge studies in management, organizations and society | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2020045321 (print) | LCCN 2020045322 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367485801 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003041733 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Religion in the workplace. | Employees—Religious life. | Management—Religious aspects. Classifcation: LCC BL65.W67 R44 2021 (print) | LCC BL65.W67 (ebook) | DDC 201/.73—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045321 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045322 ISBN: 978-0-367-48580-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-04173-3 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-367-74407-6 (pbk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC
~ For those who enact the awe inspiring, wondrous whimsical kaleidoscopic exchequer of faith and management ... and for those who yearn to do so ... ~
Contents
Acknowledgements Foreword List of contributors 1 Introduction
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EDWINA PIO, ROBERT KILPATRICK AND TIMOTHY PRATT
SECTION 1
Faithful futures impacting individuals 2 Religion and career success: A country-comparative study
15 17
WOLFGANG MAYRHOFER, MARTIN A. STEINBEREITHNER, MARCO RAPP, LEA REISS AND DOMINIK ZELLHOFER
3 Leading with faith: Angela Merkel in psychobiographical perspective
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CLAUDE-HÉLÈNE MAYER
4 Managing piety, respectability and professionalism within women’s bodies
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FITRI OKTAVIANI
5 The problem of ethics in business: Does Vedanta have a solution?
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ATUL SINHA
SECTION 2
Faithful futures impacting organisations 6 Faith and organisational ethics PETER McGHEE
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7 Faith in the boardroom: Seeking wisdom in governing for innovation
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STEVE TAYLOR
8 The entrepreneurial church
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PETER LINEHAM
9 Employers’ strategies on faith at work
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DOROTHEA ALEWELL AND TOBIAS MOLL
10 Normativity in practice: Governance in secular and faith-based non-proft organisations
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HELEN CAMERON
11 Faith is not negotiable: The importance of religious diversity in organisations
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ANETT HERMANN AND CHRISTIANE ERTEN
12 Religious organisations as a litmus test for true leadership
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LEONARD BLOKSBERG
13 Wealth creation: the church, its theology, ethics and business practice
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ABRAHAM CHIKASA
SECTION 3
Faithful futures impacting society
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14 Agreement while aggrieved: Negotiating business in confict and post-confict settings
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JOCK NOBLE
15 Mining faith to settle confict: Bringing dispute to the surface in a resolvable fashion
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MACLEAN NDABEZINHLE DLODLO
16 Using faith-based methods to combat workplace bullying in Africa KWASI SARKODIE-MENSAH
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Contents 17 Management of religious diversity in state institutions in Austria
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WOLFRAM REISS AND ELISA TROYER
18 Religious literacy and diversity for business
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BRIAN J. GRIM
19 Faith and fnance
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SÉAMUS P. FINN OMI
20 Marketing of faith
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ROBERT KILPATRICK, LOUISE VON SIERAKOWSKI, GODFREY D’LIMA AND EDWINA PIO
21 Conclusion
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TIMOTHY PRATT, EDWINA PIO AND ROBERT KILPATRICK
Index
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Acknowledgements
The editors extend their gratitude and love to their families for their omnipresent support throughout the process of garnering chapter authors and the publication of this book – specifcally thanks from Edwina Pio to her son Isaac, Robert Kilpatrick to his wife Lois and Timothy Pratt to his wife Catherine. Our chapter authors have been amazing – thank you. We express our appreciation to the publishers Routledge – Rebecca Marsh, Brianna Ascher, Naomi Round Cahalin for their professionalism and support. We are grateful to our Project Manager Sathya Shree Kumar from Apex CoVantage and his team for their follow-through. A special thanks to Katherine Marshall for crafting the foreword. We acknowledge the scriptural help from Suzanne Mahon, Verpal Singh and Farida Master. Numerous big-hearted individuals have walked with us during the many moons of working on this book, especially Timothy Grifths, Nishmin Kashyap and Jenny Vollmer. Special thanks to the New Zealand Work Research Institute and the Auckland University of Technology in Aotearoa/ New Zealand.
Foreword
There is growing awareness in many circles that religious beliefs, institutions, and practices are deeply part of people’s lives in most world regions, but there is far less knowledge and much less consensus as to what that awareness means in practice. And it is far from a simple matter, given enormous diversity and dynamism that are features of modern life. This book brings insights from Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and multi-faith perspectives, and it both challenges and ofers practical advice. It explores three important areas that deserve attention: the individual, the organisation and society. The Sustainable Development Goals that members of the United Nations approved in 2015 serve as something of a global roadmap, drawing on fundamental ethical principles but also practical experience and employing the discipline of accountability, with deadlines and measurable targets. They address the deeply interconnected challenges summarised as “fve Ps”: peace, people (human development), planet (climate change), prosperity and partnerships. The focus on health, food security, threats of international confict and above all outrageous and visible inequalities represents a compelling to-do list for us all. A strong case can be made that without full engagement of the world’s religious communities, in all their diversity and sometimes fractious energy and creativity, these goals will not be achieved. The fnal “P” of the global goals, partnership, demands far more active eforts to understand and work with faith-immersed worldviews. Management and faith are concepts rarely linked in academic writing. The book’s editors challenge areas that are too often neglected. As they put it, “Faith ofers a whole new dynamic to the rationalistic, scientifc, mechanistic and/ or egotistical approaches to business. It celebrates the unexplainable, the mystical, the transcendent, the divine and the creative.” In focusing on the frst theme, faith and the individual, the book explores how an individual’s faith can shape management styles, as diverse as Muslim women managing business in Muslim settings, and national leaders like Angela Merkel, whose leadership style draws in intricate ways on her faith upbringing and her core beliefs. It examines data linking a manager’s positive impact approaches to reducing stress at work to their beliefs and
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practices. These are key considerations in equipping any business or organisation intent on making a diference. The section focused on organisations explores the vital themes of ethics, boardroom behaviour and attitudes towards entrepreneurship and enterprise, pointing to some experiences and ideas on adaptations to diverse faith backgrounds. Both are closely linked to the important theme (highlighted so vividly during the COVID-19 emergencies) of efective, compassionate and creative leadership. These important management themes apply well beyond business, and several chapters touch on not-for-proft organisations and faith-based enterprises that work on international development and humanitarian relief. The book’s third section turns to roles of faith in wider society, arguing that faith aware management teams can have a positive impact on areas of confict. Management that achieves and demonstrates faith literacy is far better equipped to deal with issues like worker discontent, bullying in the workplace, economic inequality, sustainability and even the confict that religious beliefs themselves can engender. The many problems we face as humans demand sustained, creative approaches from governments, social sectors and business. Management approaches have for too long ignored the potential that a faith literate, even faith celebrating management team can have on an institution. Good policy, transparent government and creative technology are all important. However, there are depths beneath these surface skills and approaches that go to the essence of what makes us human: awareness of the transcendent or “otherness”, mystical awe in the face of the remarkable world around us, and appreciation for the diversity of life in every being whom we meet and interact with in enterprises as diverse as mining, home repairs, education, health care, consumer marketing and fnance. Katherine Marshall Executive Director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue Senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Afairs Professor of the Practice of Development, Religion & Confict in the School of Foreign Service
List of Contributors
Dorothea Alewell is a professor of human resource management at the University of Hamburg, Germany. After an education in business administration, she specialised in human resources. Some of the topics she worked on during past years are the socio-economic analysis of labour law, frm’s investment in training and personnel development, gender stereotypes and frm’s decisions on personnel services. Currently, she is the head of the cooperative and interdisciplinary research network on good labour standards at Hamburg, and her research topics are spirituality at work and good labour standards. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2806-5100 Leonard Bloksberg has a PhD (honours) from the University of California at Davis and an MBA from Auckland University of Technology and a BSc from Rutgers University and has worked at UC Davis and Michigan State University. In business, he has worked with innovation companies from inception to public listing from within companies, as a consultant, and as an investor/fund manager. As a religious leader, he is active in the Jewish community and has served on boards, committees and as service leader and speaker at interfaith events. Godfrey D’Lima is an ordained Catholic priest in the Society of Jesus. A qualifed teacher, and poet, he has found that working for the poor is consonant with Jesuit ideals. He has been working for many decades with the poorest tribal/Adivasi communities in India. Through the organisation Maharashtra Prabodhan Seva Mandal (MPSM), he has set up learning centres for children, women, poor farmers and tribals where the creative convergence of content and curriculum are relevant and responsive to community needs. This includes promoting credit groups, organic farming, micro watersheds and health, and seeking to building solidarities for non-formal, alternative, mass-accessible educational models for the marginalised. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9904-5852
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Maclean Ndabezinhle Dlodlo is a Babson College Lewis Institute’s Social Innovator 2015 co-recipient for his contribution to gender justice. As Senior Advisor for Faith and Gender in Development with World Vision International’s Global Centre, he leads the development, adaptation and scale-up of the Gender curriculum of Channels of Hope to over 23 countries, as a critical component of World Vision’s global Faith Partnerships strategy. His present role is in the South African mining sector. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, a School for International Training Certifcate in Civic Society Initiatives for Peace Building, is a certifed trainer in several social change models and is a consultant based in South Africa. Helen Cameron is a practical theologian and a research associate at the Centre for Baptist Studies, Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford. She has taught and written about governance for non-proft managers and Christian clergy. She has served on secular and faith-based non-proft boards and as an interim company secretary for a non-proft housing corporation. Abraham Chikasa currently works with the Bible Society of Zambia as General Secretary. Prior to this he was Head of Programmes with The Council of Churches in Zambia (Leading a team focused on Gender, Climate, Social and Economic Justice). A large part of his working life has been in faith-based organisations where he has worked on issues of climate, justice and election monitoring within Africa. He has a doctorate in business administration from Binary University in Malaysia and an MA in applied theology from the University of Birmingham, UK. Christiane Erten has experience in the professional and academic feld with a focus on HRM, intercultural management and training, OB, and leadership in SMEs. She has worked as an assistant professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. In 2002, she joined the executive board of Akustik Buch GmbH. She has published several books and articles in her areas of expertise. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6372-0473 Séamus P. Finn OMI is the director of the justice peace and integrity of creation ofce of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in the United States and is responsible for the Faith Consistent Investing programme for the Oblate Investment Pastoral Trust (OIP Trust). He represents the Missionary Oblates (OMI) at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility where he serves on the board. He also serves on the board of the Forest Peoples Program. He is a speaker at conferences and symposia that are convened at the Vatican and by other international faith forums on the sustainable development goals, impact investing and responsible mining.
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Brian J. Grim, PhD, is Religious Freedom and Business Foundation president, a corporate trainer, and a leading scholar on the socio-economic impact of faith and religious freedom. He is a TEDx speaker at the Vatican and at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. He is recent chair of the World Economic Forum’s faith council and works closely with the United Nations Business for Peace platform. He is an afliated scholar at Baylor University, Boston University, Georgetown University and the Freedom Forum Institute. Brian is a Penn State alumnus and author of numerous works including The Price of Freedom Denied (Cambridge) and Yearbook of International Religious Demography (Brill). Anett Hermann holds a PhD in business and economics. She is an associate professor at the Institute for Gender and Diversity, Department of Management and has experience in the professional and academic feld with a focus on gender and diversity, women in management, HRM and intercultural management and training. She has published several books and articles in her areas of expertise. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3329-1348 Robert Kilpatrick originally studied and taught in mathematics and the physical sciences, theology, social anthropology but eventually pursued a PhD in law and business. He has travelled extensively in his work in both international mission and aid and development. For several years he cochaired the Joint Learning Initiative of Local Faith Communities that developed an evidence base for the funding of faith-based organisations by government and inter-governmental organisations. He presently runs a construction company working to build afordable homes in New Zealand and chairs three NGO boards. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3541-5746 Peter Lineham is an emeritus professor of history from Massey University. He is well known for his writings on the religious history of New Zealand, although his PhD from the University of Sussex was concerning an eighteenth-century English religious movement, the Swedenborgians. He has written extensively on small religious groups including the Brethren, the Mormons, the Adventists and contemporary new religious movements, and is frequently used by the press as a commentator on religion in New Zealand. He was awarded MNZM in 2019. In retirement he continues with numerous writing projects and community activities. Claude-Hélène Mayer (Dr Habil, PhD) is a professor in industrial and organisational psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, an adjunct professor at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and a senior research associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South
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Africa. Her research areas are transcultural mental health, sense of coherence in diverse organisations, shame in cultural contexts, transcultural confict management and mediation, women in leadership, creativity and psychobiography. ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9445-7591 Wolfgang Mayrhofer is a full professor and head of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Management and Organisational Behaviour, WU Vienna, Austria. He previously has held full-time positions at the University of Paderborn, Germany and at Dresden University of Technology, Germany. He conducts research in comparative international human resource management and careers, and systems theory and management and has received national and international awards for outstanding research and service to the academic community. He has published numerous articles, serves as editorial or advisory board member of several international journals and research centres and regularly consults with organisations in the forproft and non-proft world. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3323-7461 Peter McGhee is a senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology. His research interests include faith at work, ethical leadership, virtue ethics and sustainability education. He has undertaken research on spirituality and ethical decision-making, ethical leadership and workplace well-being, and virtue ethics and corporate governance. His work has appeared in international journals such as the Journal of Business and the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion. He has been a special issue editor for the Australian Journal of Applied and Professional Ethics and is a special issue editor for the Journal of Business Ethics on Ethics and the Future of Meaningful Work. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4089-5040 Tobias Moll started his doctorate as a research associate at the chair of human resource management in the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Hamburg, Germany, after completing his studies in economics and business administration. His research focus is on spirituality at work, scale development and changes in work values. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5431-9971 Jock Noble is a prachademic, who combines wholehearted and hard-won, feld experience with frameworks typically found in strategic foresight practice. He has worked in Asia, the Pacifc, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Southern, East and West Africa. This includes multiyear secondments in Kenya, Indonesia and Armenia, where he was also an adjunct lecturer in entrepreneurship and innovation at the American University. He has started seven social enterprises and published two books and was the
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annual awardee of The Carey Medal in recognition of exceptional and outstanding service to the Australian community. Fitri Oktaviani is a PhD candidate and a casual academic at the Business School, University of Queensland, Australia. She is a recipient of the Australia Awards Scholarship (2017–2020) with a research focus on non-Western femininities and the contest of women as leaders. She has published in the area of organisational communication and management. She is also a faculty member at the Department of Communication Science, Brawijaya University, Indonesia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8540-4642 Edwina Pio is a recipient of a Royal Society medal, a Fulbright alumna, and is New Zealand’s frst Professor of Diversity, and University Director of Diversity at Auckland University of Technology. A thought leader and recipient of a Duke of Edinburgh Fellowship widely travelled and published, she is known for her praxis in action and rationally compassionate work on diversity and inclusion in a pluri-ethnic, plurireligious, volatile world. Besides numerous journal articles, her published works include Sari Indian Women at Work in New Zealand released by Sir John Key, Longing & Belonging, Caste Away – Unfolding the Māori Indian, and Work & Worship. She is a passionately engaged multi-faith ethnic minority migrant woman educator. ORCID: https://orcid.org//0000-0002-3296-618X Timothy Pratt serves as a lead chaplain at the University of Auckland and has a background in management and governance of civil society, or non-proft organisations. His academic research interests are associated with management, civil society organisations, workplace spirituality and faith-based organisations. As a volunteer, he chairs the Global Fellowship of Christian Youth, an international faith-based civil society organisation that supports around 60 national organisations that are committed to aid child and youth development. His PhD centred on collaboration of civil society organisations specifcally, their relationship with primary funders. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2461-2285 Marco Rapp is a teaching and research associate and doctoral student at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Management and Organisational Behaviour at WU Vienna. Before joining the institute, he worked in various research projects at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Vienna. He holds two master’s degrees, one in management (WU Vienna) and one in psychology (University of Vienna). In his research, he explores contextual infuences on human resource management practices like fexible work practices.
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Lea Reiss is a research and teaching associate at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Management and Organisational Behaviour at WU Vienna. She is a Copenhagen Business School graduate and former KPMG in-house consultant for diversity management matters. Her research interests revolve around social identity issues and their intersectionality efects on careers. She especially emphasises struggles of social role incongruity, privileges and disadvantages that individuals face based on diferent diversity dimensions in the course of their careers. Her dissertation focuses on how the interplay of gender and socio-economic origin shapes career outcomes and possibilities for career mobility. Wolfram Reiss was a hospital chaplain (1986–1988) and prison chaplain (2005–2007). Since 2007, he has held the chair for studies of religions at the Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Vienna. He focuses his research in current developments of monotheist religions and minorities in the Middle East and Europe. He wrote his PhD on the “Revival of the Coptic Orthodox Church” and the second PhD (“Habilitation”) on the “Representation of Christianity in Egyptian Textbooks”. He advocates for the development of “Application Oriented Studies of Religions” in the studies of religions. Kwasi Sarkodie-Mensah has authored over two dozen articles, several book chapters and some 100 books and video reviews. He has a passionate interest in international students, adult learners and library users with various types of abilities. His PhD dissertation focused on library use by international students in the United States and initiated a conversation of how American library personnel can understand student concerns from various parts of the world as they navigate the education system in a foreign land. He continues to write about the underrepresented in academia and in society in general. He is currently at the Jesuit University, Boston College, USA. Atul Sinha earned an MBA from XLRI School of Management, Jamshedpur, India. He spent 32 years working with large multinational corporations and held positions of Chief Marketing Ofcer, Business Head and Executive Committee member. His experience gives him close insights into corporate behaviour. An interest in spirituality led him to join a PhD programme in the feld of Yoga at Svyasa University, Bangalore, India. He has published articles on Vedanta. He lives in Bangalore, India. ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4218-4501 Martin A. Steinbereithner is Director of Communication and Development and Novice Master of The Servants of the Word – Chelsea, Michigan, USA, an ecumenical Christian brotherhood living celibate, and holds
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a master’s degree and doctorate from WU Vienna. In his research and practical work, he focuses on non-proft management, spirituality and leadership, youth work and youth counselling, and career counselling. In addition, he regularly teaches at his alma mater. Among others, he has lived in Austria, the Lebanon, the UK and the United States. Steve Taylor is Principal, Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, New Zealand and Senior Lecturer, Flinders University, Australia. Born in PNG, he has published more than 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and more than 180 articles on Christian faith and culture. He is the author of First Expressions: Innovation and the Mission of God (2019), Built for Change (2016) and The Out of Bounds Church? (2005). In 2015, he was awarded the Flinders University Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Elisa Troyer holds a teaching degree in Protestant theology, English and German as a second and foreign language from the University of Vienna. She is a teacher and is soon to embark on doctoral study as a student for Professor Reiss in the feld of religious studies at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Vienna. The research for her diploma thesis represents a frst multi-religious empirical study of hospital chaplaincy in Austria, aiming at a comparative analysis of concepts and cooperation, which are applied by minor and major religious denominations in their care for patients in hospitals. Louise von Sierakowski is a marketing specialist with experience in the luxury cosmetics, not-for-proft and services sectors. As a business leader, in general management and executive team roles, she has used her foundations in brand, marketing and communications to drive business transformation and modernisation through an inherently customercentric approach to business. She is a passionate advocate for authentic customer experience as the backbone to earning customer loyalty and brand advocates. She holds a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of Auckland; and a Master of Business Administration (Distinction) from the Auckland University of Technology. ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6747-2043 Dominik Zellhofer is currently teaching and Research Assistant and PhD candidate at WU Vienna. His research interests include careers, human resource management, safety climate/culture and organisation theory. In his PhD, he is focusing on information security policies from the sociology of conventions perspective. He has previously worked as project coordinator of an international study on safety climate in intensive care units and in management consulting.
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Introduction Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick and Timothy Pratt
So many believe throughout life That good will be born from the strife No matter the perils Or all that bedevils Godfrey Their faith a trusted midwife D’Lima Faith is a broad, multifaceted concept overfowing with life. In this book faith is described as forming part of religion, yet it is dynamic, transcending codes and doctrines. Equally, faith may be contained within notions of spirituality, but it is not regulated by them. Indeed, faith may be found within religion, spirituality, ideology and philosophy, yet its essence surpasses each of these. Faith is the breath, the mystery, the energy and the spirit that undergirds a person’s passage through life and underwrites their sense of meaning, purpose and hope. When faith is defned more broadly than religion or spirituality, then reimagining its efects on management and infusions of the ‘mysterious’, can muster the strength and vitality to stride across the management stage, rather than hiding nervously and apologetically in organisations. In creating a world we want to see, the fngerprints of faith can compellingly magnetise our understandings beyond the obsession with growth, capitalism and consumerism. In refecting a sliver of the harmony of the cosmos, our book Reimagining Faith and Management – Implications for the workplace is an imperfectly perfect endeavour in this regard. Late last century, after many years and various attempts at achieving ‘development’ with what can only be called ‘mixed results’, the World Bank gathered together various heads of global religions to begin a process they called the ‘World Faiths Development Dialogue’ (The Berkley Centre for Peace, 2009), which continues to this day. It had two key objectives: to reinforce, underscore, and publicise the synergies and common purpose of religions and development institutions addressing poverty; and to explore issues on which there is little consensus and where common ground is unclear. What began as a process of engaging religions to become distribution arms
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of various initiatives in economic development has morphed into realising the need of engaging those same organisations on the much more difcult task of efecting a worldview transformation, a process in which religious communities have developed expertise over thousands of years. This is especially pertinent for our globe where unchecked corporate greed and unsustainable resource consumption are producing a growing environmental crisis with attendant human stressors. Merelo (2019) argues that the ‘home world’ we inhabit provides us with comforting notions of familiarity limiting our thinking into the paramount reality of everyday life, a life that is not only deeply cherished but also sought after since it represents a source of permanence to social life. Accordingly, woven through the chapters of this book, the authors collectively unearth an extensive kaleidoscope of understandings concerning faith. This wealth of understandings includes authors writing from within the context of a specifc religion, emphasis on a universal spirituality, an interfaith approach and concerns with an ideology, philosophy or belief such as acting ethically, or in the interests of environmental sustainability. Weber (2008) considered the work of an individual as a spiritual vocation, with religion and the Protestant work ethic underpinning society’s economic drive. The efect of faith on the business world is possibly related to what that faith sees as the object of its worship and its hope and obedience – although a linear connection is open to question (Schramm, 2013, p. 836). Since Weber, academic discourse on faith and management has steadily expanded. Literature includes the construct of Servant Leadership (Greenleaf, 1977), which Spears (1995) suggests includes the skills of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community. Similarly, there is the construct of spiritual leadership, which Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003) posit involves developing an organisational vision that fosters employees’ sense of calling and for fnding meaning or life purpose within one’s career. For many individuals, their career is seen as a calling which enables a more meaningful life, often consistent with religious traditions (Pio, Kilpatrick, & Pratt, 2018). Fry (2003) asserted that adopting such an approach leads to reduced employee absence rates, turnover, mortality and workplace stress. More latterly, literature at the intersection of faith and management has been directed towards issues associated with inclusion and accommodation of religious expression within the workplace, and specifcally among minority religions (Pio, 2014; Pio & Pratt, 2017; Pio & Syed, 2018). Arguably, even agnostic science can sometimes become ‘an implicit dogma ... approach[ing] the level of religious belief’ (Øyen, Vaage, & LundOlsen, 2012, p. 18). The demonstrated efect of faith impacting business practice in measurable ways has been highlighted by various researchers (Cao, 2007; Li & Bond, 2010; Madsen, 1998; Minami, Miller, Davey, & Swalhah, 2011), with aspects of innovation being linked to complex aspects
Introduction
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of faith (Assouad & Parboteeah, 2018). Religious beliefs through their infuence on individual traits positively infuence the various dimensions of economic performance (Barro & McCleary, 2003). Globally, social and economic development organisations are often faith-based, and they contribute to various forms of development, highlighting the importance of faith-based actors and the key role of faith in international development (Heist & Cnaan, 2016). While some such as Dawkins (2006) contend faith an anathema, international evidence suggests that a diversity of faith adherents will continue across the world. Despite a wide spectrum of belief and practice in various religions, in a study of 198 countries and territories and population growth projections, 2010–2015, by the Pew Research Centre (2015), the unafliated will shrink as a share of the world’s population, and religious switching is likely to be a factor in the growth of various religious groups. For example, by 2035, babies born to Muslims will start to outnumber those born to Christians, with a young Christian population continuing to grow in the sub-Saharan region of Africa (Pew Research Centre, 2017), thus changing religious demography globally. Manderson, Smith, and Tomlinson (2012) assert the development of this religious interest can be attributed to a combination of migration, trade, missionary endeavour, tourism and the growth of information technology that is utilised to communicate respective religious messages. King (2008) adds to this list, the impact of an aging population confronted with their own mortality. In ‘The Global God Divide’ (Pew Research Center, 2020), individuals 50 years or older were more likely to have a belief in God as a necessity for morality, rather than those aged 18 to 29 years. Additionally, the same report notes that, in many countries, the more educated a person was, the less likely they were to believe that God was necessary to have good values – but the majority of respondents surveyed stated that religion and the role of God and prayer were important to them. For many, faith in the workplace is not only irrelevant, but counterproductive. Yet around 90 percent of the world’s population practice some religious faith (O’Brien & Palmer, 2007). It seems somewhat remiss, perhaps even careless, in such a religious world, that the impact of faith and its expression in spiritual practice should be treated with relative indiference by many in the managerial world. This is especially true amidst the problems facing humanity and the rising calls for business to beneft all humanity as well as the planet on which we live (Pio, 2014). Faith components can challenge economic life (Kilpatrick, 2017), including the difculty of achieving good economic development outcomes, if faith issues are left unaddressed (Harr & Wolfensohn, 2011). Gundolf and Filser (2013) identify three dominant themes addressed within faith and management literature as: (1) best practices regarding performance issues and productivity, (2) religion at work and (3) the impact of faith on personal ethics. For example, religions infuence corporate community involvement through funding of various charities and public–private partnerships as part of the broad domain
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of corporate social responsibility (Cui, Jo, & Velasquez, 2019). Or in the context of another study, Christians seem to be more pro-market than those who are not religious (Jones, Hadsell, & Burrus Jr., 2019). Many workplaces encompass signifcant ethnic and cultural diversity along with a multiplicity of spiritualities and faith adherents. This multiplicity is often seen as posing a danger to the unity, communication and overall collective harmony of the workplace. Academic research has documented how signalling one religion or faith-based tradition, is often perceived as disruptive to the status quo of multicultural societies and their workplaces (Khattab, Miaari, Mohamed-Ali, & Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2019). Identifers signalling a foreign faith such as a veil, a turban or a yarmulke are normally received with scepticism and suspicion in many workplaces. In fact, research supports the idea that members of religious minorities wearing these types of identifers experience more prejudice in the workplace (Ghumman & Jackson, 2008, 2010). But there are times when identities are impossible to mask since they are ingrained within the self in more pervasive and complex forms. When this happens ‘otherness’ becomes not only evident but disruptive of the perceived secular stability of the working environment. Hicks (2003) makes a compelling argument when illustrating how explanations of Western workplace secularism fall short whenever traditions, such as Christmas functions, Easter breaks, and non-working Sundays are experienced through the eyes of workers whose cultural and religious backgrounds have little commonality with such traditions. Yet, the shared conceptions of the workplace in some multicultural societies, such as New Zealand, UK and the United States, can hardly be understood outside the underlying values and assumptions of the diferent forms of Christianity and their related ethics (Benefel, Fry, & Geigle, 2014). Cadge and Konieczny (2014) note that although often denied under false pretences of secularism, these legacies of religion are hidden in plain sight. A person’s faith afects their worldview and how they manage and do business, and if we accept that business may be regarded as ‘a conceptual embodiment of a very old, very powerful idea called community’ (Hock, 1999, p. 119) then faith impacting business is all about considering how faith afects the ways we treat each other and what we work towards as ideal. Faith fnds expressions as follow: • • • •
Seeing the divine fgure as entrepreneurial encouraging new enterprise that is not necessarily motivated by proft per se but rather by fostering freedom and free will (Mennonite Canada, 2004). Equitable proft sharing in Islam (Syed & Metcalfe, 2015). Acting with dharma seva – the service of the community in the righteous path of spiritual perfection and salvation, to ensure fairness and justice – a triple bottom line approach (Johnson, 2012). Seeking harmony as in Buddhism (Udanavarga 5:18) – Do not ofend others as you would not want to be ofended.
Introduction • •
• •
• • •
•
5
Acting fairly as in Judaism, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary” (Hillel, Talmud, Shabbat 31a). Altruism in business is expected in Confucianism. Confucius said in response to Tzu-kung’s question about a guiding principle for life, “It is the word altruism (shu). Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you” (Confucianism Analects 15:23). The Sikh idea that business is built on relationship frst. Sikhism’s Guru Granth Sahib says (p. 1299), “I am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all”. Communal wealth rather than individual accrual. Taoism T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien (213–218) says about how to live a good life, “Regard your neighbour’s gain as your own gain and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss”. Care for creation, and not just exploitation and extraction of resources. Jainism Mahavira, Sutrakritanga. One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated. Aboriginal Spirituality Chief Dan George – We are as much alive as we keep the Earth alive. The Bahai writing on wealth creation, “Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must give forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and others may proft therefrom. Thus, it is incumbent on everyone to engage in crafts and professions, for therein lies the secret of wealth . . .” (Baha’u’llah, The Persian Hidden Words). The Zoroastrian mandate on ethics, “Educate and be informed, then reform upon clear refection and make a choice to transform” (Zarathushtra – Ahunavaiti Gatha, Yasna Ha 30.2).
Managers who place importance on their religious faith tend to be more questioning of unethical behaviour (Emerson & Mckinney, 2010) and ethical virtues linked to decision-making in organisations tend to be infuenced by the executive’s religious backgrounds (Chan & Ananthram, 2019). Global mobility of peoples as refugees, migrants and expatriates ensures that various faith-infused behaviours and managerial practices travel across the world with the diaspora (Pio & Syed, 2018). There may be spiritual fux when individuals experience destructive country episodes in their home or host country resulting in the need for myriad managerial strategies. Additionally, faith-based actors seem to have more radical transformative agendas for sustainability than secular actors, although discourse coalitions with secular organisations are welcomed, thus challenging the notion of religious and secular separation within civil society (Glaab & Fuchs, 2018). Faith plays a key role in everyday experiences of resilience and in overcoming and coping with challenges experienced as part of life’s stressors (Ogtem-Young, 2018). In stressful circumstances, such as discrimination and exclusion, faith, despite its fuidity, provides meaning and supports
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well-being (Ogtem-Young, 2018). Furthermore, in looking to faith to provide meaning, during the COVID-19 pandemic era, ‘religious communitymaking directly impacts viral spread either by inhibiting or accelerating social transmission, depending on the specifc religious group being considered’ (Wildman, Bulbulia, Sosis, & Schjoedt, 2020, p. 116). We are cognisant that religion is many layered and can express multiple worldviews. Our book does not delve into the hermeneutical and theological underpinnings of faith, spirituality and religion. Rather it is focused on what faith does and how it does this, or the mechanisms through which the doing and performing are managed. Thus, we eschew the tyranny of linear processes, allowing the fauna of uncertainty and the fora of poetic imagination to emerge. We combine sapere aude (dare to know) in moving through and beyond sola fde (faith alone) through weaving together the chapter strands in this book. Therefore, we also eschew the materialistic–individualistic iron cage (Dyck & Purser, 2019) and present various facets of how faith informs, infuences, and adds mystery that propels shareholders, boards, management and other stakeholders in their quest for fourishing. We underscore the fact that various global crises have created toxicity in our environment and large swathes of inequality in the world – despite an abundance of organisations nationally and internationally – and the impulse of our book is one possible pathway for recalibration to future-proof our world. Our book’s core message is that faith impacts how individuals and organisations envision, manage and respond to their various stakeholders, communities and the world in which they are embedded. Our book presents various facets of how faith, values or ideological outlook informs, infuences and adds mystery that inspires and impels individuals and organisations in their evocative quest for a diverse praxis of delivering their respective organisational missions through meaningful occupation while also suggesting areas of further research. The poignant hope of our book, through its 21 chapters, each with its own rhythm and rhyme, is to evoke, through management lenses, the possibilities and the positive impact of faith on businesses, communities and stakeholders. We hope to inspire research-based investigative analysis emanating from the ideas presented, while also ofering a refective resource for business practitioners to animate their encounters with faith-based aspects pertaining to management and stakeholder interactions. The book is divided into three sections: faithful futures impacting individuals, faithful futures impacting organisations and faithful futures impacting society. Each chapter starts with a poem to epitomise the transient, wabi sabi (Lomas, 2016; Kempton, 2018) or perfectly imperfect nature of our book for faith and management are always in the process of becoming . . .
The frst section, Faithful futures impacting individuals, consists of four chapters Religion and career success: a country-comparative study provides empirical evidence linking religion and spirituality to career-related aspects through
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a global picture. This chapter analyses the efects of the religious composition of a country and its proportion of religiously active inhabitants on two dimensions of career success – positive impact and fnancial success. Survey data for this analysis stems from a collaborative efort of the 5C group (Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers) covering 23 countries across the world suggesting a positive relationship between religious aspects and positive impact and an absent or slightly positive relationship with fnancial success. Leading with faith: Angela Merkel in psychobiographical perspective focuses on psychobiographical investigations that explore the life of extraordinary individuals through the perspectives of psychological theories over a century. The life of extraordinary women leaders from minority groups has been neglected, and this chapter explores the faith development of Angela Merkel, German chancellor, across her lifetime. It uses the faith development theory (FDT) of James Fowler and responds to the questions: How does faith develop over the life span of Angela Merkel? and How are faith development and leadership intertwined? Managing piety, respectability and professionalism within women’s bodies discusses how female managers in a non-Western Muslim society present, manage and use their bodies as professional subjects while maintaining their religious piety and respectability. Female managers are often disadvantaged because of the enduring stereotype that women are more corporeal than men in a way that makes them seem less rational. Women’s career opportunities may be negatively impacted due to persistent implicit bias and discrimination. A more challenging situation is faced by Muslim women with a hijab because their hijab mainly symbolises religious piety that is inconsistent with the image of professionalism. This chapter analyses the management of bodies of female managers in a Muslim-majority society – Indonesia. The problem of ethics in business: does Vedanta have a solution suggests that value can be gained by placing ethics at the centre of commercial practice. Following a review of literature on occupational stress, organisational culture and business ethics, the chapter contends that there are gaps in how business seeks to eliminate stress from the workplace. By placing ethics at the centre of business, it ofers organisations a human orientation, which opens the door for integrating faith and spirituality with management. The chapter relies on the ancient Indian philosophy of Vedanta to suggest one such alternative principle.
The second section, Faithful futures impacting organisations, consists of eight chapters Faith and organisational ethics have always been historically connected. More recently, management scholars have begun to explore this connection within an organisational context. This chapter reviews this literature to defne authentic faith at work and its connection to ethics, while also addressing the challenges of this phenomenon to organisations. As part of
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this evaluation, strategies are ofered, including the ethical benefts, for organisations embedding authentic faith at work. Faith in the boardroom: seeking wisdom in governing for innovation focuses on faith in the context of the boardroom. A notion of wisdom governance is developed in dialogue with Hebrew Scripture and contemporary governance research. Faith resources can be utilised in ways accessible to pluralist contexts yet respectful of the particularities of diverse faith traditions. Governance practices are developed using verbs of serving, gardening, building, resourcing, risking and parenting through two case studies. The argument is that in conditions that require the balancing of risk and innovation, a wisdom governance that is trusted, engaging and connective is possible. The entrepreneurial church draws on both international and New Zealand examples, to analyse the ways in which Christian church attitudes to money and entrepreneurship have changed. It identifes many church denominations as signifcant owners of property, and varied attitudes within the church towards entrepreneurial behaviour. On the one hand there is a degree of idealisation of poverty, but there has also been great respect shown, especially among Protestants, towards entrepreneurs. A range of outlooks from the Franciscans who as an order were not supposed to own any property to the Prosperity Gospel endorsed by some notable Pentecostals, show how belief and behaviour converge, but it is not always clear which is the stronger force. Employers’ strategies on faith at work presents empirical knowledge on employer strategies regarding spirituality at work for specifc countries. Based on the theory of reasoned action and on conceptual thoughts from the sociology of religion, the chapter develops a framework and hypotheses on German employers’ attitudes concerning faith and spirituality at work. Sociological ideas regarding the integration and compensation functions of religion, the secularisation and individualisation hypotheses, and the market model of religion are developed. Normativity in practice: governance in secular and faith-based non-proft organisations shows that while efectiveness does not guarantee public trust in non-proft organisations, it is fundamental to it. Faith adds further complexity to governance. This chapter relates ownership and accountability to trust, purpose to mission and regulatory compliance to polity, through faith-based and secular non-proft organisations. In complexifying governance, faith-based approaches point to an essential task for an efective board, articulating norms and then embedding them in practice. Faith is not negotiable: the importance of religious diversity in organisations deals with religious diversity receiving little attention in the German-speaking world, within Management Studies. This is due to a strong separation between state and religion, as religion is relegated to the private sphere of life. However, the symbolic meaning of ‘religion’
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as a category is strong, based on so-called surface-level characteristics, which at the same time refer to ‘deep level’ characteristics. Nevertheless, religion has to be seen in connection with diversity categories that infuence each other, for it is the basis of identity construction, forms value systems, and infuences social hierarchies which impact group processes beyond the individual level, a process this chapter explores. Religious organisations as a litmus test for true leadership focuses on the distinction of true leadership over simply forcing people to do things, or ‘Boss’ behaviour. Leadership is the ability to infuence people to want to do things without resorting to hierarchically defned power. While boss behaviour may work in commercial organisations, it is inefective and even counterproductive in religious organisations that depend on free association and volunteering. True leadership is required to infuence volunteers to perform and this requires power that is both authentic and servant hearted. As such, religious organisations provide a kind of litmus test for true leadership where businesses might learn useful lessons. Wealth creation: the church, its theology, ethics and business practice challenges many African assumptions concerning faith and business and the creation of wealth. The central challenge seems to be rooted within Christian doctrine and ethical issues, concerning engagement with business and the creation of wealth. Most churches including global Christian umbrella bodies like the World Council of Churches have largely been silent in ofering social or economic guidance on wealth creation and business, except for considering economic equality and development. The church in Africa is faced not only with changing economic trends but also with inherent challenges of fundamental beliefs related to money, which is the focus of this chapter.
The third section, Faithful futures impacting society, consists of seven chapters Agreement while aggrieved: negotiating business in confict and postconfict settings stresses the importance of a world-centric perspective. The need to shift thinking from what was good for ‘me’ and us, my family, my tribe, even my country to what is good for the survival of ‘all of us’ globally has become paramount. COVID-19 and the increasingly evident impact of climate change highlight this stark reality. What have we learnt from Aid and Development practice that can help us develop this larger perspective and potential to adapt business to whatever the future brings? Working from a theoretical base of Spiral Dynamics developed by Beck and Graves, this chapter looks at the way facilitation through telling stories and listening to those on the front line of confict and an attitude of self-sacrifce or unconditional love might encourage that process. It also asks the question of how the various faith traditions might be brought to bear on that process.
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Mining faith to settle confict: bringing dispute to the surface in a resolvable fashion is situated in a South African context. Despite South Africa’s transition into a non-racial democracy and the need to address socioeconomic inequalities that characterised institutionalised segregation, South Africa ranks as one of the most unequal societies in the world. While disruptive industrial action has become an everyday possibility, laws meant not only to regulate the operations of mining but also to ensure that all stakeholders beneft from mining activities have not yielded the desired results in the gap between policy formulation and its implementation. Using peace building and confict resolution approaches and an underlying faith ethos, through the concept of Shalom, this chapter envisions a new reality amid broken relationships within the mining marketplace and beyond. Using faith-based methods to combat workplace bullying in Africa discusses the many forms of workplace bullying which occur on a regular basis across the globe. Literature on this phenomenon is sparse, and even more so in many countries across the African continent. This chapter examines types, levels, efects and perpetrators of bullying from several African countries. Traditional methods of approaching and resolving the situation are briefy examined. Faith-based principles of spiritual leadership, exemplifed by servant leadership suggest a means of combating workplace bullying in the African context. Management of religious diversity in state institutions in Austria stresses that state institutions are faced with having to manage the growing nature of religious diversity within Austrian society. Questions abound concerning equality of legal and institutional provisions, as well as practical matters among majority and minority religious communities. This chapter gives an overview of legal regulations in Austria concerning individual and collective rights in the religious sphere, and eforts in dealing with diversity. Drawing upon literature, laws, documents of the institutions and empirical research conducted in hospitals, prisons and the army, the analysis reports inequalities in accommodating religious minorities on a legal and institutional level and suggests implications for future practise. Religious literacy and diversity for business engages with how businesses are becoming more faith aware and faith-friendly and how freedom of religion and belief are positively associated with sustainable, human fourishing. Religious populations are dramatically outgrowing non-religious populations worldwide, especially in emerging markets where Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Pentecostal Christian populations are growing. At the same time there is a global countervailing trend of rising restrictions on freedom of religion and belief. Companies tone deaf to religion and spirituality will be less successful in these markets than companies that are faith aware. Faith-friendly workplaces, embrace religion and belief as part of their overall equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and for many of the world’s largest and most successful companies, this is primarily driven by employees.
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Faith and fnance explores the roots of the customs and traditions that guided the earliest commercial and fnancial transactions in the markets of local villages and how these values found expression in the recorded scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Specifc questions and diferences that emerged on ‘lending at interest’, especially through the Middle Ages are outlined and some basic principles that were established through the iterative process of the tradition are identifed. These were refned further through the Catholic Social Teaching tradition. The chapter looks at the historical examination of fnancial systems in papal encyclicals and identifes the principles needed in a system if it is to serve the common good and protect the planet for future generations. The opportunity to align faith with practices in the fnancial sector as a concern for all believers both in their personal fnancial activities and their professional lives is discussed and specifc recommendations for action in these areas are ofered. Marketing of faith encourages business leaders, both marketers and nonmarketers, to expand their thinking on how paying greater attention to religion, as with other consumer characteristics, may provide for enhanced relationships with customers. Marketing focused on clients’ religion ofers the potential of more successful outcomes, providing attention is given to core religious values that are authentic and sustained. This is of growing importance at a time when the percentage of the world population adhering to a religion is increasing. Examining the relationship between marketing and faith and how the ordinary has become sacralised and consumption a spiritual exercise, this chapter ofers food-for-thought on the needs of religious consumers and the marketing aspects of faith brand competition.
Conclusion On a grassy knoll is a bird’s nest. In carefully gazing at it, one fnds that besides bits of straw and twigs there are lengths of cotton, wool, patches of cloth, bits of paper – in fact, all manner of things that can be carried on the wing and are fexible enough to be woven into the nest that will nurture the next generation. Our book is like a nest with the incredible diversity of material assembled within its pages. Weaving what we hope is a nurturing place for the next generation of faith thinkers and practitioners we have taken this throbbing panoply of multi-faith ideas into a nurturing space that has ‘life’ and pulsates with the heartbeat of the divine. We have sought to pull together the threads of textured ideas and the patchwork of knowledge into a coherent whole that shimmers with the hope that faith can be reimagined in business in ways that take humans into a fourishing future.
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Section 1
Faithful futures impacting individuals
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Religion and career success: A country-comparative study Wolfgang Mayrhofer, Martin A. Steinbereithner, Marco Rapp, Lea Reiss and Dominik Zellhofer
Some choose to reach for the stars More mundane for cushiest cars Everyone’s dream Has some faith it would seem Godfrey That chisels one’s lifestyle – or mars D’Lima
Introduction Religious traditions and the world of work have a long-standing, if somewhat strained relationship. Various religious traditions are often labelled, sometimes even derogatively, as regards their attitude to work and money: expressions such as the famous “Protestant work ethic” (Weber, 2002 [Original 1905]; Furnham, 1984) or “Jewish banking skills” are among those sayings (Kosmin & Keysar, 2006; Tang, 2010). Over the past decades, the discourse on management and various aspects of spirituality and religion has gained considerable momentum (Neal, 2013), looking at diferent aspects like education in business schools (Mabey & Mayrhofer, 2015), specifc forms of leadership (e.g., Dierendonck & Patterson, 2010) or Islamic perspectives on banking (Gümüsay, 2015). When it comes to individual work careers (Arthur, Hall, & Lawrence, 1989; Gunz & Peiperl, 2007), it is hardly surprising, that various aspects of religion and spirituality arguably also play a role. Again, the spectrum is broad, ranging from expectations about religious people being more generous, less driven by work and pursuing other achievements (Hamilton & Ilchman, 1995) to the role of calling in careers (Hall & Chandler, 2005; Pio, Kilpatrick, & Pratt, 2018) or the efects on well-being (Koenig, McCullough, & Larson, 2001). However, empirical evidence regarding the relationship between various aspects of careers and religion and spirituality is scarce. This is particularly true for a more global picture going beyond specifc regions or groups of individuals (Constantine et al., 2006). Hence, A great variety of research is needed to develop a thorough understanding of this relationship. There is a push within the management
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Our chapter responds to the calls for more empirical research examining the relationship between religion and career. Specifcally, we analyse the efects of the religious composition of a country and its proportion of religiously active inhabitants on two dimensions of career success, that is, positive impact on the broader world and fnancial success beyond mere survival as well as the career success orientations and achievements of members of different religions. Building on the work of the 5C Group (www.5C.careers), a collaborative efort of academics from more than 30 countries in all cultural clusters studying various aspects of careers, we use data from 23 countries and 13,617 individuals for our analyses.
Conceptual background and hypotheses Career success is a major topic in career studies (e.g., Arthur, Khapova, & Wilderom, 2005; Gunz & Heslin, 2005). Yet, we know surprisingly little about what career success actually means for individuals from diferent countries (for an exception see, e.g., Shen et al., 2015), to what extent they emphasise its various facets and what role contextual macro-factors play in this regard, although elements of the social space such as institutional confgurations or economic conditions are crucial for understanding careers (Mayrhofer, Meyer, & Steyrer, 2007; Gunz & Mayrhofer, 2018). Previous work not only diferentiates between objective and subjective career success (Hughes, 1937), but has lately introduced a more nuanced understanding (Mayrhofer et al., 2016; Briscoe, Chudzikowski, Demel, Mayrhofer, & Unite, 2012), diferentiating between seven dimensions of career success. They address three important aspects: entrepreneurship as well as learning and development relate to the aspect of growth; work–life balance, positive impact, and positive work relationships point towards the aspect of design for life; and the two dimensions, fnancial security and fnancial success are linked with the aspect of material output (Figure 2.1). In this chapter, we focus on one aspect of material output and design for life. As a classic indicator of (objective) career success, fnancial success addresses the material aspect that goes beyond the necessities for survival in one’s respective environment. Positive impact manifests itself as both in a more ‘proximal’ way in the sense of helping others and as a more ‘distal’ way in the sense of leaving some sort of legacy. This is an expression of subjective career success.
Religion and career success: A country-comparative study
Learning and Development
Entrepreneurship
Work-Life Balance
Career Success
Financial Achievement
Financial Security
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Positive Impact
Positive Work Relationships
Figure 2.1 Dimensions of career success (Mayrhofer et al., 2016)
With regard to the relationship between both religious afliation and activity and the chosen career success dimensions, previous research is not entirely clear. We argue that religious afliation and active religious practice have a positive efect on the importance of positive impact but is negatively related to fnancial success. While religious activity is characterised by attendance in religious services or personal devotional practices, religious afliation typically merely refers to some formal membership in a religious community, sometimes paired with occasional fnancial contributions, without necessarily sharing all the beliefs associated with that community (Voas & Day, 2010; Meyer, 1976; for a broader discussion on religiosity and its operationalisation, see, e.g., Leitner, 2013). Yet, religious afliation can also point to a certain identifcation with the values of a particular religious tradition, such as altruism, integrity or hard work, even if not espousing the underlying religious tenets. Individuals embedded in an environment impregnated by religious values that usually emphasise responsibility for creation, living beings and doing good, would aspire to have a positive impact in their careers more so than those who have not (Dufy, 2006). Consequently, people who are religiously afliated and/or active in their religious communities choose, among others, work to feel valued, belong and make an impact, in line with the literature that points towards
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religious people having a stronger sense of calling (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2011; Dufy, 2006; Weber, 2002 [Original 1905]). The evidence as to how religion afects attitudes towards money is contradictory (Jain & Joy, 1997; Tang, 2010). While some would argue that greater religiosity, that is, the personal signifcance and use of religion expressed in various dimensions such as participation in religious practices, knowledge about one’s religion and experience with transcendence (Glock, 1962), leads to less materialism and religiously afliated people are less interested in fnancial success, others point to the opposite efect (Richins & Dawson, 1992; Vitell, Paolillo, & Singh, 2006). We lean towards the former, much in line with ofcial declarations of established religious traditions criticising the primacy of economic gain over the common good (e.g., Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), an encyclical by Catholic Pope Benedict XVI from 2009). We do expect that the efects on fnancial success and positive impact are stronger for people indicating a certain level of religious activity and not mere afliation with a faith tradition. Turning to the role of religion for the career success dimensions, we assume that religion plays a role across countries regarding how these elements of career success look like. While there might be some general efect of religion, we assume that diferent religions have diferent views on the importance of the individual, their role in terms of creation and their fellow human beings, and towards the material realm of reality.
Sample, variables and methods Sample In this analysis, we include 13,617 individuals (50.4 percent female, mean age 40.32 years ± 11.25) from 23 countries (Argentina, Austria, Belgium, China, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and United States; N per country ranges from 363 to 1039). While 22.9 percent of the individuals identifed with no religion, the vast majority of the sample was Christian (65.8 percent), followed by Muslims (4.6 percent), Buddhists (4.4 percent) and Hindus (2.3 percent). These proportions, while not refective of the world population, give an accurate picture of the actual countries surveyed. Dependent variables For our dependent variables, we use two out of the seven career success dimensions, positive impact and fnancial success. For each dimension, participants were asked to report the importance regarding having a positive
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impact and valuing fnancial success. Participants were also asked if they achieved positive impact/fnancial goals in their career. Financial success This career success dimension is characterised by three facets: (1) achieving wealth, (2) receiving incentives, perks or bonuses and (3) steadily increasing one’s monetary income. Positive impact This career success dimension describes three facets of positive impact: (1) contributing to the development of others, (2) helping others and (3) leaving people and places better as a result of one’s own career. Independent variables Religion We asked respondents if they identify with a religion and if so, what religion. Proportion of religiously afliated persons Based on the question mentioned earlier, we calculated the proportion of respondents of a country that are identifed with any religion. Proportion of religiously active persons We asked respondents if they consider themselves an active practitioner of religion and calculated the proportion of respondents of a country that are active practitioners. Control variables We used both individual and macro-level control variables. As individual variables, we included age, gender, education, professional group and the individual religious afliation as well as their religious activity. On the macro-level, we controlled for economic prosperity using the Legatum Prosperity Index. This index evaluates 149 countries worldwide on nine different dimensions of prosperity. We focus on the dimension of economic quality, as it captures traditional economic indicators like per capita income growth, relative poverty and labour force participation. It is also based on economic satisfaction and expectations, for example, satisfaction with living standards (Legatum, 2016).
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Results Analysing for descriptives and correlations, the proportion of religiously afliated persons in a country correlates positively both with the importance of positive impact and fnancial success. Results also show a signifcant relation of similar strength between the proportion of the religiously active population and the importance of positive impact and fnancial success. In comparison, the individual religious afliation or activity show a lower correlation with both the importance of positive impact and fnancial success, with the exception that the importance of positive impact correlates stronger with religiously active individuals. Economic prosperity shows a relatively strong negative correlation with the respective proportions and ratings of importance. Religious afliation and career success With regard to the proportion of religiously afliated persons to the importance of positive impact and fnancial success, respectively, Tables 2.1a and 2.1b show the regression results. The overall regression models show medium efects for control variables age, gender, and individual religious afliation, and only small positive associations to the importance of positive impact and small negative correlations with the importance of fnancial success. Economic prosperity still presents a relatively important factor, with comparable negative associations with the dependent variables. Control variables education and occupation are not presented due to the large number of dummy variables. Owing to the large sample size, there are partly signifcant relationships with positive impact and fnancial success,
Table 2.1a Proportion of religiously afliated persons and importance of positive impact
B
SE B
β
Step 1 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously afliated (y/n) Step 2 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously afliated (y/n) proportion of religiously afliated
5.100 0.003 0.111 –0.022 0.161
0.057 0.001 0.012 0.001 0.015
.000** .052** .075** –.274** .092**
4.525 0.003 0.110 –0.018 0.108 0.432
0.082 0.001 0.012 0.001 0.016 0.044
.000** .052** .075** –.222** .061** .103**
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Table 2.1b Proportion of religiously afliated persons and importance of fnancial success
B
SE B
β
Step 1 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously afliated (y/n) Step 2 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously afliated (y/n) proportion of religiously afliated
5.867 –0.009 –0.048 –0.023 0.075
0.058 0.001 0.013 0.001 0.015
.000** –.138** –.032** –.286** .041**
5.875 –0.009 –0.048 –0.023 0.076 –0.006
0.084 0.001 0.013 0.001 0.016 0.045
.000** –.138** –.032** –.287** .042** –.001
Listwise n = 10756. Male = 1, female = 2. * Correlation is signifcant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is signifcant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
but the small efect size signals that they are negligible. The results indicate that the proportion of religiously afliated in a country has a signifcant positive impact on the importance of positive impact. However, the proportion of religiously afliated does not afect the importance of fnancial success. We assumed that individual religious afliation was positively correlated with positive impact. Our fndings confrm this, meaning that people who show any kind of religious afliation are more likely to aspire to having positive impact in their career. For fnancial success, the connection also shows a positive efect. We controlled for age, as career aspirations may change across diferent life stages. Furthermore, a higher level of education and the type of occupation itself may afect the importance of positive impact. The results in Step 2 indicate that religious afliation remains positively correlated with positive impact (Table 2.1a), whereas correlation with fnancial success is no longer signifcant (Table 2.1b). Religiously active and career success Looking at religiously active population, we assumed that a greater proportion of religiously active persons in the population of a country would be related positively to positive impact and negatively to fnancial success. Related to the analyses detailed earlier, Tables 2.2a and 2.2b show the results of the hierarchical regressions.
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Table 2.2a Proportion of religiously active persons and importance of positive impact
B
SE B
β
Step 1 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously active (y/n) Step 2 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously active (y/n) proportion of religiously active
5.100 0.099 0.004 –0.021 0.187
0.059 0.014 0.001 0.001 0.014
4.214 0.124 0.004 –0.012 0.091 0.636
0.080 0.013 0.001 0.001 0.015 0.039
.000** .086** .065** –.163** .062** .218**
.000** .068** .055** –.284** .128**
Table 2.2b Proportion of religiously active persons and importance of fnancial success
B
SE B
β
Step 1 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously active (y/n) Step 2 constant age gender economic prosperity (2015) religiously active (y/n) proportion of religiously active
5.949 –0.056 –0.009 –0.023 –0.015
0.062 0.014 0.001 0.001 0.015
.000** –.038** –.139** –.304** –.010
5.582 –0.046 –0.009 –0.020 –0.055 0.263
0.084 0.014 0.001 0.001 0.016 0.041
.000** –.031** –.135** –.256** –.036** .087**
Listwise n = 10756. Male = 1, female = 2. ** Correlation is signifcant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The initial calculation yields a positive correlation with the level of religious activity in a country (such as participating in religious services or activities) with positive impact and fnancial success. If we control for age, gender, education, occupation and economic prosperity, the efect remains signifcant for both positive impact and fnancial success. Again, economic prosperity shows a relatively strong negative association with our dependent variables, while other control variables are signifcant (with the exception of individual
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religious activity in Table 2.2b) but clearly less important. While the impact of the proportion of the religiously active in a country on the importance of positive impact is almost as strong as economic prosperity, the association with the importance of fnancial success is comparatively small. (Non-)faith traditions and career success Turning to faith traditions, we assumed that members of diferent religions display diferent levels of fnancial success and positive impact both in terms of importance and achievement, signifcant diferences occur between the religions included in these analyses. The analysis of the mean ratings of the largest religious groups (alphabetically: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim) in our sample regarding importance and achievement of fnancial success and positive impact, respectively, shows the following: The Muslim group scores highest when asked about the importance (4.4) and achievement (4.0) of positive impact, while the Hindu group scores highest when asked about fnancial success (4.3/3.8). The None group (no religious afliation) shows the lowest scores on all these aspects. To be sure, efect sizes of the diferences (η2) are small for all dimensions analysed, that is, importance of positive impact (.017), importance of fnancial success (.007), achieved positive impact (.020) and achieved fnancial success (.015), respectively. To check these results for robustness, we controlled for age, education, professional group and gender, with all efects remaining signifcant and virtually no change in efect sizes. In contrast, when additionally introducing economic prosperity, efect of religion on importance of positive impact and achievement is reduced substantially while the efect on fnancial success remains unchanged.
Discussion Looking at positive impact frst, that is, the desire to contribute to the development of others, helping others and leaving people and places in a better place through one’s work, a few things emerge. Religious afliation correlates signifcantly with positive impact, and so does religious activity. One interpretation of this link is that people who have grown up in an environment impregnated by religious values aspire to have a positive impact in their careers, more than those who have not. Altruism and idealism are often associated with religiosity (Carrigan et al., 2005; Saroglou, 2013). Dufy (2006) came to a similar conclusion. This relationship also increases with age and confrms the anecdotal evidence that as one approaches midlife and beyond, leaving a legacy becomes a more salient motivation. Women are also slightly more likely to aspire to positive impact. As mentioned earlier, there is no signifcant relationship between religious afliation and desire for fnancial success. When it comes to religiously
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active people, however, there is a signifcant relationship with aspiration for fnancial success, but it is the opposite of what we expected. The higher the proportion of religiously active people, the more people aspiring for fnancial success. The explanation is not immediately obvious, even if the result is interesting: is there a sense of needing to “keep up with the Jones” on the part of religiously active people, are such people higher in self-efcacy and thus more ambitious, or are there other factors at work (La Barbera & Gürhan, 1997)? Clearly, further theoretical exploration and empirical work is needed in order to clarify this issue. With regard to the efects of diferent faith traditions on career success, the results indicate that persons with diferent religions evaluate the importance as well as their perceived achievement of positive impact and fnancial success diferently, although the efect is arguably not large enough to discriminate between the specifc religions. The economic prosperity of a country seems to make a diference in terms of ratings of importance, but not for ratings of achievement. We see that Muslims aspire to positive impact the most and Buddhists and “Nones” the least; similar “rankings” can be seen for actual achievement of positive impact. This confrms previous fndings about Islamic work ethic (Ali & Al-Owaihan, 2008; Hayati & Caniago, 2012) as regards intrinsic motivation and their desire to impact their work environment. Also, there is some evidence that for Buddhism both extrinsic and intrinsic work values are important (Parboteeah, Paik, & Cullen, 2009). With regard to non-religiously afliated people, the comparatively small regard for positive impact seems surprising as the here and now is of utmost importance in the light of the absence of transcendence and raises the issue of why this is the case. In a similar manner, the importance of leaving a legacy, of being known for one’s contribution to the world as we know it, and of an agentic stance for triggering change come into focus. This raises the question of a more fne-grained analysis how diferent faith traditions view these aspects, what they recommend or even require individuals to do and how the link to this dimension of career success is argued. For valuing fnancial success, Hindus rank highest and “Nones” the lowest. This holds true if we control for the average wealth of citizens in that nation. The same is true for actual achievement of fnancial success. Some development literature has claimed that some forms of Hinduism hamstring economic development because of a certain fatalistic outlook on life (e.g., Uppal, 1986). However, it is difcult to generalise this since specifc groupings within Hinduism, for example, members of the Vaishya or the Bania, where trading, money lending, and owning land is widespread. Hardly surprising then, more recent studies seem to emphasise the view that Hindu religion encourages “wealth acquisition as necessary for the natural progression of an individual’s life” (Jain & Joy, 1997, p. 641) and thus support our fndings (see also Parboteeah et al., 2009). But we are again at a loss explaining why the “Nones” score lowest. At least in the United States (Smith & Cooperman, 2015), this part of the population is displaying a new combination of values.
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Conclusion Calling the relationship between religion and career a complicated and opaque one is still close to the truth. Arguably, our chapter sheds light on some issues in this open feld by not only using a diferentiated concept of career success, but also integrating individual- and country-level variables to look at the relationship between religious afliation and religious activity and career success, that is, positive impact and fnancial success. We demonstrate a positive relationship between the religious aspects and positive impact and an absent relationship with fnancial success. Our analyses lead to further questions and leave wide areas untouched. This includes a more fne-grained measurement of religious activity, the interplay between religious and spiritual activities and its efects on career success, the role of extended family network, and the importance of personality variables. Consequently, further research is needed to go down fruitful avenues in the area of spirituality and religion and its importance for organisations (Tischler, Biberman, & Altman, 2007). In particular, the following issues seem to be of importance with regard to future research. First, multi-level analyses shedding more light on the interplay between religious assumptions about, for instance, what goals in life are considered desirable, individual-level aspects such as personality, and regional and national aspects such as social fabric and economic development seem crucial. All too often, one or two of those important aspects are included in theorising and in empirical design. However, it is the interplay that greatly adds to the picture. For example, while it makes perfect sense to compare members of diferent faith traditions, notably religions, with regard to their views on diferent aspects of career success, the picture is clearly incomplete without the regional and national context. In case of an economic upswing, individuals might have diferent views on the importance of fnancial success than in economic hardship times. Likewise, in situations where social concerns rank high on the economic and societal agenda of a country, the importance of positive impact and personal views on the degree of achievement might change. Second, a stronger inclusion of the temporal dimension can greatly improve research in this area. Much of the current research relating career and religion is cross-sectional and has a quite static view. Yet, a stronger emphasis on time has at least two major advantages. On the one hand, it points towards a more explicit view on age and developmental stage at the individual level. While age in itself is, in most cases, a control variable in many studies, it is often no more than that. However, looking at diferent life stages reveals fascinating areas, like tracking the changing role of religious beliefs and practices over individuals’ life course and identifying both stable as well as changing aspects of their relationship with various aspects of careers such as career aspirations or dimensions of career success. On the other hand, tracking changes and developments beyond the individual
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life course over time opens new avenues of research that are only partially understood. Questions such as “Do conceptualisations of career success of members of diferent faith traditions change over time and, if yes, in what ways and how can we explain that?” and “Do diferent conceptualisations of time prevalent in various faith traditions have an infuence on how careers and career success are viewed?” are just two examples illustrating the variety of questions that arise from a temporal lens. Third, qualitative studies exploring in-depth the processes and mechanisms of individuals linking the religious and spiritual plane with various aspects of careers are greatly needed. Qualitative studies taking a closer look at the genesis, the structure and processes, and the outcome of individuals’ views on careers based on their respective faith tradition allow us a much better understanding of this phenomenon. Of course, such an approach is not limited to individual-level analyses. It can also cover group and organisational aspects of these issues such as the role of groups and group dynamics and the importance of organisational culture and support. Beyond research, our results and the underlying theme of a linkage between faith traditions and career behaviour address organisational practice. There are some standard recommendations with regard to work and religion such as building religious practitioner-friendly spaces, recognising holidays and dietary habits, supporting organisational networks and creating awareness about the positive aspects of spirituality and religion for the whole organisational climate. Looking at our results, the following issues emerge. Concerning organisational career management (OCM) practices, the inclusion of the faith dimension is crucial. For a number of reasons, issues of faith and religion in OCM are a blind spot and close to a taboo. Yet, our results and the broader research on the role of faith in the world of work indicate that this area is crucial in order to understand how individuals view and manage their careers and what their expectations are vis-à-vis organisational support. Arguably, at the most fundamental level, our results point towards the importance of a more tailored HRM and the inclusion of a faith-angle. While the former is, under diferent terms, widely acknowledged, the latter is still in its infancy. This is hardly surprising since its consequent application is fraught with dangers and pitfalls as this is a highly controversial area. “Nones” and faith-related employees alike are very sensitive when it comes to including various aspects of faith into standard operating organisational practices. Correspondingly, management is hesitant to go down that route. Yet, we would argue that it is at least worth some serious consideration. To conclude, the link between faith and career is a fascinating one with a great variety of aspects still mainly in the dark. In this chapter, we shed some light on two important facets of career success, namely positive impact and fnancial success and their complex relation with religious afliation and religious activity. However, more research is needed, in particular, regarding multi-level
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analyses that include a broader variety of relationships between individual and contextual variables, a stronger focus on temporal aspects of those relations and qualitative approaches taking an in-depth look at these issues.
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Leading with faith: Angela Merkel in psychobiographical perspective Claude-Hélène Mayer
Faith can make leaders of all Many experience its call To hold up a cause Without panting or pause Till the world is Godfrey Redeemed from the fall D’Lima
Introduction Leadership has advanced as a long-standing research topic in management, as well as in industrial and organisational psychology (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, & McKee, 2014; Hughes, 2019; Mayer, Surtee, & May, 2015). Women in leadership have been researched regarding their experiences of barriers and their underrepresentation in leadership (Eagly & Carli, 2003; Mayer et al., 2015; Mayer & May, 2018). When, however, the question is posed how women leaders lead successfully, there is a void in research with regard to women leaders in power (Tessens, White, & Web, 2011; Mayer, Viviers, Oosthuizen, & Surtee, 2017), and as role models (Moodly & Toni, 2015). This scarcity in research might be related to continuing male domination and overwhelming patriarchal structures in leadership (Acker, 2010). Transculturally women are still marginalised in societies and hardly found in leadership positions (Cornish, 2012). However, sometimes leaders come out of social groups with minority status (Eagly, 2018; Rast, Hogg, & de Moura, 2018). The question arises under which circumstances these leaders are successful and how they create social change. Psychobiography as a sub-discipline within psychology uses psychological theories to analysing extraordinary individual’s life development (Fouché & van Niekerk, 2010; Schultz, 2005; Mayer & Kovary, 2019), such as in writers, actors, entrepreneurs and (political) leaders (Holm-Hadulla, 2012). The majority of psychobiographies focuses on men, thereby neglecting women leaders’ perspectives (Mayer, 2017). This study uses Fowler’s stages of (FDT) Faith development theory to reconstruct Angela Merkel’s leadership and faith.
Leading with faith 33
Psychobiography Psychobiographical research has evolved about a century ago (Kováry, 2011), combining aspects of psychology and biographical research (Fouché & van Niekerk, 2005; Mayer & Kovary, 2019). In psychobiography, the life and its development of an extraordinary person is explored by applying a certain psychological theory. Psychobiographies are highly qualitative and have been criticised as subjective, elitist, non-systematic and reductionist (Elms, 1994). Previous psychobiographies have focused on political leaders in diferent socio-cultural contexts, such as Mahatma Gandhi (Erikson, 1969), Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton (Elovitz, 2016), and Angela Merkel who comes from a minority background (Mayer & van Niekerk, 2020; Mayer, van Niekerk, & Fouché, 2020). This study focuses on her faith and vocation in life in the context of her leadership.
James Fowler’s Faith Development Theory (FDT) James Fowler developed the FDT from 1968 onwards (Coyle, 2011) aiming at understanding human values, belief and meaning in life within the context of relationship to God (Fowler & Dell, 2004). Thereby, faith is defned as a “generic human phenomenon – a way of leaning into or meeting life, whether traditionally religious, or Christian, or not” (Fowler, 1986, p. 16). According to Fowler (1980, p. 53), “Faith has to do with the making, maintenance, and transformation of human meaning. It is a mode of knowing and being. In faith, we shape our lives in relation to more or less comprehensive convictions or assumptions about reality.” It is a kind of life orientation (Osmer, 1992), which changes over a lifetime (faith-as-a-process) in correspondence with an individual’s passion (Fowler, 1984). The FDT has been used in previous psychobiographical research, such as a study on John Wesley (Fowler, 2001), Mother Theresa (Stroud, 2004), Helen Keller (Van Genechten, 2009), Beyers Naudé (Fouché, Burnell, van Niekerk, & Nortjé, 2016), Jesus (Collins, 2013), Anne Hutchinson, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Dietrich Bonhoefer, Blaise Pascal and Malcom X (Fowler & Lovin, 1979). FDT is said to improve the understanding of extraordinary individuals in general (Runyan, 2006) and should therefore be used increasingly in psychobiographical research (Stroud, 2004).
Stages of FDT FD is divided into three stages (Ashdown & Gibbons, 2012), which aim at acquiring self-knowledge and intimacy with others and God, seeing God as a higher force, not bound to a specifc religion (Fowler, 1981, 1987; Tables 3.1 and 3.2).
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Table 3.1 Stages of FD Stages of FD
Occurrence in life span
Pre-stage (Stage 0) Lower stages of FD (Stages 1–3) Higher stages of FD (Stages 4–6)
In childhood From childhood to adulthood In adulthood or not attained at all
Research has pointed out that the FD stages are fexible and interconnected and come with the usual problems of stage development theories (Ashdown & Gibbons, 2012; Coyles, 2011; Mayer, 2017).
Vocation in life and faith development Fowler (1984, 1987) has highlighted that one’s vocation in life plays an important role in FD and is connected to three diferent ways of defning the relationship to God. In young adulthood, individuals search for their personal identity and their vocation in life to clarify the question of who they are. In middle adulthood, individuals aim at responding to questioning life’s vocation on deeper levels, while searching for the calling of God (Fowler, 1984). During elder adulthood, individuals set new priorities, including fnding their vocation in life and dealing with their personal calling (Fowler, 1984, 1987). The awareness around a vocation in life leads to a deepening of spiritual development and transcendence in three ways (Fowler, 1984, 1987): First, God’s creation and caring for others and the environment: Relationship with God through participating, maintaining and extending care for the environment and the creation of God, such as in active parenting, involvement in care and education, community work and care for mental and physical wellbeing in the living context. Second, God’s governance and his justice and lawfulness within societies: Relationship building through the involvement with God and the liberating redemptive work, such as on political, societal, economic and social aspects in societies. Individuals build a relationship with God through enriching and benefting the life of others, solidarity with the oppressed and rejected, liberation from egocentric motives of using power, purpose, signifcance and security in order to participate in liberation movements. Third, God’s liberation from socio-economic and political ideologies and boundaries: Individuals living their vocation usually feel fulflled, energetic and balanced and encourage and support others who struggle with their vocation, while feeling fulflled and blessed by God.
Research methodology This study uses a psychobiographical research method, employing a personcentred single case study design (Elms, 2007). It uses a purposive
Leading with faith 35 Table 3.2 Explanations of stages of FD Stage
Description
0 – Primal faith
• The “undiferentiated faith” or “primal faith” (from birth to three years) • Role of religious and cultural symbols, meanings and practices • Faith as a pre-language disposition of trust, loyalty and meaningful commitments with the primary caregivers • Healthy attachments and building relationships • Sense of separation of self – healthy self-image development 1 – Intuitive• “Intuitive-protective faith” stage (four to seven years) projective stage • Egocentric thoughts, fantasy and reality are not distinguished – autonomy, shame, doubt, self-control and willpower become relevant • Increasing meaning-making on emotional and perceptual ordering of experiences and imaginative understanding • Strong language development • Power and powerlessness become relevant • Faith is based on symbols and images of visible power (good and evil) and the magical world 2 – Mythic-literal • “Mythic-literal faith” (seven to 11/12 years) stage • Increased thinking skills, time and space concepts, self does not diferentiate themselves from narrations • Linear worldview, predictability, new forms of logical thinking, ability of conscious interpretation and meaning in life • Understand world through stories of self and others • Diferences in perspectives between the self and others, empathising with the perspectives of others • Include the perspective of God, God is personalised, concepts of morality and fairness evolve • Goodness is rewarded, badness is punished • Faith relies on the stories, rules and implicit values of the family/community • “11-year-old atheists” concept – giving up temporarily or permanently the belief in God • Development of emotional and interpersonal skills and interrelatedness between people and groups • “Synthetic-conventional faith” (from 11/12 to 17/18 years or 3 – Syntheticeven middle age or late adulthood) conventional • Increasing self-awareness, building up interpersonal stage relationships • Meaning is created through relationships and roles • Increased cognitive functioning and interpersonal perspectivetaking (abstract thinking and reasoning) • Importance of faith and social perspectives increase, including teachers, peers, religious communities, etc. • Desire to conform and tendency to overdependence • God is represented with personal qualities of acceptance, love, support, understanding and loyalty • Experience and negotiations of intrapersonal contradictions • Identity and ideologies are built • Split between emotions, cognition and God • Many individuals may not move past Stage 3 (Continued)
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Table 3.2 (Continued) Stage
Description
4 – Individuative- • “Individuative-refexive faith” (20–40 years) refexive stage • Development of an executive ego (individual authority is relocated within the self) • Development to refect on and evaluate personal values, beliefs, commitments, relationships in a critical way • Individualism is developed, authorities are questioned and inter-/intrapersonal boundaries are clarifed • Value concepts and belief systems are questioned consciously • Autonomy and pretended independence grow • Orientation towards the self occurs within the individual • Social relationships are evaluated • Individual and social roles are accessed, greater awareness of own ideology, coherence of faith • Boundaries are clarifed and in-depth identities are developed • Disruptive stage for relationships (Fowler, 1981) • Ideologies and belief are experienced in self and others (Fowler, 1987) • Tensions between individuality vs. group membership; subjectivity and emotions vs. objectivity and critical refection; self-fulflment vs. service to and for others; the relative vs. the absolute • Integration of traditional and new belief and insecurities of inclusion and exclusion 5 – Paradoxical- • Inclusive phase which hardly occurs before the age of 30 – often undeveloped (Fowler, 1987) conjunctive • Managing a new openness to others, multi-perspectives, stage paradoxes and integrating faith and life as well as a depth of belief (Fowler, 1981) • Ones own socio-cultural boundaries are overcome (Straughn, 2010) • Developing new relationships (to God), increased awareness of in-/dependence (Fowler, 1987) • Boundaries of previous stages are overcome, own limitations become clear and symbols and meanings beyond their own faith traditions increase (Fowler, 1981) • Increasing loyalty across communities, openness, acceptance of transitions, reference to a symbolic and mythical reality, humble awareness, understanding of a multi-layered complexity and the strength to see and uphold opposite tensions (Fowler, 1984) 6 – Universalising • Individual is viewed as a whole, independent of social class, nationality, gender, age, political ideology, race and religion faith (Fowler & Dell, 2004) • Tensions are embraced and transformed (Fowler, 1984) • Overall love for every person and altruistic values (e.g., Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Mother Theresa) • Loyalty as “principle of being” • Selfess service (Croucher, 2003) – evil is opposed nonviolently with unconditional love, guidance of God and multi-perspectivity in overcoming boundaries of religions/faith (Fowler, 1987) • Individuals reaching this stage are viewed as charismatic leaders
Leading with faith 37 non-probability sampling, including the following criteria: (1) she is an extraordinary, successful and famous woman leader from a minority background, (2) she is a global female role model and (3) her leadership and faith are well documented (Oliver, 2006). Data collection is based on frstand third-person documents (Allport, 1961), including autobiographical accounts, internet sources, journal and newspaper articles, interviews and video documentaries. Data were analysed through content analysis based on the fve-step process indicated by Terre Blanche, Durrheim, and Kelly (2006, pp. 322–326). The process steps include: (1) familiarisation and immersion, (2) inducing themes, (3) coding, (4) elaboration and (5) interpretation and checking. Ethical considerations were followed as highlighted by Ponterotto and Reynolds (2017), including the respectful treatment of intimate details concerning the person analysed, as well as non-malefcence (Elms, 1994). The next section presents fndings on the question. “How does faith develop over the life span of Angela Merkel?”
Findings and discussion Angela Merkel often held a minority status, since she was a child from the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, West Germany) in the GDR (German Democratic Republic, former East Germany), a child of a Protestant pastor in a non-religious society, outstandingly intelligent. Contemporaneously she is a Protestant leader in a rather Catholic party and a woman leader in a male-dominated party/society.
Childhood, teenage years and the twenties Merkel grew up in an environment where religion was repressed and the family had to behave carefully, seeing religion as an antidote to political ideologies, such as Nazism or communism, in the context of the post-war aversion (Erasmus, 2016). Regarding Fowler’s stage development and Stage 0, not much of Merkel’s intra-personal experiences of faith is known, but it can be assumed that faith was a part of family life which was kept secret from the public. She grew up within the pastoral (Protestant) household with her mother being at home, looking after the children, when the family moved to the GDR. The father worked as a Protestant pastor and infuenced Merkel’s belief strongly, as did her mother’s attention to her (Langguth, 2005). She became an optimist through her mother’s way of dealing with life. The family was very close, particularly as a family immigrating to the GDR (Langguth, 2005). During Stage 1, Merkel’s self-control and willpower became relevant, as described in Fowler’s theory. This is particularly described and Merkel’s wish to lead in school (Müller-Vogg, 2004). She experienced a very positive childhood, although being brought up in the GDR, a state in which
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freedom was not frst priority (Müller-Vogg, 2004). Merkel experienced a split between family values and belief system and the ideological world of the GDR’s political system. Merkel, therefore, might have learned about good and evil in terms of her religious belief at home, but not in societal institutions, such as the school. Hardly anything is known about Merkel’s youth and teenage years, but it is known that Merkel developed an extraordinary way of logical thinking (as described in Fowler, 1987), an ability of conscious interpretation and meaning in life. She was part of minority groups in childhood and adolescence and classifed as someone highly intelligent (Resing, 2017). In childhood and adolescence, she saw her faith as extraordinary in the GDR and recognised its positive and negative aspects (Resing, 2017). During Stage 2, she learned that goodness is rewarded, and badness is punished and that the value systems in her family and in society difered. However, her ecclesiastical belief was important in her life, although the family experienced challenges, being Christian in the GDR (Resing, 2017). Her sense of identity was based on her family’s religion. The “11-year-old atheists” concept (Fowler, 1981) was not allowed by the strict Christian family upbringing. Experiencing pressure to conform in society, Merkel developed a very strong self-consciousness about her religion and belief without doubt – although it “was not easy to stand in for the faith” (Resing, 2017). Merkel’s Stage 3 showed increasing political awareness, increased cognitive functioning and interpersonal perspective taking (Fowler, 1981) in her schoolwork (Resing, 2017). She experienced her faith beyond the family by connecting, for example, to other Christian believers in school and later in university (Resing, 2017). At the same time, she desired to conform, knowing about her dependability within the GDR system. Merkel moved into Stage 4 in which she, in university, developed deeper thoughts about herself, her abilities, personal values, beliefs, commitments and her self-identity (Fowler, 1981). As a professional scientist (Doctorate in Physical Chemistry), she became highly self-conscious, questioned the societal value concepts and became aware of her own ideology, faith, and her religion (Evangelical Focus, 2015).
Merkel in her thirties and forties In her thirties, she refrained from displaying her religious identity, but during the forties to sixties she started to comment openly on her faith (Erasmus, 2016), relocating the authority within herself during Stage 4 of the FDT. She expressed her faith in her high acceptance of speaking publicly at Christian events or contexts (Spencer, 2016b) and in statements, such as: “I am a Christian believer” (Evangelical Focus, 2015). Altogether, during
Leading with faith 39 her political career, she displayed a “quiet faith” (Erasmus, 2016), building the basis for her actions and her personal vocation as her global political leader. Her faith’s importance increased in public during the anti-Muslim movement in Germany in 2016 where Merkel claimed Christianity to be one of the strong foundations of the German society, while there was not “too much Islam”, but rather “too little Christianity” in Germany (Spencer, 2016b). Since 2012, Merkel aimed to use her religious strengths as a unifying source and highlighted during the Protestant celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s revolt against Catholic authority that “we should always stress what is common in the Christian religion” (Erasmus, 2016).
Merkel in her ffties and sixties Since 2012, Merkel has shown a change in approaches to religion and faith in public and was reported to having prayed with Obama quietly at the end of his visit (Warner, 2012). Merkel, however, did not want photos taken due to the fact that “politicians praying are rare in Germany’s largely secular society” (Warner, 2012). At another event, Merkel spoke about the 2017 Lutheran anniversary of the Protestant reformation and its “missionary” efect, while pointing out Christianity as being the most persecuted religion worldwide (Warner, 2012). As described in Fowler’s ffth stage, Merkel aimed at showing a new openness towards her faith and multiple perspectives infuencing her work on a deeper level. She thereby overcame previous boundaries (Fowler, 1981) and was harshly criticised, since the connection of the state and the church are not valued in Germany (Warner, 2012). In 2012, Merkel stated publicly in a podcast that she was a member of the Evangelical church, that she believed in God and that her religion is her constant companion (Warner, 2012). She took a stand for her religious belief and thereby redefned boundaries as a political German leader. Some observers interpreted this move as a conscious, new step to open the debate on certain topics in society, such as the church (Warner, 2012). As described by Straughn (2010), Merkel overcame socio-cultural boundaries, developed new ways of the public relationship to God and expressed her (inter-)dependence (Fowler, 1987). By opening up, she displayed a humble awareness (Fowler, 1984) towards public statements on her faith and upheld the tensions raised against it. Faller (2017) highlighted that the sudden and public “confession of faith” is rather an embarrassing act when used in political discourses to strengthen leadership capacity through a strategic move to defne oneself as a leader. Further, she pleads for increasing knowledge about Christianity and Christian values in German society (PCM, 2019) to understand the interrelationship of the state and religion aiming to build a strong, self-conscious German identity (Gambarini, 2015).
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In 2017, Merkel started to discuss her belief and her doubts about it, as well as her refections on other belief systems (Remme, 2017) that help her not to escalate diferences in religion and faith, but rather to value similarities to promote peace and deescalate tensions (Remme, 2017). In 2019, Merkel, aged 65, sufered several accounts of physical shaking in public ceremonies that stirred speculations about her health and her abilities to carry through her duties as a chancellor until 2021. However, she has stated repeatedly that she is fne and started in December 2018 to “stagemanage a slow-motion exit” by handing over her position as Chair of the Christian Democrats presenting “faith” with regard to her health and new political protégées (Carrel, 2019). Fowler (1986) emphasises that the sixth stage is reached when an urge for transformation is felt. Individuals reaching this stage are viewed as charismatic leaders. However, Merkel has often been criticised as not being creative or charismatic (Mayer & van Niekerk, 2020). Although she embraces tensions and aims to transform these (Fowler, 1984), she does not seem to be a whole and independent individual, free of social class, nationality, gender, age, political ideology, race and religion (Fowler & Dell, 2004) and is hardly comparable to Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr, who were placed in Stage 6 (Mayer, 2017). Merkel is integrating her religion and faith into her politics and leadership (Merkel, 2017) and is still anchored in her context without being freed from a “universalising phase of faith”. Further, she is not in a state of complete selfess service and altruistic love which is the foundation of this stage (Croucher, 2003). She sees the world in multiple ways and aims to connecting cognitively to other religions and faith traditions. However, she is not anchored in overall altruistic love and spirituality which guides her political decisions. She is strongly anchored in her own Protestant religious background with a humble and humanistic attitude which accepts God as a higher being (Spekking, 2017; Table 3.3). Table 3.3 Stages of FD regarding Merkel’s life
Stage 6
x x x x
Stage 5
x
Stage 4
x
Stage 3
x
Stage 2
Stage 1
The childhood The teenage years The twenties The thirties The forties The ffties The sixties (2014–today)
Stages of FD in the life of Angela Merkel Stage 0
Angela Merkel’s life span
x x x
x x
(x)
Leading with faith 41
Vocation in the life of Merkel During her young adulthood, Merkel had to search consciously for her personal identity, being a pastor’s daughter moving from the FRG to the GDR. Merkel was – already in childhood – consciously aware of her background and her identity. Her father followed a very strong calling and Merkel grew up in a church-run house for people with mental and physical disabilities (Spencer, 2016a). During middle adulthood, Merkel saw her vocation in contributing to natural sciences and being part of elite scientists in the GDR. Even when the wall fell, she continued to work in her laboratory as if nothing had happened. Her scientifc career was most important to her. With the fall of the German wall and Merkel’s elder adulthood, her vocation changed from advancing sciences towards advancing politics and gaining infuence and power as a woman from a minority background through intelligence and hard work (Spencer, 2016a). Her faith and the Bible became “constant companions” in her life (Spencer, 2016b) and therefore impacted her political vocation strongly.
The relationship with God Merkel used to separate her politics from her faith and only stated her faith and her personal relationship with God publicly from 2012 and admitted faith’s infuence: “...my faith in God makes many political decisions easier” (Evangelical Focus, 2015). She developed her relationship with God as defned by Fowler (1984, 1987) in three diferent ways across her lifespan. God’s creation and caring for others and the environment According to Merkel the relationship to God implicitly refers to caring for others and for the environment, as she believed that God did not want humans who do only what they are told to do similar to robots or marionettes (Buschow, 2014). Rather, for her, God is vivid when people care for each other, when they are involved in care, education, community work and well-being of others, as described by Fowler (1981). Merkel who has received the “Lamp of peace” – an award of the Franciscan order founded by Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century – highlights the importance of community work, political engagement and her contribution to the international understanding of nations (Hayer, 2018). God’s governance and his justice and lawfulness within societies According to Merkel, God and religion can help to create justice in the world and when justice is established, peace and tranquillity can reign
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(PCM, 2019). She further sees herself and her political party as driven by Christian values. In 2018, Merkel stated – citing the prophet Isaiah – that, “The work of justice will be peace – And the fruit of righteousness will be peace and quiet.” This seems to be particularly important in a world in which the relationship with God becomes less relevant and war and confict are an everyday event (Birnbaum, 2018). Merkel highlights that Europe needs to embrace reconciliation and peace, returning to “respect”, its “soul” and to a “lived diversity”, not only a diversity concept that is being talked about (Katholisch.de, 2018). She supports Fowler (1981) that individuals build a relationship with God through enriching and benefting the life of others, solidarity with the oppressed and rejected, liberation from egocentric motives of using power, purpose, signifcance and security in order to participate in liberation movements. God’s liberation from socio-economic and political ideologies and boundaries Merkel interlinks politics, religion and faith from a personal stance. However, regarding her political party she stated that having a Christian humanistic image of humankind, marks the rejection of any ideology (Merkel, 2006). This shows that she sees the relationship to God and the acceptance of Christian values in politics as a liberation from socio-economic and political ideologies and boundaries. For her, religion and Christianity need to be founded in liberation and at the same time in the freedom to take on responsibilities (Buschow, 2014).
Conclusion Merkel’s leadership and political career are strongly infuenced by her Christian values, her belief in God, and her Protestant religion. In terms of Fowlers FDT, Merkel reaches Stage 5, opening up publicly about her relationship with God since her middle ffties. Her strong faith interlinks with her leadership and is anchored in her childhood and upbringing within a religious family. Merkel’s vocation in life has developed based on her minority status in childhood and young adulthood and a strict Protestant faith. In elder adulthood, her vocation turned towards global political leadership to change the world for the better. She thereby mentions all the three ways of building a relationship with God as guidance in her political career and as an identity building force.
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Fouché, J. P., & van Niekerk, R. (2010). Academic psychobiography in South Africa: Past, present and future. South African Journal of Psychology, 40(4), 495–507. Fowler, J. W. (1980). Faith and the structure of meaning. In J. Fowler & A. Vergote (Eds.), Towards moral and religious maturity. New York, NY: Silver Burdett. Fowler, J. W. (1981). Stages of faith: The psychology of human development and the quest for meaning. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row. Fowler, J. W. (1984). Becoming adult, becoming Christian. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. Fowler, J. W. (1986). Faith and the structuring of meaning. In C. Dykstra & S. Parks (Eds.), Faith development and Fowler (pp. 15–42). Birmingham, UK: Religious Education Press. Fowler, J. W. (1987). Faith development and pastoral care. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press. Fowler, J. W. (2001). Faith development theory and the postmodern challenges. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 11(3), 159–172. Fowler, J. W., & Dell, M. L. (2004). Stages of faith and identity: Birth to teens. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 13(1), 17–34. Fowler, J. W., & Lovin, R. (1979). Trajectories of faith: Five life studies. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. Gambarini, M. (2015, January 15). Bundeskanzlerin beklagt fehlendes Wissen über Christentum. ZeitOnline. Retrieved from www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/ 2015-01/angela-merkel-christentum-islam-islamisierung Hayer, M. (2018, June 6). Order update: Franciscans award Angela Merkel ‘Lamp of Peace’. Franciscan World. Retrieved from https://hnp.org/order-update-franciscansaward-angela-merkel-lamp-of-peace/ Holm-Hadulla, R. M. (2012). Goethe’s anxieties, depressive episodes and (self-) therapeutic strategies: A contribution to method integration in psychotherapy. Psychopathology, 46(4), 266–274. Hughes, C. (2019). The role of workplace leaders who champion workforce interpersonnel diversity. In Workplace inter-personnel diversity (pp. 27–45). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Katholisch.de. (2018, May 12). Angela Merkel in Assisi mit Friedenslicht geehrt. Retrieved from www.katholisch.de/artikel/17534-angela-merkel-in-assisi-mitfriedenslicht-geehrt Kováry, Z. (2011). Psychobiography as a method. The revival of studying lives. New perspectives in personality and creativity research. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 7(4), 339–777. Langguth, G. (2005). Angela Merkel: Aufstieg zur Macht. München: DtV. Mayer, C.-H. (2017). The life and creative works of Paulo Coelho: A psychobiography from a positive psychology perspective. Cham: Springer. Mayer, C.-H., & Kovary, Z. (2019). New Trends in Psychobiography. Cham: Springer. Mayer, C.-H., & May, M. (2018). Of being a container through role defnitions: Voices from women leaders in organisational ethnography. Journal of Organisational Ethnography, 7(3), 373–387. Mayer, C.-H., & van Niekerk, R. (2020). Creative minds of leaders in psychobiographical perspectives: Exploring the life and work of Christian Barnard and Angela Merkel. In S. Dhiman & J. Marquis (Eds.), New horizons in positive leadership and change (pp. 189–205). Cham: Springer.
Leading with faith 45 Mayer, C.-H., van Niekerk, R., & Fouché, P. J. P. (2020). Holistic wellness in the life of Angela Merkel: A call to revise the wheel of wellness in the light of new positive psychology movements and socio-cultural changes. International Review of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2020.1735317 Mayer, C.-H., Surtee, S., & May, M. (2015). The meaning of work for women across cultures: Insights into women working in higher education institutions. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(6), 182–205. Mayer, C.-H., Viviers, R., Oousthuizen, R., & Surtee, S. (2017). “Juggling the glass balls . . .” Workplace spirituality in women leaders. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(5), 189–205. Merkel, A. (2006). Wertekonferenz der CDU. Berlin, 20. Februar 2006. Neue Gerechtigkeit durch mehr Freiheit. Retrieved from www.cdu.de/system/tdf/media/ dokumente/060220_broschuere_wertekonferenz.pdf?fle=1 Merkel, A. (2017). Daran glaube ich: Christliche Standpunkte. Leipzig: St. Benno Verlag. Moodly, A., & Toni, N. (2015). Women’s access towards higher education leadership: Where are the role models? Journal of Social Sciences, 45(1), 45–52. Müller-Vogg, H. (2004). Angela Merkel – Mein Weg. Hamburg: Hofmann und Campe. Oliver, P. (2006). Purposive sampling. In The Sage dictionary of social research methods. Irvine, CA: Sage. Retrieved from http://srmo.sagepub.com/view/thesage-dictionary-of-social-research-methods/n162.xml Osmer, R. R. (1992). James W. Fowler and the reformed tradition: An exercise in theological refection in religious education (First published 1990). In J. Astley & L. J. Francis (Eds.), Christian perspective on faith development (pp. 135–150). (First published 1982). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. PCM – Pro Christliches Medienmagazin. (2019). So steht Merkel zum christlichen Glauben. Retrieved from www.pro-medienmagazin.de/politik/2019/07/17/ so-steht-merkel-zum-christlichen-glauben/ Ponterotto, J. G., & Reynolds, Taewon Choi J. D. (2017). Ethical and legal considerations in psychobiography. American Psychologist, 72(5), 446–458. Rast, D. E., Hogg, M. A., & de Moura, G. R. (2018). Leadership and social transformation: The role of marginalised individuals and groups. Journal of Social Issues, 74(1), 8–19. Remme, K. (2017, May 25). Zwei Weltpolitiker auf der Kirchentagsbühne. Religion, Politik, Glaube. Studio 9. Retrieved from www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/religionpolitik-glaube-zwei-weltpolitiker-auf-der.2165.de.html?dram:article_id=387079 Resing, V. (2017). Angela Merkel. Die Protestantin. Ihr Aufstieg, ihre Krisen – und jetzt? Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. Runyan, W. M. (2006). Psychobiography and the psychology of science: Understanding relations between the life and work of individual psychologists. Review of General Psychology, 10(2), 117–162. Schultz, W. T. (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Spekking, S. (2017). Bundeskanzlerin, Physikerin und gläubige Protestantin. Angela Merkel feiert 65. Geburtstag. Promis glauben. Retrieved from https://promisglau ben.de/19295-2 Spencer, N. (2016a, January 6). Angela Merkel: How Germany’s Iron Chancellor is shaped by her Christianity. Christian Today. Retrieved from www.christiantoday.
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com/article/angela-merkel-how-germanys-iron-chancellor-is-shaped-by-her-christianity/75803.htm Spencer, N. (2016b, February 26). Merkel’s strong, unshowy faith. Church Times. Retrieved from www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/26-february/comment/colu mnists/merkel-s-strong-unshowy-faith Straughn, H. F. (2010). Stages of faith: Interview with James Fowler. Retrieved from http://www.jmm.org.au/articles/18316.htm Stroud, L. A. (2004). A psychobiographical study of Mother Theresa (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Port Elizabeth, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Terre Blanche, M., Durrheim, K., & Kelly, K. (2006). First steps in qualitative data analysis. In M. Terre Blanche, K. Durrheim, & D. Painter (Eds.), Research in practice: Applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 321–344). Cape Town, South Africa: University of Cape Town. Tessens, L., White, K., & Web, C. (2011). Senior women in higher education institutions: Perceived development needs and support. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(6), 653–665. Van Genechten, D. M. (2009). A psychobiographical study of Helen Keller (Master thesis). The Faculty of Health Sciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Retrieved from http://dspace.nmmu.ac.za:8080/ xmlui/bitstream/handle/10948/1101/Leche%20Kapp.pdf?sequence=1. Warner, M. B. (2012, November 27). Merkel raises eyebrows by raising religion. Retrieved from www.pri.org/stories/2012-11-27/merkel-raises-eyebrows-raising-religion
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Managing piety, respectability and professionalism within women’s bodies Fitri Oktaviani
If women could be just their way Not enslaved by the mores of the day Winsome and wise Free spirits that rise Godfrey The times would be better I’d say D’Lima
Introduction Despite the advancement of women and their increasing representation in the workplace, ultimately very few end up in top leadership positions (Heilman, Manzi, & Braun, 2015), as indicated by the 25 percent of women in global senior leadership positions in 2017 (Grant Thornton Research, 2017). This is also true in some developed countries. For example, in 2017 the UK only had 19 percent of females in senior management teams, while Germany had 18 percent (Grant Thornton Research, 2017). From a management perspective, this issue is deeply rooted in the persistent gender bias and the perception of lack of ft between women and leadership positions (Elsesser & Lever, 2011; Heilman et al., 2015). As a result, women continue to be disadvantaged in organisation processes, from selection and recruitment (Heilman et al., 2015) to career progression, including leadership development opportunities (Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2019). The issue is even more prevalent for women from a minority background, such as hijab-wearing Muslim women, where they continue to face discrimination despite equal opportunity legislation and interventions (Grosz, 1994; Lennon, 2019; Tariq & Syed, 2017; Halrynjo & Jonker, 2017). For Muslim women with a hijab, studies have found that the hijab has become a barrier to gaining employment (Syed & Pio, 2010), job ofers (Ghumman & Ryan, 2013) and leadership progression (Tariq & Syed, 2017). There seems to be a perception that the hijab, which symbolises religious piety, is inappropriate for the expected professionalism of women leaders. However, as presented in the rest of the chapter, a hijab can convey
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more than just a symbol of religiosity; it can also convey professionalism and respectability for Muslim women. This chapter discusses how religious piety, which in current management practice is often considered as obsolete, is intertwined with professionalism in Muslim female managers’ bodies. I will explain this proposition based on my analysis of how Indonesian Muslim women leaders manage their bodies to embody professionalism, respectability and piety. In this chapter, piety is understood as the strong religious belief as shown in the way a person lives (Heacock, 2019). It is one of the essential qualities that indicate one’s devotion to God and religion, especially in the Muslim context (Hassan, 2005). For women, respectability, which is the quality of being socially acceptable, relates to feminine respectability which guides the construction of respectable womanhood in society (Radhakrishnan, 2009). Professionalism means the quality assoicated with someone who is trained and skilled (Heacock, 2019). In management and organisation practice, professionalism acts as “a disciplinary mechanism that serves to profess ‘appropriate’ work identities and conduct” (Fournier, 1999, p. 280). Embodying professionalism is more complicated for women due to the masculine attributes attached to professionalism, such as being rational and male (Figueiredo & Ipiranga, 2015; Trethewey, 1999). In the Western world, Muslim women often sufer a stereotype of being oppressed and not having the freedom to express themselves. The stereotype is further perpetuated by the media’s portrayal of Muslims after the 9/11 attack that tends to misconstrue Muslims as only one-dimensional. This stereotype, of course, is incorrect. Indeed, Islam has sets of rules on the lives of its adherents that manage power and gender relations. However, the Muslim world is diverse. For many Muslim countries, organisations commonly apply management principles similar to those of the Western world. In this context, women also own and lead businesses, although similar to many developing countries, women’s involvement in management is still quite low compared to that of men (Hasan, 2012). This small proportion of women leaders can be attributed to various factors, including cultural and religious values, national ideology and socio-economic development. One of the typical highlights for Muslim women is the wearing of a specifc dress style, generally known as hijab. In general, Muslim women are expected to dress and behave modestly (Hassan, 2007). Although the practice varies, modesty is mostly physically translated into covered clothing with various forms of head covering such as burqa, niqab, chador and hijab. Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, have stricter rules for women that require them to wear head-to-toe covered clothes, while others, such as Egypt and Indonesia, give more freedom for women to wear or not wear any head covering. Regardless, the current wave of Islamism spreading across the Muslim world has provoked discourses for women to make an overt display of piety. As a result, more women are wearing a head covering,
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especially the younger generation (Ali, 2005). This social practice also spills over to the workplace. Through case analysis, this chapter explores how Indonesian Muslim women maintain their piety, respectability and professionalism in a management role. This chapter is based on interviews with 19 Muslim women in middle to upper managerial positions of various for-proft and nonproft organisations, in Indonesia. The participants’ age ranged from 32 to 63 years old. They worked in diferent industries, from fnance and banking to retail and distribution, oil and gas, mining, energy and power, along with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed guided by Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) (Gray Brunton et al., 2014). FDA is a method utilised to investigate power relations in society, expressed through language, behaviour and practices (Given, 2008). In FDA, a researcher is responsible not only to seek common themes or discourses but also to see how research participants are situated or positioned in the discourses they produce or reproduce in the interviews (Gray Brunton et al., 2014). The analysis focuses on how Muslim participants use a hijab as an expression of piety, respectability and professionalism. It shows how female Muslim managers used their bodies to exert their agency, and their capacity to act independently.
A professional woman’s body at work While in many Western countries every individual has to adjust their physical appearance to comply with an organisation’s dress code, the female appearance is subjected to a higher level of evaluation than that of the male (Mavin & Grandy, 2016; Sinclair, 2011). On top of a higher likelihood for women’s bodies to be commodifed and sexualised to embody the image of an organisation (Caven, Lawley, & Baker, 2013), women managers also tend to be evaluated on their appearance as well as their competence. Indeed, research shows that women have to continually discipline their bodies to look presentable and professional (Trethewey, 1999). A subtle change of presentation of female bodies can alter the way that women’s image is projected more than in the case of men. Hence, women’s bodies can convey desired messages about their identities (Fortunati, Katz, & Riccini, 2003). Women managers face even more difculty and ambiguity on how they should dress and present themselves to fulfl the expectation of professionalism, credibility and respectability (Haynes, 2012). There is a tendency for women managers to suppress their feminine bodies to adjust to dominant masculine organisational cultures. However, the contemporary rise of neoliberal postfeminist sensibility in the West has allowed women greater freedom to express their feminine body in the workplace (Gill & Scharf, 2013; Rottenberg, 2014, 2018). As a discursive formation, neoliberal postfeminism has the power to regulate women’s
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behaviours in the workplace (Ahl & Marlow, 2019; Foucault, 1982). Consequently, female managers and leaders now have more freedom to express their feminine bodies at work. However, they are still bound by business respectability, as conferred by their peers and society in general (Mavin & Grandy, 2016).
Islam and gender equality Although the Muslim world tends to be depicted and represented homogeneously, it is quite diverse. Of the world’s population of 6.9 billion persons, 1.57 billion are Muslims (Hasan, 2012). Muslim-majority countries (MMC) are spread in fve diferent geographical regions, which are North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia and Turkey, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia (Hasan, 2012). These MMC also have diverse conditions in terms of economic development, history of colonial oppression, cultural traditions, governmental types and country ideologies. One of the most relevant aspects of this diversity is the degree of social life regulation by Islamic norms and values (Kucuk, 2016). This regulation is refected in various forms of ideologies and constitutions of the state, from secularism to Islamism (Assyaukanie, 2009). For example, in terms of state ideologies, the Muslim world countries can be classifed into four types: Islamic state, state religion, neutral/unclear state and secular state. Regarding gender equality, Islam has been associated with a lower degree of gender equality (Kucuk, 2016). While some forms of exclusionary, reactive and ultra-conservative Islam reject gender equality (Van Bruinessen, 2013), other Muslim denominations are quite open to progressive ideas. A study conducted by Kucuk (2016) measured the impact of regulation of social life by Islamic norms and values on gender inequality in the Middle East, North African nations and other Muslim countries. The study concluded that there is no relationship between gender inequality and the regulation of social life by Islamic norms and values. Instead, the interaction of other factors such as economic development, information and communication technology, education and institutions with Islam could impact the gender gap (Kucuk, 2016). The study demonstrates that Islam, by itself, does not have an adverse impact on gender equality. Thus, in many MMC, women continue to rise as leaders and managers in organisations and public spheres.
Context of the study The case study of this research was based on the experience of women in Indonesia, the most populated MMC in the world. Indonesia is in Southeast Asia, and it has the greatest number of Muslims in any country (Hasan, 2012). From the 2010 National Census report, out of 264 million people, 87.2 percent identify as Muslims (BPS, 2010). Around 99 percent of the
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Indonesian Muslim population is from the Sunni denomination. Indonesian conversion Islam occurred rapidly in Java during the fourteenth century due to the preaching of Wali Songo, or the Nine Saints with links to Gujarat, India (Kahin, 2015). Wali Songo used native wisdom and spiritual belief to spread Islam in an efort often called the indigenisation of Islam (Azra, 2005). It accentuated the development of a form of Islam within Indonesia that is closer to syncretic Islam and is distinct from the Wahabism in Saudi Arabia. Islam thrived within Indonesia after this period, and withstood Dutch colonialism, which took place from the late sixteenth century until 1945. The Republic of Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945 after 350 years of Dutch colonisation. The state was then ofcially acknowledged by the UN in 1949. The country’s national ideology is Pancasila, which consists of fve principles (Oktaviani, Rooney, McKenna, & Zacher, 2016). Initially proposed by the frst president, Soekarno, Pancasila is a combination of socialism, theism, Islamic modernism, late nineteenth-century Western liberalism and the idealisation of Indonesian culture (Pabotinggi, 1995). In the present day, although the Muslim majority dominates Indonesia, it is not an Islamic state but a quasi-secular (Fenwick, 2016) or neutral state, where the government ofcially recognises six formal religions including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and other Indigenous beliefs. In terms of gender equality, Indonesia has made signifcant progress. The female employment rate in 2018 was 52.24 percent (World Bank, 2018). Yet, in politics, female representation is still quite low. In 2014, women occupied only 14 percent of national parliamentary seats (Bland, 2019). However, within senior leadership positions of both government and business, women are starting to get more recognition. In Joko Widodo’s 2014– 2019 cabinets, the proportion of women ministers increased to 26 percent, with women occupying strategic roles, such as ministers of fnance, foreign afairs, and maritime and fsheries. In business, Indonesia has one of the world’s highest proportions of women in senior roles (46 percent), second only to Russia’s 47 percent (Grant Thornton Research, 2017). However, since the Arab Spring that spread throughout the Islamic world in the early years of 2010, more and more Indonesian Muslims are looking to practice a “pure” form of Islam. One of its indicators is the popularity of hijabwearing among Muslim women (Qibtiyah, 2019). Nowadays, the practice is rapidly adopted by many Muslim women, including those who hold managerial positions. Questions arise as to why women managers want to wear a hijab and how they are perceived within the working environment.
Muslim women’s bodies at work This section will illustrate how Indonesian Muslim women with a hijab manage their bodies at work, negotiating their piety, respectability and
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professionalism. This study found that one of the most critical symbolisation of the hijab is that it is a symbol of women’s piety and respectability. It is related to hijab’s function as an identity marker of a Muslimah (Muslim woman). Many of the participants interviewed believed that wearing a hijab was a form of obedience to God’s order, as stated in the Quran and hadiths. The fnding is not surprising considering that the majority of Indonesian Muslims subscribe to the Sunni denomination, which traditionally supports the compulsoriness of the hijab for Muslim women (Van Wichelen, 2006). For these participants, wearing a hijab was seen as an integral part of being a Muslimah: it showed their love and devotion to God and his rules. Moreover, some participants felt the need to prove their Muslimah identity by wearing a hijab. Their hijab made navigating Islamic ways of life easier because it ensured that people were aware of their identity. For instance, work colleagues could understand their prayer breaks and other communication limitations (such as rejecting handshakes with male colleagues and clients). Some participants believed that as women grew older and wiser, they would eventually wear a hijab. Thus, the hijab also signifed a certain maturity in being a Muslimah. Furthermore, wearing a hijab was a symbol of women defending their respectability, and associated with feminine identity, either as a protection or as an expression of their female body. For example, some participants felt that the hijab protected them from the sexual gaze of males. A research participant commented that women’s bodies naturally provoke males’ sexual desire so a hijab is needed to protect women from becoming the object of lust. Conversely, the increasing religious trend in Indonesia has allowed the popularisation of the hijab and other Islamic styles. Due to high demand, the hijab and other articles of Muslim fashion often triumph over conventional fashion trends. This tendency is supported by the rise of social media platforms, such as Instagram, which promote a new form of ideal and modest feminine beauty (Baulch & Pramiyanti, 2018). Therefore, adopting a hijab also allows a more fashionable outft linked to women’s alternative modernity in Islam (Van Wichelen, 2009). A hijab can also symbolise professionalism. With the increasing trend of an Islamic lifestyle, the demand for Sharia services, such as Islamic banks, travel groups, and so forth, has also increased dramatically. As a result, the establishment of Islamic organisations has become more common. My interviews with women working in these organisations reveal that the hijab is considered part of their professional identity. As organisations usually impose specifc rules of conduct on their employees to support organisational image and identity (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002), women managers also become the subject of this identity performance regulation. Because these organisations adopt an Islamic identity, hijab-wearing is fundamental as it symbolises professionalism and is tightly connected to the organisational image. In various Indonesian organisations, hijab-wearing does not impede the professional presentation of women managers.
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Managing piety, respectability and professionalism through the hijab It is proposed that the coexistence of piety, respectability and professionalism in women’s bodies lies in their symbolism of educated, middle-class status. Piety is vital for many Muslimahs who believe that God’s order for women to wear a hijab is stated in the Quran, although the literal meaning of hijab in the Quran is a “curtain” (Ahmed, 1992; Aslan, 2011; Hassan, 2007). Four Islamic primary schools of thought require Muslim women to cover their entire bodies, except for the hands and face. While this has been disputed by some Islamic feminist scholars, the general Muslim population accepts the traditional interpretation. Respectability, which originated from the intersection of class and gender, is often shown in women’s domesticity (Radhakrishnan, 2009). In the Islamic context, it may come from the concept of honour through seclusion and veiling used to keep high-status women from meeting men outside the family. The custom has been widespread since before Islam in the Mediterranean and Near East (Keddie, 1990). The purpose was to prevent women from having extramarital sexual relations and polyandrous relationships due to the strong patriarchal tribal structures (Keddie, 1990). Seclusion and veiling, then, were seen as profoundly connected to the respectability of the urban middle- to upper-class Arabian women. Consequently, women from lower classes with a lack of veiling and seclusion were considered as less respectable. Even though this practice did not remain within the Mediterranean, it was sustained in the Arabian region. Since Islam came to dominate the Middle East, this idea eventually travelled with the spread of Islam around the world. In Indonesia, a hijab has always been a status symbol of an educated middle class woman. During the Dutch colonial period, Javanese Muslims, as the majority ethnic group, can be categorised into two types: Abangan and Santri (Geertz, 1976). Abangan refers to peasant members of the community who usually mixed Islam with Javanese animism and Santri refers to Islamic-educated members of the community. Santri, identifed by their Muslim dressing and headwear, were fagged by the colonial government as they were inclined to lead the people’s struggles. At the same time, these people were respected and considered as leaders by other Indonesians. During Suharto’s regime (1966–1997), when hijab-wearing was banned from public organisations and schools, the hijab was used by younger generations at university to show defance against the authoritarian policy. It is these groups of educated students who have been leading the promotion of wearing the “correct” Islamic hijab currently in Indonesia. Accordingly, the hijab becomes a status symbol for educated members of society incorporating piety and respectability. Professionalism, on the other hand, is an additional symbol for the hijab in the current Indonesian context. The term professional originated in the
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European Middle Ages when people became more specialised in their jobs and trades. Its use increased signifcantly in the late nineteenth century (Roiphe, 2012). Since there is no Indonesian word with precisely the same meaning, the word professionalism is transliterated into the Indonesian profesionalisme (KBBI, 2019). Its use is associated with modernisation, through the urban middle-class entry to the specialised workforce. With the increasing number of educated women in higher-level positions and a specialised workforce, women can also be described as professionals. Until recently, the discourses on the image of professional women had followed the Western trend, inherently linked to modernisation. However, with the rise of people’s religiosity, increasing numbers of professional women are choosing to wear a hijab at work. This is evident in that many managers wear a veil on top of long-sleeve business suits or other acceptable, modest business wear. Other professions, such as doctors, nurses and scientists commonly wear a hijab on top of their long-sleeve professional wear. For contemporary Indonesian Muslims, this practice is not unusual. Instead, professionalism, piety and respectability go well together, considering that piety represents the current image of alternative modernity, from an Islamic point of view. The hijab has become a manifestation of the contest of female middle-class bodies in Indonesia (Brenner, 1996; Van Wichelen, 2009). Hence for many Muslim women, a hijab is more than just a form of dress, but it is a form of Islamic habitus, which “governs the ways in which an individual interacts with the world” (Bourdieu in Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2019, p. 2). For many Indonesian Muslim women, a hijab is not only used to cover themselves but also an entrenched mental habit associated with religious and cultural values. Some habits related to Muslim women might be seen as complicating how devout female professionals navigate their working life, which can cost them career opportunities. For example, a pious woman is not allowed to mingle freely with non-mahram, or unmarriageable kin (Van Wichelen, 2009). From an organisational perspective, it can be considered as detrimental for essential aspects of career building, such as networking. But, despite this perceived limitation, this study shows that the participants have worked to solve the issue. For example, participants in this study reveal that networking activities can still be possible even with the use of the hijab, as long as they are conducted in an Islamic-friendly public place. From a Bourdieusian perspective, habitus allows women to navigate solutions based on their socially constructed understanding of “their place in society” (Bourdieu, 2000). In other words, participants try to fulfl the organisational expectations of professionalism although they are wearing a hijab.
Implications for management Understanding the lived experience of Muslim women with a hijab is essential for improving the management practices in a progressive
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multicultural work environment, both in the Western and Muslim world. The implication of this study to management can be framed in terms of global career movement, career progression of minority women in Western organisations and management practices in the Muslim world. The study reveals that contrary to what many might believe, a hijab worn by women managers does not exclusively symbolise piety. Wearing a hijab in organisational contexts can also symbolise professionalism and respectability. More importantly, piety, respectability and professionalism do not have to be opposing one another. Hence, it is important for management to be aware of this issue. In fact, an implicit perception bias that a hijab, which mainly symbolises religiosity, does not ft with the demand of professionalism of women managers can result in continuing discrimination against women with a hijab, especially during recruitment and career progression processes, such as performance review and leadership development. Consequently, before the recruitment process, training is needed for the selection committee to mitigate the impact of the representation of a hijab as merely symbolising piety. As a hijab is an example of an intersection between religion/culture and gender (Halrynjo & Jonker, 2016), a cultural and gender sensitising training should include the aspect of women’s dressing regulation such as hijab-wearing. The perception of a lack of ft between women with a hijab and professionalism can impede a candidates’ opportunities in the recruitment process. Further, research suggests that managers and leaders in organisations often feel that they possess cultural competence (FECCA, 2019). However, without a lived experience, leaders and managers often undervalue the need to engage in cultural competence training, let alone an intersection of culture and gender training as in the case of hijab. Therefore, management has to make a conscious efort to include this in their training procedures. During the career progression process, a hijab can potentially cost leadership development opportunities despite a comparable level of competence among candidates. Leadership development includes more than just a development of individual human capital, or leadership-related knowledge, skills and abilities, but it also concerns leadership capital that has been accumulated by individuals during their time in the organisation (Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2019). Capital is understood as what is deemed valuable to progress (Fitzsimmons & Callan, 2019). The practice of leadership development itself usually involves identifying early career high potential candidates, which is then directed towards assessments, mentoring, coaching and special project assignments (Conger, 2004). But, since the process is competitive with limited numbers of selected candidates, usually only those who have a similar structure of capital or similar habitus with those already in power (such as senior management) are preferred. It can perpetuate inequality and discrimination against people of minority backgrounds, including Muslim women with a hijab, to progress
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to top leadership. Therefore, a conscious efort to acknowledge and mitigate the possible bias resulting from a specifc form of dressing needs to be made in organisational policies and processes.
Conclusion This chapter has discussed how an aspect of Islamic faith, refected in piety, is intertwined with aspects of feminine respectability and professionalism in women managers’ bodies through the wearing of the hijab. While religious piety may be seen as incompatible with professionalism in the secular Western world, analysis within a Muslim society indicates otherwise. This study has implications for selection, recruitment, and career progression processes and procedures. It is essential for management to acknowledge and mitigate a possible implicit bias and discrimination as a result of women’s dressing choices such as wearing a hijab.
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The problem of ethics in business: Does Vedanta have a solution? Atul Sinha
We’ve often been swayed by the West And ignored what’s profound in the rest New systems of thought Remain to be sought Godfrey And our thinking must savor the best D’Lima
Introduction This chapter begins by exploring the problem of stress at the workplace. David (1998) defned stress as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match capabilities or resources. The objective is to get to the root of the problem and suggest transformative solutions. Surprisingly, most efort is expended on managing individual stress and not in eliminating stressors. The latter would require cultural change, which is not easy to bring about (Caulfeld, Chang, Dollard, & Elshaug, 2004). Logically, the next inquiry must be into organisational culture. Literature shows that cultural characteristics like openness and empowerment have a positive infuence on both employee well-being and performance (Calori & Sarnin, 1991; Denison, 1984). Despite this, cultural change remains problematic. Persistence of a stressful work environment is also an ethical issue; yet, ethics has difculty ftting into business decisions (Ladd, 1970). This chapter argues for a transformational alternative theory that puts ethics at the centre of business. Specifcally, I suggest that faith with its universal outlook is eminently suited to contribute to the alleviation of workplace stress. The specifc theory proposed in this chapter is derived from the ancient Indian philosophy of Vedanta.
Occupational stress: a modern-day disease This section outlines the challenges caused by occupational stress, for both individuals and organisations. The causes and strategies adopted to address
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workplace stress are then discussed and reveal how current interventions are limited in their ability to resolve the challenge. In the 1970s, literature identifed a link between occupational stress and premature deaths and debilitation (Rogers, 1975; Cooper & Cartwright, 1994). The scale of the problem was found to be signifcant for both individuals and organisations (Karasek & Theorell, 1990). Correlations were identifed between stress and heart disease, mental breakdown, poor health, accidents, family problems and cancers. Almost half of all premature deaths in the UK were linked to lifestyle and stress-related illnesses (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994; Stacciarini & Troccoli, 2004). The fnancial cost to industry in dealing with stress is astronomical. Annually, 550 million working days were lost to stress-related absenteeism in the United States (Elkin & Rosch, 1990). The total cost of stress to American organisations due to absenteeism, reduced productivity, direct and indirect medical expenses added up to more than an estimated US$150 billion a year (Karasek & Theorell, 1990). Causes of occupational stress Occupational stress theories hold that stress is caused by two factors, the characteristic of the person and stressors in the work environment (Cooper & Marshall, 1975). A third factor is the extra-organisational variables like family problems, fnancial difculties or life crisis. Cooper and Marshall (2013) created a model for occupational stress that identifed fve sources of stress in the workplace including: intrinsic job factors, role-related issues, career development, workplace relationships and organisational structure and environment. Each has been studied extensively. Intrinsic job factors afect physical, mental and psychological health (Kornhouser, 1965; Marcson, 1970; French & Caplan, 1972). Concerns related to career development may lead to panic attacks and psychiatric disorders (Brook, 1973). Relationship problems cause psychological strain (French & Caplan, 1972). Organisational structure and environment lead to job dissatisfaction, poor motivation, absenteeism, low self-esteem, excessive drinking and poor physical health (French & Caplan, 1972; Margolis, Kroes, & Quinn, 1974). Many recent studies have endorsed the validity of Cooper and Marshall’s (2013) work stress model. These studies have identifed organisational climate, organisational constraints, role ambiguity, work overload, interpersonal confict, political pressure, career stagnation and job insecurity as major stressors (Miller et al., 2000; Wu, Chi, Chen, Wang, & Jin, 2010; Mazzola, Schonfeld, & Spector, 2011; Vivek & Janakiraman, 2013; Von Humboldt, Leal, Laneiro, & Tavares, 2013; Dhankar, 2015). Stress intervention strategies Murphy (1984) emphasised three levels of stress intervention – primary (stressor reduction), secondary (individual stress management) and tertiary
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(employee assistance programmes). With respect to primary interventions, Elkin and Rosch (1990) identifed the following key strategies for efective stressor reduction: redesign task, redesign work environment, establish fexible work schedule, encourage participative management, include employee in career development, analyse work roles to establish goals, provide social support and feedback, build cohesive teams, establish fair employment policies and share the rewards. There is evidence to support that stressor reduction is efective. Attridge (2009) found that better communication, job redesign, resource support, improved working conditions, corporate culture and positive leadership reduced stressors. Hart and Cooper (2001) observed that focusing simultaneously on employee well-being and organisational performance gave better organisational results. Despite evidence indicating success in stressor reduction strategies, most interventions focus on individual management strategies. The assumption is that work will remain stressful; thus, individuals need to be helped to become more resilient. Ivancevich, Matteson, Freedman and Phillips (1990) contend this is so, as clinicians are more comfortable with changing behaviour of individuals rather than organisations. Moreover, modifying organisational behaviour requires cultural change and that is not an easy task (Caulfeld et al., 2004). Another common intervention involves employee assistance programmes. Here, organisations contribute to stress reduction through companysponsored sports activities, periodic medical check-ups, vacations and company-sponsored counselling services (Rogers, 1975). In sum, occupational stress is a major problem. It causes premature mortality, serious debilitation and psychological disorders. The organisational cost is high due to medical/counselling costs, loss of productivity and absenteeism. Most strategies to address the problem focus on the individual’s efort to withstand stress, while eforts to reduce stressors in minimal. In part this is because stressor reduction requires cultural change.
Why is it difcult to change organisational culture? Culture is a complex and layered phenomenon. The wide-ranging and often diametrically opposed views concerning organisational culture point to a conundrum. In the 1980s, disenchantment with limitations of bureaucratic control saw management theory begin to focus on corporate culture as a means of enhancing performance. It was claimed that a shared sense of purpose and values would increase engagement, which in turn would improve performance (Sinclair, 1993). The linkage of organisational culture with individual well-being and fnancial performance is well established. Denison (1984) contends that cultural characteristics had measurable efects on company performance. Calori and Sarnin (1991) identifed attributes like personal fulflment, listening to others, team spirit, responsibility, trust,
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openness, adaptation, anticipation, entrepreneurship, quality and consistency positively correlated to productivity. McNally (2000) concluded that lack of employee autonomy hampered creativity and innovation. Charu (2013) found that group cohesion created a more productive environment and Fiabane, Giorgi, Sguazzin, and Argentero (2013) found that cultural characteristics like participation, team spirit, trust, openness, societal contribution and fexibility enhanced both individual well-being and organisational performance. Sathe (1983) explored how culture was managed. He identifed shared beliefs and shared values as the constituents of culture. He argued that the cultural phenomenon is multi-layered. Deep-seated beliefs and values are hidden from consciousness and operate in the background, while artefacts, symbols and procedures characterise the superfcial outward expression of an organisation. This is why organisational culture is so difcult to change. Sinclair (1993) advocated two broad views on organisational culture. The more popular view is that culture is a manageable variable. The other is that it is a root metaphor. As a metaphor, culture is what an organisation is and has to be deciphered from the organisation’s cognitive, expressive, ideational and symbolic aspects. It is revealed through persistent patterns beneath overt behaviour. Thus, managing culture is far more complex than managing procedures and processes. In sum, while cultural characteristics have a powerful impact on employee well-being and organisational performance, managing culture remains a vexed issue. As a result, the organisational environment is by and large dehumanised and lacks human orientation. This is primarily an ethical issue. The continued prevalence of occupational stress requires an exploration of whether the same underlying principles that lead corporations to engage in unethical business practices also lead them to undertake unethical people practices. Are organisations capable of being ethical? To apprehend why organisations engage in unethical business and people practices, we need familiarity with the theories of ethics, to grasp the extent ethics plays in business decision-making and understand why ethics has diffculties ftting into business decisions. Tsalikis and Fritzsche (2013) divide ethical theories into two main groups, consequential and non-consequential. Consequential theories pin ethics on the consequences of actions and not on the actions themselves. Non-consequential theories base ethics on the actions themselves. There are two main consequential theories. Egoism confers ethical status to actions promoting individual self-interest even if it adversely impacts others. Utilitarianism asserts that actions producing the greatest good for all can be considered ethical, even if there are conficts with personal morality. Non-consequential theories consider synthesising
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intentions, means and ends to promote ethics and distinguish right from wrong. It can be inferred that theories of ethics are not unifed and are often contradictory. Ladd (1970) analyses the difculty of ftting ethics into social decisions. He argues that organisational decisions are attributable to the organisation and not to individuals making the decisions. The implication is that individuals need not apply common morality to organisational decision-making. Next, organisational decisions are evaluated solely by their efcacy to achieve organisational goals. The logical consequence of this framework is that only empirical factors like fnances, resources, infrastructure and skills can be the legitimate considerations for decision-making. Since ethics is not an empirical factor, it must be excluded from decisions except where ethics and legal frameworks intersect. It is therefore illogical to expect organisations to be ethical. Utilitarian theories recognise the confict between personal ethics and social decisions, but the framework cannot reconcile the dilemma. The same paradigm governs the relationship between organisations and individuals. Organisations must logically maintain an impersonal orientation towards their employees. Ladd (1970) continues by exploring the philosophical foundation of social decisions found in the theories of utilitarianism. The theories hold that the good of the whole system supersedes the good of individuals. That is why they have great difculty in reconciling social decisions and personal morality. They rationalise the confict by asserting that individual compliance with social decisions is essential for the stability of the whole system, while individual defance contributes to system instability. A logical consequence of the utilitarian system is individual alienation, dehumanisation and loss of relationship with ethics. It is apparent that this problem is insoluble within the current framework of consciousness where social decisions and personal morality are separated. The theories present us with a choice between efcacy and humanness. By giving up impersonal rationality we risk efcacy and by giving up ethical conduct, we become dehumanised. The problem of dehumanisation, alienation and occupational stress are not due to fawed implementation but are inherent in the underlying principle itself. We require new principles.
Integrating faith with management Shinde and Fleck (2015) contend that recent trends of social upheaval, globalisation and downsizing may give new impetus to integrating spirituality with management. Indeed, for years scholars have highlighted that managers must be concerned with more than bottom line orientation, they must also address the human aspects of their organisations. While capitalism has created tremendous prosperity for billions of people, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) advocate the need for conscious capitalism. Here, they argue that business was founded on the twin motivations of self-interest and the powerful desire to care for others. Yet, by focusing on self-interest alone,
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economists have stripped capitalism of its inherent ethical justifcation. By ignoring the human aspect within business, we have created signifcant ethical challenges. The survival of the fttest approach has dehumanised business. With this idealism, Mackey and Sisodia (2013) outline the four tenets of conscious capitalism: 1. Higher purpose: Going beyond generating proft to create human engagement. 2. Stakeholder integration: Balance shareholder interest with those of other stakeholders. 3. Conscious leadership: Interest in meaning, values and purpose. 4. Conscious culture: Where trust, accountability, care, transparency, integrity, loyalty and egalitarianism coexist. However, it is arguable if mere appeal to human sensibility for higher values is sufcient to bring about the desired change. There is a need to fortify the appeal with a reasoned and compelling alternative principle that places ethics at the centre of all human endeavour. Only then can it pose a challenge to the deeply embedded utilitarian theories. This is where faith and spirituality can step in.
Exploring Vedanta: for a theoretical basis of conscious business In our search of a principle that puts ethics at the centre of business we shall investigate the ancient Indian philosophy of Vedanta. The frst step is to understand Vedanta’s conception of existence. In doing so, we will fnd a strong foundation for ethics in all human endeavour. The next steps explore three downstream ideas, namely ethical action (Dharma), balanced living (Purushartha) and conscious business (Dharmic Artha). Over 4000 years ago, ancient Indians came up with texts known as the Vedas. Contained in each of the four Vedas are sections called the Upanishads. The knowledge contained in the Upanishads comprise the philosophical system called Vedanta. An important foundational Vedantic idea is the basis of existence, or who we truly are. In the Kena Upanishad (Chinmayananda, 2007), a question is asked by a student: By whom willed and directed does the mind light upon its objects? Commanded by whom does the vital air proceed to function? By whose will do men utter speech? What intelligence directs the eyes and ears? (1.i). The question points to the notion that reality may lie beyond the scope of sensory perception. Ranganathananda (2016, p. 332) states: Logical reason has been judged to be inconclusive in every religious system; but what these systems ofer as a substitute is revelation. . . . Other philosophical thinkers ofer intuition as such a substitute. Vedanta
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Atul Sinha accepts that the highest spiritual experience is beyond the reach of logical reason; but it adds ... that what lies above reason should not contradict reason.
Thus, however the truth of existence is experienced, it should not contradict the principles of reason. The seers of Svetasvatara Upanishad (Tejomayananda, 2011) conducted a thought experiment. They brainstormed possible causes of creation through observable phenomena – Time, Inherent nature, Laws of nature, Chance, The fve elements and intelligence. They then applied a logical construct to ascertain if indeed any of these could be attributed to the cause of creation. First, they fgured that if the possible cause is discerned to be a part of creation then logically it cannot be the creator. Second, if the subject is mutable it is proof that it is a creation and not the creator. Third, if another factor is found to supersede this factor then this factor is not the ultimate and so cannot be the creator. By applying this logical template, all factors failed the test. A sequence of events determines the concept of Time. Without events there would be no Time. Hence Time itself is created. Inherent nature speaks to the essence of something. For instance, heat is the inherent nature of fre. Inherent nature cannot exist without the thing itself and hence is a creation. Laws of nature too came into existence with the objects these laws govern. Hence, they too are part of creation. Chance does not satisfy reason. Something that is so well-ordered cannot come about by chance. The elements are insentient and therefore subordinate to the intelligent principle. Hence, they cannot be the cause of creation. Universal intelligence implies a thinker and therefore cannot be the ultimate. The seers concluded that the ultimate reality is beyond the pale of sensory observation and logical reason. They concluded that the ultimate cause can only be known through inward experience and not external observation. Dwelling inward they experienced a creative power behind all creation with its locus in the infnite, unborn, never changing substratum or reality. This is called Brahman in Vedanta. It has an inscrutable power called Maya. Brahman along with its power of Maya creates the world in the form of a superimposition on the substratum of Brahman. Maya has twin qualities of avarna (veiling) and viksepa (projecting). By the quality of avarna, Brahman’s true nature is veiled from created beings and by the quality of viksepa, that which is not the truth, namely material creation, is projected as the truth. Thus, the physical universe appears as the sole reality, while the truth that everything is in essence Brahman is hidden. It can be likened to the waves and the ocean. Waves rise from the ocean and appear to be separate from the ocean. The truth, however, is that they are nothing but the ocean. Few persons have the capacity to realise Brahman, as most need to understand what the seers describe by using the faculty of reason.
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Vivekananda (1962, pp. 369–370) explains the two core principles of reason. Concerning the frst principle he states: The frst principle of reasoning is that the particular is explained by the general, the general by the more general, until we come to the universal. For instance, we have the idea of law. If something happens and we believe that it is the efect of such and such law, we are satisfed. . . . When one apple fell, Newton was disturbed; but when he found that all apples fell, it was gravitation, and he was satisfed. This is one principle of human knowledge ... The particulars are to be referred to the general, the general to the more general and everything, at last, to the universal. The second principle of reason is that the explanation of a thing must come from within and not without. Here, Vivekananda (1962, pp. 370–371) states: The second explanation of knowledge is that the explanation of a thing must come from inside and not from outside. There had been a belief that when a man threw up a stone and it fell, some demon dragged it down. . . . An explanation that was not in the thing itself. . . but the second explanation of gravitation is something in the nature of the stone; the explanation comes from inside. Brahman, the impersonal creative principle that indwells all creation satisfes both the principles of reasoning. The movement from particular to general to universal is satisfed by the theory of Brahman. Individual objects are generalised to species; the total of species to the created universe and the universe to the indwelling principle of Brahman. The explanation of Brahman is internal and is not separate from the universe. It indwells the universe. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (Madhavananda, 1934) declares this truth in the bold statement: Aham Brahmasami I am Brahman
Impact of Vedanta on ethics The impact of the theory of Brahman on ethics combines metaphysics and morality (Kane, 1941). In the material conception of existence, all beings are unconnected, and ethics becomes subservient to individual material progress. In the idea of Brahman, we fnd an underlying connectedness of everything. This provides a logical explanation to the value that one should not cause injury to one’s neighbour. In injuring our neighbour, we injure
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ourselves. This is the metaphysical truth underlying all ethical codes (Vivekananda, 1962). In this conception of existence, ethics becomes central to human endeavour and spiritual evolution. Katha Upanishad (Chinmayananda, 2006) makes a distinction between the good and the pleasant. The pleasant is defned as something that is immediately attractive but mostly hedonistic, while the good is defned as something which may not be immediately attractive but is ultimately benefcial to human welfare. Living for the pleasant is the consequence of the material concept of existence. The logical consequence of that is the predominance of self-interest. Accordingly, ethics has little role when living for the pleasant. The focus on the good, however, helps to manifest the spiritual nature of human beings. Ethics thus begins when we part from the pleasant to enter the good (Ranganathananda, 2016). This brings us to a discussion on Dharma which provides the ethical code of living. There is a compelling reason to live a Dharmic life. Etymologically speaking, Dharma refers to the inherent nature of a thing. For example, the Dharma of fre is to burn. It gives the idea of living in accord with one’s true nature. When we achieve this, we are in harmony with our true nature. Conversely, living against our true nature leads to disharmony. Yet, for humans to discover their true nature is difcult as it is veiled from us. Inherently we are spiritual beings, but our material existence falsely appears as our reality. Our inherent spiritual nature implies living a life of non-violence, non-attachment, self-contentment, faith and caring. However, not perceiving our spiritual essence, we think of ourselves as material beings, separated from each other and so live a selfsh life. This goes against the grain of our inherent nature. The Dharmic code enjoins us to live in accordance with our spiritual reality. In the materialistic view of existence ethics becomes hostage to the goals of social action. Ethics remains relevant in the domain of personal action but has a hard time ftting into social decisions. This dilemma is conceptually solved by the theory of Dharma where morality and metaphysics are combined. Ethics becomes the arc under which all aspects of life are lived. Having explored the true nature of our being (Brahman) and the consequent ethical code (Dharma), we now explore two downstream ideas of balanced living (Purushartha) and conscious business (Dharmic artha).
The goals of balanced living (Purushartha) Flowing from Dharma is the concept of Purushartha or goals of balanced living. There are four goals: 1 2
Dharma: the goal of ethical conduct – enjoying wealth and pleasures, and relating rightly with people and things in an ethical manner. Artha: attaining material well-being by acquiring, keeping, augmenting and using material objects in an ethical manner guided by Dharma.
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Kama: deriving pleasure from material objects and sensuality guided by Dharma. Vedanta does not discourage enjoyment of sensory pleasures but urges balance. Moksha: self-realisation by disentangling from material pleasures to purify the mind and to pursue higher knowledge.
The crux of Purushartha is to lead a balanced life guided by Dharma.
Conscious business (Dharmic artha) Conscious business is an idea contained within the Purushartha. One of the goals of balanced living is material well-being described as Artha. The infuence of Dharma on wealth creation, distribution and utilisation is signifcant. In the materialistic conception of existence, utilitarian rationality is the logical guiding philosophy of business. Ethics is subordinate to the goals of business and not a constraining factor. Yet, in the spiritual concept of existence Dharma guides all human pursuits. Personal morality and social morality, which are separated in the material concept of existence, are integrated in the Dharmic concept of existence. The idea of Dharma has natural consequences for business at societal, organisational and individual levels. At the societal level, Lokasangraha or human welfare is the guiding principle. The overarching goal of business is human welfare. Business has a responsibility to create wealth for society, contribute to the community and protect the environment. Ethical conduct guides all social decisions. The focus is on welfare of the whole societal system. At an organisational level, three main principles guide the organisation: (1) Subh Labh or ethical proft. Dharma driven Artha is conscious of ethical principles when generating proft. Maximising proft at any cost is detrimental to society. Proft is therefore guided by ethics. (2) Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam or the world is one system or family. Thus, the interests of all stakeholders are considered. (3) Analpa Marga or plurality of thought. People have diferent visions of the same truth. Truth appears in diferent shades depending on perspective. The evolution is thus not from falsehood to truth but from truth to truth. Management has responsibility to enrich the discourse by encouraging pluralistic thinking, which will discern the best approach in each situation. At an individual level the guiding principle is Karma Yoga or the secret of action – to perform action without longing for its fruits. Desire-driven actions create anxieties leading to dissipation of energy and enthusiasm. By getting rid of anxiety, the individual is better composed to act with attention and stillness, thus improving performance. At the root of the Dharmic model of business is the realisation that all creation has a spiritual underpinning expressed as I am Brahman. The creator indwells creation. Individual beings are inseparable from the underlying
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Figure 5.1 The Dharmic model of business
universal reality. If this be our true nature, balancing wealth, pleasures, relationships and self-realisation guided by ethics best conform with our inherent nature. This is contained in the idea of Purushartha. With ethics becoming the central axis of living, business becomes conscious. There are ethical guidelines for interaction of business with society, within the organisation and with the individual. This is expressed as the idea of Dharmic artha (Figure 5.1).
Conclusion The philosophical foundation of business rests on utilitarian theories. Hence the concern of business is predominantly with self-interest, the fnancial
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bottom line and efciency. Management has difculty in reconciling social decisions with personal ethics. This chapter identifed four problems arising from the utilitarian underpinning of business (1) business decisions are bereft of ethical considerations, (2) there exists an orientation towards proftability at any cost, which has robbed business of human orientation, (3) a lack of human orientation has created the persistent problem of occupational stress and (4) unbridled self-interest hampers adoption of conscious organisational culture. Accordingly, a transformational shift is needed. Vedanta conceives the nature of existence as spiritual. Self-interest is a logical corollary of the materialistic conception of existence. Ethics on the other hand is the logical corollary of the spiritual conception of existence. This foundational philosophy solves the problems faced by business today in four key areas: (1) being central to ethics, there is no demarcation between personal and business ethics, (2) the overall goal of business is the welfare of the whole societal system. Societal, individual and organisational goals are balanced, (3) human orientation is at the centre of all human endeavours including business and (4) by integrating spirituality with business we create a conscious culture. By shifting from a material to a spiritual philosophy, business begins to operate under the arc of ethics, which will create a conscious culture and end the need for managerial dehumanisation. As a young boy, the ancient philosopher, Saint Adi Sankaracharya was wandering in the Himalayas. He encountered a sage who asked him, “Who are you”. The boy answered: I am not the mind, the intellect, the ego or the memory I am not the ears, the skin, the nose or the eyes I am not space, not earth, not fre, water or wind I am the form of consciousness and bliss I am the eternal (Vivekananda, 2012, p. 391)
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Section 2
Faithful futures impacting organisations
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Faith and organisational ethics Peter McGhee
We become quite what we believe And I doubt there’s another reprieve Faith shapes the way Through night and through day Godfrey And the story of life that we weave D’Lima
Introduction Faith and ethics have a long and entwined history. Indeed, all the major faith traditions view ethical living as inherent to authentic practice (Sharma, 1995). Although each tradition interprets the goals of ethical action in its own way, there are commonalities. Fergusson (2010) helpfully provides the metaphor of “reaching upward, opening inward and expanding outward” (p. 16) as a means of understanding. Each tradition rises to be in unity with their Ultimate Concern. As they rise, they focus inwardly and discover moral wholeness. This, in turn, ensures they expand outwards ethically towards others. When applied to an organisation, the question becomes, “What does faith look like in this context and how might it link to ethics?” This chapter addresses this question. It defnes faith at work and identifes the challenges of expressing such faith. The chapter then explores the intersection of faith and organisational ethicality via faith traditions, and through the lens of individual identity and organisational culture. As part of this section, several tools that cultivate faith at work are described. The chapter concludes by stating why it is important for organisations to engage with faith.
What is faith at work? Faith is one word used to describe the beliefs, experiences and practices of a specifc group of people involving the divine, the transcendent, or one’s Ultimate Concern. Other words include religion and spirituality. Predictably, the literature has struggled to defne and diferentiate these terms. Some
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argue for variance (Dyck & Purser, 2019), while others for similarities (Schneiders, 2003). Fortunately Miller and Ewest (2015), who think religion and spirituality are interrelated, provide “the nomenclature of ‘faith’ as an umbrella term that includes various understandings of both religion and spirituality” (p. 310). Faith accommodates “all forms of belief and flters through which one constructs meaning and purpose in the world” (ibid) including “the more formal and defned expressions of belief as found in religious constructs and the more informal and less-defned expressions of belief as found in spirituality” (ibid). Therefore, in this chapter, whenever the word “faith” occurs, it incorporates both religion and spirituality. Whatever one labels the phenomenon of faith at work, there is widespread coherence in the literature that spiritual people, in longing for integrated lives, do not want to leave their faith at the doorstep of their organisation (Miller, 2007). The same literature posits all people are spiritual and can develop their faith (Colwell, Kiesling, Montgomery, & Sorell, 2006). Combining these notions implies organisations can develop faith at work, and its corresponding ethical outcomes, through their structures, cultures and processes. There are multiple conceptualisations of faith in the management literature. While varied, these boil down to three aspects: fnding meaningful work, developing an inner life and cultivating a wider sense of community (Houghton, Neck, & Krishnakumar, 2016). In applying Fergusson’s (2010) metaphor to these three aspects, faith at work has individuals desiring meaning through their labour by aligning it to spiritual ends with higher value (i.e., reaching upwards). Such persons have internal spiritual needs, comparable to emotional needs, which come with them to work and which they want fulflled (i.e., opening inward). Finally, as an outworking of their faith, these individuals live “in connection with others through processes of sharing, mutual obligation and commitment” (Houghton et al., 2016, p. 180) (i.e., expanding outwards). Gundolf and Filser’s (2013) cluster analysis of management and religion research found the association between faith and ethics had grown significantly over the last three decades. A signifcant reason for this involves disquiet about market dynamics that normalise self-interest while diminishing moral concerns; an economic ideology dominating many aspects of life (Bouckaert, 2011; Dierksmeier, 2012). Unfortunately, this ubiquitous ideology infuences business to maximise proft often at the expense of people and planet (Ghoshal, 2005; Giacalone, 2004). There are several ways by which faith and ethics might intersect in an organisation to shift such thinking, and its adverse outcomes. However, before considering these, we address legitimate concerns about bringing faith to work.
The challenges of faith at work There are several concerns regarding expressions of faith in organisations. First, if managers practice their faith openly, this may cause others to inhibit
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their own faith if it is diferent, or alternatively, it sends a message to others with similar beliefs to also start applying their faith. This creates what Marques (2012) labels “the in- and out-group situation, whereby adherents to the leader’s religion would become part of the in-group, and all others would remain in the out-group” (p. 541) thereby creating subtle discrimination. Second, organisations become alarmed when conversations about faith stir up controversy or if employees proselytise “vulnerable workers to imposed, hegemonic belief systems” (Sheep, 2006, p. 359). Third, not all faith expressions are moral. Some fundamentalist faiths do not aim at a noble end, nor do they encourage virtue (Cavanagh & Bandsuch, 2002). Other faiths are shallow, trivial or self-indulgent. Their focus on hedonistic goals is a “forward drive towards the enthronement of the self” (Bloesch, 2007, p. 127) resulting in spiritual narcissism. Addressing the frst concern discussed previously, Miller and Ewest (2015) suggest cultivating a faith-friendly modality where all expressions of faith are welcome. Such an organisation is “proactive and assertive in welcoming expressions of diference and considers the interplay of agentic and structural concerns and welcomes all forms of religious diversity” (p. 319). This involves fnding points of commonality, developing guidelines for acceptance and encouraging active integration. This is more than legal compliance; rather it considers the vital role faith performs in many employees’ lives as well as the business benefts arising from respecting this facet of employee identity. Regarding the second concern highlighted earlier, Hicks (2003) ofers the presumption of inclusion principle. This states all individuals can practice their faith freely if they adhere to the reasonable demands of the organisation, do not infringe employee’s rights, and do not engage in degrading behaviour towards others as part of exercising their faith. In addition, managers should not use their authority to impose faith on others, and the organisation should not support the practice of one faith over another. If these limitations exist and are agreed upon, then faith at work becomes a legitimate option. A means of tackling the third concern as to whether faith is appropriate for the workplace comes from Cavanagh and Bandsuch (2002). They describe the benefts and costs of faith at work, noting religious fundamentalism may cause signifcant problems in the workplace. Because of these potential issues, they ofer the following test and benchmark to determine a faith’s suitability: “It needs to help develop a virtuous person who practices good moral habits, because the spirituality of such a person will promote the benefts and limit the problems of spirituality in the workplace” (p. 112). For Cavanagh and Bandsuch (2002), authentic faith comprises values that are good for others (e.g., compassion, justice and respect) and beneft the organisation via an adherent’s prosocial behaviours. How might this work? Spiritual employees internalise these values as part of their identity, and as such, they play an important function in decision-making and
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behaviour. Over time, repeated actions refective of these values ensure that they become moral habits, and employees’ moral identity is strengthened. Such a process increases the likelihood of future ethical conduct (Dyck, 2017). The opposite is also true. If employee faith is fundamentalist (i.e., inauthentic), then traits like intolerance, envy and resentment may become habitual vices that poison an organisation (Solomon, 1992). Interestingly, Cavanagh and Bandsuch’s test also rejects faiths that are characteristically superfcial, faiths that are not other-oriented, but are more about self-fulflment and personal happiness. A good example of how these approaches work involves religious attitudes towards gender. For instance, people associated with more fundamentalist beliefs can display less egalitarian attitudes towards women in the workplace (Peek, Lowe, & Williams, 1991). Moreover, research reveals women of other faiths (e.g., Islam), who wear outward expressions of that faith (e.g., the hijab – a veil covering the head), are also more likely to be discriminated against by fundamentalists (Gebert et al., 2014). According to Miller and Ewest’s (2015) faith-friendly approach, an organisation should accommodate all faiths but if a fundamentalist male Christian manager discriminates against female Muslim employees because of their gender and dress, then his conduct fails Hick’s (2003) principle. He is infringing on their rights, demeaning them, and using his position to infuence them. Moreover, his faith does not aim at an Ultimate Good or the good of others, and his actions damage his moral identity (Cavanagh & Bandsuch, 2002). In behaving this way, he cultivates intolerance and hatred, both of which corrupt character, and ultimately harm an organisation’s culture.
Embedding faith and ethics at work There are multiple ways to explore the intersection of faith and ethics in organisations. This section considers two approaches. First, it examines faith traditions for insight and guidance. Second, it considers the relationship between faith, moral identity and organisational culture. The section closes by discussing the risks of organisations controlling faith for instrumental purposes. The faith traditions Recently, the business ethics literature has argued that economics return to, or at least review, its faith roots (Dyck & Purser, 2019; Garrett, 2016). The faith traditions ofer a transcendent (and plausibly more redeemed), approach to commerce, with ethics being a prime expression of faith at work (Miller, 2007). The monotheistic faiths’ ethical foundation is the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2–17; Surat 6:151–153). Broadly speaking, these deal with limits to conduct, as well as regulating daily aspects of life including economic ones.
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However, the commandments also cut beneath this to challenge inner motivations. The incentives in life, including economic ones, should not be rooted in unhealthy desires. If we allow such cravings to take hold of us, they will harm us, others and creation. The commandments, therefore, provide a broad moral axiom suggesting, “Life is not to be lived in resentment or envy, or in the incessant drive to accumulate more. This corrupts the soul and makes us distort the intent of all the commandments” (Stackhouse, 1995, p. 61). Turning to the monistic faiths, we fnd comparable moral truth for commerce. Hinduism, for instance, requires “a concurrent stance of attachment and detachment regarding the conduct of work and reward” (Richardson, Sinha, & Yaapar, 2014, p. 69). Hindus are to attain the best possible outcome, without desiring proft from these eforts (Bhagavad Gita, 3:09; 5:13). Buddhism rejects all forms of material attachment in pursuit of enlightenment, which is reached by emphasising righteousness (dhamma) practiced via the Noble Eightfold Path and the brahmaviharas (the divine states) (Jayawardena-Willis, Pio, & McGhee, 2019). Finally, Confucianism teaches, “If one is guided by proft in one’s actions, one will incur much ill” because “virtue, not proft, should be the goal of the superior man” (Analects IV: 11–12). The above is fne in principle, but what might this look like in practice? If we took an example like fair pay, then how might these faith traditions approach this? Fair pay involves compensating workers fairly and avoiding exploitative practices. Quddus, Bailey III, and White (2009) note all three monotheistic faiths provide direction. Leviticus 19:13, for example, requires workers to be paid promptly, nor are they to be oppressed (Deuteronomy, 24:14–15), while James 5:4 in the New Testament abhors employers who cheat their employees. Finally, the Prophet in Islam states that a person who employs someone but pays them unfairly will be found wanting on the Day of Resurrection (Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith – 3.430). Of the monistic faiths, Hinduism requires managers “perform their duty with a view to guide people and for the welfare of society” (Bhagavad Gita, 3:20). They should act with compassion, justice and benevolence towards their employees (Bhagavad Gita, 16:01–03). Buddhism requires that employers provide good work, just wages, health care, a beneft sharing scheme and holidays (Dīgha Nikāya 31:180). Finally, Confucianism ofers sound counsel noting, “The superior man seeks to perfect the admirable qualities of others and does not seek to perfect their bad qualities” (Analects, 12:16). When applied to an issue like compensation, Confucian managers should act benevolently towards workers otherwise they risk forfeiting leadership (Romar, 2002). All of these faiths de-emphasise materialism and emphasise community (Kasser, 2011). Moreover, they take seriously the idea of an Ultimate Concern (Emmons, 2000) that “qualifes all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of the meaning of our life”
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(p. 4). While unique in origin and ritual, all these faiths ofer shared ethical truth that can “liberate people from the grip of management theory and practice that is grounded in a materialistic individualistic moral-point-ofview” (Dyck, 2014, p. 56). Faith, moral identity and organisational culture Another means of conceiving faith and ethics in organisations is via individual identity and its relationship to organisational culture. At its core, identity is about two questions: who am I? and who are you? Both questions connect with notions of belief, meaning and purpose, and therefore with faith (Tracey, Phillips, & Lounsbury, 2014). As asserted by Spohn (1997), spiritual individuals make decisions based on their perception of what is important to themselves. This awareness is infuenced by their faith beliefs and values, which are often salient features of their moral identity and schemas, and it is from these that ethical actions fow. Support for this comes from Vitell et al. (2009, 2016) and McGhee and Grant (2017), who found individuals with strong intrinsic faiths are more likely to activate moral selfschemas and to be ethically predisposed. Weaver and Agle (2002) present a diferent understanding of how faith and ethics intersect at the individual level within organisations. Using symbolic interactionism, they argue that an individual’s identity is a product of the diferent roles they perform. For instance, an individual might identify themselves as manager, colleague, or investor, as well as being part of a faith community and holding certain faith beliefs. Weaver and Agle claim these roles are hierarchical, with some more important and having greater salience in the person’s identity. Another key feature of Weaver and Agle’s theory is that these various roles have “expectations for holding to particular beliefs and assenting to specifc intellectual claims” (p. 82) and these increase through repeated social interaction. If we use this theory as a basis, then it is obvious faith does not afect ethical behaviour in the same manner for all persons. Rather, it infuences outcomes to the degree a person: (1) perceives themselves as being spiritual, (2) how salient this perception is in comparison to other roles they play and (3) how much this is reinforced through social interaction. The literature suggests faith at work is the totality of a person’s beliefs, values and practices they bring to an organisation and their impact on organisational outcomes (Kolodinsky, Giacalone, & Jurkiewicz, 2008). However, following Spohn (1997) and Weaver and Agle (2002), the degree to which faith is ethically benefcial to an organisation is a refection of how embedded spiritual values are in a person’s moral identity, how salient their faith role expectations are and how often these are reinforced through practice in organisational life. The fact that individuals want to practice their faith at work leads us to consider how frms might promote this to improve organisational ethicality.
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As Milliman, Gatling, and Bradley-Geist (2017, p. 1) observe, individuals want to work in settings that ft their beliefs and values. When managed appropriately, a good Person–Organisation (P–O) ft can improve employee performance (Verquer, Beehr, & Wagner, 2003), as well as encourage citizenship behaviours (Sheep, 2006). Several approaches could apply here (see e.g., Pawar, 2009), but Miller and Ewest (2015) ofer a model integrating faith through a typology of four types. The faith-avoiding organisation quashes “personal or community expressions of faith, religion and spirituality at work” (p. 316). Unfortunately, squeezing faith out encourages compartmentalisation of one’s spiritual identity (Rozuel & Kakabadse, 2010). The second type of organisation is faithbased. These entities build their culture around a single faith, which is fne if employees are from the same tradition. If they are not, then discrimination is likely (McCarty, 2007). The third type of organisation, the faith-safe, neither minimises nor maximises expressions of faith (Miller & Ewest, 2015). Instead, these organisations take the middle road – they accommodate faith observance and requests to the letter of the law and no further (Cash & Gray, 2000). Each of these three types is problematic because the spiritual aspect of moral identity is minimised (Bandura, 2002), which infuences employees to “yield more easily to the pressure of social conformity, relinquishing their personal responsibility by claiming to be just an agent in the system” (Rozuel & Kakabadse, 2010, p. 426) and increases the likelihood of unethical conduct (Weaver, 2006). The last type, ofered by Miller and Ewest (2015) is the faith-friendly organisation which actively encourages all forms and expressions of faith. By doing this, the problem of compartmentalisation is resolved as individuals intentionally work to integrate their private faith and public work lives (Lynn, Naughton, & VanderVeen, 2011). When this occurs, organisational outcomes such as ethicality are improved (Kutcher, Bragger, RodriguezSrednicki, & Masco, 2010), and these in turn, link with higher levels of worker motivation and well-being (Karakas, 2010). Institutionalising faith at work How might faith-friendly organisations institutionalise expressions of faith? Institutionalisation is the “process by which structure, including schemas, rules, norms and routines, become established as authoritative guidelines for social behaviour” (Smith & Hitt, 1995, p. 408). When applied to faith at work, institutionalisation involves hardwiring activities promoting spiritual beliefs and values into the daily decision-making and work practices of employees (Ashforth & Pratt, 2003). There are several ways of institutionalising faith at work. An organisation can make public statements that faith is an essential aspect of their business and ensure management promote a constructive spiritual awareness in the organisation. Indeed, research by Fry and Nisiewicz (2013) demonstrate the
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positive impact on proft, people and planet when spiritual leadership energises followers with a vision that produces meaning and connectedness. An organisation can also develop policies that specify suitable faith objectives such as human well-being, the common good and social responsiveness, as well as formal procedures for addressing conduct that hinders these. A code of ethics defning the overall ideals, including spiritual values, of the organisation will also be useful when combined with faith objectives (Kurtulmus, 2018). Another method involves training programmes developed with employee input. These could include such activities as “learning to see work within a higher meaning, using spiritual resources like prayer and meditation to solve work problems and developing spiritual sense-making tools to enhance decision-making” (McGhee & Grant, 2017, p. 173). When applied, these generate a “transcendent Hawthorne efect” (Trott, 2013, p. 675) as workers’ consciousness is elevated via continual discussions and a vocabulary of spiritual terms, with a stress on faith values becoming the norm. Ultimately, such engagement builds strong connections between a lived ethical faith and the organisation. Organisations can also focus on individual job motivation. Typically, faith-oriented employees want jobs with deeper meaning (Dik, Dufy, & Tix, 2012), and they want to cooperate with management to achieve this (Sheep & Foreman, 2012). Collaboratively designing job roles and tasks to allow spiritual employees to exercise their faith values and strengthen their faith identity may cultivate greater meaning-making capacity, and this in turn, can enhance employee pro-social behaviours (Chan-Serafn, Brief, & George, 2013). When faith-oriented employees feel efcacious, they set higher goals, while increasing their dedication to achieve those goals (Emmons, 1999). Attaining such higher goals enhances well-being (Fave, Bardar, Vella-Brodrick, & Wissing, 2013), cultivates wider interests (Jurkiewicz & Giacalone, 2004) and expands moral choices (McGhee & Grant, 2017). From an organisational perspective, efcacy can be augmented by including faith goals as part of any evaluation, and by helping employees believe they can reach these goals. Interestingly, managers role-modelling faith practice develops employee confdence in their ability to do the same (Weinberg & Locander, 2014). Such managers speak volumes to employees about their dedication, their capacity for transforming faith values into achievements, and their legitimacy. This section concludes with a word of caution. As Lips-Wiersma, Dean, and Fornaciari (2009) write, faith can be appropriated by organisations, which as social systems are designed to preserve the status quo of “instrumental, goal-driven entities with a clear focus on ends” (p. 292). If faith at work is not engaged suitably then it may generate negative employee feelings (McGhee & Grant, 2017), selfsh decision-making (Rozuel & Kakabadse, 2010) and maladaptive outcomes (Chan-Serafn et al., 2013).
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Conclusion There is little doubt that a relationship exists between faith and ethics. Thousands of years of religious literature confrms this. However, a question is, what is the ethical value of employees with faith for an organisation? Such individuals often set aside selfsh needs to focus on the long-term interests of organisational stakeholders. They actively search for deeper meaning through their work, and they hold themselves accountable to higher goals such as human fourishing. Recent literature claims such individuals are good for organisations (Héliot, Gleibs, Coyle, Rousseau, & Rojon, 2019). If faith at work is an opportunity to express aspects of moral identity and if nourishment of that identity encourages outcomes like better ethical decision-making (Craft, 2013; Lehnert, Craft, Singh, & Park, 2016) and improved social responsibility and sustainability (Raimi, Patel, Yekini, & Aljadani, 2013; Rodriguez-Rad & Ramos-Hidalgo, 2018), then organisational ethicality inherently links with allowing people to exercise their faith (Gotsis & Kortezi, 2008). More than that, exercising such faith transcends the organisational, cultural and role limitations that so often foster unethical behaviour. For these reasons, this chapter provided several reasons for expressing faith at work, as well as strategies on how best to accomplish this. This chapter noted earlier that modern organisations often pursue proft at the expense of people and the planet, and that faith might be a useful corrective to this. Faith-oriented people move past “business as usual” as they instigate a more ethical role for organisations in society. Through their conduct, they transform the dominant schema of modern organisations from technocratic rationality and self-interested materialism to one that embraces a deeper purpose and a comprehension of our interconnectedness (Gull & Doh, 2004). They also help build organisations sensitive to stakeholder demands and capable of resolving these in a manner that contributes to long-term human fourishing (Lips-Wiersma & Nilakant, 2008).
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Gotsis, G., & Kortezi, Z. (2008). Philosophical foundations of workplace spirituality. Journal of Business Ethics, 78(4), 575–600. Gull, G. A., & Doh, J. (2004). The “transmutation” of the Organisation: Towards a more spiritual workplace. Journal of Management Inquiry, 13(2), 128–139. Gundolf, K., & Filser, M. (2013). Management research and religion: A citation analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(1), 177–185. Héliot, Y., Gleibs, I. H., Coyle, A., Rousseau, D. M., & Rojon, C. (2019). Religious identity in the workplace: A systematic review, research agenda, and practical implications. Human Resource Management, 59(2), 153–173. Hicks, D. A. (2003). Religion & the workplace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Houghton, J. D., Neck, C. P., & Krishnakumar, S. (2016). The what, why, and how of spirituality in the workplace revisited: A 14-year update and extension. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 13(3), 177–205. Jayawardena-Willis, T. S., Pio, E., & McGhee, P. (2019). The divine states (brahmaviharas) in managerial ethical decision-making in organisations in Sri Lanka: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–21. Jurkiewicz, C. L., & Giacalone, R. A. (2004). A values framework for measuring the impact of workplace spirituality on organisational performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 49(2), 129–142. Karakas, F. (2010). Spirituality and performance in organisations: A literature review. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(1), 89–106. Kasser, T. (2011). Materialistic value orientation. In L. Bouckaert & L. Zsolnai (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of spirituality & business (pp. 204–211). Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kolodinsky, R. W., Giacalone, R. A., & Jurkiewicz, C. L. (2008). Workplace values and outcomes: Exploring personal, organisational and interactive workplace spirituality. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(2), 465–480. Kurtulmus, B. E. (2018). Institutionalising workplace spirituality to create an ethical climate In J. Marques (Ed.), The Routledge companion to management and workplace spirituality (pp. 318–327). New York, NY: Routledge. Kutcher, E. J., Bragger, J. D., Rodriguez-Srednicki, O., & Masco, J. L. (2010). The role of religiosity in stress, job attitudes and Organisational citizenship behaviour. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(2), 319–337. Lehnert, K., Craft, J., Singh, N., & Park, Y. (2016). The human experience of ethics: A review of a decade of qualitative ethical decision-making research. Business Ethics: A European Review, 25(4), 498–537. Lips-Wiersma, M., Dean, K. L., & Fornaciari, C. J. (2009). Theorising the dark side of the workplace spirituality movement. Journal of Management Inquiry, 18(4), 288–300. Lips-Wiersma, M., & Nilakant, V. (2008). Practical compassion: Toward a critical spiritual foundation for corporate responsibility. In J. Biberman & L. Tischler (Eds.), Spirituality in Business: Theory, Practice, and Future Directions (pp. 51–72). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Lynn, M. L., Naughton, M. J., & VanderVeen, S. (2011). Connecting religion and work: Patterns and infuences of work-faith integration. Human Relations, 64(5), 675–701. Marques, J. (2012). Making Buddhism work @ work: The transformation of a religion into a seasoned ethical system. Journal of Management Development, 31(6), 537–549.
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Faith in the boardroom: Seeking wisdom in governing for innovation Steve Taylor
If following the traces of heaven Attempting somewhat to be leaven No proft at stake Nor stock market quake Godfrey The world need not fear 9/11 D’Lima
Introduction Connections between faith and the boardroom are rarely immediate. Yet, the challenges facing our world require decisions that are ethical as well as economic, as well as strategic, innovative and safe. Many religious organisations have boards, while many boards work with matters in which religious dimensions are signifcant. Faith and governance is an area that requires urgent attention. This chapter is written from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Central to national identity is Te Tiriti O Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi), a document signed in 1840 to clarify principles by which Māori, as Indigenous, and the British Crown, as colonisers, might found a national state. As a document, the Treaty was a “constitutional innovation” (Salmond, 2017). In this radical experiment between two worlds, we glimpse the complex interplay – structural, linguistic and postural – between faith and governance. In order to try and enact the Treaty, the Government of England changed governance structures, appointing William Hobson as Governor. Linguistically, the Māori word used in the Te Tiriti O Waitangi (kawanatanga), translated in English in the Treaty of Waitangi as sovereignty, was provided by representatives of faith. The word kawanatanga has “associations with Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in the Bible, or for that matter with governors of New South Wales” and implies governance in an abstract sense (Orange, 2011). It is an approach to governance often taken by the British Crown in the decades since the signing of Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Questions around the exercising of governance are as contemporary as they have been historic. Organisations like The Institute of Directors in
Faith in the boardroom 91 New Zealand and Governance New Zealand ofer training and resources while becoming a Board member as a career option. The managing of risk, including responses to the climate emergency, data security and the “call-out” culture of social media, present new challenges for structures of governance. The #MeToo movement has – thankfully – reminded Boards that policies that might allow the powerful to wash their hands of decision-making are not acceptable. In the social sector, that includes many faith groups, recent changes in government legislation require improved accountability. In times of rapid change, a refusal to innovate is likely to result in decline and death. Hence faith and governance, as it interacts with faith and management, is an area of urgent attention. This chapter considers the role of governance in faith and management. A notion of wisdom governance is ofered, developed from faith resources, and stress-tested with two case studies of contemporary innovation that help clarify a “wise” approach to faith and governance.
Wisdom governance for faith and management Defnitions The term “wisdom economy” was coined by Earl Cook (1982). Concerned about the dangers of unchecked economic growth, Cook argued for a “wisdom” economy which considered the consumer as a creator not consumer. Dobson (2010) provided a helpful elaboration, arguing that a wisdom economy does not ignore knowledge. Instead, a wisdom economy recognises the value of ethical and social frameworks. Hence decisions, investments and priorities seek the good not only of productivity but of people and planet. Dodson provides a set of contrasts in order to clarify wisdom governance. The knowledge economy is innovative, while the wisdom economy is refective, considering the consequences, and will sometimes place a higher value on inaction than on action as a result. The knowledge economy is competitive, while the wisdom economy is collaborative. The knowledge economy is grasping, while the wisdom economy is gracious. In this chapter, I develop “wisdom”, not in relation to “economy” but in relation to “governance”. The English word governance is derived from the Latin word gubernatorial, which described the person wielding the rudder at the back of a galley full of rowers. Hence, governance involves the actions of providing direction and ensuring the craft and crew are ft for purpose. Contemporary culture tends to locate governance in boards (Eraković & McMorland, 2014), tasked with clarifying vision, providing accountability around decisionmaking, managing resources, and hence risk.
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Governance and change Governance needs to be located in relation to context. Bradshaw, Hayday, Armstrong, Levesque, and Rykert (1998) argue that stable conditions required a diferent approach to governance than conditions of change. The separation of roles and responsibilities, outlined in the Carver (2006) model, at times, can reduce the ability of not-for-proft organisations to innovate (Bradshaw et al., 1998). A similar argument is made by Eraković and McMorland (2014), who argue that there are approaches to governance that are viable and challenge the traditional Carver separations between governance and management. This is possible when the focus is a generative and creative activity and direction-fnding. Hence, governance within religious organisations can be reimagined. It can be tempting for religious faith to understand itself as foating free from earthly matters, including management, governance and boards. Yet sociologically, many faith organisations have boards. Do they – should they – provide a steerage that has a connection with their faith commitments? Historically, most inherited systems of church governance have formed in stable state contexts. Roxburgh (2015) describes religious organisations as built on a genetic code that sought to maximise productivity and efciency. Denominations as organisations embody a hub and spoke structure. This assumes that centralising is efcient and results in governance structures located at the centre of the hub. However, Roxburgh argues that the hub and spoke model is not agile and responsive in contexts of rapid change and ecclesial innovation. At the far reaches of the spokes, there might be experimentation, yet the centre continues to work with genetic codes of productivity and efciency. The result is a two-speed understanding of innovation. Governance moves at a diferent speed, distorting the ordering of the church as one dimension of catholicity. Theologically, the Christian Scriptures of the Apostle Paul conceives organisations as a body of many parts (1 Cor 12.12–26). Such an understanding locates faith in a form that is visible, ordered and structured. Groups of all religious persuasion organise themselves locally, regionally and globally. The theological word is polity. It is the study of theology as it relates to the operational and governance structures of the church. Belief is embodied in the way the group organises itself. Management matters, governance and faith, are interrelated. Paul’s image of the body is particularly helpful, given the reality that bodies grow and change. Babies are born. Children mature. Teenagers grow, inviting consideration of how bodies order themselves and governance is enacted, not only in the stable conditions of the nineteenth-century Christian church. What is the shape of governance in contexts requiring innovation? Governance and innovation Roxburgh (2015) contrasted the hub and spoke model, that once served denominations so well, with a model of a grid. A grid model redraws the
Faith in the boardroom 93 connections. A decentralisation occurs through the development of centres for distributive learning communities. These centres begin to connect directly with each other, rather than through a centralised hub. The result is a distributive and networked grid, based on local nodes. Such a model still requires governance. The author argues that governance that is agile and responsive will inhabit four practices. These include frst, attending to the technical work of goals, roles, resources; second, keeping alive the questions the system currently does not have the answers for; third, learning with and among local experiments and fourth, encouraging adaptivity rather than efciency. In this approach, governance in religious organisations is reconceived. Boards remain signifcant. However, rather than centralise, they cultivate the spaces in which distributive learning communities form. The focus is not on resourcing structures but discernment through experimentation. The priority is communicating not between centre and edge, but between edges across diverse localities. Interrelationality between local communities (rather than communication out from a hub) is valued. It is a way to think theologically about structures, as nurturing catholicity. Roxburgh’s (2015) research on religious organisations can be helpfully located in relation to a typology of governance proposed by Bradshaw et al. (1998) Governance involves the stewardship of vision and values, the allocation of resources in planning for the future, self-refection and fduciary and legitimating responsibilities. Helpfully, Bradshaw et al. (1998) argue that this can be expressed in four diferent ways: •
• • •
Governance model – Board and CEO of a unitary organisation working in a stable context with conditions that are familiar and comfortable. In this model, there is a clear diferentiation between governance and management responsibilities, with the board being at arm’s length during conditions of contextual stability. Constituency representation model – a larger, more broadly, representative board in a pluralistic organisation working in conditions of contextual stability. Entrepreneurial model – board and CEO of a unitary organisation working in a context that is adaptive with a focus on efectiveness. Emergent cellular model – a small, yet fexible core board, able to draw in others as needed in a pluralistic organisation working in conditions of innovation.
While the policy governance model can work in a stable state, it becomes less efective, either as an organisation becomes diverse or in contexts that require innovation. Organisationally, Bradshaw et al. (1998) argue that emergent governance is resourced not through a central Board but selfmanaging teams. These function as cells that can operate alone, yet through
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technology, including email and teleconferencing, can interact with other cells. Governance is structured through two annual face to face meetings, one an AGM, the other a retreat for strategic planning and visioning. Also, there are two meetings a year through teleconference. Finally, there are opportunistic meetings. These occur when a quorum of board members fnd themselves in the same geographic locality. Governance processes include protocols in which decisions are minuted and shared with those not in attendance for information. In seeking to ofer emergent governance, Bradshaw et al. (1998) maintain that good governance – stewardship of vision and values, the allocation of resources in planning for the future, self-refection and fduciary and legitimating responsibilities – can be maintained, even in the absence of the traditional Board and CEO structures. In other words, while centralised governance is one way to structure organisational life, it is not the only way. This work is important for faith and management, particularly given that religious organisations require governance. Governance of an emergent cellular model involves an ordering that combines independence and interdependence (Bradshaw et al., 1998). This contrasts with the actions of Pontius Pilate in which hands are washed of decisions being made. Organisationally, Eraković and McMorland (2014) helpfully point out that governance is a journey. They researched 40 not-for-proft organisations in Aotearoa/New Zealand with budgets between NZ$500,000 and NZ$5 million to investigate the transitions in governance over time. They note that invariably, the governance required is never static. Governance in these not-for-proft organisations changed continuously, as the organisations have grown and developed. This invites us to consider steerage as a journey, not only of the organisation but of the governance structures and functions. Governance can be viewed as a becoming. Questions emerge when the governance literature is applied to religious organisations. Contextually, faith organisations in many Western countries are in decline. To use management language, current expressions of religion are a sunset industry. If the conditions for religious practice are no longer stable, familiar and comfortable, should the church continue with its traditions of policy governance or constituency representational models of governance? What is interesting is that while religious organisations might in some contexts be in decline, they still possess historical advantages. In particular, many religious bodies are rich in fxed assets. A particular trajectory for governance and innovation is possible. Can existing fnancial assets be utilised to generate investment in ecclesial innovation? If so, what is the role of governance, in realigning resources to ensure investment in research and development and in providing accountability around decision-making? Despite this possible trajectory, there is a lack of literature concerning religious governance and innovation. According to Croft (2008),
Faith in the boardroom 95 an essential issue for the church is a loosening of structures. However, Moynagh (2007) in 445 pages of creative and theological refection on innovation, mission and ecclesiology, has no mention of governance or structure. While the literature is limited, the necessity for wise governance of innovation is obvious. The church has multiple priorities and limited liquid funds. A building requires maintenance and a new outreach initiative requires a data projector. What should safety and due process look like when, for example, a key leader is accused of misconduct? Organisationally, using Eraković and McMorland (2014), how might governance respond to change? Religiously, can innovation be done “wisely”, in ways that balance risk and innovation? Wisdom governance for faith and management Wisdom located in relation to faith, specifcally the Hebrew Bible, provides particularity. However, the very particularity of that tradition is hospitable. Wisdom emerges in dialogue with other particular faiths, expects to share public space and in doing so, learn from other areas of knowledge. A commitment to particularity is not a call for exclusivity. Rather, it is the outworking of a hospitable interdisciplinary conversation. The Wisdom literature, specifcally the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs are “Books of Wisdom”. They are a faith resource for the three Abrahamic religions. In this particularity, there is interdisciplinary hospitality. While present in Abrahamic religious texts, The Wisdom Literature, drew from teachings by sages that were common in the ancient Near East. The result is a creation theology that shares common ground with the ancient Near Eastern wisdom tradition (Lucas, 2015). How might this notion of wisdom, as particular yet hospitable, contribute to a wisdom “governance”? Wisdom in Christian Scripture The place of wisdom, including its relationship to leadership and innovation, is further developed in the Christian Scriptures of the apostle Paul, in particular in 1 Corinthians (Hays, 1999). Wilson (1991, p. 77) argues that Wisdom literature, and thus wisdom traditions of the ancient Near East, “conditioned the thought of the early Christians in numerous and diverse ways”. While the portrayal of wisdom in 1 Corinthians is initially negative (1:18–2:5), wisdom soon becomes a teacher (2:6–3:4). The argument is for an enduring wisdom. As with the Wisdom literature, themes of creation are evident. Wisdom from God is present from the beginnings of eternity (1 Corinthians 2:7 cf. Proverbs 8:22–31). This drawing on Wisdom literature is logical, given the Apostle Paul’s training under Gamaliel “in the law of our fathers” (Acts 22:3), which would have required knowledge of the Hebrew Bible. For von Thaden
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(2012), Paul’s teaching in Corinthians primarily draws on Jewish wisdom insights. This approach assumes a universality of wisdom, which the author calls a “wisdom constellation”. For Gof (2003, p. 41), wisdom is “conservative and fexible. Great value was placed on wisdom that was handed down from generation to generation. Yet the wisdom tradition was able to merge with other ideas and newer developments.” The Old Testament wisdom literature gives particularity, yet encourages a “wisdom constellation” that can engage with new developments. One result is a wisdom governance approach to innovation and governance. The apostle Paul engages wisdom, critiquing it in order to reframe it. First, wisdom has a self-critical posture, being refective and humble. This is evident in 1 Corinthians, particularly chapters 3 and 4, in which Paul’s retrieval of wisdom is integrated into his understandings of ministry. It is personal, grounded in his story, with multiple instances of the frst person. Second, wisdom has a concern for community behaviour and a focus on ethical behaviours in daily life (von Thaden, 2012, p. 84). Again, this is evident in 1 Corinthians, particularly chapters 3 and 4, in which Paul’s wisdom leadership is triangulated with the community of Corinth, who have witnessed his leadership over 18 months (see Acts 18:1–18). Wisdom in six practices For Taylor (2016), 1 Corinthians 3 and 4 ofer a cluster of innovation practices which clarify the target audience (serving), nurture vision (gardening), align values (buildings), co-ordinate assets (resourcing), assess opportunity (risking) and learn through action (parenting). Table 7.1 integrates these six practices with the tasks of good governance – stewardship of vision and values, allocation of resources in planning for the future, self-refection and fduciary and legitimating responsibilities as ofered by Bradshaw et al. (1998). What results is a wisdom governance developed from the practice of asking questions clustered around six practices of innovation. This is coherent with a faith wisdom that is particular, yet hospitable, concerned for community behaviour and focused on ethical behaviours in daily life. Importantly, such an approach refuses a distancing by washing hands of governance decisions. Instead, a relationship between innovation and governance develops, one that sees governance and management as distinct, yet mutually interrelated. This enables a wisdom governance in stewardship of vision and values, allocation of resources in planning for the future, self-refection and fduciary and legitimating responsibilities
Angel investors: wisdom governance in empirical action In order to ground my argument for a wisdom governance, in serving, gardening, building, resourcing, risking and parenting, I ofer two case studies. Each case study involves a religious organisation seeking to innovate.
Faith in the boardroom 97 Table 7.1 Wisdom governance Practices
Wisdom literature from 1 Corinthians (Taylor, 2016)
Innovation questions
Governance role (Bradshaw et al., 1998)
Serving
“servants” (3:5); “regard us as servants” (4:1) “planted, watered” (3:6); “feld” (3:9)
Who will beneft? What challenges are we addressing? What might the fnished garden look and feel like? What values are shaping our actions? Where is Christ in this enterprise? How are we building on this foundation and mission? What preparations (foundations) need to go in frst? What resources do we already have? What resources do we need?
Stewardship of values; Fiduciary responsibilities Stewardship of vision and values
Where does this feel vulnerable? What are the risks? Who is risking what? Why are these risks worth taking? What do we need to learn to keep the idea and implementation on track? Who can teach and guide us? From what examples/ innovators can we learn?
Stewardship of vision; Fiduciary responsibilities
Gardening
Building
“building” (3:9); “laid a foundation as an expert builder” (3:10)
Resourcing
“oikonomos” translated as resource managers in (4:1); “prove faithful” (4:2) “We are fools” (4:10)
Risking
Parenting
“fathers” (4:15); in contrast to “guardians” (4:15)
Planning for the future
Allocation of resources
Ensuring selfrefection of the organisation; legitimating
One way for faith groups to innovate is to understand themselves as “angel investors”. Faith-based governance groups administer funds. Their function of stewardship requires them to become accountable for the allocation of resources. Taking a long-term view, they ask how they might align the vision and values of the organisation, in a context that is no longer stable, comfortable and familiar. As they embrace changing conditions, the governance groups fnd themselves instruments in innovation. In so doing, they become legitimaters of experimentation. What might “wisdom governance” mean in these two case studies?
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Case Study of Lambeth Trust In 2004, the Church of England and the Methodist Church launched Fresh Expressions. Ecclesial innovation was encouraged through experiments in the new forms of church. A key fgure was the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. When asked about the most critical things he wanted to focus on, Williams (2007) pointed to Fresh Expressions as “the biggest most positive focus ... That’s constantly in my mind, in my prayer, that’s what I want to focus on”. The Lambeth Partnership was formed around 1999 to support the ministry priorities of each Archbishop (Farrell, 2011). The partners meet three or four times a year at Lambeth Palace and hold an annual meeting at which the Archbishop talks about his initiatives. Annual reports summarise fnances allocated to various projects, each defned against the Archbishop’s priorities, to support initiatives which would not ordinarily be funded through the Church of England (Lambeth Partnership, 2017). The conviction is that this “helps to shape the life and direction of the church, funding the priorities set” by the Archbishop (Lambeth Palace, 2019). The Partnership manages investments and raises funds through inviting legacy contributions. At frst glance, the function of the Partnership, as it raises and allocates fnances, involves a wisdom governance role only of resourcing. However, empirical research revealed a signifcantly broader governance function. I conducted longitudinal research into Fresh Expressions (Taylor, 2015, 2019), interviewing church leaders and grassroots innovators. What became clear, particularly in the interviews with Church of England leaders, who developed Fresh Expressions, was that they experienced the Partnership as providing wisdom governance in the practices of gardening, building and parenting. Bishop Steven Croft made the following observation: the Lambeth Partners ... were senior business people. And although they were exceedingly generous in terms of funding ... they were also extremely demanding in terms of rigorous strategy, results and outcomes. And I found that a very good discipline ... we would have massive, ferce conversations with them about what the outcomes were ... (Croft, personal communication, 2013) This suggests that the Lambeth Partnership was providing wisdom governance as gardeners, asking “What might the fnished garden look and feel like?” in relation to “strategy, results and outcomes”. These “massive, ferce conversations” built confdence, particularly in the communication of Fresh Expressions (Croft, personal communication, 2013). The Partnership also functioned as a parent by enhancing self-refection. Croft observed that: The Lambeth Partners ... proved very key intellectually. They were praying, they were giving, but I’d also pitch to them every few months ...
Faith in the boardroom 99 And after one of the presentations this guy came up to me and said “I’m an expert in this discipline of knowledge management and what you’ve been describing to me sounds like that. And you really need to know about it.” (Croft, personal communication, 2013) For Croft, this moment of self-refection about knowledge management “was absolutely what we needed to know ... and shaped a lot of what we did.” Again, we see governance ofering wisdom. It is tempting to see governance of funding in purely monetary terms, as resource managers. Again, we see governance ofering wisdom. It is tempting to see governance of funding in purely monetary terms, as resource managers. Interestingly, for Croft (personal communication, 2013), “We started to make some headway with Lambeth Partners presentations when we brought in practitioners to tell their stories ... it was the Christlikeness that was coming through the stories”. This suggests a mature interplay between governance and management, as those involved at the grassroots connect with those who govern. In this case study, there is evidence of wisdom governance in gardening, building and parenting. This emerged in the context of innovation, as a faith-based leader (Archbishop Rowan Williams) accepted the context was no longer stable or comfortable. This introduces complexity, particularly evident in the second case study.
Case study of Activate Trust An organisation, which for privacy reasons, I shall call Activate Trust, allocates funds for innovation. Like the Lambeth Partners, it emerged from a denominational innovation, to allocate funding towards new futures. As an angel investor, it meets three or four times a year as a resource manager. In this case study, Activate Trust was approached to provide another tranche of funding from a religious organisation for its community-based mission innovation. Evaluations and observation of the project phase had demonstrated efective engagement in a community with a specifc people group. Further funding was sought to enable the project to move from pilot to implementation, with an additional focus on the development of several social enterprises. This would extend the mission and potentially create a sustainable revenue stream that would reduce reliance on outside funders. When the organisation’s funding application came to Activate Trust, questions were asked about physical and fduciary risk and compliance factors of the social enterprises. In response, the Trust is currently being challenged as to the nature of contemporary governance. Does funding by “angel investors” include a duty of care to make sure that the activities of the applicant are compliant with specifc legislation and regulation? Does wisdom governance include not only resourcing but also risking, with
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fduciary responsibilities to evaluate who is risking what and whether these risks are worth taking? Adding to the complexity, the project was run by people from a minority culture. This brought into focus the nature of parenting in wisdom governance. Are physical and fduciary risks acultural? Would the Board scrutinise a project run by the dominant ethnic group within the Trust? This case study, as with Lambeth Partnership, again shows that governors who realise the context is no longer stable, require functions of not only resourcing but risking and parenting. Governance is a journey, which changes over time. However, governance as Pilate-like, washing hands of responsibility, will be unable to cope with contexts of innovation. Forbearance by Activate Trust could result in future liability. Governance that is experienced as micromanagement could result in the energy for the project being diverted into detail, a result that diminishes life for both parties. The six practices from serving through to parenting identifed within 1 Corinthians 3 and 4 might prove helpful, pointing to shared functions, outworked in diferent ways by management and governance. These two case studies and in particular the empirical evidence that governance is a journey can be usefully theorised by returning to the governance research by Eraković and McMorland (2014).
“Steerage”: governing the innovation journey Eraković and McMorland (2014) theorise three ways that governance can emerge over time. For not-for-loss organisations experiencing transition, a wisdom governance is needed that is trusted, engaging and connective. First, trusted: The authors helpfully observe that governance in the initial stages of innovation begins not with boards but with trusted advisors. The six actions of 1 Corinthians – serving, gardening, building, resourcing, risking and parenting – provide a framework, within which individuals act to enhance two-way communication. Trusted advisors can then be used by governance groups seeking to go on a journey that involves shifting away from stable state governance to adaptive governance. Agreed and mutually trusted individuals occupy roles as ex-ofcio on governance boards. They are expected to speak on behalf of innovation to the governance group and help interpret the insights of the governance group to those involved in enacting experimentation. This clarifes the diferences between governance and management within the mutuality of purpose. Second, engagement: Here, the importance of sector knowledge in order to inform steerage decisions. In a context of change and innovation, those in governance have a responsibility to engage in their life-long learning. Each individual needs to fnd ways to be connected, not only with the specifc decisions of the governance group but with the wider issues facing the sector. Third, connective: Governance groups have a collective capacity that is grown through nourishing threads of connection. Nurture of connectivities is needed both
Faith in the boardroom 101 during and between meetings. While a Board Chair is key in this, the responsibility of every board member is to stay connected not only to the agency’s work but also to the work of governance as a shared task. Decision-making is enhanced and future facing difcult decisions are more likely to be made in governance groups in which connectivity is nurtured. These three insights can be helpfully brought into conversation with the two case studies, both to afrm past actions and generate future steps that might enhance the wisdom governance journey (Table 7.2). There is evidence in both case studies of the value of a wisdom governance that is trusted, engaging and connective. This correlates with the insights from Eraković and McMorland (2014). Equally, in both case studies, there is also the opportunity for wisdom governance to increase in ways that are trusted, engaging and connective. This will require both governance
Table 7.2 Wisdom governance in case studies: past actions and future steps Six wisdom governance actions
Governance Lambeth – past actions
Governance Activate – past actions
Governance future steps for Lambeth and Activate
Serving
Meeting with practitioners Engage through “massive, ferce conversations”
Pilot funding
Building
Clarity in communication
Resourcing
Raising funds
Willing to accept pilot and implementation funding requests Raising funds
Connect through site visits Trust by appointing trusted advisor from diverse cultures Strengthen the “values shaping actions” by structuring connectivities for mutual insight Engage through longitudinal research
Risking
Funding the project
Funding pilot
Parenting
Discipline of knowledge management
Self-refection on the funding request
Gardening
Engage through documentation
Engage by realigning funding into low- and high-risk investment categories Engage by asking trusted advisors to develop culturally diverse risk management Engage through increasing the diversity of the governance group. Connect through diversity training
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boards to embody a redefnition, from only resourcing (dispensing money) to gardening, building and parenting. In turn, strengthening the practices of gardening and parenting will enhance the safety of risking, as greater data becomes available to make decisions. This enhances the ability of boards to attend to their initiating practice of serving. Governance is a becoming. If we place innovation at the edge and governance at the centre, the result is power imbalances, in which innovation is at the mercy of governance. If that governance is weak, then the consequences resonate with far greater impact on those located at the edges than those at the centre. The six practices, embodied as wisdom governance, prove generative in afrming wisdom governance and in suggesting future steps in the journey.
Conclusion In seeking to clarify the interplay between faith and management, as it applies to the boardroom, this chapter has argued for a wisdom governance. Six wisdom governance practices – of serving, gardening, building, resourcing, risking and parenting – have been articulated. The use of Wisdom literature from particular faith traditions honours the contextuality of diverse traditions, while ofering an inclusivity to any who want to practice wisdom governance. The hope is that the six practices and their synthesis can be used by those from multiple faiths and no faith. Given that the literature of faith and governance in contexts of innovation is limited, two empirical case studies have been examined. These provide a knowledge base, clarify that wisdom governance of innovation is possible, and conceptualise it as a journey. This is consistent with a defnition of governance steerage. Faith can exist in the boardroom, not as a kawanatanga drawn from understanding governance as abstracted and distant, but as a wisdom governance that works with management around six practices, steering through contexts of change in ways that step towards trust, engaging and connecting.
References Bradshaw, P., Hayday, B., Armstrong, R., Levesque, J., & Rykert, L. (1998). Nonproft governance models: Problems and prospects. Presented at the meeting of the Association for Research on Nonproft Organisations and Voluntary Action, Seattle, WA. Carver, J. (2006). Boards that make a diference: A new design for leadership in nonproft and public organisations (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass. Cook, E. (1982). The consumer as creator: A criticism of faith in limitless ingenuity. Energy Exploration & Exploitation, 1(3), 189–201. Croft, S. (2008). Fresh expressions in a mixed economy Church: A perspective. In S. Croft (Ed.), Mission-shaped questions: Defning issues for today’s Church. London: Church House Publishing.
Faith in the boardroom 103 Dobson, J. (2010). From a knowledge economy to a wisdom economy. RSA. Retrieved from www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-comment/2010/03/ from-a-knowledge-economy-to-a-wisdom-economy. Eraković, L., & McMorland, J. (2014). The major challenges in designing capable nonproft boards. In J. Mueller & P. K. Wells (Eds.), Governance in action globally: Strategy, process and reality (pp. 201–220). Oxford: RossiSmith Academic. Farrell, S. (2011, October 29). Partners in proft, partners in prayer. Independent. Retrieved from www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/ partners-in-proft-partners-in-prayer-2377458.html. Gof, M. J. (2003). The worldly and heavenly wisdom of 4QInstruction. Leiden: Brill. Hays, R. B. (1999). Wisdom according to Paul. In S. C. Barton (Ed.), Where shall wisdom be found? Wisdom in the Bible, the Church and the contemporary world (pp. 111–125). Edinburgh: T & T Clark. Lambeth Palace. (2019). The lambeth partnership. Retrieved from www.archbish opofcanterbury.org/priorities/lambeth-partnership. Lambeth Partnership. (2017). The Lambeth Trust: Annual review 2017. London: Lambeth Trust. Lambeth Partnership. (2019). The lambeth trust: Annual review 2019. London: Lambeth Trust. Lucas, E. (2015). Proverbs. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Moynagh, M. (2007). Church in life: Innovation, mission and ecclesiology. London: SCM Press. Orange, C. (2011). The treaty of Waitangi. Wellington: Bridget Williams. Roxburgh, A. (2015). Structured for mission: Structured for mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Salmond, A. (2017). Tears of Rangi: Experiments across worlds. Auckland: Auckland University Press. Taylor, S. (2019). First expressions: Innovation and mission. London: SCM Press. Taylor, S. (2015). The complexity of authenticity in religious innovation: “alternative worship” and its appropriation as Fresh expressions. M/C Journal, 18(1). Retrieved from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/ view/933. Taylor, S. (2016). Built for change: A practical theology of innovation and collaboration in leadership. New York, NY: Mediacom. Von Thaden, R. H. (2012). Sex, Christ, and embodied cognition: Paul’s wisdom for Corinth. Blandford Forum: Deo. Williams, R. (2007, May 17). Stop doing that which is pulling us apart – Archbishop of Canterbury appeals interview. Global South Anglican. Retrieved from www. globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/comments/stop_doing_that_which_is_ pulling_us_apart_archbishop_of_canterbury_appeals. Wilson, W. T. (1991). Love without pretense: Romans 12:9–21 and hellenisticJewish wisdom literature. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
8
The entrepreneurial church Peter Lineham
Oh, the Church has always been wise To attractively frst advertise And invest here and there For proft so fair Godfrey That its stock would most certainly rise D’Lima
The Franciscan ideal Even before St Francis died in 1226, his dream of a church of the poor had been curtailed by the Pope. There was simply too much at stake. Francis had from the start abjured fnancial security, in order to throw himself utterly upon the support of God. The early mendicants were a radical church of the poor, owning nothing except the clothes they carried. It was a policy of “Sanctifed destitution”, as C.H. Lawrence puts it (Lawrence, 1994, p. 39; Wolf, 2003). In response, successive Popes recognised the ministry of the Mendicant preachers, but curtailed their poverty. Individual members of the Order should own nothing, but the trustees were appointed to hold property for the Order. The Order thus continued to depend on its supporters but guarded its interests. It distanced itself from the Clares (female mendicants looking to St Clare) and the “spiritual Franciscans” and the doctrine of absolute apostolic poverty was denounced as a heresy in 1323 (Moorman, 1950, 1976; Nold, 2003; Wolf, 2003).
Curbing the ideal of poverty The Franciscans were looking back to the example of Jesus, but whereas Buddhism idealises the monk who is supported only by alms, in Christianity ostentatious displays of wealth by the church have been more common. In the Bible in Acts 3, Peter and John tell the crippled man that they have no silver and gold but instead healed him. St Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century told Pope Innocent II that the church could no longer say that it had no money, but nor could it say to crippled people, “rise up and walk”
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(Bruce, 1979, p. 84). The Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century frequently criticised the wealth of the late medieval church, and Protestant rulers seized the opportunity to confscate church lands in many territories. Christian preachers often warned about the corruptions of “mammon”. John Wesley, for example, criticised Christians who accumulated wealth, but he urged his followers to “earn all you can”, but cautioned them about the abuse of wealth (Wesley, 1944, p. 579). Catholic religious orders required a vow to “poverty, chastity and obedience”, although the poverty was one that abandoned personal wealth, for monastic communities were often rich. Protestants have typically acknowledged that some are called to a life of self-denial, and all are expected to support people in need. In the nineteenth century, in an age of greater prosperity, some Protestants abandon the security of possessions and take up a missionary calling. Missions, in particular, became associated with the call to “live by faith”, urging that missionaries should go out with no fnancial guarantees or provision, “looking to the Lord” for the means to continue their work. Poverty has a new appeal today. Loud voices among the young have reacted to the materialism of the middle class and called for moral cleansing from the corruptions of wealth. In New Zealand in the 1960s, the hippie generation rejected materialism, for example, in Marcus Ardern’s “Love Shop” and the poet James K. Baxter’s communitarian experiments at Jerusalem, a little settlement up the Wanganui River. Within the Christian world, a new emphasis on a church of the poor emerged in twentiethcentury Liberation Theology. Pope Francis has given papal sanction to the radical Latin American voices of Leonardo Bof and Gustavo Gutierrez calling for a “preferential option for the poor”, to correct the focus of a church notorious for tending to the rich. The call was echoed in the Protestant world by Ron Sider’s infuential Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (1977). In the evangelical world, “Servants to Asia’s Poor” sought to take the gospels to the slums, and inspired support from young people (Grigg, 1992). This is often associated with a call for stronger communitarian sharing.
Generosity, charity and abundance Nevertheless, a more common voice has been the call for charity. Christian almsgiving have been signifcant in Western history, but they operate rather diferently from the Muslim obligation to show mercy to the poor. The Jewish notion of the tithe was continued by the medieval church. Farmers were required to pay a tithe of their harvest to the local parish, but other donations were voluntary. Slowly the church built up huge resources from these impositions and donations. State Protestant churches continued to have compulsory levies. Such resources were not available to the believers’ churches that were separated from the state. All new religious movements attracted surges of
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donations. They relied solely on donations, although they urged members to be generous. Some urged members to tithe, but only very sectarian bodies like the Latter-day Saints, for example, expected members to prove that they had given one-tenth of earnings to the church. There is a long Protestant tradition in the churches not established by the state, to urge generosity as a mark of spirituality. Wesley followed his obiter dictum “earn all you can” with an urging to “save all you can, give all you can” (1944, p. 583). He drew on biblical exhortations of the blessing accruing to the generous person. So, in our modern, voluntary world, charity is not a matter of obligation for believers, but a choice. Voluntary religious convictions were a powerful motivation to generosity. The Plymouth Brethren were renowned for their generous donations, and the Salvation Army received signifcant support for their activities. In recent years, there has been much talk of the “Pentecostal dollar” and the “prosperity gospel” where ostentatious blessing and ostentatious giving combine. The level of generosity is a signifcant indication of the vigour of faith and spirituality. If belief became less signifcant, the level of donations declines. When spirituality declines, donations do not fow so freely. Consequently, voluntary religious movements sometimes go into decline as their members lose their generous faith. The scope of charity varies. Small religious groups often work for the economic beneft of individual members. Early Methodists were concerned that none of their fellow members were in want, and the others reach out to their needy and unemployed with practical assistance. In the denominational society that emerged from the eighteenth century, self-help fowed extensively within religious communities. Early Mormons used their women’s relief society to meet needs. In New Zealand, there is evidence from an early Congregational church’s records of how business owners in the membership ofered jobs to unemployed fellow church members (Furniss, 1975). Religious charities often looked further afeld to needs in the whole community. In the eighteenth century, charities often held an annual church service where they presented the needs of their clients to the wealthy. Voluntary religious bodies followed this pattern. In the early Evangelical movement, George Whitefeld’s evangelistic preaching that stimulated the Great Awakening in England and America began with a focus on raising support for an orphan home in the colony of Georgia. Charities often refect a sense of emotional connection with the needs of others. Such charities seek to inspire others with the need. Child sponsorship is the most dramatic example of this, for givers feel more motivated if their gifts seem to have changed someone’s life. Organisations as varied as city missions and war charities increase their appeal when they present the need of a specifc person to supporters. The ideal of generosity was a signifcant constraint on the acquisitiveness of entrepreneurs. Dickens’ account of Scrooge and his discovery of the needs of his employees was a crucial moral model in the Victorian world. Wealth was given so that the rich could help others. The obligation
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of generosity rested strongly on the pious businessperson. Robert Laidlaw, prominent Open Brethren retailer in New Zealand, was expected to be a patron of all needy causes within the evangelical world (Hunter, 1999; Lineham & Hunter, 1999). The entrepreneurial ideal seems to appeal to many Christians.
Missions and property Jesus exhorted his disciples to go out without purse or change of clothing and the ideal has inspired many mendicant missionaries since then. Yet the typical mission has not been able to avoid some investments – especially when missions are sent to hostile territories, where no hospitable welcome was forthcoming. The Jesuits were forbidden by their constitution from making investments, but they soon saw the importance of building schools, and their mission became heavily dependent on this expensive kind of institution (Hsia, 2014; Scully, 2005). In the Protestant world, the pioneering Moravians set up Mission settlements in many places, so that the Mission operated as a new community (Engel, 2009). The missionaries sent to New Zealand and the South Pacifc had to justify their relevance to their potential converts by engaging in trade and spent a signifcant amount of money purchasing property for mission stations. Protection of this investment was a signifcant concern for their sponsoring bodies. The Christian missions were often far from poor. Missionaries must have appeared very wealthy in the eyes of those who received them. For example, the Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand, viewed property as held collectively by the tribe. Consequently, Māori helped themselves to mission goods, expecting the missionaries to be generous, whereas they were required to give account of everything they spent. Jealousy of missionary possessions has been suggested as a factor in the sacking of the frst Methodist mission base at Whangaroa. Missionary families also purchased land, in order to provide for their children, providing grounds for other Europeans to discredit them. The celibate Catholic missionaries were free from that pressure.
The possessions of churches Churches had many opportunities for acquisition of wealth. Donors poured donations into church cofers in the medieval period in preparation for the afterlife. Money was left for prayers to be said for the repose of souls. Church buildings refected the wealth of the community, and the denominations sometimes became very wealthy. Eventually churches held more than 10% of the land of Christendom. The church became a renowned sponsor of the arts. After the Reformation, states seized the wealth of many churches, yet denominations soon rebuilt their resources and continued to display magnifcence. This is evident in New Zealand. A share of the income
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from land purchased by the Otago settlers arriving in 1848 and the Canterbury settlers of 1851 beneftted the Presbyterian and Anglican churches in those places, and so endowments beneft those churches. In Auckland too, Anglicans acquired signifcant landholdings. These acquisitions helped the establishment of churches in these districts in the nineteenth century compared to other denominations. In the long run, however, the wealth of these churches besmirched the church’s public profle. In the 1970s, there were many allegations that the Anglican Diocese of Auckland was profteering at the expense of those who leased its land and the church gained a reputation of being both wealthy and uncaring (Anderson, 1977). Many residents in wealthy Auckland suburbs leased land from the church and resented it when the church raised the leases at a time of high infation. In the howls of rage, and also from its own sense of guilt, it was forced to change its investment policy (Anderson, 2006; Davidson, 2011, p. 251). This is an example of a clash between reputational and fnancial interests. Even today, when the one-time mainstream churches have declined signifcantly, the same factors create dilemmas. Often historic church buildings become an increasing burden on their owners, and at the same time unsuitable for the needs of the contemporary church. In New Zealand, the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010–2011 brought the issue home forcefully. The Anglican Church was pressured by a public campaign to agree to rebuild the Christchurch Cathedral in the centre of the city, despite the huge expense. In contrast, the Catholic Church in the same city was able to get away with demolishing its historic cathedral and a signifcant reduction in the number of parishes (Allan, 2017). Churches have an awkward task in balancing such factors.
Exalting the entrepreneur The entrepreneurial spirit can carry negative connotations. The rich young ruler was told that he could not follow Jesus unless he gave up his wealth, and Jesus told a warning story about someone who built barns for his future crops but did nothing to prepare for his death. Christianity did not commend itself to the aristocrats and the wealthy. Entrepreneurship was not particularly meaningful in the ancient world, for imperial favour counted for everything, although there were success stories like the former Greek slave Pasion, who made a fortune through investments. In the late middle ages, there were signifcant new opportunities for entrepreneurial activity. Banking could make the ordinary person rich. Producers of goods fourished as consumer demand grew. Among the early industrialists were many Nonconformist church attendees, who saw their growing wealth as a mark of God’s blessing. There is a signifcant cluster of Quakers among the early industrialists, among them are Abraham Darby, the ironmaker of Coalbrookdale, John Cadbury (1801–1889), William Lever (1851–1925) and
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Joseph Rowntree (1836–1925) (Raistrick, 1968; Walvin, 1997). Religious networks helped these new industrial ventures to get under way. Religiously inspired entrepreneurs were not universally admired. The nineteenth-century novelist, George Eliot, in one of her novels described Mr Bulstrode, a wealthy banker, for whom “it was a principle ... to gain as much power as possible, that he might use it for the glory of God” (Eliot, 1947, p. 163). The novel culminates in the revelation of the immoral source of his success. There were other cases where religion and legitimate wealth combined, such as Robert Arthington, the benefactor of the Baptist Missionary Society, William Hartley, the jam maker who fnanced the overseas expansion of the Primitive Methodist Church and James and John Campbell White, chemical manufacturers and fnancers of the Free Church of Scotland’s African missions (Stanley, 1987). Samuel Marsden, chaplain to New South Wales and supervisor of the Church Missionary Society work in New Zealand, used his ship to transport missionaries to New Zealand and bring timber and fax for sale in Australia, on their return journey (Quinn, 2008; Sharp, 2016). In modern America, John D. Rockefeller supported liberal Christian causes from the profts of the Standard Oil Company, while Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, and David Green of Hobby Lobby supported evangelical Christianity. Some entrepreneurs served as Protestant saints. Robert Gilmour LeTourneau, the inventor of earth-moving machinery was hailed as “God’s businessman” through his role in the Christian Businessmen’s Association and Gideons International (the organisation which places bibles in hotels) (LeToumeau, 1960). New Zealand has examples of entrepreneurs who are religious sponsors. Some are Jewish (including the Hallenstein and Nathan families), some are Catholic (Martin Kennedy and other brewers, Sir Joseph Ward, Prime Minister and owner of a freezing works), and there are of course many Protestant names. But some of that religiosity simply provided a veneer of respectability. Entrepreneurship is usually more evident in smaller Protestant religious groups in New Zealand as it was in the United Kingdom. For example, the case of R.A. Laidlaw has already been cited. Religious groups are sometimes so beholden to wealthy patrons that they overlook their failings. Sharp business practices discredit the religious profession of their advocates. In other cases, the fnancial success of religious bodies can awaken what may best be described as envy (Gibbs, 2012). Such criticism can be embarrassing. Entrepreneurial people are not necessarily troubled by criticism, but if they bring shame on their religion, they may regret it.
Religion and the roots of socialism Concerns at the morality of the wealthy are an important contribution to modern socialism. From the beginnings of Capitalism there have been moral
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objections to illicit wealth. Opposition to the slave trade was an example. John Newton, the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, was at the time of his conversion a slave trader, but after his conversion he joined a growing moral campaign, led by the Quakers and William Wilberforce, which argued that wealth made from bringing humans into captivity was immoral. They succeeded in 1807 in banning the slave trade and later abolishing slavery within the British Empire. Campaigners in the United States were mostly motivated by religious sensibilities (Bender, 1992; Holcomb, 2014). The churches did not speak with one voice on the matter. There was so much money to be made from the trade, which its benefciaries found religious arguments to defend it. The southern economy in the United States was so dependent on slavery that the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches split over the issue. In New Zealand, Māori captured in tribal warfare were often enslaved, and missionaries did not protest because they were allowed to preach to the slaves (Petrie, 2015). There was an equivalent debate on conditions of work in the late nineteenth century, in which preachers participated loudly. In New Zealand, the Rev. J. Berry, a well-known Wesleyan preacher gained public acclaim when he demanded in a sermon that “Work and wages must be brought into harmony with the golden rule” (Berry, 1888). Other preachers saw it as the Christian duty to encourage prosperity, not to defend labour. The Anglican minister of St Mark’s in Wellington, Richard Cofey, who had been asked in 1883 to join other clergy by preaching in support of the eight hours movement, Strongly condemned the shortening of the hours of labour to such an extent as to interfere with trade, and he pointed out that by foregoing such luxuries as beer and tobacco, and not requiring their wives to work too hard, working men might considerably ameliorate their own condition and that of their helpmates. (Cofey, 1893, p. 3) Cofey justifed his stance on the grounds of individual responsibility, despite a storm of working-class critics. This religious debate was part of the broader context for the emergence of socialism in the English-speaking world. Marxist ideas played only a small role, and alongside Owenite ideals, it was signifcantly shaped by a sense of Christian obligation to improve the economic conditions of the poor. Christian socialists felt profoundly concerned by the operations of capitalism, and felt that it was an unchristian system (Unidentifed Editor, 1922, pp. 1–2). They rejected the idea that capital accumulation was a virtue. The early Labour Party had many Christian socialists within it, both in Britain and New Zealand, with prominent fgures like the frst President of the New Zealand Labour Party, the Rev. J. K. Archer, and its early economic spokesman, Walter Nash (Sinclair, 1976).
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The spirit of capitalism A famous essay by Max Weber, pioneer sociologist, drew striking parallels between Protestantism as a lay ethic and the capitalist spirit. An enormous quantity of subsequent academic debate has severely qualifed the “Weber thesis”. Most critics would reject the idea that the Protestant spirit gave rise to capitalism (if in fact this was Weber’s argument). There are older antecedents, and the frst Protestants were suspicious of entrepreneurs. Weber’s examples are largely drawn from later periods when Protestant religiosity was waning. That said, the view that laity were called by God was an important aspect of Protestantism, and very diferent from Catholic emphases on clergy. Weber identifed asceticism as a key Protestant value, and noted that lay people especially in the Calvinist stream of Protestantism were encouraged to live in this simple way (Ghosh, 2014). This emphasis preferred the rational and the ethical aspects of religion over the ostentatious style of religiosity. Such values would certainly have helped early capitalists to retain capital for reinvestment. There are many problems with the argument, and in the argument that one religious tradition can be identifed with it, but it retains a certain appeal. Perhaps the location of Calvinists was more important than their beliefs. Geneva and Holland were the centres of international Calvinism and of Protestant banking and business, displacing the existing Italian networks (Kirk, 1987, pp. 333–346). Weber’s case makes some sense as an analysis of value systems, if not of cause and efect. Protestant beliefs as such are not a unique incubator for capitalist ambitions. Jews, Muslims and Catholics all contributed to the evolution of capitalism. Nevertheless, the laity’s place in Protestantism meant that they could view entrepreneurship as a religious vocation more easily than Catholics, Anglicans or Lutherans. The argument could be revised, noting that minority religious groups, excluded from politics and with strong lay leadership tend to be more positive about commercial success as a mark of divine blessing.
Churches in business The general rule is that religious individuals may be successful but that religious groups are disastrous at investment and making money. Certainly, churches have frequently inherited property and business ventures. Monasteries acquired extensive landholdings in the medieval period, and generally they made money from them, but farming is more reliable. The Church of England and its Anglican branches throughout the world have often depended on rents and leases, but the business savvy Church Property Trustees have not helped the reputation of the church. Evangelical movements have not been immune from the same problems. The German Protestant missionary movement, the Unitas Fratrem (now
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known as the Moravians) was fnanced by Count Nikolai Zinzendorf’s aristocratic estates, but the movement almost collapsed because he spent lavishly with inadequate business sense (Ward, 1987, pp. 283–305). The Evangelical Revivalist or Great Awakening was more careful. Book sales and fundraising augmented the evangelistic movement, and sustained it, although George Whitefeld’s orphan house became so expensive that he resorted to the use of slaves to sustain it, and that severely dented his reputation (Gibbs, 2012, pp. 123–170). Business activities have successfully fnanced some religious movements. The Seventh-day Adventist church established businesses which furthered its ideas of diet reform. In Australasia, Sanitarium, founded in 1898, produced wheat biscuits (Weetbix) and vegetarian spreads (Vegemite). Because their profts go to religion, they are exempt from taxation. Similarly, Trinity Lands in the Waikato of New Zealand is a very professionally run group of farms, the profts of which go towards various Brethren and Evangelical endeavours (Clayton, 2017). Both businesses have been fercely criticised by their competitors because they control costs and confront competition, but perhaps the key is that their sponsoring churches are strongly lay led. Ratana, a Māori church, set up a bank to help its supporters, but prophets are not good at management and there was great shame when that bank failed.
The megachurches Even the operation of a church today calls for smart entrepreneurial investment and risk-taking. There is bound to be a signifcant investment to provide urban buildings and car parks under urban building codes. For these reasons larger is better. Since the 1970s, beginning in America, large churches sought to attract newcomers with extensive facilities, in order to achieve efciencies of scale. Extensive facilities are part of the appeal of the megachurch, which in efect caters for many needs, religious and secular, of its adherents. Potter’s House has a sanctuary in Dallas that cost US$45 million. First Baptist Church in Dallas has a US$130 million building (Moore, 2015). Second Baptist Church at Houston has a huge complex with a gym, two basketball courts, a school, bookshops and a car repair shop. Other churches develop branches on several sites, sharing the sermon on video link (Stetzer & Nichols, 2013). Many of these churches are in efect independent operations, with ownership vested in a private trust created by the founding pastor. The type of ownership has cultivated an entrepreneurial attitude towards the growth of churches. The Wikipedia list, constantly updated, includes some 1,300 US churches with more than 1,000 members. The pattern is increasingly replicated in other Western countries where Protestantism is strong, including Australia and New Zealand and it is also common among churches in the developing world.
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One curious consequence of such large-scale fnancial operations is that the senior pastors of these churches are often skilled – and sometimes unscrupulous – as business leaders and pay themselves and live accordingly. David Oyedepo of Nigeria is reckoned the richest pastor in the world. Mark Driscoll was dismissed after spending large amounts of church money on getting a book on the New York Times bestsellers list (Graham, 2014; Johnson, 2016). So much for the tradition of pious asceticism!
The prosperity gospel Pastors within this world have found ways to justify their lavish lifestyle, and in particular a theological justifcation has emerged, in the so-called “prosperity gospel”, a highly selective reading of the Bible – mostly Old Testament passages on God causing the Jews to prosper, avoiding any New Testament references to poverty. They advocate a crude formula, frst propounded by William Branham and more recently by Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin, in which prosperity is a mark of godliness (Bowler, 2013). The movement is a sacralisation of the American mythology of success, but it is increasingly a formula used by “faith” movements in other countries where success does not come so easily (Hunter, 1999). These teachings have infuenced several independent Pentecostal groups in Australasia, including the Hillsong movement and other popular Australian megachurches, and Life Church, Hillsong’s Auckland afliate. It is blatant in the language of Destiny Church, the Māori megachurch led by Brian Tamaki and in City Impact, the church led by Peter Mortlock. In each case, the pastors ostentatiously display their success to the congregations, in their dress, vehicles, properties and general aura. This may seem to be ofensive to those who are asked to support such churches, but members usually explain how much they are inspired and encouraged, because the pastor is like them, and yet successful. Moreover, in the life stories of people of Destiny Church, most of whom come from Māori communities, there is a ferce aspiration to escape from the experience of deprivation, failure, poverty and family troubles common in their communities. The way forward is seen as a combination of faith and determination to live diferently. Supporters are often very familiar with disappointments and are probably able to flter the optimistic language of their preachers. The prosperity gospel, even in this light, seems a curiously materialistic version of the Christian hope. It is bound to disappoint many people. Churches based on these principles sometimes fail spectacularly. The Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California, the frst of the modern megachurches, went bankrupt in 2010 and was sold to a Catholic diocese. The moral failures of the megachurch pastors, both in New Zealand and globally, are too numerous to record, and in many cases material prosperity seems to have undermined pastoral fdelity.
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Conclusion This chapter has sought to demonstrate that entrepreneurship is not as foreign to religious people, as might be assumed. Perhaps it is sad that the path of poverty, the path of St Francis, does not seem to be a viable solution. Even Francis depended on wealthy donors, and in the present day those who seek to change the life of the poor have needed very large pockets and enterprising programmes. We need not argue that entrepreneurship is wrong, but there are obvious moral challenges facing such entrepreneurs. How should we hold them to account? We may not justify entrepreneurial activities simply on the grounds of their success. The ways in which they make their money and the ethics of their means are as critical as what they do with their money. It is helpful to refect on the values of earlier entrepreneurs and their critics. Surely, their own doctrine of a coming Day of Judgement in which their secret acts will be visible to all, should keep them honest. Religion is not an excuse for bad behaviour. Meanwhile we should tentatively anticipate the divine judgement and honestly expect that religious entrepreneurs will be an example to others.
References Allan, P. A. (2017). The once and future cathedral. Christchurch: University of Canterbury. Anderson, H. (1977). The Anglican church in Auckland and its lands. Auckland: Diocese of Auckland. Anderson, K. P. (2006). The Anglican church in Auckland: Reminiscences of Howard Pellow Anderson, Executive Director and Diocesan secretary 1972–1984. Auckland: Diocese of Auckland. Bender, T. (1992). The antislavery debate: Capitalism and abolitionism as a problem in historical interpretation. Berkeley, CA: University of California. Berry, J. (1888). Christianity in relation to Strikes and Labour. New Zealand Methodist Times. Bowler, K. (2013). Blessed: A history of the American prosperity gospel. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Bruce, F. F. (1979). Commentary on the book of the acts: The English text with introduction, exposition and notes. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Clayton, R. (2017). How some New Zealand business make billions and pay no tax. Retrieved from www.stuf.co.nz/business/96742698/how-some-new-zealandbusiness-make-billions-and-pay-no-tax Cofey, R. (1893, October 9). Evening Post. Davidson, A. K. (2011). Living legacy: A history of the Anglican diocese of Auckland. Auckland: Diocese of Auckland. Eliot, G. (1947). Middlemarch: A study of provincial life (1871–72). London: Oxford University Press. Engel, K. C. (2009). Religion and proft: Moravians in early America. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania.
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Furniss, K. (1975). Moray place congregational church, Dunedin. Dunedin: University of Otago. Ghosh, P. (2014). Max Weber and the protestant ethic: Twin histories. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gibbs, S. (2012). God is back – pass the plate (PhD). Massey University, Wellington. Graham, R. (2014, March 12). Can megachurches deal with mega money in a Christian way? The Atlantic. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/ can-megachurches-deal-with-mega-money-in-a-christian-way/284379/ Grigg, V. (1992). Cry of the urban poor: Reaching the slums of today’s cities. Monrovia, CA: MARC. Holcomb, J. L. (2014). Blood-stained sugar: Gender, commerce and the British slavetrade debates. Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, 35(4), 611–628. Hsia, R. (2014). Jesuit foreign missions. A historiographical essay. Journal of Jesuit Studies, 1, 47–65. Hunter, L. (1999). Robert Laidlaw: Man for our time. Auckland: Castle Publishing. Johnson, K. J. (2016). Salvation with a smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church and American Christianity, by Phillip Luke Sinitiere. Sociology of Religion, 77(4), 446–447. Kirk, L. (1987). Godliness in a golden age: The church and wealth in eighteenthcentury Geneva (Vol. 24). London: Ecclesiastical History Society. Lawrence, C. H. (1994). The friars: The impact of the early mendicant movement on Western society. London: Longman Pub Group. LeToumeau, R. G. (1960). Mover of men and mountains. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lineham, P., & Hunter, L. (1999). Faith works. In N. Monin, J. Monin, & R. Walker (Eds.), Narratives of business and society: Difering New Zealand voices (pp. 121–132). Auckland: Pearson Education. Moore, J. (2015). Newsmax’s top 50 megachurches in America. Retrieved from www. newsmax.com/TheWire/megachurches-top-united-states-newsmax/2015/11/11/ id/701661/ Moorman, J. R. H. (1950, 1976). Saint Francis of Assisi. London: SPCK. Nold, P. (2003). John XXIII and his Franciscan Cardinal: Bertrand de la tour and the apostolic poverty controversy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Petrie, H. (2015). Outcasts of the gods? The struggle over slavery in Māori New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press. Quinn, R. (2008). Samuel Marsden alter ego. Wellington: Dunmore Publishing. Raistrick, A. (1968). Quakers in science and industry: Being an account of the Quaker contributions to science and industry during the 17th and 18th centuries. Newton Abbott, UK: David & Charles. Scully, R. E. (2005). Trickle down spirituality: Dilemmas of the Elizabethan Jesuit mission. Dutch Review of Church History/Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 85(1), 285–299. Sharp, A. (2016). The world, the fesh & the devil: The life and opinions of Samuel Marsden in England and the antipodes, 1765–1838. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
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Sider, R. J. (1977). Rich Christians in an age of hunger. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press. Sinclair, K. (1976). Walter Nash. Auckland. Auckland: Auckland University Press; Oxford University Press. Stanley, B. (1987). ‘The miser of Headingley’: Robert Arthington and the baptist missionary society, 1877–1900 (Vol. 24). London: Ecclesiastical History Society. Stetzer, T., & Nichols, L. (2013). Trends in big church buildings. Retrieved from https://http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2013/september/trends-in-bigchurch-buildings.html Unidentifed Editor. (1922). Editorial. The Drifter, 2(33). Walvin, J. (1997). James Walvin, the quakers: Money and morals. London: John Murray. Ward, W. R. (1987). Zinzendorf and money, studies in church history (Vol. 24). London: Ecclesiastical History Society. Wesley, C. (1944). Sermon no 44. In Sermons on several occasions [The forty four sermons]. London: Epworth. Wolf, K. B. (2003). The poverty of riches: St. Francis of Assisi reconsidered. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9
Employers’ strategies on faith at work Dorothea Alewell and Tobias Moll
If owner–employee can trust Before rivalries fare up and bust And fnd common stake In what they undertake Godfrey Why business will fourish with gust D’Lima
Introduction Although spirituality (or faith) at work is a topical subject (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000; Benefel, Fry, & Geigle, 2014; Garg, 2017; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003; Houghton, Neck, & Krishnakumar, 2016; Karakas, 2010; Krishnakumar & Neck, 2002; Miller & Ewest, 2013), we know little about employers’ strategic choices regarding spirituality at work, and less so for specifc countries, especially for Germany. In qualitative in-depth interviews with ten German managers on spirituality at work, we got an overarching answer – the employers strongly seek to stay neutral concerning religion or religiosity in the workplace. While some accept non-religious faith or spirituality as an individual resource to cope with stress, stay healthy, or become more creative, religious spirituality is taboo in these frms (Moll, 2017; Alewell & Moll, 2020). However, some German managers and entrepreneurs talk in public about their religious convictions and state that their religion is an important source of values and leadership principles (Laudenbach, 2014; Personalmagazin, 2018). Our research question emerged from these contradictory experiences: What stances do employers take regarding (religious and non-religious) spirituality and faith at work, and why and under what conditions? In the literature on management, spirituality and religion (MSR), authors describe and classify employer attitudes and strategies (Mazumdar & Mazumdar, 2005; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010; Mitrof & Denton, 1999; Ashforth & Pratt, 2010; Miller & Ewest, 2015; Hennekam, Peterson, TahssainGay, & Dumazert, 2018; Tabesh & Jolly, 2019). However, until now our research questions why employers chose which stance is not answered in MSR research.
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Sociologists of religion have analysed societal functions of religion. From this sociological basis, we derive which expectations frms may form about efects and functions of religion at work. The arguments relate mainly to religious spirituality. While this is also our dominant focus, we nevertheless try to assess which of the arguments hold for non-religious spirituality, too. We frst defne relevant terms (spirituality, religiosity and faith), briefy summarise the existing frameworks on employers’ stances on spirituality, and explain our theoretical basis – the theory of reasoned action. Then we derive arguments relating to the employers’ stances from classical concepts and hypotheses of the sociology of religion. Finally, we summarise, discuss limitations and present conclusion.
Spirituality, religiosity and faith: terms and defnitions We defne spirituality as an individual-level construct (Alewell & Moll, 2018, 2019), as part of the inner life of people, which connects a person with other persons and with the sacred and transcendent. Spirituality is a continual search for community, meaning and transcendence. It includes the personal attitudes and abilities that allow us to experience spirituality. Spirituality embraces both religious and non-religious spirituality. At one end of the spectrum, non-religious spirituality is independent of a collectively shared belief system (religion) and has its basis in individually and subjectively shaped assumptions and beliefs. At the other end of the spectrum, religious spirituality (religiosity) anchors in a specifc religion as a collective and often strongly institutionalised construct. In between, there are many combinations and overlapping forms of religious and non-religious spirituality (Alewell & Moll, 2018, 2019; Moll, 2020). We thus use “spirituality” in the generic sense in which Miller and Ewest (2015) use faith – and thus apply both terms interchangeably.
Typologies of employers’ strategies regarding spirituality and faith at work Spirituality at work: individual convictions and attitudes Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2010) refect on the fundamental convictions and attitudes of practitioners and academics regarding the interplays between spirituality and the world of work. These are individual opinions and attitudes in organisations. The authors diferentiate between convictions of parallelism, of adversity and of integration between spirituality and the work sphere. These convictions and attitudes defne individuals’ perceptions or norms of “what the role of spirituality is, could be, or should be in organisations” (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010, p. 16). Followers with the parallelist perspective perceive work and spirituality as two parallel worlds that have little or no connection. Those who hold the adverse conviction share the
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idea that spirituality and the work sphere are opposing worlds that not only do not belong together, but also exclude or oppose each other. According to those of the integrative conviction, spirituality and work are closely connected, and spirituality in the workplace and work-related outcomes such as physical and mental employee health are or can be interdependent. Spirituality at work: organisational typologies We found one organisational typology at the interface between religion and the organisation (Mazumdar & Mazumdar, 2005), and three organisational typologies for dealing with spirituality and faith in the workplace (Mitrof & Denton, 1999; Ashforth & Pratt, 2010; Miller & Ewest, 2015). Mazumdar and Mazumdar (2005) focus on the role of religion for all the business decisions the organisations take – decisions on products, services, focal group of clients, location, architecture and display of religious symbols. While workplace spirituality is one (small) aspect in their descriptive typology, their focus is on products, clients and location, but not on HR and the employers’ stance to religion. Therefore, we do not dig deeper into this typology. Mitrof and Denton (1999) distinguish between fve types of predominantly positive attitudes towards spirituality in organisations by employers. The types difer concerning the company’s stage of spiritual development over time and the intensity and depth with which religion, spirituality or value systems from other sources shape the company: • • • • •
Religion-based organisations have a generally positive attitude towards the integration of religion at all levels of the organisation. Socially responsible organisations live strong spiritual principles and values derived from faith in everyday business life. Values-based organisations follow organisational philosophical and ethical principles that are independent of a specifc religion or spirituality, but that may overlap with religious or spiritual values. Evolutionary organisations strongly identify with a specifc religion at the start of their development process, but over time are also increasingly open to other belief(s). Recovering organisations have a (temporary) history of not (or no longer) considering religion but promote spirituality (again) in the organisation at the time of analysis.
Ashforth and Pratt (2010) classify organisations into three types based on the extent of organisational and individual control on employee spirituality: enabling, directing and partnering organisations. All three types ascribe a positive attitude towards spirituality by the organisation. The third organisational typology is that of Miller and Ewest (2015). Their classifcation relates to the present state of organisations and does not
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describe the change of organisational attitudes over time. Compared to the aforementioned typologies, Miller and Ewest’s perspective is much broader and their classifcation scheme contains four types, on a spectrum: • • • •
Faith-avoiding organisations suppress all forms of spirituality in the work context. Faith-safe organisations adhere to legal minimum standards regarding religious freedom and non-discrimination and tolerate diferent belief systems and their expression in the workplace within legal requirements. Faith-friendly organisations tolerate spirituality at work and recognise possible advantages of spirituality. Faith-based organisations have been founded or established in a specifc tradition of faith.
Miller and Ewest’s (2015) types of stances all refer to one comparable point in time, include religious and non-religious spirituality, embrace diferent degrees of positive or negative attitudes – and we may apply this typology to organisations, but can also adapt it for individual attitudes. However, even for Miller and Ewest’s typology, there are still two links missing to make progress with our research question: the link between individual attitudes and convictions and organisational attitudes and convictions; and the link between (individual) attitudes and convictions and the arguable basis of these attitudes and convictions.
An integrated approach of individual convictions, executive attitudes and organisational typologies The theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fischbein, 1980) assumes a positive connection between an individual’s subjective norms and attitudes and specifc behaviours and the intention to show such behaviours. Subjective norms and attitudes may result in a higher intention for a specifc behaviour, and in a second step, this leads to a higher likelihood of acting out this behaviour. We transfer this basic idea of the theory of reasoned action to the connection between infuential organisational members’ convictions concerning spirituality at work, and the emergence of certain organisational types (Figure 9.1). Giacalone and Jurkiewicz’s (2010) convictions towards spirituality at work are such subjective norms and attitudes. For instance, executives who represent adverse convictions are more likely to develop an intention to reject decisions and actions that lead to a stronger integration of spirituality into the company. So, if the attitude of oppositeness of spirituality and work is widespread among infuential people in the company (e.g., senior executives or founders), organisational stances such as faith-avoiding or faith-safe (Miller & Ewest, 2015) are more likely to occur. Thus, the organisational typology represents the organisational formation of individual convictions and attitudes of infuential executives concerning spirituality at work.
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organizatonal level
Organizatonal typologies regarding spirituality at work → Mitroff and Denton (1999)
→ Ashforth and Prat (2010)
→ Miller and Ewest (2015)
Decision (behavior) Other factors (e.g. laws on religious freedom, cultural aspects)
individual level
Decision intenton (behavioral intenton)
Fundamental convictons, behavioral beliefs, strategies of executves toward spirituality at work (subjectve norms and attudes) → Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2010) What aspects and conditons form convictons, behavioral beliefs, and strategies?
Figure 9.1 An integrative model of individuals’ convictions, executives’ attitudes and organisational typologies Source: The authors.
However, there may also be an influence in the opposite direction. An established organisational framework to deal with spirituality and religion may restrict the freedom of executives’ decisions regarding this topic, at least in the short run. For example, Tabesh and Jolly (2019) analyse execu tives’ decisions, with the decisiveness of the organisational frame influencing individual decisions. However, in the following, we only ask how individual convictions may form – before they influence organisational or employer stances in a second step. To shed more light on employers’ choices of strate gies regarding spirituality at work, we now turn to the sociology of religion.
Deriving hypotheses on the development of basic convictions and attitudes from the sociology of religion The sociology of religion relates religion to societal problems such as inte gration, compensation for harm, dealing with the uncontrollable, and to the fundamental transcendence needs of people and their satisfaction in a secularised and individualised world (Kaufmann, 2001). For each bundle
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of arguments, we derive hypotheses on employer convictions, attitudes and emerging strategies (for an in-depth overview on the sociology of religion, see Knoblauch, 1999; Pickel, 2011).
The integration function of religion One of Emile Durkheim’s overarching research questions is how collectivity or a collective order is possible under the conditions of a high societal division of labour and increasing individualisation in modern societies (Knoblauch, 1999; Pickel, 2011). He analyses how a society is integrated and what ‘glues together’ a society that consists of autonomous individuals. Contracts and exchange relationships connect individuals, however, they need a normative basis that ensures that people experience the rules of exchange as more or less binding and that individuals are – with a positive and signifcant likelihood – willing to fulfl contracts (Pickel, 2011). In Durkheim’s perspective, religion is part of the normative basis of society, part of the ‘glue’ that integrates societies (Knoblauch, 1999). Religion – as a specifc system of convictions and practices that relate to holy and transcendent aspects of life – integrates all persons who belong to it into a community. Visible religious signs represent this community, and shared rituals and practices serve the need for meaning and community. Religious values and visions represent ideals that have not yet come into being but are alternative drafts of the ‘profane’ and of everyday life, motivating change and the improvement of the ‘profane’ and everyday life (Pickel, 2011). Thus, in Durkheim’s view, a shared religion may have integrative functions for a society. Such integration, a feeling of we and a commitment to shared rules and aims, is relevant for frms and employers too. For instance, team building and identity formation processes are often important in frms. Further, frms’ cultures and the normative orientations and feelings of community may simply have long been a topic of HRM and organisational research (Hofstede, 1998; Schein, 2010). Feelings of community and integration in a team and in the frm may improve employee well-being, commitment and job satisfaction. Thus, frms may embrace a feeling of community and belonging together and, therefore, the integrative function of religion. However, only very seldom will all, or most of a German frm’s employees, belong to the same religion. More often, there is a broad mixture of persons with secular attitudes and those with diferent religious and spiritual attitudes. In a spiritually mixed workforce, religion’s integrative function relates to small groups of employees only, but not to the frm’s staf in total. It may even foster the formation of subgroups as well as confict and discrimination between them. Thus, we hypothesise that the expectation that religious spirituality will help to integrate staf will more likely develop for frms with a religiously
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homogeneous staf. For frms with a spiritually heterogeneous staf, negative efects (subgroup formation, conficts) will be expected with higher probability for religious spirituality at work, while the expectations regarding non-religious spirituality at work will likely be neutral.
The compensating functions of religion Some concepts in the sociology of religion attribute specifc compensation functions to religion. Two prominent concepts are Marx’s argument of religion as the opium of the people and Luhmann’s argument of religion as a way to compensate for uncertainty and contingency in life (Pickel, 2011). In Marx’s view, religion strengthens persons’ ability to endure and their acceptance of unfair treatment, harm and sufering, because in his perspective religious people believe that harm and unfairness they sufer will be ofset by eternal life after death (Pickel, 2011). If religion fosters and nurtures such faith, it could help to bring staf to accept unfair or hard-working conditions, function in a steep hierarchy without decision autonomy, and endure a very uneven distribution of wages and income. If so, employers who provide precarious or very hard and unfair working conditions, or very uneven income distributions between employees, may more likely develop a positive attitude concerning religious spirituality at work. However, as religion may give employees a set of values and an individual orientation directed at powers higher than the frm’s hierarchical leader (e.g., God, Jesus, Allah, Hashem, Buddha or the universe) the “net efect of religion” on employee behaviours does not seem clear at all. While religion may increase one’s capacity to bear sufering and harm, it may also increase the potential for resistance and a move towards freedom. Religion may also foster resistance against man-made hierarchies, may bring about an increased awareness of human dignity and may drive a move towards freedom in this new-found dignity. It is hard to assess which of these qualities or compensation functions of religion predominates in which situation. We cannot derive a clear hypothesis from Marx’s argument on religion as the opium of the people. But then, it is plausible that employers will also not have a clear picture whether religion has supportive or disruptive functions concerning frms’ hierarchies and working conditions. A positive likelihood that religion’s hierarchydisruptive quality prevails may be enough to induce negative or cautious employer attitudes against religious spirituality in a frm. Thus, we expect that, in more hierarchical frms, the leaders’ and employers’ stance on religious spirituality will likely be more negative or avoidant than in less hierarchical frms. Luhmann (1977) and Luhmann and Kieserling (2000) focused on another compensation function type of religion: In his view, religion is a way to
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compensate for (or cope with) contingency in life. In his approach, religion has the central function of increasing confdence in the meanings of contingent situations and events – situations and events that “are as they are, but do not have to be as they are” (Pickel, 2011). Contingency and complexity interact with each other; complexity hinders or complicates understanding and cognitive processing of life events. Thus, individuals who face contingent and non-understandable or non-controllable situations (Huppenbauer, 2008) in life events may fnd it hard to fnd meaning in these events. Religion may help them to fnd a symbolic and emotional answer to Unverfügbarkeit (the uncontrollable) (Huppenbauer, 2008). In this view, religion is the societal subsystem that is responsible for processing contingency and developing meaning, despite complex, contingent and often non-understandable events and situations. However, in Luhmann’s thinking, each subsystem may have functional equivalents and may therefore lose its collective function by replacement. If there is low contingency, or if individuals cope with contingency by means other than religion, people do not any longer need religion. In the economic sphere, there are many functional equivalents to religion in coping with such contingencies, for instance, risk management systems, insurance contracts, fnancial transactions, hedging risks and a broad distribution of fnancial investments of the frm’s owners. However, with a high probability, functional equivalents to religion are unable to transform the uncontrollable completely into the controllable. Some level of uncontrollability will remain (Huppenbauer, 2008). Applied to our research question, the level of contingencies and contingent life events or the level of Unverfügbarkeit (Huppenbauer, 2008) in a frm’s environment, as well as the availability of functional equivalents of religion to cope with contingencies, should infuence managers’ individual convictions and attitudes to religious spirituality. Many frms operate in environments with a high volatility and complexity that may combine to situations with high contingency and uncontrollability, for instance, if there is high volatility in buying and selling markets, with the ever-faster development of new technologies and a high rate of change in product specifcations, customer demands and parameters of competition. We expect a more positive attitude to religious spirituality with higher contingencies and uncontrollability in frms’ environments and a more neutral or negative attitude with lower contingencies and/or with a broader spread of (diferent types of) risk management instruments in a frm. The spread of such instruments will vary with specifc company characteristics, such as size and sector. For instance, larger frms often have a more professionalised risk management systems than smaller ones, and fnancial institutions that specialise in risk diversifcation will generate a broader spectrum and a larger number of functional equivalents to cope with contingencies, than institutions in other branches.
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We are unable to formulate a hypothesis on non-religious spirituality, since difering spiritualities will contribute diferently to living with and managing a complex, contingent and uncontrollable environment and life.
The secularisation hypothesis The secularisation hypothesis (which is fed by diferent concepts and theories) (Knoblauch, 1999; Pickel, 2011) states that religion and modernisation are two conficting felds, and that modernisation processes decrease religion’s signifcance for societies. Authors in this feld expect progressing modernisation of Western societies to be accompanied by progressing secularisation and a decreasing importance of religion, giving multiple reasons for this efect (Pickel, 2011; Knoblauch, 1999), some of which are closely connected to the arguments discussed in previous sections: •
•
• •
•
• •
Functional diferentiation results in various independent subsystems that place into perspective the infuence of religion as a (previously very important) subsystem, for instance, in relation to the economic subsystem and its infuences. Rationalisation processes in many of these subsystems undermine trust in solutions (for worldly problems) that relate to transcendence – a trust that advocates of these rationalisation processes consider thoughtless and ‘irrational’. Industrialisation increases specialisation and thus people’s commitment to their jobs and their work – a commitment seen as opposed to religious commitment. Improving standards of living enable individuals to better control their living conditions, contingencies and uncertainty in life. Thus, individuals have many equivalents to religion as a compensating mechanism for contingencies, a process that undermines religion’s roles for society. Individualisation and pluralisation result in a shrinking signifcance of religion and thus increase doubts about religious statements or doctrines and their general validity. Thus, religion’s universal claim to validity shrinks and damages collective signifcance, as individuals must individually decide what to believe. The democratisation of societies challenges religious institutions’ authority structures, lowering their credibility. Urbanisation and the increasing importance of large cities strengthen rationalisation, undermining local and communal bases of religion.
In this perspective, we expect that employers perceive a strong decrease in religion’s societal signifcance and will thus see no or a weaker necessity to address religious spirituality. Especially in large frms with high rationalisation and in urbanised and industrial contexts as well as countries or regions
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with high standards of living, employers’ interest in spirituality at work will be low. For instance, large employers in the so-called DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) may have little or no interest to consider religious spirituality at work as part of their HRM strategy. However, the development of religious and non-religious spirituality may follow very different empirical patterns (Pickel, 2011).
The individualisation hypothesis Authors have disputed many of secularisation theory’s results and hypotheses (Luckmann, 1991; Pollack & Pickel, 1999, 2003; Knoblauch, 1999; Pickel, 2011). A prominent counterhypothesis is the individualisation hypothesis, which asks if secularisation means a decrease of importance of religious or non-religious spirituality as an individual need, a loss of signifcance of religious institutions and traditional forms of expressing spiritual identities, or both? The individualisation hypothesis’ core argument is that people always will have a need for transcendence and wholeness, and therefore for spirituality and religiosity (Kaufmann, 2001; Knoblauch, 1999; Guillén, Ferrero, & Hofman, 2015). In this view, individual transcendence or spirituality needs are stable, but the forms of living and expressing these needs may change as drastically as religious institutions that frame these expressions. Secularisation may result in a shrinking importance of specifc religious institutions. Under the individualisation hypothesis, we expect that individual needs for transcendence, meaning and community may be expressed in new and individual ways, in fresh contexts and unusual places, and that work, and workplaces could be such other contexts and places. For instance, Faigle (2012) explores the hypothesis that work is the new religion of the people, and that it usurps the importance and central functions in persons’ lives, which religion held for a long time. If so, employers must expect an increasing variety of individual attitudes to and expressions of individual forms of spirituality at work. With increasing individualisation and pluralisation of society, employers will expect increasingly varied spiritual accommodation requests from employees – as well as from customers and suppliers – and will also have to decide on a strategy concerning such requests (Miller & Ewest, 2015).
Changing suppliers of spirituality experiences: the market model of religion The market model of religion is strongly connected to the individualisation hypothesis, but it focuses on the suppliers of spiritual services. It assumes that spirituality is a basic individual need that does not lose signifcance.
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However, with increased individualisation and pluralisation, individual preferences and needs to live and express such spirituality become more heterogeneous. Thus, institutions (e.g., churches) that traditionally supply spiritual services can no longer integrate all these heterogeneous individual preferences (Finke & Stark, 2003; Iannaccone, 1992; Knoblauch, 1999). Thus, some groups of individuals search for other suppliers and services that ft their needs. The market model predicts developments with cyclical fuctuations between monopolisation of supply by some large suppliers and the growth of small competitive suppliers with niche products, who grow until they can no longer integrate the increasing heterogeneity of their members’ demands (Pickel, 2011). From this perspective, employers can act – or be requested to act – as suppliers of opportunities to express spirituality at work, taking on the role of a (religious or non-religious) spiritual supplier. With increasing individualisation and pluralisation, and traditional spiritual suppliers’ ongoing difculties to ofer attractive services, employers can choose to take on this role. If they have positive expectations of spirituality at work as an individual resource that increases employee well-being, performance, commitment, resilience and/or capability to endure, they will tend to enable employees to express their spirituality at work. However, if their negative expectations dominate, for instance, on religious subgroup formation and confict or on the ‘irrationality’ of spirituality, they will likely refrain from actively ofering opportunities to express spiritual identities at work.
Summary of hypotheses: when do we expect a positive employer stance on (religious) spirituality? We have derived some arguments on factors that further (+) or hamper (-) a positive or proactive attitude and conviction of employers towards (religious) spirituality in the workplace. These factors are: • • • • • • • •
Religiously homogeneous staf (+). High contingency and uncertainty in a frm’s environment (+). A lack of functional equivalents to religion to cope with contingency and uncertainty (+). Harsh working conditions, steep hierarchies and an uneven distribution of income (+). Perception of (religious) spirituality as an individual resource (+). Perception that religion empowers employees, strengthens political resistance against hierarchies and injustice, and furthers freedom movements (-). Intensely rationalised, large, bureaucratic frms (-). Urban areas with high development levels (-).
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Summary, limitations and research outlook We contribute to the literature on employer attitudes in MSR by developing hypotheses on their choices on the basis of the sociology of religion and the theory of reasoned action. However, there are large blanks concerning nonreligious spirituality, and our hypotheses still need to be empirically tested. Furthermore, there are some limitations in our analysis of religious spirituality, since we have not yet analysed diferences between diferent religions. Instead, we base our analysis on a Judeo-Christian background and argue from a perspective of German frms. We focused on Germany, a country imprinted by Christianity in the west (Protestant in the north, Catholic in the south) and by high secularisation in the east (Pickel, 2011). This could be important, since the answers religions give in relation to, for example, contingencies in life, hardships, inequality, injustice, freedom and dependency, may difer strongly. Thus, our hypotheses may have to be diferentiated between diferent religions or diferent strands of non-religious spirituality. As cultures are strongly interwoven with religious and spiritual ideas, this insight points to a cultural diferentiation of our hypotheses, and the answers to our research questions may difer between countries or between cultural spheres. Comparisons between regions and countries and concerning dominant religions and non-religious spiritual ideas, could be fruitful for further research into employers’ attitudes.
References Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social Behaviour (Pbk. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Alewell, D., & Moll, T. (2018). Spiritualität am Arbeitsplatz: ein Thema auch für die Personalarbeit in Deutschland? (Spirituality in the workplace: A topic for HRM in Germany?). In H. Surrey & V. A. Tiberius (Eds.), Die Zukunft des Personalmanagements: Herausforderungen, Lösungsansätze und Gestaltungsoptionen (pp. 33–46). Zürich, Switzerland: Vdf Hochschulverlag AG. Alewell, D., & Moll, T. (2019). Religion, Religiosität und Spiritualität am Arbeitsplatz in deutschen Unternehmen. (Religion, religiosity and spirituality in the workplace in German companies). In D. Alewell & W. Matiaske (Eds.), Standards guter Arbeit: Disziplinäre Positionen und interdisziplinäre Perspektiven (1st ed., pp. 107–138). Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845299310-107 Alewell, D., & Moll, T. (2020, in review). Spirituality at German workplaces – taking stock of what we (don’t) know. Ashforth, B. E., & Pratt, M. (2010). Institutionalised spirituality: An oxymoron. In R. A. Giacalone & C. L. Jurkiewicz (Eds.), Handbook of workplace spirituality and organisational performance (pp. 44–58). London: Routledge. Ashmos, D. P., & Duchon, D. (2000). Spirituality at work. Journal of Management Inquiry, 9(2), 134–145. Benefel, M., Fry, L. W., & Geigle, D. (2014). Spirituality and religion in the workplace: History, theory, and research. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 175–187.
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Luhmann, N., & Kieserling, A. (2000). Die Religion der Gesellschaft [The religion of society] (Vol. 1581). Berlin, Germany: Suhrkamp. Mazumdar, S., & Mazumdar, S. (2005). How organisations interface with religion: A typology. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion. 2(2), 199–220. Miller, D. W., & Ewest, T. (2013). The present state of workplace spirituality: A literature review considering context, theory, and measurement/assessment. Journal of Religious & Theological Information, 12(1–2), 29–54. Miller, D. W., & Ewest, T. (2015). A new framework for analysing organisational workplace religion and spirituality. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 12(4), 305–328. Mitrof, I. I., & Denton, E. A. (1999). A study of spirituality in the workplace. Sloan Management Review, 40(4), 83–92. Moll, T. (2017). Spiritualität, Religiosität und Religion am Arbeitsplatz: eine explorative empirische Untersuchung in deutschen Unternehmen [Spirituality, religiosity and religion in the workplace: An exploratory empirical study in German companies] (Master thesis). University of Hamburg, Hamburg. Moll, T. (2020, in review). Spirituality at work: Development of German-language scales. Personalmagazin. (2018, July). Gute Führung heißt, die Menschen zu achten und aufzurichten [Good leadership means to respect and empower people]. Interview by Daniela Furkel with Anselm Grün and Bodo Janssen. Personalmagazin, 20–24. Pickel, G. (2011). Religionssoziologie: Eine Einführung in zentrale Themenbereiche [Sociology of religion: An introduction to central topics]. (1. Auf.). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-92823-4 Pollack, D., & Pickel, G. (1999). Individualisierung und religiöser Wandel in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [Individualisation and religious change in the Federal Republic of Germany]. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 28(6), 465–483. Pollack, D., & Pickel, G.(2003). Deinstitutionalisierung des Religiösen und Religiöse Individualisierung in Ost- und Westdeutschland [Deinstitutionalisation of the Religious, and Religious Individualisation in East and West Germany]. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (KZfSS), 55(3), 447–474. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organisational culture and leadership (4th ed.). The JosseyBass business & management series. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Tabesh, P., & Jolly, P. M. (2019). Beyond the law: Processes underlying religious accommodation decisions. Management Decision, 57(5), 1254–1266.
10 Normativity in practice: Governance in secular and faith-based non-proft organisations Helen Cameron Faith may direct what you do You may choose to be secular too Whatever your creed You’ll get what you seed Godfrey Take care to decide what is true D’Lima
Introduction My fascination for the topic of governance comes from encountering it from several diferent perspectives both as an academic and a practitioner. Teaching students working in non-proft, and in particular, faith-based organisations (FBOs) made me aware not only of the huge variety of governance arrangements but also their importance for the identity, strategic direction and probity of organisations. This led me to write about governance drawing upon questions raised by students (Cameron, Richter, Davies, & Ward, 2005; Cameron, 2010, 2015). I have actively sought opportunities to serve on boards and governing bodies and these have included academic associations, a trade body and a large faith-based charity. I have also served as an interim company secretary for a non-proft housing corporation. My inquiry-based approach to practice (Marshall, 2016) has led me to keep asking whether normative beliefs play a decisive role in organisational governance, and if they do, how this works out in practice. This chapter will help to explore that question. Finding out what scholars have researched and written about organisational governance can be challenging (Bevir, 2012). As well as generic writing about management, the private, public and non-proft sectors each have their own specifc literatures. The discipline of organisational studies draws on a wider range of social theory to look at the social, economic and political impact of organisations, and the culture and power relationships within them (Ref Pedersen & Humle, 2016). There are, in addition, other disciplines that take an interest in organisational governance because of its boundary-spanning role between an organisation and its environment. I am writing as a practical theologian meaning that I am interested both in what
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people believe and how that belief is manifest in what they do (Cameron, 2010). In this chapter, I start by arguing that mission and polity, which is the term used within the Church to describe the settled ways by which authority is exercised, are particularly problematic for non-proft organisations and then make the case that FBOs have a further layer of complexity. I show how an approach developed with colleagues – Theological Action Research, can help engage with this complexity (Cameron, Bhatti, Duce, Sweeney, & Watkins, 2010). The main part of the chapter takes the two issues raised at the beginning and explores them by drawing upon my current research into my own practice in governance in two organisations that I will name with pseudonyms, Solidity and Solutions. It also draws upon the research of other scholars. I will look in turn at, organisational purpose and regulatory compliance. I then attempt to draw together the learning about the place of normativity in governance. Finally, I ofer some ideas for further research and some conclusions.
Problematising mission and polity All organisations rely upon the support and cooperation of those who have a stake in their work (Murdock, 2010). This includes not only those who consume or use what they produce but also those who fund them, work for them and provide goods and services to them. Some of these stakeholders can directly verify the claims made by the organisation, others have to take these claims on trust. Sometimes the social trust needed by organisations is described as their reputation, but it can run deeper than that with stakeholders deciding how much of their time, money and identity to invest in an organisation (Verducci & Schröer, 2010). Social trust is fragile and even organisations that can seem unassailable can be undermined if their stakeholders feel that their investment is diminished or tarnished (King & Crewe, 2013; Madeley, 1999). In most societies there is some legal form by which assets can be held ‘in trust’ by non-proft organisations. Often this is through incorporation, which indemnifes trustees (Stapleton, 2010). This means that the board is not answerable to owners but to the objectives for which the assets are held and those objectives must be in the public interest, which may include religion, not in the interest of the board or its employees. Many non-proft boards seek the input of current and intended benefciaries, donors, volunteers and employees. However, in the end, it is their responsibility to take a view on the strategy that best steers the organisation in relation to its purpose in its current environment. Whereas customers of a company can take their business elsewhere and voters can vote out politicians, the benefciaries of non-proft organisations rarely have any leverage over the board which makes them particularly vulnerable to being ignored. Even globally respected non-proft organisations can have boards that give insufcient
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weight to the interests of benefciaries and so undermine the trust placed in them by society to deploy the assets in the interests of benefciaries (Loy, 2017). This failure of governance only usually becomes evident when a scandal is uncovered by the media (Charity Commission, 2019). However, this is a blunt instrument unlikely to fnd the real balance between public beneft and dis-beneft (McDonnell & Rutherford, 2018). Irrespective of organisational form, most developed societies are now highly regulated and so the demands of several regulators also shape how benefciaries are served. This can include regulators specifc to the sector (e.g., fundraising regulators) or those applicable to all sectors (e.g., health and safety). A failure to comply with regulatory requirements can diminish the trust of an organisation in the eyes of its stakeholders. However, there is an information asymmetry with donors and funders more likely to be aware of regulatory failure than benefciaries, reinforcing the possibility that the board will be less attuned to their voice (Rast, Younes, Smets, & Ghorashi, 2019). It can be tempting to see this variety in the non-proft sector as confusing and in need of simplifcation. I would argue that each organisational form refects a liberty granted to citizens in a democratic society. These include the freedom to organise for shared purposes, the freedom to give to causes the society accepts to be of public beneft and the freedom to provide goods and services to citizens who could not access them by other means. Retaining public trust in non-proft organisations underpins these freedoms. Now I want to look at the further complexities that arise in FBOs where the issue of beliefs and values is an explicit factor.
Complexifying mission and polity in FBOs FBOs are usually rooted in a particular religious faith and often in a particular branch of that faith (Bielefeld & Cleveland, 2013; Schneider, 2013). The community that practices that faith will be a stakeholder in the organisation’s work and so the board will want to secure the trust of that community. How this is achieved may be afected by the role that faith community plays. It may be that the community are primarily donors, employees, members, benefciaries, or in some cases a mix of all these groups. This will afect how the voices of the community reach the board and what the board does to secure their ongoing trust. A further complexity arises from the way in which religious traditions may have shaped the polity of the organisation. The assumption in law is that non-proft organisations are governed by rational-bureaucratic authority derived from following laws, rules, regulations and procedures. However, two further forms of authority can be found in FBOs (Weber, 1922; Morgan, 2006). First, traditional authority which derives its power from the interpretation of a body of religious teaching (Pope & Bromley, 2019). Second, charismatic authority which is invested in an individual who is seen
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as having particular gifts, which mobilise others in a common endeavour (Hernandez & Leslie, 2001). Whereas in a bureaucratic organisation the more senior the manager, the more power they will have to determine how the organisation’s remit is enacted, in a traditional organisation all participants will have access to the texts of the tradition meaning their interpretation of the tradition may afect both what they do and how they do it. Many FBOs are run by, or have been founded by people recognised as having charismatic authority. They have often mobilised people and resources to respond to a problem in a specifc way and so their worldview characterises the way the organisation is run. FBOs which seek to engage with the state and the market will have little choice but to adopt the features of rational-bureaucratic authority, but they often retain elements of traditional and charismatic authority. This can add to the complexity of governance as there are parallel sets of assumptions both about the sources of authority and how authority is to be exercised (see later discussion of Foley, 2019). Most faith traditions have beliefs about authority which become embedded in the way they work. In the Christian tradition there is a diversity of polities from those that are hierarchical and vest power in clergy, to those that are egalitarian and rely upon all adherents meeting together to reach decisions (Warner, 2006). FBOs often carry some assumptions based on a polity into their way of organising, for example, deferring to a bishop or refusing to make a decision until all agree it is the way forward. Beliefs and values can be manifest in several ways in the governance of FBOs. Authorised representatives of the faith concerned may be present on the board. Sometimes all board members will have to be adherents of the faith and where employment law allows, this may be extended to senior, or indeed all employees. The faith commitments of the organisation may be articulated in a statement to which all organisational participants are asked to give assent as a condition of their participation, or there may be spiritual practices that form part of organisational life. There may be an expectation that the faith community in which the organisation is rooted, is regarded as one of its ‘publics’, whose views needed to be sought and whose trust needs to be secured (Loy, 2017; Cameron, 2004). Having argued that mission and polity pose particular problems for the non-proft sector and that the explicit role of faith in FBOs adds further complexity, I now want to discuss a way of thinking about beliefs and values, which has proved helpful in engaging with the role faith plays.
Working with norms From 2007 to 2010, I was part of a research team that developed a new approach to understanding the role played by theology, or ‘talk about God’, in the practices of Christians engaged in outreach beyond the church. The resulting approach called Theological Action Research was written up in the book Talking about God in Practice (Cameron et al., 2010) and the
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approach has been used and developed in a range of church contexts internationally (Ideström & Kaufman, 2018; Watkins, 2020). The research team started by listening for the presence of theology in the conversations of groups as they planned, executed and refected upon research they undertook into their own practice. As with all action research, the aim was to support practitioners in developing practices that were important to them. However, the project also sought to respond to a request from practitioners that they become better able to articulate the beliefs shaping their practice. Working with 12 diferent groups we discerned that theology was speaking in four diferent voices. The operant voice was the theology embedded in the practices and which became evident to the practitioners as they read the data generated by their research. The espoused voice was the theology contained in the public statements they made about their work, such as annual reports, mission statements and websites. The normative voice was the theology contained in the sources they regarded as authoritative. These sources varied according to which part of the Christian tradition they came from, for example, Catholic organisations would see papal encyclicals as authoritative, evangelical organisations would see the bible as authoritative. The fourth voice was the formal voice that was contained in academic sources they referred to, which could include theology or other disciplines. Through listening to their conversations, we discerned that participants’ discourse usually contained all four voices. Sometimes these voices informed each other, sometimes there was confusion between them, and they spoke past each other. Practitioners would express concern when they identifed that what they said about what they did (espoused voice), was not consistent with what their research told them about their practice (operant voice). In some settings, practitioners were quick to turn to authoritative sources (normative voice), to resolve those tensions, in other settings it was less clear how the authority of their tradition might be exercised. Some practitioners felt able to challenge the normative voice of tradition when it seemed to constrain valuable insights from practice, others saw deference to the tradition as part of their faith stance. It was evident that these four voices were not discrete, and each contained resonances of the other. Separating out four diferent ways in which the faith tradition is present has helped to tease out the nature of its authority and how that authority is enacted. This in turn has fed into a wider theological debate about normativity and the ways in which theology not only describes and analyses, but reaches judgements (Wigg-Stevenson, 2015). This is relevant for the study of governance and the practices of boards as they not only gather and analyse information but need to reach judgements about the strategy of the organisation. In FBOs, there is the danger that beliefs and values are insufciently articulated or that their authority is exercised in ways that are parallel to, but not integrated into, the workings of the board. This can make the tradition impotent, or it can make it
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beyond question, both of which are detrimental to the organisation’s ability to enact its mission.
Two issues in governance In this section, I want to explore two issues that illustrate the complexity of governance in FBOs and in doing so take us closer to the issues involved in working with the normative authority of beliefs and values. For each issue, I will ofer an example from my own research and an example from the research of others. In my own research I am developing some autoethnographic refections contrasting my experiences of governance in a faith-based non-proft organisation, Solutions, and in a secular non-proft housing provider, Solidity, both in the UK. One of the purposes of this research is to identify in what ways faith contributes to the normativity present in governance.
Organisational purpose A key role for the board of an organisation is maintaining focus on the organisation’s purpose and where necessary, amending that purpose, in response to a changing environment (Torry, 2014). My research Solidity received a consistent afrmation of its purpose from government policy, its regulator and its lenders: build more houses to overcome the shortage of housing available to those who cannot aford to rent or purchase on the open market. Essential to that purpose was to maintain the value of its existing housing stock through good maintenance and management. Board meetings refected those priorities. While working as company secretary, the regulator removed the requirement for tenants and local politicians to be represented on the board. The executive directors felt that the systems they had in place for getting feedback from tenants on their interactions with Solidity were more efective than ‘representative’ voices at board level. A tragedy, leading to loss of life in social housing in another part of the country, caused government and the regulator to reprioritise the maintenance and management of property as essential to tenants’ quality of life. The board of Solidity instigated a review of its efectiveness in listening to tenants. Thus, the board responded to strong signals from external bodies that priority should be given to tenant voice, even as direct representation of tenant and public voice was phased out. At Solutions, board members expressed a variety of views about the balance between religious and social purposes in the organisation. A major reorganisation intentionally provided the opportunity for operational departments to work in an integrated way, that envisioned benefciaries as a
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holistic blend of physical, mental and spiritual dimensions. This integrated approach was embraced by some, but rejected by others, who saw it as yet further internal secularisation of the organisation’s mission. It was difcult for the board and senior executives to ensure an even adoption of an integrated approach to mission because of variant readings of the organisation’s beliefs. Case study In a sociological study, Jason Davies-Kildea (2017) describes the confict between the evangelical and social service purposes of The Salvation Army in Australia. By interviewing ofcers (clergy) working in diferent parts of the organisation, he identifes two diferent approaches to the organisation’s mission, ‘transmissional’ and ‘transformational’. The ‘transmissional’ approach is centred in the more conservative and institutionalised segments of the church. Its name stems from the idea that the essential missional task is to transmit the faith of previous generations to the following ones. For about half of the twentieth century, the transmissional approach can be seen to have worked to stabilise and nurture young Salvationists in their parents’ faith. The approach represents the more sectarian side of the church, emphasising separation and distinction from ‘the world’. (Davies-Kildea, 2017, p. 172) The ‘transformational’ approach, on the other hand, refects the focus on external stakeholders common to most social service programmes. This approach is more open to its social context and therefore can more easily embrace social change. It locates itself in the world, with a view to making positive change, but is mutually changed by its own social circumstances. It accepts secularisation as a partner, rather than seeing it as the enemy. (Davies-Kildea, 2017, p. 173) Davies-Kildea shows that because the senior leaders who sit on the board of the organisation are more orientated to the transmissional approach, the transformational approach that engages with the changing religious and social environment sends signals from the environment that the board does not recognise and so does not act upon, when refning the organisational mission. Conclusion In Solidity, the need to engage with tenants was signalled not only by its business model but by signals from its regulator which then fed into the way the
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board monitored staf. In Solutions, a change to integrated ways of working, promulgated by the board met with variable implementation because some managers prioritised their own reading of the organisation’s beliefs. Davies-Kildea highlights how the board’s own understanding of espoused beliefs can flter which environmental signals they attend to. The ability of the board to articulate what is normative might open these blockages.
Compliance A key element of governance is ensuring that the organisation is compliant within its legal and regulatory environment so that it can pursue its purposes (Harrow & Phillips, 2013). My research When working for Solidity, I was responsible for supporting the meetings of the Audit and Risk Committee. This Committee received reports on all aspects of legal, fnancial and regulatory compliance. The Executive Directors were questioned on the reports and if areas of concern were raised then the Committee could request a ‘deep dive’ involving access to a greater level of detail to ensure that systems were robust both in logging performance and ensuring that concerns were followed up and resolved. This level of scrutiny was seen as essential to the reputation of the organisation with its regulators and funders. Some of the areas in which the Committee needed to seek assurance were technical and so they were keen to meet the managers with direct responsibility, rather than have the performance information mediated by a paper report, or an Executive Director. This Committee reported to every Board meeting, where the full board could question its work. This level of scrutiny produced a good level of traction throughout the organisation with a premium being placed on staf, who could accurately maintain records and ensure that issues were identifed and resolved in a timely manner. Solutions was a much larger and more complex organisation. Some aspects of its work were highly regulated and so sub-cultures of compliance developed, not unlike those at Solidity. Other parts of its work were more informal and attracted staf who were people-orientated and so more resistant to record-keeping. Their understanding of timeliness related to the needs of the client, rather than reporting timetables. For example, the level of regulatory compliance needed to keep a community building open was burdensome. The complexity of the organisation meant that it was difcult for the Board to directly oversee compliance leaving much to Executive Directors and the way they ran their departments. Successive attempts at employing a Risk Manager, using risk monitoring software and training courses eventually resulted in a new approach with a senior manager appraising regulatory risk across the organisation and setting priorities for scrutiny. I was unclear
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whether resistance to regulatory activity was due to organisation size and complexity, or whether there was a reading of beliefs and values that saw relationships as more protective of clients, than complicated procedures. Case study The reality and prevalence of child sex abuse across many organisations both secular and faith-based has been a focus of scrutiny over the last 20 years. Many countries have established Commissions of enquiry to establish why institutions have resisted referring instances of abuse to civil authorities and behaved in self-protective ways. Tom Foley, a professor of law, has written about the Australian Commission and in particular its criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, in whose residential care institutions a signifcant proportion of the abuse took place (Foley, 2019). In his discussion of the Australian Commission fndings, Foley quotes Cardinal George Pell comparing the protective stance taken by the Catholic churches internal legal system of canon law which prevented claims being taken up in the civil courts with the ‘Christian point of view’ which accepted that its actions were unfair against complainants. This response compares two models of authority and suggests that the Church’s operant actions were in tension with its espoused Christian beliefs. Foley goes on to argue that a credible threat of punishment and externally imposed mechanisms of redress, do not, on their own, change the culture of the church. He cites the positive example of the Australian Defence Force which required senior ofcers to meet with victims of sexual abuse, listen to the story of the complainant, accept that the abuse had occurred and that the Defence Force was accountable for the harm caused. The cumulative efect of such listening was to produce a cadre of senior ofcers committed to cultural change. The polity of the Catholic Church, with its own legal system of canon law, created a parallel version of authority that legitimised keeping cases of abuse from civil investigation. The unitary authority of the Australian Defence Forces, meant that once a new model of engagement with abuse victims was authorised, cultural change followed. Conclusion Attitudes to compliance can reveal whether the organisation sits predominantly within the rational-bureaucratic authority of the state, or whether there is a parallel model of authority that also has a claim on its decisionmaking. Efective compliance requires strong traction between the signals from the governing board that compliance is important, backed up by efective internal sanctions for non-compliance. However, for such signals to be efective, the board needs to articulate the relationship between the normativity of religious authority and that of secular law. Otherwise, those
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expected to implement regulation lack an espoused theology of governance to guide them. In this section, I have raised two issues to highlight the consequences of beliefs and values and the way in which they are articulated and so available for debate.
Learning about normativity from these two issues My intention in presenting the research in the previous section has been to identify how the articulation of norms and the authority given to them is an integral part of the work of boards. However, my evaluation is that this is rarely done, or if it is done, it is in response to external pressure such as the Commission described by Foley (2019). Boards need to understand how the values they espouse on behalf of the organisation are being enacted and where there are tensions between the operant and espoused voices. The complexities of governance mean that boards need to take account of several stakeholders. More than listening to multiple stakeholders whose needs must be balanced, boards need to be able to articulate normative ideas, understand how they are transmitted and interpreted, and recognise the limits to their interpretative authority. Where there are parallel structures of religious authority, they need to understand how that authority is exercised in governance structures. The risks of failing to do this may be a failure to accommodate the assumptions of bureaucratic rationality embedded in civil law (employment law), contractual relationships with the state and regulatory standards.
Ideas for further research Most management studies of governance assume a top-down perspective and rely upon board members as informants or observation of the dynamics of board meetings. This approach was open to me when refecting upon my practice at Solidity. At Solutions, I had to study governance from a bottom-up perspective, relying upon observations of the impact of board decisions on the working of the organisation. It is also possible to negotiate access to study an organisation as an outsider and that is likely to trigger insights by virtue of the researcher coming from outside the organisation’s embedded beliefs and values. Identifying your point of view, both academically and in relation to the organisation, are valuable starting points before proceeding to identify a research question. Being clear about whether the judgements you reach about what you fnd are for academic or organisational purposes, or both, can avoid confusion about your identity and purpose as a researcher.
Conclusion In this chapter, I have drawn upon my experience both as an academic and practitioner in governance. I have tried to show how important governance
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is in defning the mission and working within the polity of non-proft organisations. I have argued that FBOs have a further layer of complexity arising from their explicit allegiance to religious norms and values. I have proposed the ‘four voices of theology’ as a way of surfacing the role played by beliefs and enabling the board to discuss their interpretation of beliefs, and the authority they give them in their decision-making. I concluded that with organisational purpose, a theological conversation was needed at board level to better articulate the conficting interpretations of purpose in order to ofer employees a rationale for adopting one interpretation over another. With the issue of regulatory compliance, I identifed that FBOs place a premium on interpersonal relationships that can result in a negative attitude to record-keeping and reporting. This was evident by reading the operant theology of risk management practices. More thorough discussions at board level could then have discerned how this ftted with normative beliefs about social justice and the intrinsic worth of each individual. For faith to be a meaningful element of an FBO, the board need to be able to articulate norms, reading both what the organisation does and what it says about itself. In concluding, I want to suggest that although the role of normativity is most evident in FBOs, and the consequences of failing to engage with it are most stark, in fact all organisations have beliefs and values that shape their work with normative power. Boards that are unable to engage with the role such normativity plays in their deliberations, are weakened in their ability to sustain trust, develop the mission and respond appropriately to regulation within their polity. Weakened boards weaken the enactment of the liberties available to citizens in a democratic society to organise for the public beneft and to practice their beliefs in the public domain.
References Bevir, M. (2012). Governance: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bielefeld, W., & Cleveland, W. S. (2013). Defning faith-based organisations and understanding them through research. Nonproft and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 42(3), 442–467. Cameron, H. (2004). Typology of religious characteristics of social service and educational organisations and programs – a European response. Nonproft and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33(1), 146–150. Cameron, H. (2010). Resourcing mission: Practical theology for changing churches. London: SCM Press. Cameron, H. (2015). Just mission: Practical politics for local churches. London: SCM Press. Cameron, H., Bhatti, D., Duce, C., Sweeney, J., & Watkins, C. (2010). Talking about god in practice: Theological action research and practical theology. London: SCM Press.
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Cameron, H., Richter, P., Davies, D., & Ward, F. (Eds.). (2005). Studying local churches: A handbook. London: SCM Press. Charity Commission. (2019). Statement of the results of an inquiry into Oxfam. London: Charity Commission. Davies-Kildea, J. (2017). The salvation army and the social gospel: Reconciling evangelical intent and social concern (PhD thesis). Monash University. Foley, T. (2019). Changing institutional culture in the wake of clerical abuse – the essentials of restorative and legal regulation. Contemporary Justice Review, 22(2), 171–187. Harrow, J., & Phillips, S. D. (2013). Corporate governance and nonprofts facing up to hybridisation and homogenisation. In D. M. Wright, D. S. Siegel, K. Keasey, & I. Filatotchev (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of corporate governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hernandez, C. M., & Leslie, D. R. (2001). Charismatic leadership. Nonproft Management and Leadership, 11(4), 493–497. Ideström, J., & Kaufman, T. S. (2018). The researcher as gamemaker – response. In J. Ideström & T. S. Kaufman (Eds.), What really matters: Scandinavian perspectives on ecclesiology and ethnography. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications. King, A., & Crewe, I. (2013). The blunders of our governments. London: Oneworld Publications. Loy, C. (2017). Development beyond the secular. London: SCM Press. Madeley, J. (1999). Big business, poor peoples: The impact of transnational corporations on the world’s poor. London: Zed Books. Marshall, J. (2016). First person action research. London: Sage. McDonnell, D., & Rutherford, A. C. (2018). The determinants of charity misconduct. Nonproft and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(1), 107–125. Morgan, G. (2006). Images of organisation (3rd ed.). London: Sage. Murdock, A. (2010). Stakeholders. In H. K. Anheier & S. Toepler (Eds.), International encyclopedia of civil society (pp. 1478–1482). New York, NY: Springer. Pope, S., & Bromley, P. (2019). Management ideas and the social construction of organisations. In A. Sturdy, S. Heusinkveld, T. Reay, & D. Strang (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of management ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rast, M. C., Younes, Y., Smets, P., & Ghorashi, H. (2019). The resilience potential of diferent refugee reception approaches taken during the ‘refugee crisis’ in Amsterdam. Current Sociology. Published online. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0011392119830759 Ref Pedersen, A., & Humle, D. (Eds.). (2016). Doing organisational ethnography. London: Routledge. Schneider, J. A. (2013). Introduction to the symposium: Faith-based organisations in context. Nonproft and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 42(3), 431–441. Stapleton, D. H. (2010). Trusteeship. In H. K. Anheier & S. Toepler (Eds.), International encyclopedia of civil Society (pp. 1571–1575). New York, NY: Springer. Torry, M. (2014). Managing religion: The management of Christian religious and faith-based organisations: 1. London: AIAA. Verducci, S., & Schröer, A. (2010). Social trust. In H. K. Anheier & S. Toepler (Eds.), International encyclopedia of civil society (pp. 1453–1458). New York, NY: Springer. Warner, R. (2006). Pluralism and voluntarism in the English religious economy. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 21(3), 389–404.
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Watkins, C. (2020). Disclosing church: An ecclesiology learned through conversations in practice. London: Routledge. Weber, M. (1922/1980). The three types of legitimate rule. In A. Etzioni & E. Lehman (Eds.), A sociological reader on complex organisations (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Holt, Reinhart and Winston. Wigg-Stevenson, N. (2015). From proclamation to conversation: Ethnographic disruptions to theological normativity. Palgrave Communications, 1, 15024. https:// doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2015.24
11 Faith is not negotiable: The importance of religious diversity in organisations Anett Hermann and Christiane Erten
Oh, many are faiths to believe Not easy to fnd the right sieve To flter the best Or fnd the right test Godfrey To partition the weeds from the sheaf D’Lima
Introduction Managing diversity has become more or less mandatory in globally operating organisations and increasingly important for the success of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Nowadays, this is also true for Germanspeaking countries. Market developments, global business models, company mergers and acquisitions, as well as international corporate governance, determine the competitive situation. Internally, there is an increasing heterogeneity in the composition of the workforce, either subconsciously or consciously. Organisations design teams heterogeneously in order to cover external diversity – customers, suppliers and clients. Armitage (2007) shows the connection between internal police teams and external social developments related to cultural and religious diversity within groups. However, religious diversity receives comparatively little attention both within the Diversity Management Studies and on a practical level (Alewell & Moll, 2019; Gambosevic, 2017; Weaver & Bradley, 2002). This is related to several aspects: 1. The concept of religion is associated with a strong symbolic connotation; this and the diversity of ideological positions often leads to incomprehension, and irritation and is based on ignorance (Riesebrodt, 2007). 2. The category includes characteristic traits of heterogeneity at two levels: ‘deep level’ and ‘surface level’ characteristics. Both are often diffcult to classify. ‘Surface level’ means gender, skin colour and clothing. ‘Deep level’ characteristics are personality factors and behaviour such
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as dealing with women or homosexuality. Beliefs and values cannot always be easily identifed in symbols, artefacts and rituals. 3. Religious diversity is always cross-sectionally linked to other categories of diversity. Gender, ethnicity, skin colour, language, sexuality, etc. directly afect the topic and have an impact on social interactions. At the same time, there is an impact on qualifcations, feld of work, job content, function and classifcation, for example, the acceptance of women in management positions. 4. Geographical and geopolitical classifcations play a major role in stereotypical attributions to religions. Social acceptance of certain religions depends on culturally shaped prejudices and stereotypes, which are subject to dynamic changes. 5. Recognition and appreciation of a religion requires a proximity to one’s own cultural values and norms. Stereotypes and prejudices hinder mutual acquaintance, knowledge generation, and thus productive cooperation. The diferent ways of looking at the category ‘religion/belief’ within the dimensions of diversity make the topic very complex. Precise defnitions or demarcations are difcult. In addition, diferent organisational strategies come into play, which must be analysed in connection with the cultural and organisational contexts. Although most companies seem to treat diferent faiths on the basis of anti-discrimination guidelines equally, the importance of the issue is neglected in German-speaking countries. As soon as religion is not an implicit part of the organisation (e.g., in the non-proft sector), the debate moves towards rejection of the “remains of a pre-scientifc age, an infantile illusion or a romantic escapism” (Riesebrodt, 2007, p. 18). Discussions revolve around labour law issues (wearing religious garments, banning headscarves or displaying religious symbols such as crosses in public places). The general opinion is that religion in the work context is “not welcome” and has no infuence on cooperation. Religion is only allowed in the private sphere of life (Alewell & Moll, 2019). At the same time, religion as a topic, linked to current migration movements, is coming into focus via public media discourses. In this context, challenges for organisations are also being discussed (Oberlechner, Gmainer-Pranl, & Koch, 2019). It has become clear that issues, such as the efects of religious orientation on the behaviour of group members, religion as part of the organisational culture, or how leadership is practiced, and also the expectations of religious stakeholders, are very much part of entrepreneurial action. But ultimately, all those are questions of the recognition and use of diversity in organisations. This chapter explores the question of how religion as a category of diversity afects cooperation. The focus is not only on interactions that are based on diferent evaluations and hierarchies with regard to religiously shaped expectations, but also on prejudices and stereotyping, which infuence
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individual and organisational patterns of action. This chapter shows how the social discourse of political exploitation of non-acceptance (Heine, Lohlker, & Potz, 2012) and the rejection of certain religious symbols and at the same time religions, (including Islamophobia, that means a negative attitude towards Muslims in general) leads to diferentiations at the organisational level (Bendl, Eberherr, & Mensi-Klarbach, 2012). The examples presented (case study 1), which are based on qualitative interviews, analyse religious minority experiences. At the same time, a counterproposal will also be illustrated (case example 2) that presents the possibility of positive cooperation in a SME. Based on the interactions, cross-sectionality processes are explained, which show the complexity of dealing with religion as a diversity category in organisations. Questions of categorisation and diferentiation are discussed, identity constructions as ‘stigmatised identity’ (Gebert et al., 2014) and symbolic representations (Hearn & Louvrier, 2017) will be included in the analyses.
Religion, cross-sectionality and interactions in organisations Religion is a neglected category of diversity in the German-speaking world, which, as mentioned previously, is difcult to grasp. The diversity of diferent religions and worldviews, including the many diverse forms, makes it challenging to deal with the topic in everyday organisational life. A bipolar classifcation, as often pursued in organisational practice, is not possible. This makes it difcult to classify and generate measures, as is done, for example, with the topics of sexuality (homosexuality vs. heterosexuality) or gender (women vs. men). Religion as a symbolic category encompasses visible and invisible levels; all areas of private and social life are afected by values, norms and behaviour. Clothing, architecture, celebrations, rituals and the way people treat one another are determined by religious afliations. Several trends are currently emerging in the German-speaking world: it can be observed that there is a decline in the importance of traditional religions and faith communities. Although holidays and rituals such as weddings or confrmations are Christian, knowledge about the meaning and origin is declining steadily. Religion has lost its signifcance in everyday life. More and more people describe themselves as non-denominational. At the same time, increasingly more people are joining certain spiritual groups or denominations that have little to do with the Roman Catholic or Protestant tradition. However, in political discourse, the Christian cultural and religious imprint is emphasised when it comes to (assumed) threats by other faiths such as Islam. Pickel (2014) describes the tense relationship between religious plurality, the growth of specifc faiths and social integration in Germany. Buzzwords such as refugee crisis, foreign infltration, violence, terror and the oppression of Muslim women shape the political and social discussions. Members of a religious community are seen as a group with corresponding attributions. Muslims in particular are afected by hostile
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rejection. Islamophobia describes the negative attitude towards this religious group, which no longer allows diferentiation (Heine et al., 2012; Pickel, 2014). The social discourse on the subject of religion and belief is accordingly often emotionally controlled and contains a high potential for confict. From a cross-sectional perspective, social categorisations are based on diferences within the social category ‘religion’, as well as between the social categories in the form of diferentiated entanglements with the categories age, disability/body, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation and gender (Winker & Degele, 2010). At the same time, the context in which social categorisations take place is decisive, which is shown in feld 1 (Figure 11.1). Field 2 shows the image of oneself and others, for example, group membership. Social status and prestige are correspondingly found in relation to religion and beliefs, building on categorisations in identity constructions. Field 3 suggests that categorisation and identity construction determine not only social life in general, but ultimately also labour market structures and organisational processes via symbolic representations. Thus, current discourses in connection with women’s rights (empowerment vs. headscarf) and school education among children and young people, especially language skills or terror and violence in public space are found, for example, among young Muslim men (Hearn & Louvrier, 2017; Winker & Degele, 2010). The concept of work and organisation is not associated with religion in the ‘Western’ world, especially in Germany. Economical thinking, based on terms such as efciency, efectiveness, goal orientation, cost–beneft thinking, etc. excludes faith and spirituality (Alewell & Moll, 2019; Gambosevic, 2017). German-speaking contributions in management and HR research, as well as practices that deal with religion, rarely go beyond generalised
Field 1: Interac˜onal Dynamic Infuence
Field 2: Evalua˜on, Social Hierarchisa˜on
Categorisa˜on
Iden˜ty Construc˜on
Symbolic Representa˜on Field 3: Organisa˜on of the Social Life
Figure 11.1 Process of cross-sectionality
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classifcations with regard to recommendations for measures such as taking care of the food ofered in the canteen, suggestions for prayer rooms, or recognition of holidays in personnel deployment planning as well as a general reference of respect and understanding (Franken, 2019). Even in the diversity discourse, refection on religion is rather superfcial. Religious diversity becomes an issue in organisations when it comes to avoiding conficts within the workforce or corresponding stakeholder groups. Alewell and Moll (2019) summarise the existing research on the topic and conclude an urgent need for action in the organisational feld in German-speaking countries. In their work, religion is recorded as a component of ‘good work’ (p. 107) and integrated into the work-life balance concept. Religious needs as components of identity are regarded as part of the work. Motivation, job satisfaction and staf loyalty are closely related to the recognition and appreciation of the person as a ‘whole’ (pp. 111). Closely linked to this is the reduction of discrimination on the basis of religious attributions. This view, to value the individual human being as an important resource in the company, is contrasted with the digitisation and alienation of jobs in organisations. Dealing with religious diversity is very complex: there are a variety of religions and beliefs, diferent ways of dealing with religious requirements and role expectations depending on the individual, and the problems of dealing with non-religious and religious employees, managers, stakeholders and employees of diferent (hostile) religions. Organisations generate diferences accordingly. Stereotypes, prejudices and expectations of certain religious groups are inscribed in organisational processes and structures and lead to inclusion and exclusion (Alewell & Moll, 2019; Franken, 2019). In addition, cultural and religious diferences are often difcult to separate and can be observed in management, in teams and on an individual level. These inequalities, represent discrimination but on the other hand they are also opportunities for good cooperation, based on social interactions, as will be illustrated by the empirical results presented in our contribution.
Empirical results In order to illustrate the complexity of the levels of analysis of religious diversity, empirical studies based on qualitative interviews conducted in 2017 within the framework of two research projects (Bode, 2017; Gambosevic, 2017) were used in the form of case studies. The case studies selected are part of a project that examines the signifcance of religion in the context of diversity management. Bode (2017) examined the career opportunities of Muslim women in Austria (project 1). Gambosevic (2017) considered the role of religion as a diversity factor in the workplace (project 2). Bode (2017) selected Muslim women wearing headscarves for her project. The basic requirement for being chosen as a participant was a university degree. Age did not play a role. The selection of the sample turned out to be a
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big challenge, since hardly any Muslim women wearing headscarves with appropriate qualifcations were active in organisations, or the respective women were not prepared to be interviewed. Gambosevic (2017) selected a company with 25 employees for the case studies and conducted four semi-structured interviews. The interviews were recorded and transcribed as voice memos and evaluated according to Mayring (2002). The focus was on understanding the topic better and highlighting certain characteristics. Social phenomena will be subjected to a deeper and more diferentiated analysis and patterns will be presented in order to understand the meaning of the diferent patterns of action (Lamnek & Krell, 2016). The results were presented as case studies. (Heath, 2006; Leenders, Eskine, & Maufette-Leenders, 2001; McNair, 1954). In the frst case study, career opportunities for Muslim women in Austria are described briefy. It is shown how social structures, attributions and assumptions about Muslims determine self-perception and career choice (Bode, 2017).
Case study 1: headscarf as reason for exclusion Amira is in her late 30s, she has two children and grew up in Austria. She fnished her studies in 2007. During that period, she converted to Islam. Her ideas about this religion and her Turkish friend motivated her to do so. For her, an essential part of this faith was to start wearing a headscarf. For one year she lived and dressed religiously according to her ideas and abstained from alcohol. The feeling that she was no longer accepted by her fellow students and professors and that the distance to these people and friends was growing, encouraged her to leave the Muslim society. She also wanted to fnish her diploma thesis as successfully as possible. Difculties in fnding a job and private problems brought her back and four years later she decided to join the Islamic community again. The headscarf fnally became a frm component of her life. “It is incredible what the headscarf can do. It’s a relief not to be judged by my appearance”. But she sees difculties in defning the Muslim faith correctly and then to live accordingly. The confession of faith also afected her job search and her career. She wanted to apply for a job at the city school board, but did not do so, as she was convinced that she would not be accepted because of the headscarf or, if she was employed at her assigned school, she would become a victim of mobbing. This fear came from Muslim friends who work in elementary schools and are victims of bullying. One friend then got her a job at an Islamic school where she works on an hourly basis. According to her current point of view, her family and relationship with God are the most important things in her life, not her professional career. “For us Muslims, God comes frst, then Muhammad, then your mother”. Her experiences with her faith and especially with the headscarf are not positive. Many of her friends left her and her father does not take her along on business trips unless she takes of her headscarf. Her daughter rejects the customs of the
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religion her mother has followed. In public, she often experienced discrimination. Once, a woman in the street spat on her face. However, there are also positive experiences. Before starting a qualifcation training in a special area of therapy working with clay, she was afraid of rejection. However, the trainer was always open-minded and not negative. Amira realised that she had worried unjustifably. She also experiences a positive attitude of people in public places when she dresses well. “Clothing is very important; don’t wear poor clothes, you will be treated accordingly”. In this context, it is interesting to note the assessment of other religious groups by their own group members. Amira reports that her father worked for years without pay for the “artist and Jew Friedensreich Hundertwasser”. She also feels that Muslims are treated unfairly. And it is so bad, when someone says something against Jews, then all say the same ‘Oh God you must not. You must not say anything against Jews.’ And when somebody starts to call the Prophet names, they say it is free speech. She thinks that it is unimaginable to have a woman wearing a headscarf and working as a university lecturer. She also believes that it is worse in Austria than in Germany to get a job if you wear a headscarf. “And especially as a cleaning lady, when you clean the toilet, or clean the subways, nobody cares if you wear a headscarf, but if you want to work at the university or become a teacher, it doesn’t work at all”.
Analysis Case study 1 shows the difcult step of adopting a religion that is not rooted in the receiving country and is not fully accepted within the society. This example refers mainly to self-exclusion for fear of discrimination. Religion is always seen in the context of self and external assessment. External assessments as discrimination take place at all levels. Individually through her own father, daughter and friends, at the group level there are fellow students and professors and on the social level there are various discriminating actions. But all levels also afect organisations. The university and the lack of recognition of religious symbols and actions (drinking alcohol), as well as the inconceivability of fnding teachers of Muslim faith, is noted. Furthermore, entry barriers into organisations, specifcally schools, are mentioned. The fear of exclusion and the lack of role models have a major impact in this example. Through individual contacts of the subgroup ‘Muslims’ it is fnally possible to start working, at least on an hourly basis. Furthermore, the social recognition of Muslim women is addressed, which is refected in their low status and the positioning in certain occupational
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Table 11.1 Levels and forms of discrimination Forms of discrimination
Levels of discrimination
Direct planned discrimination
Direct and targeted individual action
Indirect discrimination with no discernible intention
Individual
Interaction
Intended discrimination by groups against individuals or groups by attributing a group identity Stereotypical attributions: inclusion and exclusion based on ‘rational’ decision criteria
Institutional Direct institutionalised discrimination via informal routine practices in organisations Indirect institutionalised discrimination through the application of the same rules, which lead to unequal participation opportunities for diferent groups
felds, for example, in the cleaning services. The group demarcation as Muslims is also refected in their demarcation from Judaism. The case study can be integrated into the discrimination model of Gomolla and Radtke (2002), so that it is possible to show discriminatory acts based on religious attributions on diferent levels (Table 11.1). Due to an attributed religious group identity certain interactions take place in organisations, which result in a devaluation of the individual and lead to institutional exclusion.
Case study 2: horticultural farm The following question will be explored: What role does religion play in communication and work processes in SMEs? In this example three employees of a company are interviewed. Based on the interviews, topic clusters were formed that show the role of religion in the workplace (Gambosevic, 2017). The company presented here is a horticultural company that employs academics (civil engineers, architects, business economists) and experts/specialists (gardeners, plumbers, construction workers). The workforce includes three religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) and four countries of origin (Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, Austria). There are mainly men employed. The manager of the company is, himself, religious and built up the company after having fnished his academic studies. From his point of view
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religion plays an indirect role in the workplace but is not really important for the work. He sees the prerequisite for cooperation as a way of behaving, which is characterised by respect and recognition of the performance of each individual. He puts the focus on resources. This way, diferent people with diferent cultural backgrounds bring new ideas and creativity to the company. He also emphasises the diferent language skills in connection with the understanding of diferent mentalities and cultural characteristics, which are considered to be a beneft for the company. Special concessions during Lent or on certain religious holidays are approved. However, there is no time of during working hours for prayers or other religious rituals. Since work clothing is important in this occupational feld, religious symbols in clothing do not play a role. In his experience, the teams work best together according to language and country of origin. His assumption is that this indirectly includes the topic of religion. The employees communicate with each other in their mother tongue, which in his view does not afect the cooperation in the entire company. An employee, civil engineer, and Roman Catholic looks at the issue similarly. For her, religion does not play a role in the workplace, although it is very important to her. All employees work well together. What is important is their reliability and performance. From her point of view, nobody has special needs regarding the recognition of his/her religion within the company. No prayer times are required either. She does not want to work on Good Friday and she bakes cookies at Christmas time. And they all eat them in the company. At the beginning, she thought that it could be problematic if the manager had a diferent faith, but this did not turn out to be the case. In the meantime, she sees it in a positive light that because of the religious attitude of the managing director, great value is put on the individual. In the company it is not common to show the respective faith to the outside world through special clothing or special jewellery. She herself feels no need to show her religion through symbols. The employees would also not demand, for example, time of for Lent or religious holidays. In special cases someone might ask for it and then it is not a problem. Due to the fact that it is common practice in the company to wear work clothes, there are no diferences in clothing. There are, however, diferences with regard to food, although this is a personal issue because everyone brings his/her own food. A Muslim who works as a gardener frst addresses the eating habits and stresses how important it is to him that these are respected by everyone in the company. He himself has no need to make his religion visible to the outside world through certain symbols or appropriate clothing. He is not allowed to practice his religious rituals, in this case Friday prayers, at his workplace. He accepts this because he lives in a Catholic country. At the moment, it is not possible to take time of work because of religious holidays, even though he can always talk to his supervisor about it. These topics depend on the season and the order booking of the company. A holiday within Ramadan is accepted, but he has to take a holiday, as do his colleagues who belong to
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diferent denominations and would like to have certain days of. Austrian (religious) holidays are for all employees, regardless of their religion. He likes the fact that three diferent menus are always ofered at joint company dinners, one of which is vegetarian. For him, the work that needs to be done comes frst. He wants to rely on his colleagues and expects mutual respect. The most important things are always the respective individual skills, knowledge and qualifcations. Religion plays no role in his work. Work and performance have nothing to do with religion. For example, he puts up Christmas trees or takes care of certain plantings during Easter. He likes working in the company. The management of the company ofers a high degree of tolerance with regard to the creeds of the employees. This is why everyone in the company is satisfed; no one needs to fear consequences or discrimination just because he or she belongs to a particular religion. Sometimes, however, the customers are problematic; but this applies more to the country of origin. Despite the fact that the interviewee has been living in Austria for 33 years now, he has kept his denomination and has not converted to Catholicism. He is of the opinion that a religiously heterogeneous workforce could sometimes be the better option for all, because each and every one has a diferent way of thinking and thus new ideas and greater creativity could emerge. In a multicultural country like Austria, a mixture is obvious anyway.
Analysis Case study 2 also shows the importance of religious afliation for personal identity. The diferent employees keep their religion of origin and practice it. A cross-sectional connection to language and country of origin can be observed. The fact that people of diferent religions and countries of origin can work together requires a very high level of identifcation with the company and the work. The example shows that a good working atmosphere, mutual recognition and appreciation with regard to the person, work performance and qualifcations can be the basis of functioning working relationships. Concessions on fexible working hours and holidays, as well as the choice of meals by the management, also promote employee satisfaction and thus increase motivation and employee loyalty. When diferences are perceived as resources – by both management and staf – additional benefts for the organisation are also created. Language skills, culture-specifc expectations and behaviour, and mutual support within the workforce, for example, during holidays, are addressed. Employees also point to greater creativity through heterogeneous patterns of experience and thinking. But at the same time, all discussion partners stress that religion plays no role in the work: reliability, honesty and performance are crucial. This example also shows that the recognition of each member of the organisation increases the individual’s positive self-esteem. Social identity is essential
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for the self-image, which is derived from group relationships. These group relationships are manifold in this example, from organisational and team membership to religious afliation and belonging to a particular country of origin. Through equal treatment, such as the inclusion of special holidays, for example, the assessment of one’s own group does not turn out negative (or positive) compared to other groups. Thus, we see the value of ‘doing diference’.
Conclusion The following topics can be identifed on the basis of the case studies described: First, with a focus on religions, ‘collective categories’ are formed with corresponding symbolic attributions. Generalised statements about religions are revealed. These are largely based on stereotypes and prejudices, which guide diferent inclusion and exclusion processes at the organisational level. Thereby diferent forms of discrimination appear on the surface: from individual to institutional direct and indirect discrimination – expressed through interaction. The focus of qualifcations, personal attitudes and careers is not on performance, characteristics and behaviour, but rather on attributions and diferentiations. However, there is too little diferentiation between the diferent levels of discrimination (see Table 11.1). Covert vs. overt, conscious vs. unconscious discrimination on all levels must be analysed in more depth. Second, evaluations and social hierarchies lead to a process of ‘doing difference’ at individual level. This is due to diferent perceptions and interpretations. The examples of gender and religion show that religious diversity is always cross-sectional and often contradictory (confictual), as well as linked to other diversity categories. The demarcation and weighting of the respective category is often unclear, as is the aspect of when which category comes into play and which strategies are necessary at the individual level (see Figure 11.1). The topics presented are refections on this complex topic. Organisations can deal with this issue by means of a process analysis that starts on all levels of discrimination. Expectations of normality are to be questioned, as well as the distinctions and the assessments based on them. A good basis for cooperation between people of diferent faiths is mutual acceptance and the awareness that faith is not negotiable. Religion (and non-religion/belief) is part of the construction of identity. Religion is frmly established as ‘deep level’ diversity and infuences other categories of diversity. Accordingly, religious diversity can always be seen as multidimensional, belonging to other categories and dimensions, such as languages, life concepts and life situations. Religious diversity is about coming to terms with social reality, which is why organisations should attach more importance to this part of the diversity concept. Clothing, practices, religious
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beliefs, holidays and behaviours require refection of the everyday reality of the workplace, which is ultimately crucial for teamwork, management and leadership.
References Alewell, D., & Moll, T. (2019). Religion, Religiosität und Spiritualität am Arbeitsplatz in deutschen Unternehmen [Relgion, religiousness and spirituality at the work place of companies in Germany]. In D. Alewell, & W. Moll (Eds.), Standards guter Arbeit. Disziplinäre Positionen und interdisziplinäre Perspektiven [Standards of working. Major positions and interdisciplinary perspectives] (pp. 107– 138). Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Armitage, R. N. (2007). Issues of religious diversity afecting visible minority ethnic police personnel in the workplace. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Bendl, R., Eberherr, H., & Mensi-Klarbach, H. (2012). Vertiefende Betrachtungen zu ausgewählten Diversitätsdimensionen [In-depth refections on specifc dimensions of diversity]. In R. Bendl, E. Hanappi-Egger, & R. Hofmann (Eds.), Diversität- und Diversitätsmanagement [Diversity and management of diversity] (pp. 79–135). Vienna, Austria: Facultas. Bode, M.-T. (2017). Der Einfuss des Tragens des Kopftuches auf die Karriere muslimischer Frauen in Österreich [The infuence of the head-scarf on the career development of Muslim women in Austria]. Vienna, Austria: Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien. Franken, S. (2019). Verhaltensorientierte Führung. Handeln, Lernen und Diversity in Unternehmen [Organisational behaviour in leadership. Action, learning and diversity in companies]. Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer/Gabler. Gambosevic, D. (2017). Religiose Diversität in Österreichischen Klein und Mittelbetrieben [Religious diversity in Austrian SMEs]. Wiener Neustadt, Austria: Ferdinand Porsche Fern FH. Gebert, D., Boerner, S., Kearney, E., King Jr., J. E., Zhang, K., & Song, L. J. (2014). Expressing religious identities in the workplace: Analysing a neglected diversity dimension. Human Relations, 67(5), 543–563. Gomolla, M., & Radtke, F. O. (2002). Institutionelle Diskriminierung. Die Herstellung ethnischer Diferenz in der Schule. New York, NY: Springer. Hearn, J., & Louvrier, J. (2017). Theories of diference, diversity, and crossectionality. What do they bring to diversity management? In R. Bendl, I. Bleijenbergh, E. Henttonen, & A. J. Mills (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of diversity in organisations (pp. 62–82). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Heath, J. (2006). Teaching and writing case studies: A practical guide (3rd ed.). England: EECH. Heine, S., Lohlker, R., & Potz, R. (2012). Muslime in Österreich: Geschichte – Lebenswelt – Religion. Grundlagen für den Dialog [Muslims in Austria: HistoryLiving environment-Religion. Background for a dialogue]. Innsbruck, Germany: Tyrolia-Verlag. Lamnek, S., & Krell, C. (2016). Qualitative Sozialforschung [Qualitative social research]. Bad Langensalza, Germany: Beltz. Leenders, M. R., Eskine, J. A., & Maufette-Leenders, L. A. (2001). Writing cases (4th ed.). London, Ontario: Leenders and Associates Inc.
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Mayring, P. (2002). Qualitative Sozialforschung [Qualitative social research] (5th ed.). Bad Langensalza, Germany: Beltz. McNair, M. P. (1954). The case method at the Harvard business school. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Oberlechner, M., Gmainer-Pranl, F., & Koch, A. (2019). Einleitung: Religion bildet. Divers, plural und sekulär in der Wissensgesellschaft? [Religion educates: Diverse, plural and secular in the knowledge society?]. In M. Oberlechner, F. GmainerPranl, & A. Koch (Eds.), Religion bildet. Diversität, Pluralität, Säkularität in der Wissensgesellschaft (pp. 9–14). Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Pickel, G. (2014). Religiöser Wandel als Herausforderung an die deutsche politische Kultur – Religiöse Pluralisierung und Säkularisierung als Auslöser einer (neuen) Religionspolitik? (Religious changements as challenge within the political culture in Germany – Religious pluralisation and secularisation as catalyst of a new policy of religion?) Zeitschrift für Politik, 61(2), 136–159. Riesebrodt, M. (2007). Cultus und Heilversprechen. Eine Theorie der Religionen [Cult and promises of salvation. A theory of religions]. Munich, Germany: C.H. Beck Verlag. Weaver, G. R., & Bradley R. A. (2002). Religiosity and ethical behavior in organizations: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Academy of Management Review, 27(1), 77–97. Winker, G., & Degele, N. (2010). Intersektionalität. Zur Analyse sozialer Ungleichheiten [Intersectionaliy. Analysis of social inequalities] (2nd ed.). Bielefeld, Germany: transcript.
12 Religious organisations as a litmus test for true leadership Leonard Bloksberg
Religion brings people together United whatever the weather Their leaders succeed If they don’t shout their creed Godfrey And their egos are safely in tether D’Lima
Introduction to leadership in business and religious organisations Everyone agrees that leadership is important, but most people seem to struggle with what leadership is. Most people confuse the concept of leader with boss, or leadership with management, so we begin by clarifying this diference. A boss tells people what to do while a leader motivates people to want to do things. Management is about coordinating people to get things done while leadership is about motivating people to want to get things done. A good leader will always be a good boss, but a good boss may not be a good leader, and this can best be seen in the fundamental diference between a commercial organisation and a volunteer organisation expressed in terms of need. You need to earn money, food and shelter so you get a job. This comes with a respected hierarchy, a clear reward structure and a clear coercion structure, should you fail to meet expectations. A boss (with no leadership skills) can be very efective in commercial situations, even if leadership would be benefcial. By contrast, most people associate with volunteer organisations out of choice, rather than need. The organisation may have a hierarchy, but volunteers may not regard that leadership as having authority over them. There is no clear organisational reward structure, as most people have internal reasons for volunteering. Coercion is inefective as people feel free to simply walk away, so being a boss can be counterproductive in a volunteer organisation. True leadership is critical to motivate people in volunteer organisations. In religious organisations, most of the support comes from volunteers and a strong understanding of leadership is essential. Various models for
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understanding leadership can be organised into four groups: Trait, Behavioural, Contingency and Power-based theories Trait-based theories are concerned with what kind of person makes a good leader, behavioural theories with what a good leader does, contingency with how the situation afects leadership and power-based theories with what gives a leader the ability to infuence people. Trait-based theories of leadership focus on the traits or attributes that contribute to leadership, or what kind of person makes a good leader People talk about integrity, empathy, assertiveness, good decision-making skills and likability as important traits of good leadership. The problem is subjectivity (narcissists are particularly vulnerable) in this regard (Gladwell, 2002), and even assessment from peers or subordinates in the organisation is often subjective. Besides, a good leader should endeavour to exhibit integrity, empathy, assertiveness, good decision-making skills and likability so trait-based theories don’t really help us understand the diference between a boss and a leader. Behavioural-based theories focus on what a good leader does. People talk about Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez Faire leaders, where all three behaviours have their place so it’s a matter of proportionality of each. Blake, Mouton, and Bidwell (1962) developed a managerial grid which pits organisational needs against human needs to look at when to use which behaviour based around McGregor’s Theories X and Y (McGregor, 2011). Yet, this process is also very subjective, and there’s no debate that you need to balance organisational needs against people needs and the behaviours will be circumstantial. And again, the entire feld of behaviour-based leadership theories has no bearing on the essential question of the distinction between a boss with a leader, and arguably does not appear useful to a discussion of leadership. Contingency-based theories examine situational leadership. So while Behavioural theories look at which behaviours are important to good leadership and when to use them, contingency theories look at developing better systems to understand when to use which behaviours. The PathGoal theory looks at how a leader’s behaviour (Autocratic, Democratic or Laissez Faire) impacts on how a ‘subordinate’ (note the assumed hierarchy and power structure) perceives attractiveness of goals and paths to achieve those goals. Fiedler’s (1964) contingency model tries to look at both traits and behaviours and the circumstances where each may be best applied. Focusing on traits and behaviours doesn’t really distinguish leaders from bosses. Thus, contingency models can never hope to do any better. As a result, we have three categories of academic leadership studies that are of no utility in understanding true leadership and especially not in religious organisations. Power-based theories are concerned with what gives a leader the ability to infuence people. Finally, we have a category of leadership models that starts
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with the essence of leadership, infuence. While the previous leadership theories focus on the leader, by comparison, power and infuence theories focus on how a leader infuences others. The seven sources of leadership power began as French and Raven’s (1959) fve sources of leadership power and form one of the best models in this group. The original fve leadership styles were very focused on Boss dynamics and it wasn’t until two more sources were added that this model distinguished a leader from a boss. Some authors have discussed the ideas of Transactional and Transformational leadership as parts of the powerand infuence-based models (Yahaya et al., 2011) but every leader claims to be transformational, and transactional leadership while very valuable, has become such a pejorative term that nobody wants to be accused of using it. Furthermore, as transformational leadership has become a management buzzword it has lost its meaning. So, the seven sources of leadership power remain the most practical model in this group.
The seven sources of leadership power Leadership Power is particularly practical in separating boss and leadership issues because each of the diferent power and infuence paths defnes particular actions and practices that can be used in an organisation and how they infuence people.
The original fve sources of leadership power Legitimate Power (I’m the boss, so do what I say) stems from a ‘legitimate’ position of power. The boss, parent, chairman, president or clergy can claim to be in charge by virtue of the position they hold. When a person holds a ‘legitimate’ position of power people expect them to exert some control and usually assertion of power – telling people what to do-gives confdence in the organisation. However, in volunteer organisations, volunteers while respecting a position, may not recognise that a leader has any authority over them, personally. Consequently, they may not be so willing to follow, unless some of the other sources of power are invoked. Reward Power (do what I say and I’ll give you something you want) is the archetypal ‘carrot’ of motivation including payment, promotion and praise – very common practice in commercial organisations. But volunteer organisations generally don’t have much in the way of tangible rewards so limited value in volunteer organisations. Coercive Power (do what I say or I’ll do something you don’t like) is the archetypal commercial ‘stick’ of motivation with, docking pay, demotion or dressing down being useful. In volunteer organisations, most volunteers will
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simply walk away before a superior can punish them, thus Coercive Power is not very efective in volunteer-based organisations. Referent Power (everyone or all the important people are with me, so you should do what I say) is power based on who you know or what relationships you have. Referent Power is the archetypal “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” power base. Elected ofcials and those with strong networks have Referent Power because either people want to access the strength of that network, or they fear the power of that network. Also, sometimes people just follow what everyone else is doing because there is an assumption that such approval must come from some legitimate value and authority. Expert Power (I know what I’m talking about so do what I say) is power based on what you know or your ability. Expert Power can be about making people feel safe to follow you because you know what you’re doing, or making people feel intimidated about challenging you because you know what you’re doing. Either way, it’s the ultimate meritocracy power base and the person with the best knowledge and ability will usually win.
The following two sources of leadership power were added later As Lemoine, Hartnell, and Leroy (2019) note that examination of forms of moral leadership have provided a focal shift in leadership research in the twenty-frst century giving rise to additional categories. Authentic Power (you matter, what you do is important, so let’s do this) (Gardner, Cogliser, Davis, & Dickens, 2011; Walumbwa, Peterson, Avolio, Wernsing, & Gardner, 2008) is about showing people that the project and the person’s contribution to it are meaningful and important. Virtually all organisations, whether commercial or volunteer, have a real purpose and every worker/ volunteer makes an important contribution so that this can be a very powerful motivator. In a commercial environment, this kind of motivation can increase margins. In a volunteer organisation, motivation from Authentic Power can be critical to mobilising volunteers. Servant Power (I’m doing this, are you with me?) (Dierendonck & Patterson, 2018; Liden, Wayne, Liao, & Meuser, 2014) is the archetypal Leading by Example. It’s really hard to keep up your motivation to continue working when everyone around you is slacking of. And a leader who isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves as part of the team can be very motivational.
Distinguishing a leader from a boss with the seven sources of leadership power When you speak with people about leadership, the frst three sources of power are often the only sources of power that many people can think of. Legitimate power (I’m the boss, so do what I say), reward power (do
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what I say and I’ll give you something you want) and coercive power (do what I say or I’ll do something you don’t like) are what a boss does. Many people have difculty thinking beyond these three sources of leadership power. The authority, carrot and stick can be very efective in commercial situations and a person can be an efective boss without ever having to learn anything more. But in volunteer organisations the authority is not there. Leaders don’t have relevant rewards and they can’t threaten with coercion. This highlights the distinction between a Boss and a Leader. When you can’t tell people what to do, you can’t MAKE them do what you want, thus you have to learn how to motivate and infuence people through leadership skills. Carrot and stick are tools exclusively of the boss. Imagine the board of a religious organisation telling congregants they must come to services or volunteer for work bees because ‘we are the board’. Most people will do the opposite. The problem with fnancial rewards in volunteer organisations is rewards come from the same funds they worked so hard to raise for the organisation to achieve its mission. Thus, volunteers begin to ask why they are giving up their time raising funds that buy trinkets to thank volunteers for helping to raise funds. Reward power works for a boss but can undermine volunteers. In sum, the frst three sources of power can only be used by a Boss. Coercive power is efective for a boss, but it is probably the most counterproductive thing you can do with volunteers. Even the suggestion of coercion and most volunteers will leave. More than any other source of power, coercion undermines volunteer-based efort. Coercion can’t be used by a leader. The Middle two Sources of Power, both referent power and expert power can be used by either a Boss or a Leader, in either a commercial entity or a volunteer-based organisation. It would appear that when French and Raven (1959) originally published this model, they only conceived of the use of these sources of infuence from the perspective of a boss but they can also be employed in true leadership, so essential in religious organisations. Community activists may have infuence because they have connections to get things done. Someone who knows who to contact aid organisations to help people in need or has contacts to get materials donated for charity projects will be given power. People will follow them because they want to beneft from those connections in turn. So, Referent power can be used by a leader to motivate people as well. Similarly, Expert power can be used by a boss to intimidate people to do what they are told. Many people will use their expertise to intimidate or belittle others, using jargon to intimidate and keeping critical decision-making information to themselves so others have to simply follow instructions. No matter how it is done, a boss can use Expert power to push people into doing what they are told. Alternatively, a true leader can use Expert power to explain the value of a vision, motivate and build confdence in a pathway to achieve that
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vision. Buy-in is critical to a true leader, and the confdence in the pathway to achieve goals that is created by a good expert leader can motivate people to work harder to get there. In both cases, whether dealing with Referent power or Expert power, the critical diference between the boss and the leader is whether the power is used to intimidate or inspire. Intimidation is not leadership, but Referent power and Expert power can be used to inspire and motivate people to want to do things. When this happens, this is true leadership, not boss, behaviour. Turning now to the Last two Sources of Power, many leadership texts argue that the last two sources of power are not real (Minnis & Callahan, 2010; Sendjaya, Sarros, & Santora, 2008). Both authentic power and servant power were added after French and Raven’s original publication, and both are completely inefective for a boss. Some texts even argue that the concept of ‘servant power’ is an oxymoron (Kermond, Chenwei, & Jiunwen, 2015). Authentic power is all about connecting people to their intrinsic selfworth and the value of their individual contribution to the project instead of undermining subordinates view of their own self-worth to retain control. For a leader, authentic power is gold. Make people feel good about what they are doing and valued for their contribution and they will usually do more for you. The organisation can beneft from the increased efort from volunteers who feel valued and see real value in the project and their contribution to it, with no risk of demands of increased pay. Servant power seems entirely contrary to boss requirements. Imagine a boss saying “you’d better get this job done or I’ll do it for you”. It doesn’t work. But we all know that when the boss rolls up their sleeves and gets stuck in, everyone feels like they want to help. While you can’t use servant power to force or boss people to do something, it can be used very efectively by a leader to motivate people to want to do things. Authentic and servant sources of power can only be used by leaders.
Bringing the sources of leadership power to life While recognising that the clergy (Priest, Rabbi, Imam, Guru, etc.) has some power vested in them, this is usually thought of as vested by God. Much of what is done in religion is because God said so. Few people have ever died from eating pork while chicken kills more people than all other food poisoning combined. Ultimately, Jews don’t eat pork because God said so which the Talmud argues was to help Jews survive the diaspora (Barak-Erez, 2010). It could be viewed that clergy only have referent power because they can invoke God as an ally. In some ways, religions are all collections of strange rules that are followed, simply because God said so in a scripture or through a prophet. Despite the abundance of miracles in antiquity, God does not provide any scientifcally measurable presence in the modern world and yet people still listen. People can get very dogmatic about what must be
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done ‘because it is written’. All over the world, billions of people bend their lives and perform difcult tasks because God said so. God is the ultimate Legitimate leader. Clergy and congregation boards can use this to ask for tithe or encourage Tzedaka or acts of love and kindness by volunteering for congregation service because our God calls for this. God as the ultimate Legitimate leader is frequently used as a powerful tool for achieving results in congregational leadership in an era of impoverished time availability. There are times when leaders can use God’s implied commands to get people to come to services to achieve a quorum (minyan) and pay their fees but it can fail and appear manipulative if it is not backed up with other leadership strategies. Heaven and Hell as Reward and Coercion. Every religion has the reward and punishment concept. We all know the Christian archetype of heaven and hell, but there is also the Jewish concept of being remembered or forgotten (Gelfand, 2013), the Hindu notion of being reincarnated in a higher or lower form (Chapple, 2017), etc. These concepts can be used to motivate and/or threaten members. The interesting thing about this is that neither clergy nor leaders need to DO anything. There is no money taken from the community fundraiser to reward volunteers when you tell them that the volunteers will go to heaven (or receive the reward of that religion). Likewise, the humans don’t make any threats that members could resent, and the threat of celestial punishment will follow you even if you leave the congregation, so you can’t just leave to avoid it. It’s a set up that gives congregational leaders the basic carrot and stick to motivate members, even if they don’t have any true leadership skills. So, while leaders can use reward and coercion, it will work better if combined with other leadership approaches and other sources of leadership power. Proselytisation as Referent Power. Could proselytisation be the ultimate referent power? Or maybe referent power is the ultimate form of evangelism. Either way, the entire concept of proselytisation is about getting everyone on your side. You start with asking people to join you because you have God on your side and then you start pointing to all the followers on your side. Eventually, you want everyone on your side because nearly everyone is already on your side. The entire idea of evangelism is about proselytisation is Referent power. We’ve already discussed how the authority of God can be used as referent power. Clergy are perceived to have power because God (the ultimate Legitimate leader) has vested that power. So, while the priest may not invoke God directly, God’s endorsement can be implied when the priest speaks, thus using referent power. Similarly, the board can use the same power. Congregational leaders may not be ordained but many people perceive their position as ‘meant to be’ and treat them as if they had some power due to a closer association with God. But these leaders are often elected by a majority of the community, thus giving them additional referent power (similar to
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politicians). The proselytisation mindset is about using this association of speaking for most of the community to exert pressure on others to join in. Guru or Rabbi as Expert Power. Unlike a Priest who mediates between God and the congregation, a Rabbi or Guru is more of a teacher. The Rabbi is not closer to God and not more holy, but they are recognised as an authority of what God wants to happen. Essentially, they are vested with expert power, not referent association with God. Within the Jewish religion, you are not permitted to go to Synagogue and let the Rabbi pray for you. As a Jew, you have an obligation to do the rituals and prayers yourself (Steinsaltz, 2000, p. 26f). The role of the Rabbi is to teach you how. Once, as a board member in my congregation, I purchased a new home and invited people for a housewarming party. I asked the Rabbi to accept the honour of hanging the Mezuzah (parchment scroll inscribed with Hebrew text) on my new home. A Mezuzah serves two functions: every time a home is entered or exited, it reminds an individual that they have a covenant with God, and second, it serves as a symbol to everyone else that this home is a Jewish household. The Rabbi declined and I was surprised. I asked him why and he reminded me that as it was my home, it was my duty to hang the Mezuzah. He looked at me and asked, with someone as prominent as you in the community, what people would think of me as a teacher if you couldn’t even hang a Mezuzah on your home. The Rabbi was concerned that his credibility as a leader would be undermined if people saw him as not a credible teacher. Jewish people expect their Rabbi to be an expert on Jewish law and a wise teacher who can efectively share that expertise with the community often leading people to look to the Rabbi for guidance on other things as well. Hence, expert power can be very efective for a Rabbi. Beth Shalom Building Authentic Leadership. Religious congregations are generally recognised as charitable organisations and most people associate some higher value with their congregation so Authentic leadership is an obvious ft. Passive attendance, professional facility maintenance and the like create an indiferent involvement by congregants. People engage with the congregation much like they engage with television and have no personal involvement, ownership or commitment. The opposite of this is to involve congregants, not because you need the help, but because it builds a sense of ownership and commitment. As I travel the world, I attend services at the local synagogue where I may be. I fnd that about half the congregations have a professional Rabbi who runs the service and half have services run by members of the congregation. Not surprisingly, congregations with professionally run services tend to have more passive engagement by members, while congregations where members run the services tend to have a much stronger feeling of ownership and commitment to the congregation because members feel that they count and their input is important and valued. Authentic leadership is all about making people feel
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how valued and important they are, and nothing does this more efectively than involving them. At Congregation Beth Shalom, we had a major renovation of our synagogue under Rabbi Ed Rosenthal. While much of the work was undertaken by professionals, members of the congregation had working bees to sand and varnish the balustrades of the Bima and other tasks. People grumbled about the hard work but when it was done, they all looked back with a sense of commitment, accomplishment and ownership that remained for decades. So, by asking them to do more, people became more willing to follow the leadership of the community. By contrast, some decades later we had another major renovation of our synagogue. This time all the work was done by outside professionals. Members of the community waited for the newly renovated synagogue to be unveiled. It was beautiful but there was no sense of personal ownership and instead of being ready to follow the leadership anywhere, members felt more distant and removed. Chabad Rabbi as the Servant Leader. If ever there was a domain where servant leadership should work, it would be in service, charity and religious organisations. Greater service by leaders is seen as the strength that people want to follow. Most congregation boards work very hard behind the scenes, but the community needs to see and appreciate this. And being seen to work hard is not the same thing as telling people how hard you work. Involving the community in decisions and processes not only engages members but also increases awareness of what is going on behind the scenes to make the congregation work. The Jewish Chabad movement has made a study of servant leadership. They have a mission to increase observance of Jews around the world and they have studied methods for engaging Jews who have drifted in their observance. They know from experience that telling people what to do doesn’t work and bribing people is short lived at best and very expensive. Their method of choice is Servant Leadership. When a Chabad Rabbi comes into a community, they wear traditional dress and ask around for sources of Kosher food and accommodation within walking distance from Synagogue. They are easy to spot, and everyone knows they are walking the talk. They then start visiting people in hospitals and nursing homes and before long everyone knows who has been visiting their sick relatives. When there is a death in the community, they call everyone looking for a Minyan and everyone knows who called them, even if they couldn’t go. Soon everyone in the community is making an extra efort to come forward when the Chabad Rabbi calls because they know he has been there for everyone else. They frequently call people in the community to ask for help but they never ask for anything for themselves and people quickly begin to follow them due to skilful use of Servant Leadership.
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Applying true leadership in business Clarifying the defnition of leadership begs the question of how this leadership paradigm might apply to business. Business can function with boss behaviour, but would true leadership be an improvement? Legitimate leadership creates a workforce that slacks of when the boss is not looking. Reward leadership encourages gaming the system to maximise personal reward. Coercive leadership creates a workforce that focuses on not getting caught. All of these methods have their place but they all have the potential to create negative consequences. The essence of true leadership is to infuence people to want to do things like making a good job, work more efciently and increase profts. All are useful for your bottom line. Legitimate, reward and coercive leadership will always have a place in a commercial setting, but what if these weren’t a managers’ primary tools? Maslow (1943) set out a hierarchy of needs creating a foundation for understanding how the sources of leadership power work. Legitimate, reward and coercive work by addressing Maslow’s basic needs (physiological and safety). Herzberg (1966) recognised that this was not enough and called these basic needs as hygiene factors, or a kind of minimal requirement where something higher is needed to motivate people. That something higher is provided by the application of true leadership, using the other four sources of power and refects how true leadership afects self-esteem on Maslow’s Psychological and Self-fulflment pyramid. We essentially, turn Maslow’s pyramid upside down. In this paradigm, we recognise that people need to believe in themselves (Maslow’s Self-actualisation, Self-esteem and Belonging) in order to get on with basic tasks (like work to earn a living). Authentic power becomes fundamental to making workers feel good about themselves and the job they are doing. Expert power, Referent power and Servant power become useful tools in giving confdence, feeling and fnding support and teamwork. Together, we use true leadership to access something so fundamentally important to people that they will forgo basic needs without it, to motivate people to want to get the job done. I have established a social enterprise (www.handymanners.co.nz) to test this theory. From a customer perspective, Handy Manners is a simple home repair/handyman company. On the back end, Handy Manners employs people who are struggling to get back into the workforce. I use authentic, expert, referent and servant power to motivate my team to believe in themselves and to appreciate that they have my support. As a result, I have a team of employees who work with the commitment of volunteers passionate about the cause. I pay them a living wage, but the level of commitment is well beyond the wage. In 18 months of operation, Handy Manners has employed 26 people, of which 17 have gone on to major improvements in their lives. It has been nominated for the Westpac Auckland Business
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Awards and recognised by MediaWorks as a rising star business. It has even been cited in the New Zealand Parliament for the work we are doing. The company is growing and making money using true leadership to go well beyond basic needs and make healthy profts by having an engaged and motivated staf.
Conclusion The essence of leadership is the ability to move beyond force (boss behaviour) to infuencing people to want to do things. Historically, much of the literature claiming to discuss leadership has failed to address this distinction. While boss behaviour may be enough in commercial organisations, religious and other volunteer organisations require true leadership. As such, they provide a kind of litmus test to understand when the literature is discussing actual leadership concepts. With this tool we can identify that much of the historic literature can be either purged or regarded as too primitive to comprehend the meaning of true leadership. Going forward, we can see a paradigm of infuence, which can be studied and improved. Trait, Behaviour and Contingency based theories add nothing to the distinction of leader to that of boss. Power-based theories start from asking how people can be infuenced. Going forward, we may fnd other models for how people may be infuenced but at present, only power-based theories comprehend the concept of a leader infuencing others. Thus, powerbased theories form the most useful tool to understand true leadership and how leadership can be improved, particularly in religious organisations where force-based boss behaviour is inefective and true leadership is required.
References Barak-Erez, D. (2010). Symbolic constitutionalism: On sacred cows and abominable pigs. Law, Culture and the Humanities, 6(3), 420–435. Blake, R. R., Mouton, J. S., & Bidwell, A. C. (1962). Managerial grid. Advanced Management – Ofce Executive, 1(9), 12–15. Chapple, C. K. (2017). Reincarnation: Mechanics, narratives, and implications. Religions, 8(11), 236. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8110236 Dierendonck, D. V., & Patterson, K. (2018). Practicing servant leadership: Developments in implementation. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Fiedler, F. E. (1964). A contingency model of leadership efectiveness. Experimental Social Psychology, 1(1), 149–190. French, J., & Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in social power (pp. 150–167). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research. Gardner, W. L., Cogliser, C. C., Davis, K. M., & Dickens, M. P., &. (2011). Authentic leadership: A review of the literature and research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(6), 1120–1145.
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Gelfand, R. S. B. (2013). Yizkor: Remembering through forgetting. Retrieved from https://reformjudaism.org/yizkor-remembering-through-forgetting Gladwell, M. (2002). The talent myth. The New Yorker, 78(20), 28–33. Herzberg, F. I. (1966). Work and the nature of man. Oxford: World Pub. Co. Kermond, C. M. Y., Chenwei, L., & Jiunwen, W. (2015). An oxymoron? High status servant leaders: A job resource model of servant leadership. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2015(1), 1–1. Lemoine, G. J., Hartnell, C. A., & Leroy, H. (2019). Taking stock of moral approaches to leadership: An integrative review of ethical, authentic, and servant leadership. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 148–187. Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Infuence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434–1452. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. McGregor, D. (2011). The human side of enterprise. In J. Law (Ed.), Business: The ultimate resource. London: A&C Black. Minnis, S., & Callahan, J. (2010, June). Servant leadership in question: A critical review of power within servant leadership. Presented at The University Forum for Human Resource Development 11th Annual Conference in Europe, Pécs, Hungary, UFHRD. Sendjaya, S., Sarros, J. C., & Santora, J. C., &. (2008). Defning and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organisations. Journal of Management Studies, 45(2), 402–424. Steinsaltz, A. (2000). A guide to Jewish prayer. New York, NY: Schocken Books. Walumbwa, F. O., Peterson, S. J., Avolio, B. J., Wernsing, T. S., & Gardner, W. L. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89–126. Yahaya, N., Taib, M. A. B. M., Ismail, J., Sharif, Z., Yahaya, A., Boon, Y., & Hashim, S., &. (2011). Relationship between leadership personality types and source of power and leadership styles among managers. African Journal of Business Management, 55(2), 9635–9648. Zaccaro, S. J., Dubrow, S., & Kolze, M. (2017). Leader Traits and Attributes. In J. Antonakis & D. V. Day (Eds.), The nature of leadership (pp. 29–55). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
13 Wealth creation: the church, its theology, ethics and business practice Abraham Chikasa
Most churches are known to have wealth Hopefully gained without stealth But they better take care That greed does not fare Godfrey To ruin their heaven-sent health D’Lima
Introduction Many churches face insurmountable challenges concerning their fnancial sustainability to carry out their mission. This is felt more poignantly in developing countries more than in any other, especially so in an age that is fraught with many fnancial demands and challenges. Some of these challenges include engaging the right staf to provide credible leadership and management that can give the church a strategic ft and focus into the twenty-frst century. Perhaps, the easiest of models the church has adopted involved the demand for congregations to give more to their churches; yet, many parishioners are already abundantly burdened with adverse economic realities and more so in contexts where there is often continuous high unemployment and foundering economies. It is of interest that the global health problem of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 in 2020 has recently added to and exposed the fnancial vulnerability of many civil society organisations, including churches. It is evident that there is signifcant difculty for churches to survive without regular income, especially if the income is drawn solely from Sunday oferings. In the aftermath of national lockdowns and the subsequent closing of public houses of worship, many Christian churches have felt the sharp pinch resulting from a loss of income. Speaking in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, King (2020) of the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving in Indianapolis states: Now more than ever, churches that shy away from the subject [of funding] do so at their own risk. The time for being humble and shy in
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In the context of our day, the practice of wealth creation should be seen as liberating for the church (Sedgwick, 1992). The question is whether the church can add value to their institutions through promoting strong foundations of business and investment, that will contribute to its mission.
Wealth creation – reasons and justifcation This section endeavours to elucidate theological, ethical and some legal positions, perceptions and concerns that challenge or stop faith institutions such as the church from engaging in business and wealth creation. While the theological and ethical positions may be well documented and justifed, nevertheless they have become strong psychological barriers that have constrained religious institutions from thinking ‘outside the box’ to create fnancially sustainable models for their own survival. The book Thinking in New Boxes by De Brabandere and Iny (2013) musingly states that boxes may help you for some time; however, they soon become limiting as contexts and circumstances change. It is a generalised failure to critique the present circumstance of unsustainability, along with the failure of many church leaders to step out and innovate, that are limiting factors. Most African churches have retained the model of passing round the Sunday ofering plate, with small amounts of fundraising here and there as presented by the founding fathers and pioneers of the established church institution. However, there has been no apparent comprehension that a day will come when support from mother churches across Europe and the United States would cease. Whether they be Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian or evangelical, the church across Africa has tended to see itself as an extension of missionary endeavours from the so-called West. However, it is becoming clearer all the time that foreign aid is not sustainable (Moyo, 2009). Indeed, foreign aid levels have signifcantly reduced and in some cases have been completely withdrawn. Spence (2011) contended that the European Union failed to meet its development aid targets by 15 billion euros, and that the Concord coalition of advocacy organisations predicted the situation would worsen with the passing of time. Such an ongoing shortfall in international aid would threaten the sustainability of non-government organisation activities as development targets would not be met. In 1974, under the banner of the All Africa Conference of Churches, African church leaders gathered in Lusaka, Zambia. Among other concerns, the churches debated Aid and Dependency. A resolution arising out of that conference was dubbed ‘The African Moratorium on Aid Dependency’. In essence, the resolution was a calling on the African church to bring to an end, their dependency on aid from the mother churches that supported them across Europe and America. The African church conference recognised that
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a time was coming when traditional support from developed world churches would dwindle or completely stop. However, the resolution has never been actualised. The reason is that many of the church institutions have remained very weak, and thus were unable to wean of their need for support from external donors (Adoyo, 1990). The fact was that many of the churches had not adequately prepared and therefore, without adequate preparation, the resolution may have led to total collapse of the African church. A further reason for the lack of progress in the moratorium may be attributed to the lack of a strategic framework or action plan on how best to withdraw from the reliance churches on major donor contributions. Yet, with or without the moratorium, it is evident that support has considerably reduced and, in many cases, completely stopped. Given this trend, many churches across Africa are forced with having to rethink how best to move forward in order to remain viable.
Wealth creation – an historical perspective Concerns over sustainability within the African church are not new. A Zambian theologian, Chuba (2005) highlights that even the early missionaries had fnancial struggles in their pioneering endeavours. He ofers examples of how the frst missionary settlers needed to fsh, hunt and trade in order to make a living for survival and went on to highlight that the early missionaries succeeded in their work because they found sustainable ways of surviving economically. In undertaking these tasks, missionaries did not sense it to be theologically wrong or contradictory to their mission or calling that they engage in business activities, so as to sustain their livelihood. Fishing, hunting and trading were not understood to be their primary mission focus, neither were these tasks undertaken at the expense of their core mission. This approach also showed that within reasonable ethical bounds, one could engage in activities such as trade, with the objective of creating income that would sustain the work of their mission. They did not merely depend on fnancial support from their mission boards abroad, or from oferings of church members, rather they supplemented this income with their own personal efort, and from within the context of their respective missionary endeavours. Contrastingly, across many churches within Africa today, trading, business or wealth creation has not been strongly considered as an option to support the social mission of the evangelistic endeavours of the church. The Protestant reformation also provides some historical strength to the notion of wealth creation within the church. This Reformation of the sixteenth century saw a religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe. It set in place new structures and beliefs that would come to defne the continent in the modern era. In Northern and Central Europe, reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry
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VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic church’s ability to defne Christian practice. They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible and pamphlet reading pastors and princes (History.com, 2009). Yet, the repercussions of the Reformation can be seen in the intellectual and cultural fourishing that transpired as a result of the schism. Examples include the strengthening of universities across Europe, the birth of the Lutheran Church, the music of J. S. Bach, the baroque altarpieces of Pieter Paul Rubens, and even the capitalism of Dutch Calvinist merchants (History.com, 2009). Such creativity and innovation give rise to the fact that the reformed churches and their subsequent missionary ofshoots in Africa and elsewhere could have easily carried the same capitalistic philosophy, and in so doing, could have set a foundation for broader economic engagement within their establishments.
Wealth creation and the disruption of the prosperity gospel In the desire for wealth creation and fnancial sustainability, pockets of the global Christian community have developed a ‘prosperity theology’ or as it is commonly termed ‘prosperity gospel’, of which there has been a growing interest. The Washington Post (Falsani, 2020) observed this phenomenon and provided some background to the philosophy: The ‘prosperity gospel,’ an insipid heresy whose popularity among American Christians has boomed in recent years, teaches that God blesses those God favours most with material wealth. The ministries of three televangelists commonly viewed as founders of the prosperity gospel movement – Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Frederick K.C. Price – took hold in the 1970s and 1980s. A faw with the prosperity doctrine has been that it has negated any kind of process for wealth acquisition and thus the so-called prosperity and wealth has largely concentrated in the hands of faith leaders who run megachurches that advocate the doctrine. In the context of Africa, Adoyo (1990) observes that the prosperity gospel has virtually embraced the globe and that it has promoted the belief that the gospel should not portray the church as being poor and miserable. This author highlighted that churches were once modest and respected institutions, and that its ministers were commonly held in awe. Equally, church buildings were broody, stolid and intimidating structures that made one feel that God was present. In this context, churches were seen as places for the poor. The church did not have its own income, except that which was donated by members or other well-wishers. However, he continues by contending that in comparison, the Kenyan church seeks to be wealthy, debonair and that it craves for the most expensive trappings that can be found. Pastors dress in well-branded suits and wear wellknown brands of perfume. Here, the prosperity gospel is ego-centric and
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personalised in the pastor, rather than being linked to the overall fnancial sustainability of the church. An argument that is frequently advanced is that Jesus always had money to pay for his fnancial obligations. Yet, this is not a model that has been replicated by the modern-day church with its massive infrastructure and buildings, which constantly require maintenance and their array of staf. Coupled with this is the fact that many churches are also running mission schools and hospitals, which impose signifcant additional fnancial demands upon the church. The prosperity gospel cannot stand the test of time because it is not geared for social praxis. The prosperity gospel is not designed to create wealth for the majority, but rather its purpose is only for personal grandeur of the proponents of the doctrine. If the church is to engage in the creation of wealth, then it should not be self-serving or to infate egos of its proponents, rather it should be to proclaim the gospel of Christ and for service to humanity, especially towards the poor in society.
Wealth creation, perception of the church – a faith challenge For most within the mainline traditional church, they have been averse to wealth creation and business. These things have been situated in the context of capitalism. Capitalism as modelled in Western society has presented itself as an exploitative tool that oppresses societies and communities. The view of the church was that the focus of capitalism has been towards proft and greed over human or social interest. Whole empires, societies and philosophies have been built and/or founded on a platform of rejecting, fghting and dispelling the practice of capitalism. Mackey and Sisodia (2013, p. 15) note that “Capitalism and business are all too frequently vilifed as the bad guys and blamed for everything i.e. exploitation of workers, cheating consumers, causing inequality by benefting the rich but not the poor”. The church has traditionally made proclamations that it is on the side of the poor and underprivileged. Hughes (2008) suggests the reason for this that is found in the Old Testament, which speaks of the importance in caring for the poor. For example, the Israelites were commanded not to completely remove the harvest from the feld but to leave some for the poor to pick (Deuteronomy 24:17–22). Equally, it was expected that lending was to be generous, that is, persons were not to charge exploitative interest rates (Deuteronomy 15:7–11). It is clear that even in economies where individuals controlled the means of production, the poor were clearly considered.
Wealth creation – a theological and missional gap In the context of stewardship and mission, church teaching on the subject of money and possessions has not been given sufcient prominence (Wright, 1992). Consequently, this gap has left many churches stranded in their
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eforts of being efective in Christian mission. A strong theology of how mission might be funded has been omitted. This experience applies especially to the African context, where not only was political independence from the mother church of Europe and the United States important, but also the need to instil a sense of economic and fnancial independence. Speaking from Zambia, Chuba (2005) advocated that leaders of the African Church must accept responsibility for supporting their own church and its mission and that this would ultimately lead to empowerment that would enable discovery of an authentic model of African Christianity. Chuba’s desire is still far from being accomplished. In part, this is because of the reluctance of the churches to deal with the theology of money, wealth and possessions, which represent concerns intricately related to mission and the propagation of the gospel of Christ. Bosch (2006) argues that the Christian church cannot negate social justice in its work. Although still a difcult area of Christian interpretation, evangelism and social justice cannot be ignored. Indeed, the Old Testament did not separate the two issues. With this in mind, this chapter underpins the position of Bosch and states that whatever religious position one takes, social and economic injustice are issues still at play in our world, and therefore need to be addressed.
Wealth creation – a new testament thought In order to engage in the subject of fnancial sustainability, it is obvious that the subject of wealth creation will emerge. It is clear from Christian tradition that the church has generally been reluctant and feared to engage in activities of wealth creation. This dilemma may well be attributed to the tradition of a connection between wealth, money and injustice (Hughes, 2008). In the biblical gospel accounts, Jesus did not shy away from confronting selfsh desires of wealth. The Gospel of Matthew is quick to call on the words of Jesus who said: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. (Bible, 1970) This is not to say that Jesus implied that the rich would not enter the Kingdom of God. Rather, Jesus indicated the notion that a wrong attitude about riches had the potential to downgrade the spirituality of one’s life. The teachings of Jesus remind us of abounding mission opportunities for the church to be involved. Yet, such a vision can only be possible if the church is fnancially well capacitated. Mackey and Sisodia (2014) contend that it is not about the rich becoming poor so that the poor can become rich. In any case, according to Luke’s gospel the poor would be seen as those
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that are less advantaged as quoted in the example of Lazarus (Bosch, 1991). Consequently, if the church is to engage in social justice as part of its mission, it then becomes cautious that it should not be carried away with making money for money’s sake. Rather money must help to facilitate fulflling the mission of a church or faith institution. For the church, it is not simply a matter of Corporate Social Responsibility. Preaching the gospel and looking out for the poor are core to its business and strategic thinking. The New Testament refers to Judas who challenged Jesus not to waste expensive oil on his feet as it could be sold to help the poor. However, Jesus knew that it was not the motive of Judas to help the poor but rather to pilfer the proceeds of sale for himself (John 12:4–8). Thus, this gospel account is as much a warning about wrong motives, as it is a stark reminder that the under privileged will always be us. In concluding this section, it is important to note the story of Jesus in the temple driving out the money changers. Here, the fundamental issue of Jesus with the money changers was exploitation of the poor. And because it happened within the grounds of the temple, it gave credence to the thought that the temple was in collusion with the exploiters who doubled and trebled prices of temple sacrifces or exchanged animals for temple tax at an unfair rate. This was religious institutional exploitation. The cautions discussed previously play a fundamental role in the church being mindful of the pitfalls of business and wealth creation.
Wealth creation and its biblical rationale Despite reasons, the modern church has had reservations for participating in wealth creation and business, there is ample evidence which indicates that wealth was kept in the temple for noble purposes (Gnanavaram, 1994). Based on Malachi 3:10 in the Old Testament, Sedgwick (1992) shows that such wealth was intended for food and security to help the poor. Most of this resource was collected through tithes and oferings. It has been suggested that 15 percent of what Jesus said was connected to money and fnance (Alcorn, 2011). Such a percentage is indicative of how important the subject was for Jesus. The parable of the talents in Luke 19:11–23 makes interesting reading. It tells the story of investment. Many Christian interpretations have spiritualised this parable by implying that Christians must not bury the talents and gifts that God has given to them. Such teaching implies that these gifts have only to do with certain graces such as singing, serving in the church etc, which God may have bestowed on us. Yet, the story involves a sum of money, or gold granted to the three servants. The instruction is also clear that the servants were to engage in business until the return of the master. The fnal report back to the master reveals that two persons invested the master’s money, while the third reported that he buried the money because he feared that the master was vicious and so he would rather hide the money than risk investment. The
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master’s answer to this particular servant who did not invest the money is interesting. The master pointed out to him that the least he could have done was bank the money for interest. Today’s church lives in a complex and dynamic society. To this end, the church cannot limit itself in how it may raise its resources. The complexities demanded on the church today should bring it to rethink how it mobilises its resources (Sedgwick, 1992) and whether wealth should be used for purposes such as restorative justice and ofering dignity to mankind. Subsequently, the church should embrace this liberating approach and reorientate its theological radar as to how it acquires resource for delivering its mission within its own context. The institution of the church should engage in wealth creation, not only because it needs to survive but also because there is a theological platform or a mandate to drive its mission work.
Wealth creation – proposing a new model for the church A report entitled The Future of Aid (Maietta, Kennedy, & Bourse, 2017) makes a proposal that there is need for new types of action, or for diversifcation into participation by the private sector to increase their role in social mitigation through partnership with NGOs, including FBOs. The report contends that private sector actors and social entrepreneurs could drive innovation to improve the efcacy of assistance. It is therefore important to explore the role of business as a social enterprise for the church. In this regard it is often believed that non-proft organisations will engage in various commercial interests that will either serve their primary mission through the creation of a commercial or trading arm that will provide suffcient funds to run the institution. Bornstein (2004) states that business and management skills which generate revenue, should be employed to achieve social ends. Quoting Drucker, Bornstein argues that the social entrepreneur holds the ability to change the performance of society. The essential reason why the church and other FBOs should be involved in business ventures is because the approach provides a major contribution to changing the world. Profts are not directed to the beneft of individual shareholders, rather they are spread to the common good of wider community. While business enterprise is focused on maximising profts for shareholders, social enterprise ofers a signifcant chance of positively impacting social and economic change within a society. The idea of social enterprise is introduced here because a church institution will run a business with the sole purpose of contributing to the sustainability of its core mission (Bornstein, 2004). Whether it is passive investment through the purchase of shares in other businesses that the organisation deems to be ethical, or direct involvement in running or owning its own business arm. The ultimate reason is to contribute to a social outcome for the common good.
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Bull and Ridley-Duf (2008) state that social entrepreneurship was grounded in social rationality. The authors espouse the idea that beyond proft, the human element is strongly present, or that there are direct human, social and community implications. Writing on social enterprise, they go on to refer to Father Arizmendiarietta, who helped to establish the Mondragon cooperatives in the 1950s, to whom he attributes a philosophy that maintains capitalism was grounded in economic rationality, and that this produced a system in which economic outcomes were prioritised in contrast to cooperativism, which was grounded in social rationality. Social enterprise is targeted towards and motivated by positive social change. It’s a genuine mechanism designed to solve social problems, while feeling connected to a ‘higher purpose’. Many who engage in social enterprise feel that they have a primary goal of service to mankind and to the community. It is a goal that is established for the betterment of humans and the society in which they live. It is an intrinsic satisfaction beyond proft that yields a sense of fulflment. Social change can be measured because it is directed towards changed social circumstance. Social enterprise exists to ensure the profts lead to mitigating social change through tracked positive changes of an otherwise negative situation. For example, social change will seek to understand why so many people in a given community may not have access to clean water or lack security of food supply. A noticeable shift towards socially oriented business practices is observed through Multinational Corporations who have over the last years been called upon to do more and be better (Lodge & Wilson, 2006). Here, it is proposed that every community wants more beneft from the presence of the corporation in the community, than that it simply extracts proft for shareholders. Corporations are increasingly being called upon to be seen to care about issues such as those related to the environment, health and the economy of the community in which they exist. Opportunities abound for business partnerships between the church and business. Churches from their side have acknowledged and responded to a gap in the provision of community service, that is, insufcient health and educational institutions. For example, in Zambia, the Churches Health Association has 157 Church Health Institutions registered with it. This comprises 36 Hospitals, 11 of which have training schools, 89 Rural Health Centres and 32 Community-Based Organisations. These health facilities collectively account for 40 percent of the total national health care within Zambia and more than 50 percent of the country’s rural health care services which serve the poor and underserved (CHAZ, 2018). Partnerships and support can be sought in this area by engaging corporate social responsibility programmes in supporting these health institutions and by incorporating acceptable levels of commercial investment for mutual beneft.
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Wealth creation and the challenge of business leadership If business enterprise is to take root in the mindset of the church, there has to be a dedicated and trained leadership that appreciates the importance of business, especially as it relates to the fundamental reason why the church ought to be involved in wealth creation – the extension of its core mission. This leadership must understand not only the theoretical approach but also the essence and practice of business. It is a leadership that will link commercial enterprise with social change and human dignity form a spiritual perspective. The principle of being good stewards is as applicable to the church as it is to running and managing any commercial enterprise. It will therefore be important to have a transformational and visionary leadership that guides the church in this regard. The church must tap into its zeal for mission and in parallel, apply that same passion to promote and run business so that the core mission might be delivered in a sustainable manner.
Wealth creation – the way forward for the church 1. Develop a strategy for involvement in business: Develop a strategic approach in how best to engage in business. This essentially means that if the church is to become involved and to participate in business for its survival, there has to be deliberate policies created that clearly defne how it is going to operate a business entity. This may begin by changing church constitutions and developing investment policies which will support involvement in business. 2. Consider ethical investment: It is important that subjective decisionmaking and personal opinions are removed, except for ethical reasons, such as investment in alcohol production if this was incompatible with the organisation’s beliefs and counterproductive to fostering good social practices in some societies. 3. Determine correct methods for delivery: Beyond simply having a mind of ‘as the spirit leads’ the approach must be methodological, focused and determined. There is a common understanding in the church that it is ‘led by the spirit’. The impact of this is that little can be done until prayers are completed and people ‘feel’ the direction that God wants to take the organisation in terms of critical decision-making. Yet, such an approach negates proper strategic thinking and planning, leading to mediocre outcomes in church projects. 4. Determine suitable structures to manage work: If the church is to go into business, then it must determine how best this will be managed. Delegating to a church committee will not sufce. Rather, the church must determine a business model including how it will practically be involved in the business or trading arm. This calls for a complete separation of church afairs with those of the business, and the creation of a separate
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entity or guiding Board of Trustees and management. The process may call for investment in an existing viable frm, so as to merely beneft from proft-sharing. It may also establish a social enterprise company that is aligned to its mission, for example, manufacturing wheelchairs for the disabled. Examples abound. Regardless, the approach demands a deliberate thought process. 5. Engage, choose, mentor or train qualifed staf: Specialised staf have to be engaged. Churches cannot attempt to be the business expert or to run the business concurrently with regular church programmes. Current staf may need to be reoriented so as to understand the reasons, essence and ethics of why the church wants to engage in business. The process may also involve re-training staf or committees so personnel understand that the new project is not merely a casual afair but that it requires a serious engagement on which the entire church may depend for its survival. Ultimately, the church may have to engage professional staf to run the enterprise.
Conclusion The church, especially in Africa, currently adds much ‘common good’ to the health and well-being of its communities and societies across the continent, many of whom have great material and spiritual needs. Rather than asking for alms from those it wishes to assist, as an institution, the church is well positioned to incorporate business principles of wealth creation through the practice of social enterprise in order to ensure its future sustainability and to extend the reach of its social and spiritual mission. In order to achieve this, there remains the need for a shift in the mindset and attitude of its leadership towards business. Mackey and Sisodia (2014) contend that business is good when it is focused on creating value, includes ethics associated with voluntary exchange, improves the progress of humanity, works to lift people from poverty and generates prosperity. Thus, business can and should be utilised as a vehicle for poverty alleviation, if not eradication. Wealth creation is the future of the church.
References Adoyo, E. O. (1990). Mission and moratorium in Africa: The issues underlying the proposal for a missionary moratorium, and the implications of its failure for the future of mission/church relationships in Africa (with special reference to Englishspeaking Africa) (Doctoral dissertation). Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and CNAA. Alcorn, R. (2011). Money, possessions and eternity. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale. Bible, H. (1970). The new American bible. New York, NY: Catholic Bible Publishers. Bornstein, D. (2004). How to change the world: Social entrepreneurs and the power of new ideas. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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Bosch, D. (1991). Transforming mission: Paradigm shifts in theology of mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Bosch, D. (2006). Witness to the world: The Christian mission in theological perspective. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers. Bull, M., & Ridley-Duf, R. (2008). Social enterprise as a socially rational business. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 14(5), 291–312. CHAZ. (2018). About CHAZ. Churches Health Association of Zambia. Retrieved from www.chaz.org.zm/about-chaz/ Chuba, B. (2005). A history of early Christian missions and church unity in Zambia. Zambia: Ndola Mission Press. De Brabandere, L., & Iny, A. (2013). Thinking in new boxes: A new paradigm for business creativity. New York, NY: Random House Incorporated. Falsani, C. (2020). The worst ideas of the decade. The prosperity gospel. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/opinions/outlook/worstideas/prosperity-gospel.html Gnanavaram, M. (1994). Treasure in heaven and treasure on earth: A traditiohistorical, redactional and exegetical study of a biblical tradition, with special reference to its socio-economic setting (Doctoral dissertation). Coventry University. History.com. (2009). The reformation. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from https:// www.history.com/topics/reformation/reformation Hughes, D. A. (2008). Power and poverty: Divine and human rule in a world of need. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. King, D. P. (2020, April 28). How should Christian leaders respond to a pandemic. Faith and Leadership. Retrieved from https://faithandleadership.com/ will-church-fnancially-survive-covid-19-pandemic Lodge, G., & Wilson, C. (2006). Multinational corporations and global poverty reduction. Challenge, 49(3), 17–25. Mackey, J., & Sisodia, R. (2013). Conscious capitalism: Liberating the heroic spirit of business, Foreword by Bill George. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. Maietta, M., Kennedy, E., & Bourse, F. (2017). The future of aid: INGOs in 2030. London: IARAN. Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Sedgwick, P. (1992). The enterprise culture. London: SPCK. Spence, M. (2011). The next convergence: The future of economic growth in a multispeed world. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Wright, M. (1992). Yours lord. London: A&C Black.
Section 3
Faithful futures impacting society
14 Agreement while aggrieved: Negotiating business in confict and post-confict settings Jock Noble
Our faiths are varied and rich And can overcome many a hitch Invoke them when needed Before getting bleeded Godfrey Let’s not play the wizard or witch D’Lima
Introduction Often gently appealing to the faith of the participants, the stories of this chapter demonstrate how good faith, authentic human imagining and the mystery of the unquenchable spirit can lead to good faith negotiation and getting to ‘yes’ in negotiation and renewed interactions in fractured settings. Drawing on a diverse range of ethnicity, faith and community settings in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe the reimagining of business in tense and even hostile settings, presents challenges where spiritual insights seem essential and the faith of facilitator and participants is assessed by one unbending hermeneutic – how they act. And in this the constant is the catalyst embodied in the person who steps forward with stories, or helps in the memory of histories, which create a new sense of hope. Haval’s words ofer a touch stone in this work, Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is not the same as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but rather the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. (Haval, 1991, pp. 181–182)
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Confict While it is noted that confict “is a natural, inevitable, necessary, and a part of life” (Francis, 2002, p. 2) and is part of growing up and developing a mature perspective on others, violent confict is a negative and destructive version of fractured relationships. Violent confict is as old as human society. At the start of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim story in the fourth chapter of Genesis there is confict leading to murder. In the ancient Hindu texts, the confict between Indra and Vritra is the subject of the Vedas and in the Rigveda, Schmidt (1980) notes that early on, it records the ‘Battle of the Ten Kings’. Internationalisation means small regional conficts can rapidly escalate into international incidents and given human history, nihilism seems not only a viable perspective but also an almost inevitable one. However, as Hock (1999, p. 3) said, It is far too late, and things are far too bad for pessimism. In times such as these, it is no failure to fall short of what we all might dream – the failure is to fall short of all that we might realise. We must try.
A diferent way of thinking Kenosis is a transliteration of the Biblical Greek word eskenōsen, where the writer of Philippians 2:5–11 refers to Christ’s ‘self-emptying’ (kenosis) of power, rights and possessions. At the very core of the Christian God is a selfsacrifcing love, seeking to draw in creation as a partner with implications for both Christian worldviews and ethics (Ellis, 2001, p. 108) along with its scientifc and philosophical basis as explained by Polkinghorne (2001). Selfsacrifcing love rejects institutions that are authoritarian. Instead, those that have a strong element of self-sacrifce and servant heartedness, or strands of kenosis, are found in every major religious system (Ellis, 2001, p. 109). Kenosis can be expressed in diferent ways and at diferent levels in diferent traditions (Vieten, Amorok, & Schlitz, 2006). Ali and Al-Aali (2015) state Islam’s desire to ensure “generosity, transparency and accountability in behaviour while safeguarding societal interests” in the marketplace, is a form of practical kenosis. The Red Cross (founded 1883) and St Johns (founded 1070) (Ali & Al-Aali, 2015, p. 836) as kenotic expressions of the Christian church. The roots of Hindu giving “with no obligation to respond” on the part of the recipient (Eck, 2013, p. 362) is a very ancient tradition, as is alms giving in Islam. It is also recognised that the practice of giving like this “makes possible still more demanding acts of self-sacrifce” (Eck, 2013, p. 375). Buddhism’s commitment to “living simply, being satisfed with limited resources, avoiding struggles for material treasures” (Du, Jian, Zeng, & Du, 2014, p. 489) is kenotic in character. Ellis (2001, p. 118) further suggests “the degree of alignment with kenosis is a key test of religious authenticity”.
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The golden rule is more than self-preservation, it is a stepping out, without any assurance of reciprocity. Such a radical rethinking is hard though. One Christian associated with a social business said – My boss often asked, “What would Jesus do?” – and I’m supposed to become more Christ-like, or something. I said, No. I don’t go with that. Christ ended up crucifed, and that’s what happens to every single follower who’s brave enough to do that – you end up dying on the cross... I’m sorry, there’s a line, it’s the chicken line for me, I’m this side of the chicken line (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 246) Kenosis and sacrifcial love as foundational to life abounds: • • • •
Women who have sold themselves into the sex industry to feed their children (Kilpatrick & Pio, 2013; Pati, 2014). A journalist willing to go to jail to protect a source (Brown, 2019). Giving up of revenge in favour of the common interests of peace (Ellis, 2001, p. 119; Fullard & Rousseau, 2009; Steward, 2015). Care for others through ecological concern and ‘going without’ (McFague, 2013, p. xi).
Pulling threads and weaving a helix – a meta-theory of human change In his introduction to ‘Spiral Dynamics’, Lessem points out that much of the theory behind the book has been developed and tested in troubled places like South Africa, Palestine and Israel as well as Russia and America (Beck, Larsen, Solinin, & Viljoen, 2018, pp. xiii–xv). The book seeks to address the big picture – global issues in a holistic fashion – and provides the theoretical base for this chapter. Developing further the ‘emergent, cyclical, double-helix model of bio-psychosocial behaviour’ outlined in Graves’ pivotal article (1974), the authors seek to understand and work with ‘the complex problem of how individuals, groups and societies handle life changing conditions’ (Beck et al., 2018, p. 3). Graves developed an adult human development theory by looking at thousands of conceptualisations of what constituted healthy, mature, ‘together’ adults. He noted how people’s worldviews changed over time and that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs did not necessarily follow automatic steps or necessarily result in one single level of self-actualisation (Beck et al., 2018, p. 14). Eventually, he codifed this into a dual ‘theme through history’ concept where communal/collective thinking, externally driven, sacrifcial in its thinking and horizontal in its distribution, was matched by elitist/individualistic thinking that was internally driven, expressive and vertically distributed, resulting in a never-ending quest for the answers to existence. From these emerged eight systems, four
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are related to the individual and four to the communal or collective thinking. Beck looked at 42 other systems that described human behaviour but decided that Graves’ system ofered the best understanding. He devoted the rest of his life to adding and developing to it (Beck et al., 2018). Both Beck and Graves seem convinced that, like others, change is possible and that new life conditions can stimulate new thinking structures, but to do that the codes that are in people (rather than descriptive of people) need to be unlocked. Beck gives a brief history and meaning of the codes, explaining how the colours that are used in diagrams to explain them have signifcance only inasmuch as they deal with ‘I, me, mine’ (warm colours) and ‘us, we our’ (the cooler colours) and how these interact and develop over changing times, places and circumstances with “no fnal state to our evolving codes” (Beck et al., 2018, p. 30). He also notes that because codes are nestled within an individual ‘progression up’, the double helix spiral can also go in reverse in adverse circumstances (Beck et al., 2018, p. 33). The key to spiral dynamics (SD) is that the next level does not replace the previous level, but it transcends and includes it. Therefore, we do not try and eliminate any code, but rather seek to “realise the importance of each code and keep the conduits open between codes, allowing people to grow and develop healthily within the code that fts their life conditions” (Beck et al., 2018, p. 34). We can thrive when our worldviews are an adequate match for the situation, we fnd ourselves in and have some understanding of our level and the levels that we have transcended, while having virtually no conceptualisation of the levels above us. Beck et al. (2018) provide a very brief summary of how the codes and colours ft the double helix premise.
Putting theory to practice in local settings How does this SD work in practice though? One such case study, developed in the Rift Valley of Kenya might shed light on this process. Kenya sits atop parts of the fertile Rift Valley of South East Africa, and as well as being a very early place in human history where Homo sapiens emerged, lived and worked, it marks the confuence of Bantu, Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan ethno-linguistic groups (Broadhurst, Cunnane, & Crawford, 1998). It is fertile ground and that has made it a place of confict over centuries. Displacement of the Kikuyu people from their traditional highland areas, into what was traditional Maasai areas, have increased tensions (Doyle, 2008; Elhawary, 2009). Democracy and voting along ethnic lines exacerbated confict and then a corrupt election process in 2007 produced confict that resulted in politically and ethnically fuelled murders. I was told of one incident where 50 women and children were locked in a church in Kiambaa Village (near Eldoret airport) and burnt alive. Less than 100 km away from Kiambaa, in a World Vision Development Project, I (the author of this chapter) was employed to lead the project
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in Economic Development, with the intent on trying to get groups working together to self-support and fund their communal education and health facilities. The task involved exploring and developing social enterprises as a path out of poverty for various groups in the area. I have worked long enough in Africa to know how confict has created or exacerbated poverty, irrespective of how that confict has been created, but also to know that intractable problems can be brought to resolution. Some conficts are modern, brought about by climate change and accompanying population movements, the loss of income and community support because of the loss of a generation of child-rearing adults through the ravages of HIV/AIDS. Other conficts are borne out of inequities created by colonisation. To get the diferent communities working together, I intended using stories to get conversation going, distil what locals actually wanted to achieve, fnd where various people were situated in the SD process, and to work towards ‘giving away power and position’ – which Beck and Graves would typify as ‘unconditional love’. Practitioners in this process must work by not using power and position to give solutions, but by allowing the solutions to come from those on this journey of rethinking a future under very diferent life circumstances to the past. So often I would fnd people sitting waiting with pads and pens asking me to tell them what to do. Then like a conjurer with only one trick I have tried to get people to see that the next step lay with them, based on their belief that this next step was worth taking. (Noble, 2015a, p. 8) And that it made sense to them. I would accept a certain amount of guru persona just long enough to establish enough trust and to be able to expose their latent power and my own lack of it, although time after time, local leaders would say, that I had a voice with them because I kept returning. I would start the session by reminding them how we met and would say, “tell me the news, what has happened since I was here last, how are we moving forward, what are the challenges and what have we learned?” It seemed to me that this storytelling role was essential. I came to see that intentionality only became solid when it was acted on. When action did not occur in relation to ideas, then ultimately progress would slip back to the last level of action that had an idea behind it. A process like this which removes power from the ‘expert’ can readily be described as a process of kenosis. Rather than providing solutions, through the typical ‘great white father’ approach, as a facilitator I sought to empower those whose lives are entangled with the issues by calling them to a new level of understanding through storytelling. This kenosis approach works when the person who would usually have the power by dint of ‘expert solution’ opts instead to listen to the group, ask defning questions of them to help establish where they are with their thinking in this SD of potential change and then attempt to resource their insights and decisions.
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So often we fail to enquire of ourselves whether we have encountered these challenges before and whether in fact we may be the common element (Noble, 2015a). The story about stone soup where a weary traveller takes a stone in a pot of water, a fre and the gift of imagination that draws a great cauldron of tasty soup from an impoverished village, reminds us of the wonder of this ancient story found in many cultures. A visitor to a community prepared to risk himself or herself, not based on a belief that “their job was to be an expert or to own a success, but to take a risk that others could be shown they have the answer” (2015a, p. 60) demonstrates the essence of kenosis in which we need to operate. The WEMA (WEsegis MAtarui) Area Development Programme (ADP) is in the Rift Valley about four hours north of Nairobi, the last 90-minute journey is ‘picturesque’ as a rough riverbed passes through many typical villages with rounded mud huts, sisal plants and ancient Euphorbia trees. This ADP covers about 304 km2 with 34,113 people in 6,758 households. There are eight ethnic groups in the ADP, and the area is cut in half by a rocky ridge where the majority Kikuyus (65 percent) live nearest Nakuru. On the other side of this awkward crest near Matauri, Kalenjins constitute 70 percent of the population. Both groups struggle economically. The two groups have had an uneasy relationship with several incidents further eroding trust. Two groups had been established and had been meeting independently prior to the post-election ethnic conficts in 2007. One of the reasons we worked there was because our project manager was Kalenjin and other staf were Kikuyu and we could demonstrate both diversity and inclusion. The two groups decided to meet with World Vision helping with transport for monthly meetings alternating on each side of the ridge. There was a friendly competition as to who would have the best outcomes for various projects people committed to. That process of meeting together empowered the people enough to challenge government ofcials and to ask for what they were entitled to, with respect to digging of wells and maintenance of roads which, in that context of people with limited education and feeling they had no voice in the wider socio-economic events around them, is a highly signifcant shift on self-perception. Furthermore, achieving rights to water use meant achieving fair and equitable access to markets for their products as well. One major social enterprise in the area was reforestation, which was vital for community health and well-being. The removal of trees had signifcant local climate impact. Trees help to build community wealth by retaining water, shade and organic material. Peter, one of the members of the subcommittee dealing with rainwater harvesting and tree planting was constantly asked by community members when returning from the other side of the ridge, “Is there peace over there? Are you safe? Are the people kind?” “There is peace and I am safe” was his response and “Yes the people are kind”. He then went on to say: When our group was travelling together on our way here this morning we passed a school where there were no trees for shade, and we all said,
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we must plant trees around that school and we didn’t think this is their land or it is not. We said, this is our land and that school needs trees. And we will do it. (Noble, 2015a, p. 21) Trust that had been established, along with common goals negated the historical surrounding violence. Socio-economic uplift depended on them working together. This is in line with research on trade and violence (Polachek, Robst, & Chang, 1999; Polachek, 1980) and the efect predicted from kenosis or what might be termed as unconditional love by Graves (1974) and Beck et al. (2018). Setting the tone by giving away the facilitator’s power helps to produce the ethos that makes the rest possible, because it allows “people to grow and develop healthily within the code that fts their life conditions” (Beck et al., 2018, p. 34). A further example comes from an ADP called Ndabibi, also in the Rift Valley at the far end of Lake Naivasha. There was chaos in the area not far down the road where a helicopter gun ship had been called in as violence had claimed the lives of 30 people. Most staf from the ADP were evacuated. Despite this, the development group had grown to over 400 women. They were an energetic group known as Chemi Chemi which in English means ‘spring’. These women discussed and recognised that no one would ultimately gain from the violence. Women said to men that they were in trouble, if they engaged in violence. In a sea of ethnic suspicion and violence, a higher order goal of peace and prosperity has prevailed. The business facilitation committee in Ndabibi inspired these women to grow melons along with their water storage programme. The water project began in around 2008 when Florence, the leader of a 100 strong group of women had besieged World Vision for 2,300 litres water tanks for everyone in the group so that those women didn’t need to spend three or four hours each day carrying water – a hugely demanding task. The number of water tanks grew and then Florence inspired the building of fve massive dams each able to hold 250,000 litres of water and all dug with hoes and buckets. In this project there was one man. A World Vision leader went over to him and said, “everyone else here is a woman, why is there just one man?” and the man replied, “my wife is sick and couldn’t come so she said I had to come and dig for her!” World Vision paid for the neoprene liners and now the dams are full of water and feed a drip irrigation system that has boosted food and crop growing signifcantly. By including a diversity of tribal backgrounds in the group, which was a traditional issue that produced tension and violence, the Masai preference for letting herd animals roam freely, has been overcome. With that has come a wider understanding of diferent faiths as well. Florence speaks of the new secretary of the group with a small giggle as “she is a Muslim”. She suggests, it’s hard to understand why anyone wouldn’t see Jesus as the only way to access God, but at the same time with an appreciation of what this traditional ‘enemy’ brings to the table, in terms of cooperative endeavour and ongoing behavioural and attitudinal change – SD in action. The adage
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that a person convinced against their will, remains unconvinced still is why the use of storytelling contributes so efectively to this double helix process. That said, people do not sit plumb centre in the SD descriptors, they sit between and can go either way. When pushed, for example, in a tribal confict situation, people can move more towards Blue – collective togetherness for the good of the whole or slip back to Red – gangs and violent clashes. The skilled facilitator would then ideally recognise the tendency to revert to Red and use a certain amount of Red language perhaps around individual heroism and codes of honour, but to achieve the goal of Blue and collective endeavour for the good of all. The story of Florence and her hard-working group of women in Ndabibi encountered a setback when Hippos, driven by drought conditions, walked 4 km inland and ate the entire crop. Yet, I had the privilege of listening to a conversation where the group was discussing what kind of crop could be grown that was unattractive and unappetising to both hippos and zebras. Here, I was able to refect on the fact that my task there was largely concluded. This group had already developed ways of thinking to enable them to adapt, not only to the changed circumstances brought on by the surrounding confict, but also the ever-changing issues imposed by the collateral damage of climate change. In fact, the group went ahead and bought another piece of better land themselves. A useful aspect of the work of Graves (1974) and Beck et al. (2018) is that it takes seriously the context of the moment and that participants have a problem. The secret of success in telling such stories unlocks codes already contained within people, allowing them to view the issues diferently – but with what they already have. One aspect of human perception and thinking that comes into play here is loss aversion – the strong preference to avoid losses over acquiring potential gains is well documented (Barkley-Levenson, Van Leijenhorst, & Galván, 2013). Many years of talking with farmers in dozens of diferent contexts suggest that while they may recognise the theoretical logic of making a change, they may be worried that deviating from their traditions poses a risk of losing the little they have. This may go as far as being willing to tolerate three or four hungry months, rather than risk letting go of tradition and trying something new that is likely to mean they will be better of.
Conclusion As Beck et al. (2018, p. 182) has pointed out when it comes to the choices we have, Everything from shaping natural habitats to gene splicing to using science in various ways to alter the human experience. I don’t think any of us realise yet what that’s going to mean. As a species we’re never had that capacity before.
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The shifting of our thinking from more stabilising codes, to ones with short time frames and more driven by power than by infuence, discipline and accountability poses real risks to humans as a species. But that is not all there is to the human story. Past crises like the disintegration of the apartheid system in South Africa and the resulting ‘rainbow Nation’ shows that it is possible to integrate and understand the diferent codes of SD and to move forward from there. As this chapter was being written, the global crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced thinking from purely ‘I and me’ to ‘us and all of us’ as we consider our common survival. It is therefore probably not coincidental that over this same period there has been a profound shift in societal thinking in the United States around “Black lives matter”, where support for the movement increased as much in the two weeks preceding 10 July 2020, as it had in the preceding two years. Change in our modes of thinking is vital if we are to survive on this planet. We are in the process of radical and dynamic change and the direction in which we will settle is not yet clear. Faith is an integral aspect of that process. While the ancient records of faith communities show the pervasiveness of confict, they also show the drive to live above that confict. With the ongoing global increase in faith communities, perhaps it will be faith communities that shift our thinking to new and exciting levels in the future and enable us to transform confict into harmony and armaments into combine harvesters – resourceful machinery for harvesting diverse grain crops.
References Ali, A., & Al-Aali, A. (2015). Marketing and ethics: What Islamic ethics have contributed and the challenges ahead. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(4), 833–845. Barkley-Levenson, E. E., Van Leijenhorst, L., & Galván, A. (2013). Behavioural and neural correlates of loss aversion and risk avoidance in adolescents and adults. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 3(1), 72–83. Beck, D. E., Larsen, T. H., Solinin, S., & Viljoen, R. C. (2018). Spiral dynamics in action: Humanity’s master code. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Broadhurst, C. L., Cunnane, S. C., & Crawford, M. A. (1998). Rift Valley lake fsh and shellfsh provided brain-specifc nutrition for early Homo. The British Journal of Nutrition, 79(1), 3–21. Brown, B. (2019). Journalists jailed or fned for refusing to identify confdential sources, as of 2019. Retrieved from www.rcfp.org/jailed-fned-journalists-confdential-sources Doyle, M. (2008). Kenya’s geographical and political rift. Retrieved February 2, 2016, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7213211.stm Du, X., Jian, W., Zeng, Q., & Du, Y. (2014). Corporate environmental responsibility in polluting industries: Does religion matter? Journal of Business Ethics, 124(3), 485–507. Eck, D. L. (2013). The religious gift: Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain perspectives on Dana [Article]. Social Research, 80(2), 359–379. Elhawary, S. (2009). Post-election Kenya: Land, Displacement and the search for ‘durable solutions’. Review of African Political Economy, 36(119), 130–137.
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Ellis, G. F. R. (2001). Kenosis as a unifying theme for life and cosmology. In J. Polkinghorne (Ed.), The work of love: Creation as kenosis (pp. 107–126). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Francis, D. (2002). People, peace and power: Confict transformation in action. London: Pluto. Fullard, M., & Rousseau, N. (2009). Truth telling: Identities and power in South Africa and Guatemala. New York, NY: International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). Retrieved from www.ictj.org/sites/default/fles/ICTJ-Identities-TruthCommissions-ResearchBrief-2009-English.pdf Graves, C. W. (1974, April). Human nature prepares for a momentous leap. The Futurist. Haval, V. (1991). Disturbing the peace (P. Wilson, Trans.). New York, NY: Knopf Inc. Hock, D. (1999). Birth of the chaordic age (1-576-75074-4). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Kilpatrick, R. (2016). The business of peacebuilding: Redeeming the entrepreneurial spirit for reconciliation (Doctoral dissertation). Auckland University of Technology. Kilpatrick, R., & Pio, E. (2013). I want to touch the sky: How an enterprise challenges stigma for sex-workers. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 32(3), 277–288. McFague, S. (2013). Blessed are the consumers: Climate change and the practice of restraint. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Noble, J. (2015a). Stories from the road. Seattle, WA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Pati, R. (2014). Marshalling the forces of good: Religion and the fght against human trafcking. Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, 9(1), 1–24. Polachek, S. W. (1980). Confict and trade. Journal of Confict Resolution, 24(1), 55–78. Polachek, S. W., Robst, J., & Chang, Y.-C. (1999). Liberalism and Interdependence: Extending the trade-confict model. Journal of Peace Research, 36(4), 405–422. Polkinghorne, J. (2001). The work of love: Creation as kenosis (231.753). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Schmidt, H. P. (1980). Notes on Rgveda 7.18.5–10 (Vol. 17, pp. 41–47). Bombay: Indica, Organ of the Heras Institute. Vieten, C., Amorok, T., & Schlitz, M. M. (2006). I to we: The role of consciousness transformation in compassion and altruism. Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science, 41(4), 915–931.
15 Mining faith to settle confict: Bringing dispute to the surface in a resolvable fashion Maclean Ndabezinhle Dlodlo
Peace is so vital for living Whether one’s getting or giving In harmony stand Accept every hand Godfrey And for God’s sake don’t stay unforgiving D’Lima
The issue – tensions in labour relations South Africa is a constitutional democracy where every citizen’s rights are protected by law, with employer–employee relations regulated by law, aimed at curbing harmful asymmetrical power imbalances (Stolyarov, 2007). Through the Labour Relations Act of 1995 (amended in 2002), Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (Government of South Africa, 1997) and the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (Government of South Africa, 1998), the government has provided mechanisms to guide and regulate engagements such as collective bargaining, negotiation, conciliation, arbitration and litigation. The regulations seek to mitigate against unfair exchange that advantages one group over another (Stolyarov, 2007). It is one thing to formulate laws but another to efectively implement the same and produce goodwill. What is often missed is a critical middle point between good policy making and implementation – the management of people relationships or relational interests. Herein lies the tension in labour relations and the question of how employers and employees might converse over issues that matter to them without an escalation into disruptive disputes. The Sustained Relationship Building Model (SRBM) is not presented as a substitute to existing legal instruments. Rather it is by design and intent, a supportive framework for dialogue. The author recognises the availability in the South African mining sector of “legitimate, ... non-arbitrary forums for the peaceful settlement of diferences, that should ordinarily help resolve disputes by means of due process” (Shonholtz, 2003, p. 403).
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The SRBM model desires to nurture ‘talk’ as an alternative, making intentional dialogue work and enabling the voices of all parties to be heard and “horizontally empowered” (Figueroa, Kincaid, Rani, & Lewis, 2002, p. ii), problems collectively owned, and commitment and trust becoming the supportive pillars of bargaining or negotiation processes. Such conversations do not only have potential for ‘win–win’ outcomes, they might also yield new opportunities for co-creation of solutions to the challenges of ongoing social change.
Background Labour tensions in South Africa are exacerbated by glaring socio-economic realities with a fraught history that includes colonialism and institutionalised racial capitalistic privilege. Notwithstanding, there are signifcant milestones that have been made in addressing both social and economic disparities (Dürr, 2013). The multidimensional nature of inequality makes it hard to aggregate the story of inequality into a single headline (Sithole, 2019). This chapter accounts for just some of the factors underlying unrest in the labour industry as outlined by Maluleke (2019, pp. 61–62). The mean earnings per month between 2011 and 2015 were: • • • •
Black Africans: US$414, Coloureds: US$560, Asians: US$856, Whites: US$1480.
The labour market income is the main driver of income inequality in South Africa, contributing 74.2 percent towards overall income inequality in the country. Rising local production costs and a global downswing of mining commodity prices have resulted in a signifcant shrinking of margins in the industry and an increasingly unsettled labour market (Cornish, 2019). It is not the intent of this chapter to delve into racial determinants, that is, colour inequalities, but to bring to the fore some issues that underlie labour tensions. First, income disparities are consistently problematic in labour relations; and second, social discontent with the government instituted afrmative action has created a signifcant “infuential and powerful” middle class (Simpson, 2013), while failing “to efectively empower the Black majority” (Visagie, 2013, p. 4). Labour unrest is more pronounced in the mining industry than other sectors. The mining sector recorded the second highest industrial share of strikes averaging 30.2 percent over the period 1999–2014 (Bhorat, Yu, Khan, & Thornton, 2017). The gloom painted by the statistics may lead to either despair or a search for alternatives to change the narrative.
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The desire – Shalom With a majority of the population professing Christianity (about 86 percent), and considering the Christian values of justice, mercy and reciprocity, is it not strange that South Africa is rated as one of the most economically unequal societies in the world (Sithole, 2019)? Should not such values generally inform corporate culture and economic life (Serin & Davis, 2015)? What shall we say about the peace-making mandate of all believers in a macro-context where violent protests have almost become the norm, with consequence of loss of lives in some cases (Bolt & Rajak, 2016)? Is peaceful coexistence not a fundamental consideration for human progress? The relevance of faith is demonstrated when faith is infused into life and work complexities, with peace becoming the indicator of God’s intervention.
The model and theory of peaceful and goodwill facilitated negotiation Peace – the foundational principle of the SRBM The SRBM is underpinned by the Shalom concept of the Kingdom of God. Shalom, literally means “peace to you”, an expression of goodwill, a hope for welfare, health, prosperity (Hackett & Huehnergard, 2013), and wholeness or well-being (Butler, 1991) for both individuals and communities (Bodner & Lowrey, 2002; Schaefer, 1996). The Shalom motif resonates throughout the implementation of the model. Reimagining faith in the corporate environment necessarily requires reclamation of honour, respect and reciprocity – dignifying both persons and work engagement. SRBM defned SRBM can be described as a transformative approach to confict prevention, mitigation and management that seeks to promote cooperative behaviours, reinforce interdependent relationships and engender a culture of dialogue in intergroup engagements. SRBM – bridging the gap Mining industry laws in South Africa require companies to submit a document called the ‘Social and Labour Plan’ (SLP) – a social contract between mining company, organised labour and mine communities articulating undertakings geared at achieving the socio-economic well-being of all parties before a mining right may be issued.
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Of critical note in the introduction of SLPs are assumptions that impede efective SLP delivery, presumptions that: mining companies do conduct wide-ranging consultation with all stakeholders as they should; there is trust, cooperation and networking in communities sufcient to generate progress in SLP implementation and achievement of the SLP goal of socio-economic transformation. An extensive study conducted by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) (2016, pp. 31–32) on Social and Labour exposed this gap – a weakness in its social capital link – encumbering meaningful implementation of the same. Herein lies the SRBM focus – the strengthening of this ‘critical middle’, through intentional processes that prioritise the transformation of stakeholder relationships ahead of systems and structures change.
The theory of peaceful goodwill for facilitating negotiation Is there an alternative to conventional negotiations which seem to so often fail? In designing the dispute resolution component of SRBM, the author followed the general theory of confict proposed by Shonholtz (2003) that defnes diferences on issues as disputes rather than confict, and points at available and non-arbitrary options for settlement. The general theory provides fexibility to build-in other theories (Galtung, 2009), such as Interactional Perspectivism to enhance engagement and strengthen interdependent relationships (Folger, Poole, & Stutman, 2001). The course charted through interaction obliges parties to take responsibility for disputed issues and become more aware of the cost to both escalation or resolution (Higashi & Yamamura, 1994), constraining them to work together to create solutions.
Methodology for SRBM The methodology adopted is a combination of three approaches: Descriptive Qualitative Case Study, Action-Learning and the Communication for Social Change approach (Figueroa et al., 2002). The combination sanctions space for analysis of issues, refection on own and other circumstances, and learning that embraces attitude and behavioural change, and envisioning and planning for a preferred future. The implementation method leans on Walton’s (1968) work on Interpersonal Peace-making. Thus, the SRBM is predicated on the broad framework that moves from ‘Diferentiation’ to ‘Integration’. Diferentiation is defned as the phase where parties raise the issues of diference and invest time and energy clarifying positions, pursuing reasons behind their positions and acknowledging the severity of diferences. Integration is described as the point where further escalation seems fruitless, so parties begin to acknowledge common ground, explore options and move towards some solutions.
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The author further segregated the ‘Diferentiation’ to ‘Integration’ continuum into segments designated as Analyse, Catalyse, Empower and Recognition (ACER) steps, alongside a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to clarify and detail the efcacy of the approach. ACER is where difcult issues are unpacked and collectively resolved. The Analyse and Catalyse stages make Diferentiation as exhaustive as possible through the utilisation of analysis tools, such as the Positions, Interests and Needs (PIN) Analysis (Fisher & Ury, 1981) as parties to explore resolution options available to them. The Empowerment and Recognition stages (Bush & Folger, 1994, pp. 80–112) on the other hand provide, in essence, an environment where dialogue begins and is supported as it progresses to the Integration phase. The priority in the design and implementation of SRBM is on people ahead of production processes. This approach is largely infuenced by leading peace-building scholar and practitioner Lederach (1995, p. 190), who argues that “peace-making embraces the challenge of personal transformation, ... of pursuing awareness, growth and commitment to change at a personal change ... and equally involves the task and priority of systemic transformation”.
The context of intervention The mine This case involves Mine X in South Africa. In their business model, the investors have no direct involvement in the day-to-day processes of the mine. A contractor consisting of a lean management team and workforce of 192 staf was appointed to execute the whole mining operation. Into the second year of the projected 16-year mine life, acute diferences emerged between the contractor’s management team and workers’ representatives over salaries/wages, benefts and working, and other non-bargainable issues such as identity, security and recognition (Francis, 2002). With neither party willing to yield, negotiations went into deadlock. Tensions were heightened when the contractor delayed salaries and wages payment by 24 hours. A work stoppage was imminent as workers’ representatives called a strike. The management team ruled that as illegal action whose consequences would be job terminations for all involved: threats and counter-threats! As the stand-of ensued none of the parties considered the negative impact of the looming strike action to all concerned – the investor, employer and employees. It was at this point that the investor sought a third-party intervention, seeking not just the usual ‘quick fx’, but to chart new ways of working and relating between groups, and a mutuality that would reinforce the mine’s goal pursuit, inclusive of the socio-economic transformation of the whole mining community. The SRBM facilitators were invited to facilitate the desired change.
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The facilitator Wood and Heslam (2014, p. 1) suggest that “values and beliefs of managers infuence the performance and sustainability of their business ventures”. This idea is supported by Smith (2009), Drucker (2007, 2010) along with Wood and Heslam (2014). The business ethics that inform the practices of the consulting frm that SRBM facilitators hail from are Christian. Given the openness to faith in South Africa, the SRBM sensitively integrates biblical principles as part of an interdisciplinary whole to support attitude change, catalyse respectful dialogue and encourage responsible exercise of power. In this case, the Facilitator creates an environment and experience of Shalom, where just thinking and behaviour takes place (Myer, 1832). He/she becomes the metaphoric light and salt (Matthew 5:14–15) that steers away conversations from convolution and intractability, helps process unpalatable issues, re-directs the discourses to productive engagement and challenges human tendencies to self-destruct. The Shalom borne by the Christian facilitator provides the impetus. It is a value-add that money may not buy. The intervention Informed by a rapid assessment of the situation, the facilitating team framed an assumption and communicated it as follows: We presume that there are relational issues that are a potential threat to personal wellbeing, healthy inter-personal and intergroup interaction, ultimately afecting the productive capacity and proftability of the mining operation, and ultimately the reputation of the mine. This assumption provided an entry point into conversations and introduction of proposed process. A hostile reception by workers’ representatives and scepticism from the management team present not only the opportunity to present credentials, but most importantly the Facilitators’ allegiance and vested interests. In a bold and respectful statement, the Facilitation team clearly stated that they are bound by the ethics of their profession to conduct an objective and fair process. As much as they were accountable to the Investor to delivery results as desired, their ultimate allegiance was to God who cares about the well-being of all. Therefore, the facilitators were committed to facilitating a process that would yield outcomes of mutual benefting and relied God’s wisdom which is “frst of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17) more than on their competencies. This provided an opportunity of witness to their faith and generated the will of the parties to participate. The conditions were now conducive to introduce the model and the proposed journey from ‘Diferentiation’ to ‘Integration’ with a clear articulation
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of the process goal, outcomes, outputs and phases of the SRBM, a journey staggered over a 3-month period from start to Facilitators’ exit. The process of moving parties to “prioritisation of dialogue as an alternative to resolution of disputes and as an enabler of organisational change processes” (Fisher & Ury, 1981, p. 22), facilitation was broken down into eight participatory workshops, probing issues underlying the dispute, such as the perceptions of interference by one party on others’ needs and interests or goals, grappling with issues of desirability, and afordability while building trust and commitment to a common good. In the early part of the workshop, following the ACER model, the frst alphabet letter, Analysis, demonstrated attitude and behaviour change in their engagements. The defnition of terms formed an important part of each session to not only help a mixed group of participants understand concepts, but also fnd common understanding of language used in the sessions. In SRBM, an Attitude is an enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially signifcant objects, groups, events or symbols (Vaughan & Hogg, 2008), helping parties to understand the powerful infuence of attitudes over behaviours. Behaviour in dispute settings refers to the actions that persons take to express their feelings, articulate perceptions, and get needs met in a way that has potential of interfering with others’ ability to get their needs met (McLeod, 2018). Context refers to the objective reality of the environment in which disputes takes place because cultural, political and socio-economic factors can block positive and transformative resolution (McLeod, 2018). Once the ABCs (Attitude, Behaviour, Context) were defned, small groups of four or fve members then described in as much detail their own ABCs before they named the other group’s ABCs. As would be expected, this was an emotive session and infamed with anger and bitterness, and apparent distrust. In the debrief, the facilitators acknowledged the participants’ honesty and their pain, noting that understanding attitudes and behaviours can help to mould their response to their dispute and future behaviour (McLeod, 2018), and making them aware that while attitudes are enduring, they can also change (Kendra, 2010). The ABC session was a useful exercise for parties to view their dispute objectively and defne it appropriately. With the understanding of confict or dispute as natural, inevitable, necessary and a part of life (Francis, 2002), the parties recognised theirs was as normal as any other. The difference from here onwards would be how they act on their perceptions or attitudes as actions are the deciding factor, on whether they embraced their diferences as an opportunity for positive change, or an occasion to fght (Folger et al., 2001). For the purpose of SRBM delivery, Folger et al. (2001, p. 5) defnition of dispute or confict is particularly pertinent, that is, “the interaction of interdependent people who perceive incompatible goals and interference from each other in achieving those goals”, as the focus
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of SRBM is on strengthening interdependence without compromising the autonomy of parties. The Facilitators documented in detail both parties’ ABCs for analysis. The next step of the ACER model is the Catalysing Phase – Exploring Interdependent Relationships. Here the expected outcome is that the parties’ interdependent relationship acknowledged, and cooperative behaviours enhanced. Beginning with Fisher and Ury’s (1981) defnition of terms this session empowered parties to think and articulate clearly what their PIN are. Needs are defned as what is essential to each party from food and shelter through to recognition, security, meaning and identity. Interests are goals or what each party seeks to achieve in order to meet their essential, basic or survival needs. These may be Substantive, like training and education which might lead to promotion and improved remuneration and improved performance on one’s job; Relational, for example, psychological, emotional and social well-being; Procedural, that is, following due process like industry policies and standards; and Principle, that is, commitment to human rights, fairness, equity, etc. Positions are about where a group stands or the means to achieving their interests. Unmet needs are the most frequent and serious cause of confict (Francis, 2002). This makes PIN clarifcation a priority. Clarifying one’s PIN is helpful in defning the real issues and makes engagements more objective and logical (Fisher & Ury, 1981). As PINs are better understood, recognise the distance or proximity between them and the goals they hold and can make reasonable adjustments in negotiation context. Through this exercise participants appreciate that efective negotiation should be based on Interests, rather than Positions (Fisher & Ury, 1981), as negotiating from positions is often futile and frustrating. Interest-based negotiation is more likely to yield progress towards shared goals. The greater the clarity of one’s own PINs the more likely the recognition that aggressive and disruptive behaviour will not produce a win–win situation (Francis, 2002). After this workshop session, parties take a break for an agreed number of hours or days to give dedicated attention to their PIN and if possible, reframe the same. The next workshop deals with the validation of parties’ ABCs together with PINs. This is important so each party acknowledges that they have been heard and their issues are captured appropriately. Learning from Fisher and Ury’s (1981) observations that every confict revolves around at least two factors – substance and relationships, infuence the parties to give particular attention to those practical issues of importance that impacted on their relationships and separating ‘entangled’ relational and substantive interests to greater efect (Fisher, Ury, & Patton, 1991). With issues of productivity and compensation high on the agenda, the concept of work was revisited, showing how committed work has both acquired (compensation) and intrinsic worth. When work is valued for both
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its intrinsic and acquired worth, it becomes dignifed, and consequently contributes to positive attitude and work ethic formation. However, one may not talk about the value of work relationships without considering human dignity. Human dignity as the core of being human; it is inherent and a valued part of being. The ‘Sustained Relationships Model’ describes human dignity using the ‘Dignity Triad’: Honour, Respect and Reciprocity “Whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12 CSB). An organisation that intentionally upholds human dignity as part of its culture will fnd they have fewer challenges engaging on substantive interests because they will have communicated a commitment to honourable relationships. The Empowerment and the next phase – Recognition – are based on Bush and Folger’s work (1994). The concepts articulate the transformative approach to negotiation and in SRBM this is where dialogue begins purposely. Empowerment and Recognition are transformative because parties are here equipped to better understand one another’s perspectives and to decide settlement terms themselves (Bush & Folger, 1994). Empowerment, therefore, is defned as “the ability to see, frame and feel about their own circumstances diferently (p. 85). In retrospect, it is recognised that in working through their diferences, the same diferences become an opportunity for moral growth and transformation through refection. Refection, choice and action strengthens self and reaching beyond the self to others. Orientation to dialogue is key to the ‘Empowerment’ and ‘Recognition’ phases progressing towards ‘Integration’. Such a dialogue is embraced as an integral aspect of future organisational culture as this kind of dialogue that honours relationships above individual perspectives, positions and interests (Littlejohn & Domenici, 2001). It is also a negotiation process meeting the interests of each other (Francis, 2002). Trust and Commitment building exercise are woven into every session from the frst day, asking pertinent questions that self-introspection also serve as a re-evaluation of their trust levels in any relationship and economic activity (Arrow, 1974). It was observed in the beginning that parties commonly felt threatened, attacked, and victimised by the conduct and claims of the other party (Bush & Folger, 1994). That tension was notably reduced as trust grew. During the ‘Recognition’ session tensions receded. ‘Recognition’ occurs when parties “feel and see circumstances of others diferently and demonstrate greater willingness to accommodate other” (Bush & Folger, 1994, p. 12). While ‘Empowerment’ is inward looking, ‘Recognition’ corresponds outwardly. The silent review of others’ documented ABC and PIN provided a sober atmosphere to refect and apply the concept of ‘Recognition’.
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Following the silent individual review of others’ ABC and PIN, participants proceeded to a ‘Community Circle’ outside the formal workshop setting for dialogue. Within the ‘Community Circle’ each member was asked to “stand in other’s shoes” and to frame what they had silently read of others’ ABC and PIN and feel the emotions attached as if they were their own. With empathy, they were also asked to speak to the ABC they found particularly bothersome and suggest a response. The change that this exercise solicited was striking. What was pleasantly surprising was the proximity of two parties to each other when distance was assumed in the beginning (Tables 15.1 and 15.2). On close examination of the PINs, together, they discovered that between 75 and 80 percent of their stated Needs and Interests were held in common and almost immediate traction in dialogue as key issues raised in ABC and PIN analyses went into the agenda of the frst dialogue meeting.
Results and learning Being both a dispute resolution/confict management and a social change approach, the design and execution methodologies of the SRBM are described in a Logical Framework matrix that articulates how interventions will be monitored and evaluated. Utilising the Likert (1932) scale (1: Strongly Disagree; 2: Slightly Disagree; 3: Agree; 4: Strongly Agree) we can understand more objectively the nature of change that had occurred and its potential for sustainability. Charts exist for all four phases – analyse, catalyse, empower and recognise. Two of these are reproduced to demonstrate some of the signifcant changes that occurred (Tables 15.3 and 15.4). Table 15.1 For workers Position Interests Needs
Improved contract with a specifc salary adjustment Commitment to revision of contract and movement of certain workers to permanent contracts Respect and recognition, safe working conditions, standard housing, transportation to and from plant, medical aid, provident fund, staf development and training opportunities
Table 15.2 For the management team Position Interests Needs
Improved production and proftability, better working relationships, a skilled and competent workforce Sustainable training, efcient staf performance, review and promotion system; efciency in instilling staf discipline A contractor of choice to the Investor, production efciencies, a happy and satisfed workforce, compliance to mining Standards, workplace safety, good time keeping by workforce, reduced absence of staf without leave, staf training, employee well-being
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Table 15.3 Outcome – Phase one: ANALYSE Analyse Parties demonstrate Attitude and Behaviour change in their engagements Key Indicators • Proportion of participants reporting personal change of attitude • Proportion of participants reporting acceptance and tolerance of others with diferent beliefs, interests and positions A remarkable change in the language of the protagonists was observed going into the ffth workshop. This suggested attitudinal changes as outlined here. There were 14 people in total from the two groups. When asked, “if they thought or felt they had become more tolerant towards people of diferent race, gender or status” 14.5 percent strongly disagreed, 14.5 percent slightly agreed, 57 percent agreed and 14 percent strongly agreed with the statement Table 15.4 Outcome – Phase four: RECOGNITION Recognition Parties feel and see circumstances of others diferently and demonstrate greater willingness to accommodate other Key Indicators • Proportion of participants reporting that they understand diferently the circumstances of other party • Proportion of participants reporting satisfaction with the implemented intervention 7 percent disagreed, 22 percent lightly agreed but 73 percent either agreed or strongly agreed, demonstrating a substantial shift in attitude and behaviour in engagement for workplace circumstances being viewed as increasingly just and fair Parties generally acknowledged that ample attention had been given to the ABC issues and PIN goals, and progress on recommended actions When asked if they were now more aware of the other parties concerns and interests, 7 percent responded they didn’t experience any change in understanding but 22 percent thought they understood at least slightly better, 64 percent were sure they did and 7 percent were very sure they understood the other party’s concerns and interests better Asked about the process and any sense of achievement or satisfaction with the outcomes, 7 percent (or one person) clearly didn’t engage or want to engage in the process (perhaps for whom the process was the wrong approach) while the other 93 percent felt they had participated in a good process and felt some degree of satisfaction with the outcomes Are they confdent that the process will facilitate dialogue on important matters into the future? Again, one person disagreed strongly and three people (22 percent) felt reasonably confdent it would but the other ten (71 percent) were either sure or very sure what they had learnt would help dialogue in future confict situations
Conclusion and future research One of the key insights that both parties seem to gain in the course of these engagements was the need for balance between quest for results and nurture of relationships: •
Performance-driven culture that negates relational interests risks employee depersonalisation.
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Maclean Ndabezinhle Dlodlo Where employees feel disconnected from the organisation, anger and animosity are bred. A mis-management team that is exclusively steeped on one aspect of the organisation, that is, productivity, tends to be blind towards relational issues among managers. Illegal industrial action is often a consequence of depersonalisation. Wild cat strikes may stop production adversely afecting the mining company. However, the losses are all-round, producing lose–lose outcomes.
There is therefore no substitute for dialogue, or intentional conversations on matters of concern. This narrative highlights the role of the facilitator immersed in the confict, frst as a listening learner seeking understanding of confict causes, then as a trust builder ‘walking-alongside’. Trust gives the facilitator a legitimate voice. Over time, that trust organically evolves among party members as Facilitator exits the dispute, having empowered the parties themselves leaders of the desired change. The case presented here ofers an alternative route to disruptive and even violent behaviour which ofers hope of mutually benefcial outcomes. Finally, the intervention demonstrates the place of integration of faith in work settings, busting the myth that faith is too sacred to be included in ‘secular’ discourses. There is a legitimate place for the integration of the abiding principles of the Christian faith in the everyday, and particularly in the brokenness of confict. With further rigorous testing, SRBM, with its faith learnings, is poised to be one of the efective interdisciplinary models, in workplace confict resolution in South Africa.
References Arrow, J. K. (1974). The limits of organisation. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (emended in 2002) (1997). Bhorat, H., Yu, D., Khan, S., & Thornton, A. (2017). Examining the impact of strikes on the South African economy. Capetown: University of Capetown. Bodner, K., & Lowrey, B. (2002). Paths to peace: The journey of God’s people towards wholeness. Monrovia, CA: World Vision. Bolt, M., & Rajak, D. (2016). Introduction: Labour, insecurity and violence in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 42(5), 797–813. Bush, B. R. A., & Folger, J. P. (1994). The promise of mediation: Responding to confict through empowerment and recognition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Butler, T. C. (1991). Peace, spiritual. Retrieved June 1, 2020, from www.studylight. org/dictionaries/hbd/p/peace-spiritual.html. 1991 Centre for Applied Legal Studies. (2016). The social and labour plan series phase 1: System and trends analysis report. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https:www.wits. ac.za › documents › resources › SLP Report II 2 March 2017
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Cornish, L. (2019, June 4). Mining sector in South Africa stumbles in Q1.2019. Retrieved June 1, 2020, from https://www.miningreview.com/news/mining-southafrica-recession/ Drucker, P. F. (2007). People and performance: The best of Peter Drucker on management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Drucker, P. F. (2010). Peter Drucker’s the fve most important question self assessment tool: Facilitator’s guide (3rd edition. ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Dürr, B. (2013). A toast to South Africa’s black middle class. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2013/toastsouth-africas-black-middle-class Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (1998). Figueroa, M. A., Kincaid, D. L., Rani, M., & Lewis, G. (2002). Communication for change: An integrated model for measuring the process and outcomes. New York, NY: The Rockefeller Foundation and John Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs. Fisher, R., & Ury, W. (1981). Getting to yes. New York, NY: Penguin Press. Fisher, R., Ury, W., & Patton, B. (1991). Getting to yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in (2nd ed.). Sydney, Australia: Century Business. Folger, J. P., Poole, M. S., & Stutman, R. K. (2001). Working Through confict: Strategies for relationships, groups and organisations. New York, NY: Longman. Francis, D. (2002). People, peace and power: Confict transformation in action. London: Pluto. Galtung, J. (2009). A theory of confict: Defnitions, dimensions, negations, and formations. Grenzach-Wyhlen: Transcend University Press. Government of South Africa. (1997). Basic conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, 390(18491), 1–40. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from https://www.gov.za/ documents/basic-conditions-employment-act Government of South Africa. (1998). Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from https://www.gov.za/documents/employment-equity-act Hackett, J., & Huehnergard, J. (2013). Brown-driver-briggs biblical hebrew and aramaic lexicon. Retrieved June 2, 2020, from http://lexiconcordance.com/ hebrew/7965.html Higashi, M., & Yamamura, N. (1994). Resolution of evolutionary confict: A general theory and its applications. Population Ecology, 36(1), 15–22. Kendra, C. (2010). The everything psychology book (2nd ed.). Oxford: Open Library: Adams. Lederach, J. P. (1995). Preparing for peace: Confict transformation across cultures. New York, NY: Syracuse University Press. Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 22(140), 5–55. Littlejohn, S. W., & Domenici, K. (2001). Engaging communication in confict: Systemic practice. Retrieved from http://sk.sagepub.com/books/engaging-communi cation-in-confict. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452225654 Maluleke, R. (2019). Inequality trends in South Africa: A multidimensional diagnostic of inequality Retrieved June 1, 2020, from www.statssa.gov.za/publications/ Report-03-10-19/Report-03-10-192017.pdf McLeod, S. (2018). Attitudes and behaviours. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https:// www.simplypsychology.org/attitudes
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Myer, H. A. (1832). Critical and exegetical commentary on the new testament. Retrieved June 2, 2020, from https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/5-14.htm Schaefer, G. E. (1996). Shalom. In W. A. Elwell (Ed.), Baker’s evangelical dictionary of Biblical theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Serin, C., & Davis, N. (2015). The role of faith 2014–2016. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Retrieved from http://a9.g.akamai.net/f/9/6890/6h/weforum.download. akamai.com/6890/en/content/global-agenda-council-role-faith-2014-2016-0.html Shonholtz, R. (2003). A general theory on disputes and confict. General Theory of Dispute Resolution, 2003(2), 403–416. Simpson, J. (2013). Black middle class doubles in eight years. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2013-05-13-black-middle-class-doublesin-eight-years Sithole, F. (2019). Stats sa. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from www.statssa.gov. za/?p=12744 Smith, A. (2009). The theory of moral sentiments. New York, NY: Penguin Books. Stolyarov, G. I. (2007). Power symmetries and asymmetries. The Rational Argumentator: A Journal for Western Man, CXXXVI. Vaughan, G. M., & Hogg, M. A. (2008). Introduction to social psychology. Capetown: Prentice Hall. Visagie, J. (2013). Race, gender and growth of the afuent middle class in postapartheid South Africa. A working Paper (No.395) of the Retrieved on 3rd June, 2020, from Capetown: Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA). Retrieved from https://www.econrsa.org/system/files/publications/working_papers/working_ paper_395.pdf Walton, R. E. (1968). Interpersonal peacemaking: Confrontations and third-party consultation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Wood, E. A. S., & Heslam, P. S. (2014). Faith and business practice amongst Christian entrepreneurs in developing and emerging markets. Koers – Bulletin for Christian Scholarship, 79(2), 1–7.
16 Using faith-based methods to combat workplace bullying in Africa Kwasi Sarkodie-Mensah
No, you can’t be believing and bully It’s a sign that one’s thinking is wooly To treat everyone fair Is a wonderful fair Godfrey That enables all life to grow fully D’Lima
Introduction Workplace bullying plagues society, resulting in deleterious efects on humanity. This chapter looks at traditional, cyber, and LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex) aspects of the phenomenon and examines its various types, levels, gender breakdown of both victims and perpetrators. The intention is to raise awareness of this issue among managers and co-workers in the African workplace. In a continent that is with 29 percent Christian and 19 percent Muslim, I advocate a faith-based approach to confronting and combating this silent epidemic.
Workplace bullying Workplace bullying is a very old phenomenon, but its discussion in literature is relatively recent. Initially discussion centred on sexual harassment issues in the early 1980s. Leymann, a Swedish psychologist is credited with frst conceptualising and analysing this concept. Adrea Adams, a British journalist, through her British radio documentary series made the phrase ‘workplace bullying’ a common term. In the United States, in 1997, Gary and Ruth Namie introduced a mental health campaign against workplace bullying. Authors use various terms to refer to the bullies at work. Namie and Namie (2011) refer to: aggressors, mobbers, ofenders, backstabbers, saboteurs, harassers, nit-pickers, control freaks, obsessive critics, terrorists, tyrants, perpetrators and abusers.
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Curry (2016) defnes workplace bullying as a psychological violence and aggressive manipulation in the form of repeated humiliation or intimidation. They assert the behaviour may include situational, verbal or physical abuse. Verbal bullying includes slandering, ridiculing, insulting or persistent hurtful name-calling, and making a target the butt of jokes or abusive, ofensive remarks. Physical bullying includes pushing, shoving, kicking, poking or tripping the target. It may also include making obscene gestures, assaulting or threatening. Situational bullying involves sabotage and cruel acts of deliberate humiliation and interference. Workplace cyberbullying is a growing concept. Zhang and Leidner (2018, p. 851) state: The exposure of an employee to negative treatment from supervisors, colleagues, or subordinates by electronic forms of contact (i.e., text messaging, email, and Enterprise Social Media, ESM) in a situation in which the perpetrator has more power than the target in either formal or informal ways. In 2013, 5 percent of working adults indicated that they had been insulted by co-workers through digital communication. In Germany, 15 percent said that co-workers were secretly discussing them through social media and other types of digital communication, while in the UK the number was 8 percent. In another study surveying worldwide awareness of cyberbullying, the only listed African country, South Africa ranked fourth with 88 percent of people indicating such awareness (Boston College, 2018). Krumsiek (2017) provides an interesting breakdown of various types of cyberbullying. These include trolls and trolling where posting incendiary messages or comments about a person or a group of people are made with intent to be entertaining, ofensive, argumentative or just to annoy the victim(s). These authors also note pranking, trickery, deceit and deflement, where a group of trolls form a cybermob making life miserable for the abused. At work, cyberbullies may also hack break in and enter coworker’s personal information such as email, health records, bank accounts, confdential employee documents and post things in the name of the victim. This not only makes the victim vulnerable but also subjects them to public humiliation and unwanted hatred. Thus, a co-worker’s Facebook account, home address, social security could be made public as part of the bullying eforts. Instead of physical travel, a cyber-stalker at work can harass coworkers with excessive email and text messages, or by posting malicious information on multiple websites about their victims. Using ‘Google Bombing’, abusers can make all the bad information they post about co-workers become conspicuous in a Google search, thus making life more miserable and agonising for their targets. Lastly, the author discusses swatting, which refers to occasions when the abuser calls the victim’s local police to report
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a murder or a hostage situation. Police respond with Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to control the situation. Not only does this bring attention to the victim but can also lead to a sense of guilt and shame that may prevent them from showing up for work.
Workplace bullying of LGBTQI employees Another form of workplace bullying is based on a victim’s sexual orientation. Globally, LGBTQI employees face immense discrimination and abuse. Survey results reveal that LGBTQI employees are regularly passed over for job, fred, harassed given bad performance evaluations and physically or verbally abused (Burns & Krehely, 2011). In many African countries, it remains illegal to be non-heterosexual; thus, abuse of LQBTQI employees is commonly considered acceptable behaviour.
Three levels of workplace bullying There are three levels associated with workplace bullying: downward – from superior to subordinate, horizontal or lateral – from co-worker to co-worker and upward – from subordinate to superior. Downward bullying is the most documented form of workplace bullying. This occurs when superiors are the perpetrators. Those who have more power than the people they supervise, misuse the privilege to belittle and manifest impolite, disrespectful and inhumane behaviour that often leads to intimidation and stressful conditions for victims. Horizontal or lateral bullying occurs between employees on the same power level: nurse to nurse, manager to manager or co-worker to co-worker. Bartholomew (2014) writes that horizontal bullying can be caused by both overt and covert behaviour. Among the overt behaviours are name-calling, bickering, fault-fnding, backstabbing ... and failing to give credit when due. Unfair assignments, sarcasm, sabotage, exclusion and fabrication are some of the traits that fall within the covert category. Literature focused on upward bullying is sparse. Here, a superior is bullied by subordinates. Causes for this kind of behaviour can vary but include “isolation, resentment, gender diference, a lack of clear policy” (Branch et al., 2006, p. 5). Managers who have become isolated from their senior management and fellow managers may lack support and thus become easy targets. Resentment occurs when subordinates do not like decisions made by management, even if such a decision is based on the organisation’s policies. People will use the stress caused by these decisions to abuse their supervisors. When women are in managerial positions, their gender is a major cause of bullying, especially from subordinates, both men and women, who may not believe in leadership by women. The authors cite the army as an example.
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25% 21% 7% 19% 19%
Workplace bullying by gender Men bullies Men bullying women Women bullying women Women bullying men Female targets of bullying Male targets of bullying
70% 65% 67% 33% 66% 34%
Racial, gender, and categories of workplace bullying In 2017, the Workplace Bullying Institute broke down workplace bullying according to race and gender as outlined in Table 16.1, where the percentage of all respondents experiencing bullying of some kind was recorded. Harvey, Heames, Richey, and Leonard (2006) categorise fve behaviours of workplace bullying. Victims are: (1) constantly reminded of their shortcomings, thus making them feel destabilised; (2) deprived of any or many growth opportunities, leading to their isolation; (3) given very heavy loads of work that make them feel overburdened and burnt out; (4) constantly teased and insulted to damage their self-esteem and human dignity and (5) stigmatised or publicly humiliated to tarnish their professional image.
The African context Even though workplace bullying is prevalent worldwide, research into the phenomenon across Africa is scant. The most developed country in the continent is South Africa, which has the most research. A study in the South African workplace, found all informants reported low levels of bullying, both from male and female supervisors (Pietersen, 2007). Cunnif and Mostert (2012) hypothesised that fve groups experienced higher levels of workplace bullying: (1) minority or coloured people as opposed to the black majority; (2) women; (3) younger workers; (4) people with lower education levels and (5) public sector workers. People with a sense of coherence and those experiencing more positive practices at work were predicted to encounter lower levels of bullying. All respondents reported experiencing some form of bullying with 31 percent stating they felt bullied all the time.
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Darko, Björkqvist, and Österman (2019) identify that within Ghana, bullying at the workplace has not been greatly researched. They conducted a study of 654 males and 618 females and concluded there was no diference in gender when it came to bullying. However, junior staf members reported many more instances of bullying than their senior colleagues. Aful (2010) studied the impact of workplace bullying on people’s work productivity using seven multinational corporations in Ghana. All respondents indicated experiencing various types of bullying: verbal abuse, impediment on their work performance, exclusion, physical assault, racial and sexual harassments. Areas where participants’ productivity were afected included decrease in job satisfaction, stifing initiatives in accomplishing work goals, increase in errors or mistakes and inability to meet deadlines. The study also indicated that superiors ranked higher on the perpetrator list. Nkporbu and Douglas (2016) studied 600 employees of the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and identifed seven key workplace bullying traits including verbal abuse (43.9 percent), excluding or isolating specifc employees (14 percent), harassment or intimidation (34.6 percent), assigning meaningless and unrelated job tasks (41.2 percent), assigning impossible to complete tasks to employees (27.6 percent), intentional work rescheduling to inconvenience particular employees (24.3 percent) and threats of dismissal (17.5 percent). In all these cases, bosses were more likely to be the perpetrators of the abuse than subordinates. Thus, even though bullying is not talked or written about in many African countries, workplace bullying is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Efects of workplace bullying Workplace bullying has many negative consequences. Deviant behaviour is among the frst that researchers usually mention. When people experience workplace bullying, their passion for productivity plunges, their willingness to come to work becomes afected so that absenteeism replaces the once invigorating desire to show up at work each day. Employees can become ostracised, thus reducing their sense of belonging and consequently creating various types of deviant behaviours. Einarsen and Skogstad (1996) mention among other things the unequivocal detrimental consequences of workplace abuse: psychosomatic, psychological, and psychiatric illnesses, muscle aches and pains, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, loss of self-worth, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Penttinen, Jyrkinen, and Wide (2019) summarise other efects including resorting to sedatives and other sleep medication, sufering from heart disease and depression, and using psychotropic medicine. A recent study conducted among a group of Korean women indicated that bullied mothers in the workplace exhibited negative behaviour towards their children, with some even indicating that it was no longer fun or meaningful to have their children (Jahng, 2020).
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Dealing with workplace bullying Many methods have been suggested to deal with workplace bullying. Policy setting, legislative changes, workplace training and team interventions have been muted. Policy interventions are established to promote civility among workers, even though most of the time, the perpetrators of workplace bullying are not directly targeted through these means. Legislative interventions are also common. Unfortunately, these are rarely efective, since many organisations may be strong on policy development, but weak in implementation (Bowling & Hershcovis, 2017). The Nursing profession, known for its compassion and care is an area where workplace bullying occurs among co-workers. The Centre for American Nurses monograph Bullying in the Workplace: Reversing a Culture (American Nurses Association, 2007) provides a four-step strategy of dealing with this problem: (1) Recognising the problem of bullying. (2) Taking time to step away and prepare how in a calm and civilised manner, the abused will confront the abuser. Once the issue is brought up with the abuser, the abused should reassure the abuser that this will not be the last time the question of the unacceptable abuse will be brought up. A suggestion of how the situation could have been avoided or handled should be given. (3) If the one-on-one attempt to solve the issue does not work, the supervisor must be notifed. If the perpetrator is the supervisor, then the next higher person of authority should be involved. (4) Employees must be familiar with the policies in place regarding workplace abuse. Longo (2012) suggest that where such policies do not exist, detailing every occurrence of abuse on paper will be a good way to let human resource departments know about unacceptable behaviour.
Using faith-based techniques to combat workplace bullying Spiritual leadership Fry (2003) ofcialised spiritual leadership in 2003 by calling for ‘holistic leadership’ in the four major areas of human existence within in the workplace: the body (physical), mind (logical/rational thought), heart (emotions, feelings) and spirit. Kriger and Seng (2005) wrote about a contingency theory of leadership using the worldviews of fve religions represented by its exemplars: Judaism (Abraham), Christianity (Jesus), Islam (Mohammed), Buddhism (The Buddha) and Hinduism (Rama/Krishna). They identify 17 spiritual core values found in all the fve religious traditions: forgiveness, kindness, integrity, compassion/empathy, honesty/truthfulness, patience, courage/inner strength, trust, humility, loving kindness, peacefulness, thankfulness, service to others, guidance, joy, equanimity and stillness/inner peace.
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One of the best ways to deal with workplace bullying, especially in the African context is to use faith-based management and techniques associated with spiritual leadership. The Pew Report indicates that sub-Saharan Africa has a Christian population of 29 percent along with a Muslim population of 19 percent (Pew Research Centre, 2017). Furthermore, Cram (2003, p. 48) defnes bullying as a “behavioural manifestation of spiritual crisis in which an individual bully or group of bullies seeks relation with another person or persons through repeated acts of violence over time”. This defnition is a good foundation to understand how faith-based methods could be used to both raise awareness of bullying, especially in many African contexts and to fnd solutions to this mischievous way of dealing with others In what follows Greenleaf’s theory of servant leadership is suggested as an efective way to deal with workplace bullying in the African context. Servant leadership Greenleaf, the founder of the servant leadership model was informed by the Judeo-Christian ethics and became a Quaker in midlife. He was a frm believer that the ideals of this way of thinking were shared across all faiths, and for both religious and secular institutions. His concept of Servant Leadership is based on Christian scripture that is often read on Holy Thursday. On the night of the last supper, when no one had volunteered to undertake the foot washing duty, Jesus, the leader, became the humblest servant and washed the disciples’ feet (Spears, 1995). John 13: 13–15 reads: So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, Do you realise what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. (New American Bible) Servant leadership is expressed through three foundational essays that Greenleaf published after retiring from AT&T: The Servant as Leader (Greenleaf, 1970), The Institution as Servant (Greenleaf, 1972a) and Trustees as Servants (Greenleaf, 1972b). While traditional leadership theories usually emphasise what leaders do, servant leadership is defned by the leader’s character and how they demonstrate complete commitment to serving others. The most important characteristic of a servant leader is that of a servant. Spears and Lawrence (2002) created a model for Greenleaf’s ideas, identifying ten major characteristics of servant leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community. These faith-based characteristics, easily linked to
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the 17 core values noted in the fve main global religions discussed previously and practiced by leaders, such as Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, can be used to address the issues of workplace bullying across Africa. Listening Attentive, refective and non-judgemental listening will go a long way in allowing victims of bullying at the workplace to not only reveal what is going on but also make them feel that someone is both on their side and has their concerns in their minds and hearts. This important servant leadership trait will not only foster open and sometimes confdential communication but will provide a workplace environment where perpetrators will continue to learn that their victims have someone, or a group of people who are there, to protect them. While there are very few cases of made-up abuses, listening can also be an avenue to sift through stories that may not carry truth or weight. Empathy When we can view things from other people’s perspective and to share in their thoughts and feelings, we provide an atmosphere of tolerance, understanding and belonging. A servant leader uses empathetic listening and observing to raise awareness of the efects of bullying and fnd ways to prevent any future occurrence of such behaviour. When victims of bullying are sufering from anxiety, sleep deprivation, inability to concentrate, headaches, respiratory or even cardiac conditions, empathy becomes a crucial trait to take care of these negative efects. Not only is the servant leader as manager, supervisor or boss becoming aware of these for the well-being of the victim but they are also placing themselves in the place of the victim. Each of the holy books that guard our faiths, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Islamic or other, is full of reminders about how empathy is an essential virtue. Empathy raises awareness of bullying. It encourages people to start noticing it. Empathetic leaders can also be the catalyst in the solution of workplace bullying. How easy it is for people to see bullied people as non-human. When pain, sufering, disrespect, emotional lashing, among many others are meted out to another employee, or to another person, it is sometimes not possible to see that the bullied is made in the genuine image of God. The empathetic leader, manager or co-worker, can help to remind the organisation how bullying is a direct assault on the dignity of another human being. Healing Workplace bullying brings on emotional wounds, pains, weakened spirit, making victims feel many times shattered beyond measure. Barbuto Jr. and
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Wheeler (2006) assert that Servant Leadership can bring victims of workplace bullying, ‘emotional healing’, and that it can heal ‘broken spirits’. When victims sufer from difculties and traumas, the healing trait of the leader is a necessary tool to assist in making a person feel whole and valued once again. In the case of the bullied employee, he or she should be able to bring emotions into the place of work, instead of leaving them at the door each day. Here, victims are invited to talk about the brokenness they carry. “Servant leaders with their reported unique orientation for emotional healing may play a signifcant role in restoring the emotional balance of employees by incorporating a culture of care and compassion at work” (Jit, Sharma, & Kawatra, 2017, p. 82). Awareness Of the various traits, awareness is one of the most difcult to master. It is the awareness of one’s self and of others. It is also an awakening that something needs to be done. Greenleaf described it both as a ‘disturber and an awakener’ (Spears & Lawrence, 2002). Workplace bullying literature is clear that in many instances, supervisors – if they are not the perpetrators of bullying, may not even be aware of what is going on among their employees. By the time bullying cases become public, things may already be out of hand. But the servant leader will admit to not being ‘awake’ and will not ignore that which is broken. This is where the diference between a servant leader and the traditional leader comes to play: instead of dismissing a problem, or refusing to admit that things have gone array, the servant leader accepts the disturbing situation and recognises the importance of the victims and does what is required to assuage the situation. Song (2019) adds several levels of awareness that will be helpful to bring peace, healing and get the servant leader to engage in other aspects of this leadership characteristic to rectify the situation. Here he refers to inward or self; upward or spirit, and outward awareness that includes relational, and situation awareness. Persuasion Solutions to workplace bullying centred on Servant leadership rely on persuasion rather than coercion or stubborn positional authority. Greenleaf was closely allied with the beliefs of the Quakers. He cites American Quaker, John Woolman as a great example of persuasion. Instead of rebuking his fellow Quakers for their practice of slavery, Woolman persistently visited them and brought up the question of slavery till they eventually gave up the practice. (Spears & Lawrence, 2002). Through persuasion, rather than coercion, he was able to accomplish something that most people would have thought impossible. While victims of workplace abuse do not endure the long period of slavery, each second of abuse and torture at work can seem an eternity. By using persuasion, leaders engage in conversations with all involved in the
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circle of abuse – the victims, perpetrators, bystanders and co-workers. They talk bluntly, honestly and respectfully about the issues at hand. Victims can also be made whole through the power of persuasion and the assurance that such evil behaviour will not be tolerated at the workplace. Conceptualisation Workplace bullying can be a crisis that is current or that is waiting to happen. Using conceptualisation, the servant leader, supervisor or manager will not only be dealing with the present crisis but will also be thinking of the bigger picture needed to deal with any such future occurrence. With the victim, perpetrator, fellow workers and bystanders, the leader will use conceptualisation to work towards solving the current crisis and developing strategies, policies, and procedures to be used to ensure a clear understanding of everyone’s safety, dignity, pastoral and normal care of all employees. Conceptualisation is a powerful tool for dealing with broken expectations and future avoidance of behaviour that brings pain and indignity to people. Foresight Foresight involves using the ‘head, heart and gut’ approach to raising awareness of workplace bullying and dealing with its consequences. In many cases, abuse cases are overlooked, largely because such behaviour can become the norm. Through foresight, a leader rigorously reviews what has happened in the past, and then applies listening, and empathy to address the issue, while making sure there is no future recurrence. In many African contexts of workplace bullying, people continue to accept the phenomenon despite its harmful and humiliating efects. Foresight will create an atmosphere of making bullying unacceptable under any circumstances. The unspeakable becomes audible. Issues will be talked about boldly, fairly and constantly so that all employees can see their work environment as safe, fair and less fearful. Stewardship Stewardship is a major responsibility of everyone – the directors, CEO’s and entire staf. Dierendonck and Patterson (2015, p. 127) say that wisdom and stewardship are similar. Yet, stewardship is the “willingness of a leader to take care of and be responsible for the company as a whole” as well as being of “service and being accountable to something higher than ourselves”. Here, the abuse afecting one person is afecting the company. When an employee is wounded through the cruel and inhumane treatment by one or several employees, the servant leader will go beyond the call of duty to address the circumstances that led to the abuse, the efects on the
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abused and bullied. They will also fnd solutions that will not only heal the wounded but will create policies to prevent such behaviour in the future. In addition, this will lead to grace that becomes the grease enabling people to gloss over the rough patches and the glue holding people together to deliver a shared cause (Baldoni, 2019). Commitment to the growth of people While some leaders put themselves above others, directing them and expecting everyone to follow them. The servant leader turns this belief completely in the other direction and asks each day: “Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely to become servants?” (Spears & Lawrence, 2002, p. 239). When an employee carries around the scars of abuse, their growth stalls, and many times becomes stifed. Their health is threatened and can result in permanent damage both physically and spiritually. They no longer feel wise because their self-esteem can be shattered beyond measure. They are engulfed in daily fear and may even lose their self-respect. When they are injured from workplace abuse, their chances of practicing servant leadership themselves to those around them diminish beyond description. By slowly and gradually attending to the well-being of the blemished worker, the leader assures the victim as well as fellow employees of their commitment to people’s welfare and success. Building community Greenleaf asserted that servant leadership results in organisational success by building and creating a “trusting, supportive community that creates creativity and initiative” (Reinke, 2004, p. 37). Furthermore, he noted that an organisation could not be called one of service if it “lacked its own sense of internal cohesion” (Spears & Lawrence, 2002, p. 241). An organisation devoted to community building considers each employee as a unique member, whose contribution makes the organisation what it is. When an employee is wounded through bullying behaviour, each employee sufers. This situation can be likened to what the Apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12:26: “And if one member sufers, all the members sufer with it; if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (New American Standard Bible). By using the ‘building community’ aspect of servant leadership and to rebuild a sense of internal cohesion, the servant leader will use the dual state of the art and state of the heart method to remake the abused and hurt individual an important and integral part of the community of workers (Spears, 1995). Servant leaders, in their practice of building community, are always aware of the four corners of leadership: (1) no connection, (2) bad connection, (3) fake good connection and (4) real connection. They always choose
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‘real’ connection, which is where people are free be honest and vulnerable about their experience (Blanchard & Broadwell, 2018).
Conclusion Workplace bullying in its many forms can tarnish and deface the dignity of humankind who are made in the graceful image of God. Workplace bullying, whether through verbal, physical, situational, virtual or gender discrimination, whether sufered downwardly, horizontally or upwardly, causes humans to be hurt beyond measure. It may create disfunction that may not only lead to self-harm or harm to those around them, it may also reduce work efciency and the celebration of work as a vocation of dignifed human endeavour. Bullying continues as a taboo in that despite its widespread nature, the literature available on it is very sparse. The situation is worse in many parts of Africa where the void of literature is noticeable beyond measure, but also where faith plays a very important role in people’s lives and behaviour. Coupled with the paucity of literature is the seemingly accepted culture of bullying behaviour at the workplace. People who have jobs feel fortunate so much so that do not complain about the evil nature of this inhuman work situation. In addition to the traditional methods of confronting and solving this issue, this chapter has presented a faith-based approach centred on spiritual leadership and specifcally servant leadership, which I contend can be efectively used to combat workplace bullying in the African workplace.
References Aful, C. A. (2010). Workplace bullying and its impact on productivity. Berekuso: Ashesi University College. American Nurses Association. (2007). Bullying in the workplace: Reversing a culture. Maryland, MD: American Nurses Association. Baldoni, J. (2019). What does it mean to lead with grace? Chief Learning Ofcer. Retrieved from www.chiefearningofcer.com/2019/10/08/what-does-it-mean-tolead-with-grace/. Barbuto Jr., J. E., & Wheeler, D. W. (2006). Scale development and construct clarifcation of servant leadership. Group & Organisation Management, 31(3), 300–326. Bartholomew, K. (2014). Ending nurse to nurse hostility: Why nurses eat their young and each other (2nd ed.). Danvers, MA: HCPro. Blanchard, K. H, & Broadwell, R. (Eds.). (2018). The four corners of the leader’s universe. In Servant leadership in action: How you can achieve great relationships and results (pp. 103–105). Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Boston College. (2018). Overall awareness of cyber bullying in select countries worldwide as of April 2018, by country. Stastista. Retrieved from https:// www-statista.com.proxy.bc.edu/statistics/293192/cyber-bullying-awareness-inselect-countries-worldwide/.
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Bowling, N. A., & Hershcovis, M. S. (Eds.). (2017). Research and theory on workplace aggression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Branch, S., Ramsay, S., Barker, M., Grifth University, & Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. International Conference (20th: 2006: Yeppoon, Qld.). (2006). Causes of upward bullying: Managers’ perspectives. ACQUIRE [Electronic Resource]: Central Queensland University Institutional Repository.; Proceedings of the 20th ANZAM Conference [Electronic Resource]: Management: Pragmatism, Philosophy, Priorities/Edited by Jessica Kennedy and Lee Di Milia. WorldCat.org. Retrieved from http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/8579. Burns, C., & Krehely, J. (2011). Gay and transgender people face high rates of workplace discrimination and harassment. Retrieved from www.americanpro gress.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/news/2011/06/02/9872/gay-and-transgender-peopleface-high-rates-of-workplace-discrimination-and-harassment/ Cram, R. H. (2003). Bullying: A spiritual crisis (1st ed.). St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press. Cunnif, L., & Mostert, K. (2012). Prevalence of workplace bullying of South African employees. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(3), 1–15. Curry, L. (2016). Beating the workplace bully: A tactical guide to taking charge. New York, NY: Amacom. Darko, G., Björkqvist, K., & Österman, K. (2019). Workplace bullying and psychological distress in public institutions in Ghana. European Journal of Social Science Education and Research, 6(1), 62–74. Dierendonck, D., & Patterson, K. (2015). Compassionate love as a cornerstone of servant leadership: An integration of previous theorising and research. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 119–131. Einarsen, S., & Skogstad, A. (1996). Bullying at work: Epidemiological fndings in public and private organisations. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 5(2), 185–201. Fry, L. W. (2003). Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 14(6), 693–727. Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. Cambridge, MA: Center for Applied Studies. Greenleaf, R. K. (1972a). The institution as servant. Cambridge, MA: Center for Applied Studies. Greenleaf, R. K. (1972b). Trustees as servants. Cambridge, MA: Center for Applied Studies. Harvey, M. G., Heames, J. T., Richey, R. G., & Leonard, N. (2006). Bullying: From the playground to the boardroom. Journal of Leadership & Organisational Studies, 12(4), 1–11. Jahng, K. E. (2020). Narratives of working mothers experiencing workplace bullying: Trauma transferred to young children. Family Relations, 69(2), 320–334. Jit, R., Sharma, C. S., & Kawatra, M. (2017). Healing a broken spirit: Role of servant leadership. Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, 42(2), 80–94. Kriger, M., & Seng, Y. (2005). Leadership with inner meaning: A contingency theory of leadership based on the worldviews of fve religions. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(5), 771–806. Krumsiek, A. (2017). Cyber mobs: Destructive online communities. New York, NY: Greenhaven Publishing.
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17 Management of religious diversity in state institutions in Austria Wolfram Reiss and Elisa Troyer
How wonderful just to be varied And yet to be trustful not scared That an ally and friend Is around every bend Godfrey Its time all suspicions are buried D’Lima
Introduction Increasing diversity in the religious and cultural sphere is a well-established fact of today’s societies (Zissler, 2017). In Austria, this actuality is also omnipresent. Projections of religious plurality display a growth in religious minorities, particularly relating to Muslim and Orthodox populations as well as a trend towards secularisation, shown by the fact that the numbers of those registering with ‘no afliation’ amount to the second largest group, or 17% in Austria but 30% in Vienna, after Catholics represented by 64% in Austria and 35% in Vienna (Goujon, Jurasszovich, & Potančoková, 2017). However, this diversity is much more complex than displayed through statistics. This is also true for the heterogeneity within these communities, as there are quite diferent traditions with various languages, cultures, practices and beliefs behind the categories Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Muslims and Other. General characteristics of state institutions In state institutions, such as prisons, hospitals and military, persons must spend a considerable amount of time or even their whole life constrained and with limited or no contact to the wider community. As Gofman (1973) highlights, these “total institutions” organise daily activities in a unifed way and keep to a strict dress code and schedule. These predetermined routines cannot, or only to a minimal amount, be changed individually. In these settings, people lose the traits of civil identity, their autonomy of decision as
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well as the right to privacy. Consequently, state institutions are contentious spaces of internal confict and thus need to be managed with care. State institutions as microcosms The landscape of state institutions is shaped by a juxtaposition of external factors of religious diversity, as well as internal dynamics of total institutions. As such, these settings refect societal microcosms in which social density is much higher, compared to society in general, due to cohabitation in confned spaces. Therefore, a much more pressing necessity arises in the management of religious diversity. Public institutions are thus faced with various practical challenges in accommodating this pluralistic setting (Mattes, Mourão Permoser, & Stoeckl, 2016), such as religious care, the accommodation of special dietary requirements or the establishment of new sacred spaces (Reiss, 2015). State institutions also hold a special status with view to religion and spirituality in general, as they have, to some extent, been shielded from efects of secularisation, in a way that religious care and activities are continuously being ofcially practised (Beckford, 2010). Research gap and outlook Much of the published research on religious or spiritual care in public institutions has been limited to the study of single aspects in one institution. It has rarely been studied how these institutions respond to their growing religious diversity (Cadge, Griera, Lucken, & Michalowski, 2017). Therefore, the following chapter examines the legal and structural basis of chaplaincy services of various religious communities in state institutions of Austria and sheds light on issues that arise in this setting.
Legal framework Individual and collective rights In Austria, the management of religious diversity in state institutions is based on two complementary basic rights of religious freedom. On the one hand, this refers to the individual right of persons to practise religion and, on the other, to the collective right of recognised religious communities to ofer religious care in this setting. The former is irrespective of state recognition of religious communities so that every individual has the right to religious care and religious practices. Religious or spiritual care in state institutions is subsumed not only under the principle of status negativus but also under status positivus, meaning the state is also subjected to an action to guarantee these rights (Potz, 2009). Therefore, a cooperation between state and religious communities is necessary.
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Formal status of religious communities On a legal level, three diferent groups of religious communities can be distinguished in Austria (Potz & Schinkele, 2016). These are: 1
2
3
Religious communities with legal entity under private law on the basis of the general act on associations. Religious communities can become private associations, like sports clubs. These can either refer to nonproft associations, which need at least two members and non-proft intentions, but are not considered religious by the state, or to an association with partly religious functions (i.e., the Sikh community). State-registered religious communities with legal entity under private law. State-registered communities gain juridical personality under the regulations documented in the Act on the Legal Status of Religious Denominational Communities (BekGG, 1998). Requirements for state registration are a minimum of 300 followers living in Austria, who are not registered with any other religious community. They are legally required to disclose their statutes, including the name of the community, which must follow a doctrinal ethos. The name and doctrine are not allowed to overlap with any other religious community. These conditions refer to nine communities, for example, the Bahá’i Religion, the Church of Seventh-Day Adventists or the OldAlevi Religious Community are organised this way (Bundeskanzleramt, 2020a). Legally recognised churches and religious societies with public-law status. To gain legal recognition by the state, the communities need to provide evidence of a majority of physical persons, a religious doctrine, church service and a constitution, the latter of which cannot contain illegal or morally ofensive statutes. It also has to prove its continuous existence for the past 20 years and a minimum of ten years as religious denominational community attaining legal personality. Members of the community must amount to at least two out of 1,000 of the Austrian population, measured by the latest census (currently 17,675 persons, Statistik Austria, 2018). The community has to be afrmative towards the state and society and there should not be any unlawful proceedings with recognised churches or other religious communities. Revenue and fnances of the community can only be spent for religious or charitable means (Potz & Schinkele, 2007).
In Austria, 16 religious communities are recognised under public law, for instance, the Islamic Community and Free Churches (Bundeskanzleramt, 2020b). As such, they have the right to teach religious education at schools according to their own curriculum, and to care for their followers in state institutions (Potz & Schinkele, 2016).
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Six religious communities also maintain special laws with the state, which document detailed provisions of their afliation (Potz & Schinkele, 2016) 1 2 3 4 5 6
The Concordat of 1933 between the Holy See and the Austrian Republic. The Federal Act of 1961 on the external legal relationship of the Protestant Church in Austria. The Federal Act of 1967 (2011) on the external legal relationship of the Greek-Oriental Church in Austria. The Federal Act of 2003 on the external legal relationships of the Oriental-Orthodox Churches in Austria. The Federal Act of 1890 (2012) on the external legal relationship of the Israelite Religious Society. The Federal Act on the external legal relationships of Islamic Religious Societies of 1912 (2015).
A content synopsis of the above laws illustrates how these recognised communities retain the authority to send chaplains into state institutions, the right not to witness in courts on the basis of the pledge of security as well as the prerogative for members of the Jewish and Muslim religious community for dietary considerations. Some contentious points can be raised with these legal texts. First, non-Christian religious communities do not possess statutes concerning the pledge of secrecy, making the right not to bear witness obsolete for them. Second, the text specifes these laws for clergymen, which again, do not exist in many of these religious communities. Third, many other religious communities do not possess special contracts with the state. These three issues point to inequalities in treatment among religious communities (Reiss, 2017).
Institutional challenges Military The changing social realities of Austrian society are only slowly taken into consideration within the Armed Forces. This can be inferred from the fact that there are no special regulations for religious minorities concurrent with the demographic development, as they are only issued when conficts arise. The very frst provisions of religious and spiritual care were developed for the Sikhs, a religious group which constitutes a very small minority in Austria (about 7,000), whereas no such statutes exist for Orthodox Christians (about 775,000). Similarly, no provisions were established for Muslims (about 700,000) until 2015, who by that time, already constituted a much larger religious demographic in Austria than the Protestants (about 292,000) (estimated numbers according to Mohr, 2020). At the same time, current eforts to include religious minorities within the Armed Forces should not be undervalued. It needs to be kept in mind that, historically, the
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army has continuously retained a pioneer position in the social integration of minorities, illustrated by the admittance of Protestants and Jews into the Austro-Hungarian Army (Reiss, 2018). The following paragraphs will outline various other challenges that religious diversity poses to the Armed Forces. Categorisation of recruits As soon as recruits enter the army, they are recorded according to their piousness into diferent categories: (1) mere members, (2) pious members or (3) particularly pious members (the last category was suspended in 2018). The observation that, in general, people hold various degrees of piousness might be correct, however, a record of such divisions by the state is problematic as certain religious rights can be withheld depending on such classifcations. Moreover, they reveal an unequal treatment of various religious communities. For instance, while soldiers of the Protestant Churches, the Old Catholic Church and the Methodist Church are always classifed as mere members of their religious communities, Sikhs can only be recorded as pious, and the classifcation of Jews and Muslims has to be confrmed in written form by an ofcial public representative (Reiss, 2018). In this case, “classifcations involve the danger that presuppositions and prejudices are reinforced and thus facilitate the discrimination of persons concerned” (Krainz, 2012, p. 211). Leave of absence The regulations concerning leave of absences due to prayers or religious holidays hold an inherent bias in favour of adherents to the Christian Catholic faith. This is as Sundays are considered of days for all recruits, irrespective of their religious afliation. These hours are already taken into consideration in the scheduling of working hours. This does not apply to recruits of other religious communities, as leave of absence for religious feasts of minorities must be granted in addition to the Catholic holidays and recruits need to compensate their own religious holidays (Trauner, 2009b). Exempt from this rule had been Good Friday and Yom Kippur, but these non-Catholic religious holidays were cancelled by the government in 2019 based on a court decision of the European Court. Also, in the “new guidelines for the treatment of pious members” there are special regulations for ‘pious’ Muslims, Jews, Alevites and Sikhs but not for Orthodox Christians (Richtlinien, 2018). Catering The compliance with religious dietary rules is another precarious issue. Usually, it is considered a standard for military kitchens to provide foods
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that do not contain pork, lard or alcohol. Nevertheless, the prepared meals do not adhere to halal-butchering requirements (Trauner, 2009a) so that pious Muslims cannot consume this type of meat. A further problem arises regarding the observance of Jewish dietary laws. Kashrut laws are far more complex than halal rules, that is, an absolute separation of kitchenware in the food preparing process must be ensured. There is a possibility of selfcatering or an organised catering for kosher food in cooperation with the Israelite community, while a claim for halal food is excluded for Muslim recruits. Muslims who are not categorised by their community as ‘pious Muslims’ have no claim for food without pork (Richtlinien, 2018). Religious apparel In most cases, specifc religious clothing attire is catered for. Pious Jews are permitted to wear the kippah in addition to the military uniform and Sikhs have been given permission not to cut their facial and head hair, as well as to wear a turban instead of the ordinary military headgear (Bundesministerium für Landesvereteidigung, 2006). Also, a regulation was introduced that allowed ‘particularly pious’ Muslims to have a beard (Trauner, 2009a, 2009b). However, there have been several problems with these regulations. For example, there are no regulations for Muslim female soldiers wanting to wear a hijab. Similarly, there are concerns over mixed fabrics of military uniforms for Jewish recruits (Schmidl, 2014). Places and extent of military chaplaincy The Catholic Military Chaplaincy and a Catholic chapel are represented with full-time chaplains in the premises at almost every larger garrison. Even though the number of Protestant soldiers is signifcantly lower, fulltime Protestant chaplains are also found at most area commands. Chaplains of both religious communities also hold ranks within the army. Both of these chaplaincy services have additional chaplains working on a voluntary basis (Reiss, 2018). The Orthodox chaplaincy should technically have been granted the same rights as the Protestant Church according to the 1967 Orthodox Law. This means that the federal government is obligated to ensure the presence of Orthodox chaplaincy in military institutions as well as to sufciently provide for personnel and material expenses. However, these regulations have never been implemented. Only as recently as 2011 was Orthodox military chaplaincy established; yet, it had to comply with an entirely diferent framework of conditions to those that were initially conceived, that is, no ofce or communication equipment was provided (Trauner, 2012). The implementation of Islamic military chaplaincy had been advocated for decades before it was fnally established in 2015 (Trauner, 2012). The
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amended Law on Islam in 2015 (Bundesgesetz über die, 2015) paved the way for an Islamic and Islamic Alevite military chaplaincy. The law guaranteed Islamic communities a right to implement an organised chaplaincy service in hospitals, prisons and the army along similar principles to those of Christian communities. In 2017, an agreement with the Israelite community was also signed to introduce a frst Jewish Military chaplain (Der Standard, 2017). Other religious communities, such as free-church movements neither possess sacred rooms nor regulations concerning religious care (Reiss, 2018). Financing Government support for military chaplaincy varies considerably, dependent on religious denomination (Darabos, 2012). The Roman Catholic military chaplaincy receives most funding, namely an annual total of €2,820,000 for personnel costs and €80,000 for operating expenses. Only about one-third of this sum is received by the Protestant military chaplaincy with €1,080,000 for personnel costs and €18,000 for operating expenses. Other religious communities are entitled to considerably less funding: The Orthodox Church in Austria retains an annual sum of €4,100 (Trauner, 2012). A similar arrangement was made with the Islamic Community. These conditions represent a substantial bias, afecting not only the organisational structures of chaplaincies but also their means of professionalisation, afecting working hours of chaplains and resources. (Reiss, 2018). Prisons Similar conditions are found in prisons in Austria, which an interdisciplinary project, including the Correctional Academy, the Protestant and Catholic prison chaplaincy and the Protestant Academy in Vienna (2015, cited in Reiss, 2020), has shown. During this project, data on the present situation of religious care in Austrian prisons were collected and diferent international chaplaincy approaches to religious and spiritual care were evaluated with view to their applicability in the Austrian context. The following list shows a collection of problematic issues. Categorisation of inmates Similar to the military setting, inmates are also categorised according to an arbitrary categorisation system. This can be seen by the fact that not all recognised or state-registered communities, such as the legally recognised Armenian Apostolic Church, are found within their system. Other groups are also misleadingly catalogued, that is, there is a distinction of either ‘Muslim’, ‘Sunnite’ or ‘Shiite’ (Reiss, 2020).
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Organisation and working conditions Again, Catholic chaplaincies are permanently established within prisons and usually also retain ofces and chapels in all 27 prisons in Austria. The Protestant church holds only one full-time and one 70% of a full-time position. The rest of the work is serviced by volunteers. At present, Protestant chaplaincy services can be delivered in 19 of the 27 penal institutions. The church can only assign clerics who have completed a one-day introductory course within a penal institution (Gefängnisseelsorge Richtlinien, 2011). One Protestant chapel and three ofces exist (information of Protestant prison chaplain Markus Fellinger, 2018). The Islamic religious community holds one full-time chaplain since 2017. The majority of religious care is serviced by volunteers. Currently, there are three Muslim prayer rooms available in prisons across Austria. One Viennese prison occupies a prayer room with a Torah shrine, nevertheless it is rarely used, as at least ten Jews must be present for a service to take place (Reiss, 2020). All other denominational communities neither possess their own sacred spaces nor do they have partor full-time chaplains. Mostly, volunteers come to see prisoners as normal visitors of inmates, which include a full-body search, measures of audiovisual monitoring as well as separation by a safety glass. Financing The state currently funds six-and-a-half positions for Catholic chaplains (estimated €500,000), whereas all other positions and material costs are paid for by the church. The Protestant Church receives a fxed amount of €30,000 per year. All other expenses are borne by internal funds. Similar conditions apply to Islamic prison funds (annual payment of €20,320). One full-time position is paid for by the Islamic religious community. All other religious communities do not receive any support from the state (Reiss, 2020). Catering In many prisons, catering to religious dietary laws is not guaranteed, as food can be served without pork, nevertheless, it might still contain gelatine or lard. This predicament causes obstacles for Muslim or Jewish prisoners, as such consumption is strictly forbidden. Therefore, the Jewish community can organise kosher food deliveries (Reiss, 2016). Yet, this is not the case for the Islamic Religious Community. However, during Ramadan, Muslim prisoners are permitted to heat their dinners after sunset (Reiss, 2010, 2020). Hospitals A recent multi-religious study of chaplaincy in Austrian hospitals aimed to illustrate the underlying concepts and cooperative structures of chaplaincy among minor and major religious denominations. A mixed method
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approach was applied, comprising a questionnaire study of 32 hospital chaplains and a qualitative analysis of interviews with 12 hospital chaplains. Findings revealed several challenges and gave insight into the practise of hospital chaplaincy from ten religious organisations: Catholic, Protestant, Greek-Orthodox, Buddhist, Baptist, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jewish, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists and Islam, as summarised in the following sections (Troyer, 2020). Framework conditions The study reported that most of the time legal regulations concerning religion within Austrian state hospitals were observed. Nevertheless, some chief concerns were identifed where some provisions were restricted or even completely disregarded. In one case, a chaplain from a minority denomination was denied entrance to some hospitals. Sometimes, the ability of chaplains to participate in ofcial ceremonies was also limited (Troyer, 2020). Another pressing issue arose due to the new European General Data Protection Regulation (2018), which led to constraint on hospital chaplaincy service delivery by minority religious communities. Typically, chaplains received lists of patients pertaining to their respective faith communities. However, the new legislature resulted in hospitals ceasing to record patients’ religious afliation during admittance. Accordingly, they were unable to forward this information on to the chaplains so that minor religious communities were impeded from meeting the spiritual needs of their adherents (Synodenbüro Evangelische Kirche Österreich, 2019). Sacred spaces Another concern in dealing with religious plurality in public institutions is the allocation of sacred spaces. In Austrian hospitals, sacred spaces are not neutral places but are subjected to the question of ownership. By name and architecture, they usually signify their afliation with a certain religious group. Troyer’s study (2020) found that these places in hospitals are predominantly retained by the more traditional religious groups, rather than refecting current societal demographics. This is illustrated by the preeminence of premises belonging to the Catholics. Correspondingly, Muslims, now pertain the second highest level of premises in Austrian hospitals, and rooms for practices of Orthodox patients are scarce. The research also exhibited that, most full-time hospital chaplains were from the Catholic faith and that this had a signifcant infuence on the way in which religion and religious practise are organised in hospitals. Educational standards Results show great disparity among religious communities with regards to the educational qualifcations of chaplains. In Austria, there are four
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educational courses that train those entering the profession of chaplaincy. Two are concerned with generalised training of chaplains regardless of the context in which they will serve (Catholic/Protestant and Free churches). One course specifcally applies to hospital chaplaincy (Muslim) and one specialises on life situations (Buddhist). Each course exhibits diferent requirements, contents duration and duties. The extent of variation in educational standards, especially across minor and major denominations varies considerably (Troyer, 2020). Chaplaincy In Austria, each religious community usually caters to patients of their own faith. An exception to this type of practise is evident in hospital chaplaincy delivered by Catholic chaplains, who are tasked by their religious community with visiting all patients regardless of religious afliation. Another issue concerns the working hours and funding for chaplaincy services. Whereas Catholic and full-time Protestant chaplains are paid by their respective churches, chaplains from minority religious communities are employed on a voluntary basis and are thus unpaid (Troyer, 2020). Only the Catholic Church in Austria receives state funding for chaplaincy services as in special cases, individual arrangements have been reached with Austrian provinces, that is, in Vienna, the archepiscopal chair has an ongoing contract with state hospitals to allocate Catholic chaplains ofce space with resources for other duties (Potz, 2009). A striking result is also shown by the major diferences in the understanding of chaplaincy practise across religious denominations. Similarly, duties of chaplains varied greatly and can refer, among others, to administrative, networking or educational tasks; ensuring religious needs, holding church services, interdisciplinary or interreligious meetings (Troyer, 2020). Cooperation Within hospital chaplaincy practises, interreligious contacts occur in a variety of ways such as through formal meetings, religious services, educational lectures, committees or swapping resources. A formal cooperation of religious communities only exists in Tyrol, through an oecumenical collaboration. Further oecumenical contracts are still being developed in Vienna and Lower Austria. Other than that, only unofcial guidelines, papers or practical projects, that is, the interreligious mile at the biggest public hospital in Vienna (AKH), are in existence. Nevertheless, these contacts are ‘‘irregular, person-dependent and non-fxated structural basis’’ (Troyer, 2020, p. 100). They are not institutionalised, nor do they possess a formal structure. For smaller religious denominations, interreligious contacts are often related to practical issues, such as receiving information on patients through chaplains of other religious communities. Compared to interfaith contacts,
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interdisciplinary connections within the hospital occurred with much higher frequency. These contacts encompass either established meetings or punctual encounters with hospital staf pertaining to various sectors, that is, doctors, psychologists or therapists (Troyer, 2020).
Conclusion The management of religious diversity in state institutions is a precarious matter, as it involves a complex cooperation between major stakeholders – the state and religious communities. In Austria, the state’s involvement in this area has been illustrated to be very selective. Even though in recent years more religious communities have been recognised on the legal level, the state has continuously privileged certain religious communities – mostly those who have been long established. Catholic and partly Protestant chaplaincies receive major benefts, such as not having to compensate for religious holidays in the military or having permanently established bases and ofces in all three institutions. The allocation of sacred spaces also remains unequal as largely only Catholic chapels exist, and many other religious communities receive few or no premises. An additional contention occurs in the management of religious needs. Even though eforts are being made by the state in trying to comply with dietary laws of Jews and Muslims as well as establishing regulations on religious clothing – a halal or kosher diet cannot be guaranteed in most institutions. Furthermore, provisions on religious clothing do not incorporate all necessary considerations. In general, it becomes evident that reactions by the state show a lack of regard for the changing demographics of religious communities. This is illustrated by the fact that there is still a large pre-eminence of Catholic chaplaincies in Austrian state institutions, even though the numbers of Catholics have steadily decreased in recent years. An opposite view is posed by the Orthodox Church, whose numbers have continuously risen and are now about equal in numeric strength to the Protestant population, nevertheless its chaplaincy services is scarce in state institutions (Goujon, 2015). There is a great disparity in the fnancing of chaplaincies across state institutions in Austria. A contentious issue is displayed by the profoundly disparate working conditions of chaplains, since the Catholic Church can aford to pay for their full-time chaplains, yet also receives most funding from the state. Many smaller denominational communities do not have the monetary budget to fnance full-time positions and in most cases, they do not receive state support, so that chaplains are usually bound by the voluntary status. This means that, due to time constraints, these chaplains have less access to patients, inmates or recruits and can provide fewer religious activities in institutions. Likewise, these conditions have implications for the educational standards of chaplains as Catholic as well as Protestant and in some cases Muslim communities have more means, resources and time to educate
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their chaplains. A further concern is the response of religious communities to the ever-growing secularisation. Analysis reveals that chaplaincy is still rooted in the diferentiated practises of individual religious communities. This is shown by the fact that education as well as fnancing are provided by each of the denominations in Austria. The results of the paper indicate that, currently, in Austria, a presence of a multi-faith chaplaincy is not to be found. These fndings raise serious questions about the future development and conceptions of religious or spiritual care in Austria and imply various reconsiderations for future practise. Foremost, a re-evaluation of legal and institutional provisions considering the changing religious landscape is crucial towards conceptualising more equal forms of chaplaincy. This would include a comprehensive revision of categorisations and demographic statistics of religious afliations within state institutions. A further step will involve a review of the fnancial reimbursements of chaplaincy services in state institutions, which are profoundly unequal in nature at present. This current fnancial situation is not sustainable and future developments, especially concerning the ever-growing religious diversifcation, will make this issue even more pressing. This is due to evidence that even the more established, traditional churches will most likely not be able to pay for full-time chaplains anymore. New ways of funding could be considered, such as conceptual innovations in the Netherlands, whereby state institutions employ and pay for religious or spiritual care services (European Network of Health Care Chaplaincy, 2013). It could also see establishment of humanist chaplains, caring for all within an institution regardless of religious afliation. This would create value by including those with no religious afliation, who are not usually catered for. The next concern emanates from the diferent understandings and standards of chaplaincy practise across religious groups in Austria, which are also closely connected to the working and fnancial conditions of the various communities. In the future, joint educational courses and multi-faith projects in institutions could be a possibility. This approach may standardise religious and spiritual care practises, and practically ensure that the religious and spiritual needs of inmates, patients and conscripts are adequately catered for. Lastly, practical disparities related to spaces for religious or spiritual care in state institutions along with provisions for dietary rules, should be thoroughly discussed. Future considerations, such as establishing multi-faith prayer rooms or joint ofce structures could help to alleviate the present juxtaposition of care possibilities. As far as dietary rules are concerned, trans-institutional regulations could make the compliance with religious needs more feasible, for instance, by organising catering not only for single institutions but by arranging them simultaneously for several state institutions in one region.
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Dienstbetrieb. Behandlung religiöser Minderheiten – Einberufung und Verwendung: Zusammenfassende Richtlinien. (2006, August 30). GZ S93109/9-FGG1/2006, In Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung, Verlautbarungsblatt I, Nr. 53/2006. Richtlinien für den Dienst aller in der Gefängnisseelsorge tätigen Personen sowie für die Erstellung deren Amtsaufträge. (2011). Retrieved from www.kirchenrecht.at/ document/39182. Richtlinien für die Behandlung strenggläubig Angehöriger anerkannter Kirchen und Religionsgesellschaften. Erlass vom. (2018, August 31). GZ S93109/4-MFW/2018 in: Verlautbarungsblatt des Bundesministeriums für Landesverteidigung, September 5, 2018.
18 Religious literacy and diversity for business Brian J. Grim
Don’t stamp upon freedom of faiths And reduce all to cyphers or wraiths Each person rides tall Following her call Godfrey And her treasures uniquely enswathe D’Lima
Introduction Religious literacy for business is not primarily about having knowledge of religious beliefs and practices, although that can be helpful. It’s more about understanding how religion impacts the workplace and the marketplace, co-workers and partners as well as customers and clients. This is important because our planet will have 2.3 billion more religiously afliated people by 2050 compared with just 0.1 billion more religiously unafliated people (Hackett, Stonawski, Potančoková, Grim, & Skirbekk, 2015). That’s a 23-to-1 ratio in favour of religious growth. This religious growth is changing the global marketplace. Today, three of the top fve economies are majority Christians. But in 40 years, only one is projected to be. The other four top economies in 2050 will include countries where Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and the unafliated predominate (Grim & Connor, 2016). Research shows that this religious growth can be good for the workplace and the bottom lines of businesses – as long as restrictions on freedom of religion or belief are kept low (Grim, Clark, & Snyder, 2014). In such countries, innovative strength is more than twice as high as in countries where governments and societies don’t respect freedom of religion or belief. So, freedom to believe – or not believe – is good for business. However, the data on respect for freedom of religion or belief in the United States and worldwide are very concerning. Annual studies that I initiated while at the Pew Research Center (2009–2019) fnd that restrictions on religion and belief are high or very high in 40 percent of countries. But because some of these countries (like China) are very populous, some 5.9 billion people (nearly 80 percent of the world’s
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population) live in countries with a high or very high level of restrictions on religion. Since 2009, the number of people living in countries with high religious restrictions and hostilities has increased from 4.8 to 5.9 billion people – that’s an increase of 1.1 billion more people living in countries where freedom of religion or belief is under duress, based on studies from the Pew Research Center (2009–2019). The restrictions on freedom of religion or belief come from two main sources: the actions and policies of governments, and the social hostilities involving religion coming from people and groups in societies. Social hostilities involving religion include such things as attacks on places of worship, including the 2018 massacre at Pittsburgh synagogue, the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings of churches in Sri Lanka that left hundreds dead and as many or more injured and the 2019 Friday prayer massacres in two New Zealand mosques (Grim, 2019). Such hostilities can include attacks motivated by religious hatred to people with no religious beliefs, such as Alexander Aan, an Indonesian, who was beaten by a mob for declaring himself an Atheist, and then jailed by police for two years because in Indonesia blasphemy is a crime (Grim, 2019). This case shows the frequent and close connection between religiously biased laws and social hostilities involving religion. Examples of government restrictions on freedom of religion or belief include those found in the People’s Republic of China. These are useful to note because some of the same policy perspectives it has on religion are paralleled in some of its economic and security policies. China has been on a several year campaign to not only remove crosses from churches and Christians from churches, but also church buildings from existence, such as the recent demolition of a church in Wenzhou (Grim, 2019). In China’s far west, up to one million mostly Uygur Muslims have been forced into re-education camps in the government’s attempt to stamp out the possibility of Islamic radicalisation (United Nations, 2018). While China has one of the most developed programmes of restricting religion and belief, it is far from alone. The example of Hamza Kashgari, who was a Saudi blogger, shows how government policies in one place can cross borders. Kashgari tweeted some doubts about his faith, which is considered blasphemy in Saudi Arabia. He fed to Australia to escape social cries for his beheading, only to be intercepted as he changed planes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and extradited back to Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi government. After some jail time purportedly helped him overcome his doubts, he was released (Grim, 2019). Research shows that restrictions on freedom of religion or belief coming from governments and groups in society reinforce each other and is a primary factor causing religion-related violence (Grim & Finke, 2007, 2011). Arguably, the tandem and reinforcing efects of excessive government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion are generally bad for business. Specifcally, high restrictions on freedom of religion
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or belief damage or even destroy the pillars of global competitiveness. For example, as mentioned, innovative strength is more than twice as high in countries where governments respect freedom of religion or belief (Grim et al., 2014). The same study shows that almost all of the World Economic Forum’s pillars of global competitiveness are stronger in countries respecting religious freedom and weaker in countries restricting such freedom. One indicator of innovative strength is whether a country’s top entrepreneurs and successful businesspeople stay in a country or leave it. Taking the migration of millionaires as an indicator of this, recent research shows that Australia is gaining the most and China is losing the most millionaires (AfrAsia Bank, 2019). Figure 18.1 shows how this compares with the level of government restrictions on religion and belief in a country. The data show that China, the country with the highest government restrictions on religion, as measured by the Pew Research Center (2019) is also losing the highest number of millionaires seeking freer, more secure opportunities elsewhere. Equally, Australia, a country with low government restrictions on religion, is benefting the most from this migration of talent and resources. While the United States has relatively moderate government restrictions, it has high social hostilities, according to the past three annual reports by the Pew Research Center (2009–2019). One place we see this, is in the number of American workers who have experienced or witnessed religious discrimination in their workplace. A Tanenbaum (2013) survey fnds that 36 percent
China
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Figure 18.1 Net loss or gain of millionaire (1000s) vs. level of government restrictions on religion
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of American workers, or about 50 million people, have experienced or witnessed some form of religious discrimination or non-accommodation in their workplace. Despite this, religious diversity and inclusion are not in the minds of many companies. Companies have rightly paid a lot of attention to other diversity and inclusion issues, such as sexual orientation. Now, religion is the next big thing businesses need to pay attention to. In 2018, for instance, there were signifcantly more workplace discrimination complaints made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over religion (EEOC, 2019a) as complaints over sexual orientation (EEOC, 2019b). The same business case that applies to other characteristics applies to religion as part of diversity and inclusion initiatives. In the United States, under the laws enforced by the EEOC it is illegal for employers that are not religious in nature (EEOC, 2004a) with at least 15 employees to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information; and an employer is required to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause difculty or expense for the employer. This means that all employers in the United States, with the exception of those that are small or religious by constitution, may have to make reasonable adjustments at work that will allow the employee to practice his or her religion, such as allowing an employee to voluntarily swap shifts with a coworker so that he or she can attend religious services. Laws concerning accommodation of religion, freedom of speech and protection against oppressive work environments have informed companies’ minimum requirements for accommodation of religion. As corporate America has become increasingly focused on creating environments where people can bring their whole selves to work (Robbins, 2018) regardless of their backgrounds or abilities, some companies are embracing diversity practices that go beyond the minimum legal requirements for accommodation. This focus on diversity comes in the wake of overwhelming research and evidence showing that a company’s bottom line grows when it values each employee’s uniqueness and equitably includes diverse perspectives in the workplace (Eswaran, 2019). Most of America’s Fortune 100 companies have well-developed diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, sometimes headed by a senior C-suite director (Greeson, 2019). Many also include company-sponsored employee resource groups (ERGs) that support people from these protected categories. Of the identities protected by the EEOC mentioned previously, one stands out as being under addressed by America’s largest companies: religion (Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, 2020). The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s (2020) content analysis of the main diversity and inclusion landing pages of Fortune 100 companies shows that religion receives less attention than all the other major identity
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categories: race/ethnicity, women/gender, sexual orientation, veterans/military, dis/ability, age and family (see Figure 18.2). This research shows that most of the Fortune 100 companies fail to even mention religion or belief as part of their diversity initiatives on their public websites. Mentions of religion or belief as part of these corporate policy statements pale in comparison to other previously mentioned categories, which total 3,166 mentions to only 92 mentions of religion, a 34-to-1 margin. Companies of all sizes and industries take great pride in their range of diversity and inclusion initiatives that ensure employees work in environments where they feel treated with respect. Equitable treatment in the workplace is not only the right thing to do, it’s the law. An employee’s gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and other characteristics are part of who they are, and those aspects of themselves deserve to be welcomed. Few would reasonably argue with that point. For many people, religious beliefs are signifcant component of their identity. Recently, a senior executive at a top insurance company lamented that at every milestone, she was lauded for breaking through another glass ceiling (Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, 2019a). However, she believed it was her faith that was truly behind her success and wished that could have been recognised. Indeed, faith has long been left outside when coming to work. That is beginning to change with some surprising brands at the vanguard of the efort achieving remarkable results. This reticence to adopt more faith-friendly policies has been fuelled by several factors. First, there is a perception that religion is on the decline to such a degree that it may not warrant recognition. This is not true in the global marketplace where the world’s largest companies operate, as mentioned earlier. The world and its main marketplaces are becoming not only more religious but also more religiously diverse. Misperceptions about the intersection of business and faith have also been created by prominent attention paid by the media to Hobby Lobby and Chick-fl-A, often framing faith in the workplace as exclusionary and fuel for confrontation (Cooper, 2019). This research, however, also indicates that corporate America is at a tipping point towards giving religion similar attention to that given the other major diversity categories, especially as our nation is becoming more religiously diverse with no one religious denomination holding a majority. Indeed, including religion is a litmus test for whether a company fully embraces diversity, equity and inclusion. However, as described subsequently, the 2020 Corporate Religious Equity Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Index fnds companies that include faith-oriented components as part of their employee programming create a more accepting environment overall. The index shows that those faith-friendly workplaces are actually more inclusive of all diversity categories, including LGBTQI, rather than the other way around. The study shows that major companies like those on the Index’s top ten including Google, American Airlines, Intel, American Express and Tyson Foods, are taking a wide variety of approaches
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to this issue. All are proving the concept that fostering faith-oriented groups and interfaith activities leads to stronger work environments. At Tyson Foods, 98 chaplains provide on-call spiritual assistance for people of all religions – or no religion. Google’s Inter Belief Network of Employee Resource Groups help the company understand the sensitivities of religious groups when creating new products. The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, launched its frst faith-oriented ERG last year, playing a bit of catch up with Target. The taboo about faith at work is even fading in the fnancial industry, with places like American Express having active groups called SALT (Christian), CHAI (Jewish) and PEACE (Muslim). Texas Instruments, a pioneer in the movement, has been at this for more than 20 years. Others, like Salesforce’s Faithforce, are only a few years old but growing quickly. Faithforce, which works to cultivate a culture of respect and belonging for all people, today has more than 3,000 members in 13 regional ofces across fve continents and is the fastest growing ERG in company history. PayPal recently launched its frst faith-oriented ERG. Apple’s Diversity Network Associations include faith-focused groups. Dell’s Interfaith ERG is part of a larger network that regularly engages executives and share ideas for product development. At American Airlines, when Fr. Greg McBrayer, an Anglican priest, isn’t working as a Chief Flight Dispatcher at Dallas Fort Worth Airport, he’s serving as Director DFW Airport Chaplaincy. In addition, American Airlines ofers faith-oriented groups for Muslims, Jews, Hindus and programmes that foster interfaith understanding. The examples go far beyond these, making religion and faith at work perhaps one of the next big trends in corporate management and human resources. This is not just a feelgood initiative, it’s good for the bottom line – improving retention, market understanding, employee cooperation and brand warmth. Just like with any newcomer to the ofce environment, a more faith-friendly and religiously literate workplace will require a learning curve, understanding, exploration and time for adjustment. In the end, greater emphasis on faith in the workplace might just mean more religious tolerance, more efective diversity programming and employees that are more fulflled in their work.
Key fnding: companies scoring better on REDI score better in all diversity areas As part of the initial launch of the Corporate REDI Index, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (2020) analysed the level of attention Fortune 100 companies place not only on religion but also on the following categories: race/ethnicity, women/gender, sexual orientation, veterans/military, dis/ability, age and family. The study calculated scores for each category by summing the mentions of each topic on the companies’ diversity and
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Percentage gain
Dis/Ability Veterans/Military Age 0
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Figure 18.2 Religion dividend
inclusion pages along with the weighted score for the number and diversity of ERGs related to each category (see Figure 18.2). The study then calculate the average score for each category among the 48 companies that do not acknowledge religion on their diversity and inclusion or ERGs landing pages as well as for the 53 companies that have some acknowledgement of religion (including images or videos) on their diversity and inclusion or ERGs landing pages. This then allowed a calculation of a ‘religion dividend’ (an indication of the positive association of acknowledging religion with the company’s commitment to the other categories of diversity) by subtracting the average category score for the 48 companies not acknowledging religion from the average score for the 53 companies that have some acknowledgement of religion, as shown in Table 18.1. Note that the range of diversity category scores refects the amount of attention companies pay to each. Therefore, the better gauge of the religion dividend is the percentage increase in the category score. A part of the initial launch of the Corporate REDI Index, the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation analysed the categories in Table 18.1 on the landing pages of Fortune 100 companies. The scores are the average numbers of mentions of each topic on the pages along with the weighted score for the number and diversity of ERGs related to each category. The average score for the 48 companies not acknowledging religion is then subtracted from the average score for the 53 companies that have some acknowledgement of religion (including images and video) on their diversity and inclusion landing page or have faith-related ERGs. This allows us to calculate a religion dividend, that is, an indication of the positive association of acknowledging religion with the other categories of diversity. The level of focus companies place on each of the seven diversity categories is higher among companies that acknowledge religion than among
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Table 18.1 Companies acknowledging religion as part of equity, diversity and inclusion, protect all other identity categories better than companies that do not acknowledge religion Race/ ethnicity average score 15.8 Companies acknowledging religion 10.3 Companies not acknowledging religion Religion dividend 5.1 (Raw) Religion 47 dividend (%)
Women/ gender average score
Sexual orientation average score
Family Veterans/ Disability Age military average average average score score average score score
8.6
4.8
5.6
5.1
2.9
2.0
6.3
4.7
3.5
3.2
1.7
1.5
2.2
0.2
2.2
1.9
1.2
0.5
35
4
63
60
69
31
companies that do not. This positive association between companies that place focus on religious inclusion and their commitment to the other categories of diversity is known as ‘religion dividend’. For example, companies focusing on religion score 69 percent higher on age inclusion, 63 percent higher on veterans/military inclusion, 60 percent higher on dis/ability inclusion and 47 percent higher on race/ethnicity inclusion. Sizable ‘religion dividends’ include companies acknowledging religion scoring 35 percent higher for women/gender inclusion and 31 percent higher on family inclusion. While the smallest religion dividend is for sexual orientation (scoring 4 percent higher), it is still notable that the relationship is positive. This also coincides with global research showing that religious freedom fosters a positive environment for LGBT people, and that LGBT rights are increasing in countries with higher levels of religious freedom (Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, 2019b).
The business case for faith These are promising signs that, while still on the fringes of most corporate inclusion programmes, faith-friendly workplaces are poised to make signifcant gains in 2020. Religious Freedom and Business Foundation’s research also shows companies that include religion in their initiatives on equity and inclusion are stronger on all other inclusion categories mentioned above. Faith inclusion is therefore an important indicator of an overall more welcoming workplace environment. The drivers behind a greater corporate focus on faith are increasingly clear and make good business sense for companies in a global marketplace. They should not be ignored. When
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implemented equitably, faith-friendly corporations are more appealing from a recruitment and retention standpoint. They increase morale, reduce religious bias, and foster greater collaboration, creativity, productivity, commitment and innovation. Faith is already an important part of people’s lives and the marketplace, so to be religiously tone deaf is a strategic liability. Faith-friendly workplaces enable employees to help companies successfully navigate a more religious and religiously diverse planet. Research on religion provides a foundation for not only assessment but driving positive change to ensure that the global business community is at the vanguard of the efort to provide work experiences where employees reach their true potential. That means stronger, more resilient businesses and a better quality of life for people of all faiths and beliefs around the world. A faith-friendly workplace is also built upon recognition that freedom of religion or belief is an asset to sustainable economic growth and fourishing societies. Businesses should add this understanding to their eforts to gain greater religious literacy.
Seven ways religious freedom contributes to sustainable development Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights defnes Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) as follows: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. An often used defnition for Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The following research summary indicates that religious freedom contributes to sustainable development and its underlying socio-economic foundations. First, religious freedom fosters respect by protecting something with which more than eight in ten people worldwide, 84 percent, identify – a religious faith. This fgure is growing, as mentioned above. Indeed, according to a global study published in Demographic Research (Hackett, Stonawski, Potančoková, Grim, & Skirbekk, 2015), social scientists were wrong to predict the demise of religion. The study shows that people who are religiously unafliated (including self-identifying atheists, agnostics and those who say their religion is ‘nothing in particular’) will drop to 13 percent of the world’s population in 2050, down from 16 percent in 2010. These are
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both signifcantly lower than the peak in the 1970s under communism when nearly one in fve people were religiously unafliated (Johnson & Grim, 2020). Given that so many people are attached to a faith, to violate the free practice of religion runs the risk of alienating the mass of humanity, something that certainly would not be ideal for morale and socio-economic progress. Moreover, forcing people with no specifc religious attachment to have a religion would likewise be alienating. Religious freedom ensures that people, regardless of their belief or non-belief, are accorded equal rights and equal opportunity to have a voice in society. Second, religious freedom reduces corruption, one of the key ingredients of sustainable economic development. For instance, research fnds that laws and practices that burden religion are related to higher levels of corruption. This is borne out by simple comparison between the Pew Research Center’s (2019) latest Government Restrictions on Religion Index and the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (Transparency International, 2019). The countries with the highest levels of corruption are Libya, North Korea, Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Venezuela, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia. Six of the ten most corrupt countries have high or very high governmental restrictions on religious liberty (North Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Somalia). Religious freedom also implies that businesspeople can draw on religious values and moral teachings in their businesses. The attempt to force businesses to act as secular, neutral, valuefree organisations may be one contributing factor to the corruption, greed and shortsighted decisions that hinder sustainable development worldwide. Third, research clearly demonstrates that religious freedom engenders peace by reducing religion-related violence and confict (Grim & Finke, 2007, 2011). Conversely, when religious freedom is not respected and protected, the result is often violence and conficts that disrupt normal economic activities. Religious hostilities and restrictions create climates that can drive away local and foreign investments, undermine sustainable development, and disrupt huge sectors of economies. For example, that occurred in the ongoing cycle of religious regulations and hostilities in Egypt, which has adversely impacted the tourism industry (Salama, 2019). More generally, religious freedom is a key ingredient to peace and stability, which is particularly important for business because, where stability exists, there is more opportunity to invest and conduct normal and predictable business operations, especially in emerging and new markets. Fourth, religious freedom encourages broader freedoms that contribute to positive socio-economic development. Economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (1999), for instance, argues that societal development requires the removal of sources of ‘unfreedom’, and restrictions on religious freedom are certainly a source of unfreedom. Removing impediments to religious freedom facilitates freedom of other kinds. Research also fnds empirical evidence for this relationship. Religious freedom is highly correlated with the presence of other freedoms and a variety of positive social and economic
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outcomes ranging from better health care to higher incomes for women. While correlations are not causation, the correlations suggest that a more robust future research agenda should focus on better understanding of these connections because it appears that the freedoms rise or fall together. Fifth, religious freedom develops the economy. When religious groups operate in a free and competitive environment, religion can play a measurable role in the human and social development of countries. For instance, sociologist Robert Woodberry (2012) fnds that the presence of proselytising Protestant faiths, that is, faiths competing for adherents, was associated with economic development throughout the world in the previous century. Even before that, Alexis de Tocqueville (1998) recognised that such Protestant associations in the early United States of these sorts established seminaries, constructed inns, created churches, disseminated books, and founded hospitals, prisons and schools. And these contributions are not just a legacy from the past. Katherine Marshall (2006), former director of the Development Dialogue on Values and Ethics at the World Bank and former director in the World Bank’s of Africa and East Asia regions, also recognises that faith communities not only provide education and health services but they also provide social safety nets for orphans, disabled people and people who fall behind. Sixth, religious freedom overcomes overregulation that accompanies certain types of religious restrictions that directly limit or harm economic activity. The very high government restrictions on religion in China, mentioned earlier, form a pattern of regulation that is increasingly being seen in the economic sector. China aims to Sinicise all religion in China, bringing it under their control (Dotson, 2019). Similarly, China’s ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative aims to Sinicise all technologies by bringing it under their control. US executives regularly complain that they are pressured to share or give away crucial technology in exchange for access to China’s market (Wernau, 2019). Forced technology transfers are only part of the strategy. China’s strategy includes setting explicit targets, providing direct subsidies, foreign investment and acquisitions, and mobilising state-backed companies, according to an analysis by McBride and Chatzky (2019). All of these have parallels in how religion is regulated in China (Dotson, 2019; Masláková, 2019). Just as one example of this, consider foreign investment in China related to religion. Most of the world’s bestselling book in 70+ languages (the Bible) are now printed in the People’s Republic of China (Yang, 2019), not only making foreign dollars fow into the country but also gives China the ability to regulate worldwide supply of the sacred book. Seventh, religious freedom multiplies trust. Religious freedom, when respected within a company, can also directly beneft a company’s bottom line. Walsh and Grim (2015) provide a series of examples. These include both lower costs and improved morale. An example of lower costs includes less liability for litigation. For instance, the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch fought and lost a religious discrimination case in 2013 related to fring
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a Muslim stock girl for wearing a scarf in violation of the company’s dress code. The case resulted not only in substantial legal costs but also negative national publicity (Walsh & Grim, 2015). Respect for reasonable accommodation of religious freedom in the workplace can improve employee morale, increase retention of valued employees and help with confict resolution. Moreover, businesses may gain a competitive advantage by engaging stakeholder expectations that are increasingly demanding that companies play a positive role in addressing environmental, social and governance challenges. As recognised by business consulting group McKinsey & Company, the ethical stakeholder has clearly emerged and is on the rise (Walsh & Grim, 2015). Important business stakeholders include business partners, investors and consumers, and a growing segment of ethically sensitive customers tend to prefer companies that are responsive to human rights. Indeed, consumer and government preferences given to human rights sensitive companies may give a company an advantage in competitive markets and enable it to charge premium prices and land choice contracts. And recognising this human rights impact on branding, companies such as Gap have assumed shared responsibility for the conditions under which its goods are manufactured (Walsh & Grim, 2015). Given that religious freedom contributes to better economic and business outcomes – and especially sustainable development – advances in religious freedom are in the self-interest of businesses, governments and societies. While this observation does not suggest that religious freedom is the sole or even main anecdote to poor economic performance, it does suggest that religious freedom is related to economic success. Certainly, businesses would beneft from taking religious freedom considerations into account in their strategic planning, labour management and community interactions. For instance, when evaluating locations for future research and development operations, countries with good records on religious freedom may be a better environment to fnd societies open to innovation and experimentation.
Conclusion These are promising signs that, while still on the fringes of most corporate inclusion programmes, faith-friendly workplaces are poised to make signifcant gains in 2020. The Religious Freedom and Business Foundation’s research discussed earlier also shows that companies that include religion in their initiatives on equity and inclusion, are stronger on all other inclusion categories mentioned previously. Faith inclusion is therefore an important indicator of an overall more welcoming workplace environment. The drivers behind a greater corporate focus on faith are increasingly clear and make good business sense for companies in a global marketplace. They should not be ignored. When implemented equitably, faith-friendly corporations are more appealing from a recruitment and retention standpoint. They increase morale, reduce religious bias and foster greater collaboration, creativity, productivity, commitment and innovation.
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References AfrAsia Bank. (2019). Global wealth migration review. Retrieved from https://e. issuu.com/embed.html?u=newworldwealth&d=gwmr_2019 Cooper, K. (2019). Should we boycott businesses who do not support our interests? Retrieved from www.the-standard.org/opinion/should-we-boycott-businesseswho-do-not-support-our-interests/article_8175a34a-d8e3–11e9-a67b-43e79816 91a6.html Dotson, J. (2019). Propaganda themes at the CPPCC Stress the “sinicisation” of religion. Retrieved from https://jamestown.org/program/propaganda-themes-at-thecppcc-stress-the-sinicization-of-religion/ EEOC. (2004a). Prohibited employment policies/practices. Retrieved from www. eeoc.gov/prohibited-employment-policiespractices EEOC. (2019a). Religion-based charges (charges fled with EEOC) FY 1997 – FY 2019. Retrieved from www.eeoc.gov/enforcement/religion-based-charges-chargesfled-eeoc-fy-1997-fy-2019. EEOC. (2019b). LGBT-based sex discrimination charges. Retrieved from www. eeoc.gov/enforcement/lgbt-based-sex-discrimination-charges. Eswaran, V. (2019). The business case for diversity in the workplace is now overwhelming. Retrieved from www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/business-case-fordiversity-in-the-workplace/. Greeson, B. (2019). Companies falter in making diversity and inclusion a C-Suite job. Retrieved from www.wsj.com/articles/companies-falter-in-making-diversityand-inclusion-a-csuite-job-11572091208. Grim, B. J. (2019). Religious freedom helps businesses and economies grow. Retrieved from https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/religious-freedom-helps-businesseseconomies-grow. Grim, B. J., Clark, G., & Snyder, R. E. (2014). Is religious freedom good for business? A conceptual and empirical analysis. Interdisciplinary Journal of research on Religion, 10(4), 1–19. Grim, B. J., & Connor, P. (2016). Changing religion, changing economies: Future global religious and economic growth. Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. Retrieved from http://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/10/Changing-religion-Changing-economies-Religious-Freedom-BusinessFoundation-October-21-2015.pdf Grim, B. J., & Finke, R. (2007). Religious persecution in cross-national context: Clashing civilizations or regulated religious economies? American Sociological Review, 72(4), 633–658. Grim, B. J., & Finke, R. (2011). The price of freedom denied: Religious persecution and confict in the twenty-frst century. Journal for the Scientifc Study of Religion, 50(4), 840–851. Hackett, C., Stonawski, M., Potančoková, M., Grim, B. J., & Skirbekk, V. (2015). The future size of religiously afliated and unafliated populations. Demographic Research, 32(2015), 829–842. Johnson, T. M., & Grim, B. J. (2020). World religion database. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill.
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Marshall, K. (2006). Religion and international development: Interview with pew research Center. Retrieved from www.pewforum.org/2006/03/06/religion-andinternational-development/ Masláková, M. (2019). The new regulation on religious afairs and its possible impact on the catholic church in China. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1093/ jcs/csz054 McBride, J., & Chatzky, A. (2019). Is ‘made in China 2025’ a threat to global trade? Council on foreign relations. Retrieved from www.cfr.org/backgrounder/ made-china-2025-threat-global-trade Pew Research Center. (2009–2019). Restrictions on religion. Retrieved from www. pewforum.org/category/publications/restrictions-on-religion/ Pew Research Center. (2019). Government restrictions on religion. Retrieved from https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/06/19152148/ APPENDIX-A.pdf Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. (2020). Corporate religious equity, diversity & inclusion. Retrieved from https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/ redi Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. (2019a). Comments made at the August 22 evet “respectfully sharing the public square: Protecting LGBT rights and religious liberty”. Retrieved from https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/2/ post/2019/08/respectfully-sharing-the-public-square-protecting-lgbt-rights-andreligious-liberty.html Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. (2019b). Religious freedom and LGBT rights do they have common ground? Retrieved from https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/COMMON-GROUND-LGBT-Rightsand-Religious-Freedom.pdf Robbins, M. (2018). Bring your whole self to work: How vulnerability unlocks creativity, connection, and performance. New York, NY: Jay House, Inc. Salama, S. (2019). Egypt: The security situation remains tense. Retrieved from https://p.dw.com/p/3MYbK Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tanenbaum. (2013). What American workers really think about religion. Retrieved from https://tanenbaum.org/publications/2013-survey/ Tocqueville, A. (1998). The old regime and the revolution, volume One: The complete text. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Transparency International. (2019). Corruption perceptions index. Retrieved from www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2019/results. United Nations. (2018). Committee on the elimination of racial discrimination concluding observations on the combined fourteenth to seventeenth periodic reports of China (including Hong Kong, China and Macao, China). Retrieved from https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/CHN/ CERD_C_CHN_CO_14-17_32237_E.pdf Walsh, B., & Grim, B. J. (2015). Religious freedom is good for business. Retrieved from www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2015/05/07/religious_freedom_is_good_ for_business.html
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Wernau, J. (2019). Forced tech transfers are on the rise in China, European frms say. Retrieved from www.wsj.com/articles/forced-tech-transfers-are-on-the-risein-china-european-frms-say-11558344240 Woodberry, R. (2012). The missionary roots of liberal democracy. American Political Science Review, 106(2), 244–274. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055412000093 World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Yang, D. (2019). World’s largest Bible printer hails from atheist China. Retrieved from www.thinkchina.sg/worlds-largest-bible-printer-hails-atheist-china
19 Faith and fnance Séamus P. Finn OMI
Faith makes its bargains for life It does business in peace and in strife It attracts as it can Through the human lifespan Godfrey More so when our suferings are rife D’Lima
Introduction The traditions and teachings of faith traditions are found at the centre of any debate about the meaning of money, its uses in commercial and fnancial transactions, and how it infuences and informs human relationships and our relationship with planet Earth. Theologians and their refections about the rules for commerce and trading in the village square; calculating the risks and rewards for sending ships out into the high seas; or building the foundations of banking institutions in places like Florence, Genoa and Venice in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, were central to the fnancial conversation. As the pressing ethical and moral dimensions of the specifc practices in fnance and commerce were debated, many of these conversations started by entertaining the question: what do the scriptures, wisdom and experience of the church teach and how have they infuenced accepted practices in the marketplace? For Christians, this included the Jewish scriptures – the books of the Old Testament. By extension, these inquiries were asking both about how you treat your neighbour in the village marketplace and how you transact contracts and other business arrangements in more sophisticated commercial and fnancial engagements. People were looking to faith traditions for guidance and foundational teachings and examining the laws and regulations set down by civil authorities to organise and conduct their business afairs. We still search for a compass to guide us in the marketplace and in business transactions that we arrange and execute. Every ten years it seems that some cyclical downturn occurs in the economy and, while difering in origin
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the impacts, can be widespread and sometimes long lasting. Most often, the behaviour of individuals or groups of individuals are identifed as contributing to the collapse, based on unfettered greed, fraud or deception that has consumed the perpetrators. Examples include the energy trading company Enron (McLean & Elkind, 2003), Bernie Madof (Henriques, 2018) and individuals accused of insider trading scams. Systemic failures also, like the near total collapse of the fnancial system in 2008, was the result of loopholes and lax supervision of personnel by companies or regulators, that allowed corporate cultures to wilfully ignore the obligations of their social license to operate for the public good and act primarily for corporate profts and individual bonuses. This interest is evidenced in the reintroduction of courses on ethics and morality into professional track curriculums in many universities and into company orientation programmes. It is also necessary to acknowledge from the outset, that the growing and deepening discoveries and perspectives by the scientifc community on how Earth’s life systems have evolved, have also made signifcant contributions to refections on the relationship between faith and fnance and how we evaluate fnancial and commercial transactions. The understanding that has emerged from the scientifc exploration of the origins and journey of the Earth as a living organism, have important implications for both religion and ethics and serve to interrogate the narratives and principles that emerge from the sacred teachings and traditions of religions.
Beginnings The vision that informs the teachings of faith traditions rooted in a horizon of references are constituted by the following set of relationships: the human–divine, the human–human and the human–Earth. The rules and regulations that emerged from the communities that embraced this vision and narrative, and eventually codifed, were intended to guide the decisions and actions of the community, its leaders and each person, especially their relationships with one another. Prohibitions against lying, cheating, stealing, violence and defrauding were among the most obvious while honesty, trust, justice, accountability, responsibility, caring, nourishing and loving were held up as the most desirable and worthy of emulation. This practice of translating the virtues into actions provided a foundation for the standards and regulations that served to identify people and could be adopted across regions and jurisdictions. This process and these practices, were grounded ultimately in trust and confdence in the other and in the verifability of the weights and other measuring tools and formulas that were employed by traders, merchants and shopkeepers. In the human–human sphere, it was expected that these rules would especially govern activities in the marketplace and in all transactions wherein one should expect transparency and honesty even if they difered
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between intra-tribal and inter-tribal transactions. A brief look at the laws and rules that are recorded in the Holy Scriptures about how they govern interactions, or the conduct of business transactions, is presented in the next section.
Scripture and tradition Hebrew scriptures In the early books of the Christian scriptures we read that God created human beings in his image and likeness, that God created the whole world (Genesis 14:19–22; Isaiah 40:28; 45:18) and that God looked on everything that he had created and saw that it was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). One theme that fows from this theology of creation is the belief that no aspect of human life is outside of God’s care and concern and God and people were co-creators, cooperating in the work of the creator. They did, however, turn away from God and gave to creation the obedience due to God alone. The Bible castigates both the worship of idols and the manifestations of idolatry, such as the search for unrestrained power and the desire for great wealth (Isaiah 40:12–20; 44:1–20; Wisdom 13:1–14:31). Throughout the history of the people of Israel, the Covenant that God makes with his people is captured in the diferent commandments and laws that are found throughout the biblical tradition (Exodus 20:1–17; Exodus 20:22–23:33). It includes God’s steadfast promise of love (hesed) and fdelity (‘emeth) by God and the promise by the people to fulfl their side of the covenant by worshipping God and directing their lives according to His will. Laws, such as that for the observance of the Sabbath and the Jubilee Year that were proclaimed by the blast of a horn when the land was not to be cultivated (Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:1–7), expresses an ideal found in ancient Israel, that probably goes back to the pre-monarchical times. The Sabbath was a holy day marked by religious observances and included prohibitions against commercial activity and a day of rest for animals, slaves and Israelites. The Sabbath Year which occurred every seven years called for remittance of all debts and allowing the land to lie fallow. The Jubilee Year, on the other hand, occurred every 50 years after seven Sabbath Years had passed, when ownership of lands should be restored to the original owner or his family during Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8–17, cf. Isaiah 61:1–2; Luke 4:18–19). Land monopoly in the hands of a few was deemed contrary to Yahweh’s will. While it is unclear how closely these ideals were practiced there is evidence that some remission of debts to relieve economic distress was practiced more than once (Selman & Manser, 1965, pp. 460, 751). The practice of Jubilee was adopted by faith leaders and traditions in celebrating the beginning of the third Millennium, as they called for the remittances of all debts that were owed by poorer countries.
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The norms of the covenant: reciprocal responsibility, mercy and truthfulness, refected in the codes of Israel have been a consistent and persistent challenge through the ages until today where risks around lending, borrowing and leasing present similar challenges to the person of faith today. The biblical demands are clearly refected in the prophetic tradition that is found in the prophet Micah: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, RSV) and which clearly goes beyond many modern legal code requirements. Biblical faith in general and prophetic faith especially, insists that fdelity to the covenant joins obedience to God with reverence and concern for the neighbour. The biblical terms which best summarise this double dimension of Israel’s faith are sedaqah (justice also translated as righteousness), and mishpat (right judgement or justice embodied in a concrete act or deed). The biblical understanding of justice gives a fundamental perspective to our refections on social and economic justice. A key focus of the biblical understanding of justice is that the justice of a community is evaluated by its treatment of the powerless in society, the non-Israelite in the land (Deuteronomy, 16:20; Psalm 140:13). The Law, the Prophets and the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament all show deep concern for the proper treatment of vulnerable people who are often neglected and without a protector or advocate. Therefore, it is God who hears their cries (Psalm 109:21; 113:7), and the king who is God’s anointed is commanded to have special concern for them. Christian scripture Jesus enters human history to announce the reign of God and its initiation in his life and teaching. He calls his followers to seek out ways in which God’s revelation of the dignity and destiny of all creation might become incarnate in history. He warns against attempts to “lay up treasures on Earth” (Matthew 6:19) and exhorts his followers not to be anxious about material goods, but rather to seek frst God’s reign and God’s justice (Matthew 6:25–33). When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted the age-old Jewish afrmation of faith that God alone is One and to be loved with the whole heart, mind and soul (Deuteronomy 6:4–5) and immediately adds: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:28–34) and on fnal judgement day (Matthew 25:31–46) the blessed are those who fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, visited the sick and imprisoned; the cursed are those who ignored the cries of the abandoned and neglected. Discipleship involves a change of heart and imitating the pattern of Jesus’ life by openness to the will of God through service of others (Mark 10:42–45) and sufering persecution for the sake of justice (Matthew 5:10). The Gospel of Luke presents a blueprint for Christian life that remains relevant today. Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the Magnifcat prayer, rejoices
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in God who scatters the proud in heart, brings down the mighty and raises up the lowly (Luke 1:51–53). The frst public words of Jesus as he reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah is, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18; cf. Isaiah 61:1–2). Attached to this blessing of the poor, a warning is also issued: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” and a story (Luke 6:24; Luke 12:13–21) added to by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:5, “the greed that is idolatry”. This vision of creation, covenant and community, and call to discipleship, demands a special concern for the poor and marginalised, articulated in the scripture, unfolds under the tension between the promise made by God and the ongoing work of creation. God’s kingdom has already been inaugurated but not fully realised and awaits complete realisation under God’s providence (United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986, pp. 30–34). Tradition Early Christianity saw the poor as an object of God’s special love, but it did not canonise material poverty or accept deprivation as inevitable. Few early Christians possessed wealth or power (1 Corinthians 1:26–28; James 2:5), although some were well-of (Acts 16:14; 18:8). The early community at Jerusalem seemingly shared material possessions from mutual concern among all its members (Acts 4:32–34; 2:44). The church fathers consistently reminded the early church that the goods of the Earth were created by God for the beneft of all without exception and that all have special duties towards those in need (United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986, pp. 48–60). From early church life there was a prohibition on the charging of interest on loans to the poor and on the amassing of great wealth in the scriptures, but with the passage of time new interpretations of that teaching emerged. The early scholastics, like Aristotle, condemned the practice of interest on money because of the “sterile nature of money”. They nevertheless found that although it should be condemned intrinsically, it might be acceptable for extrinsic reasons. An example of the latter would be the loss sustained or the opportunity of proft foregone because of money that was out on loan. While the church, through the centuries, condemned various practices concerning interest, it did not make the practice under all conditions a violation of justice and embraced earlier refections around intrinsic as well as extrinsic grounds. In Benedict XIV’s encyclical to the bishops of Italy, Vix Pervenit, in 1745, justifed interest on loans for production and those for consumption and seeing money loaned for production as productive or fertile. The encyclical “was extended to the universal Church by a decree of the Holy Ofce (The Roman Congregation charged with
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the supervision of Catholic doctrines and morals) of July 28th 1835… It is the last ex professo statement of usury by a pope. It is an espousal of the central scholastic position. ‘It leaves a great deal unsaid’ ” (Noonan & John, 1957, p. 357). Between 1882 and 1836, the Holy Ofce, in a series of decisions on usury raised by requests to ofer an opinion on specifc fnancial transactions or requests seeking absolution for transactions with interest “ends all doubts and practical difculties by publicly decreeing that the interest allowed by law may be taken by everyone” (Noonan & John, 1957, p. 377). These pronouncements and rulings settled most of the practical problems, without defning what a moderate rate of interest might be and left the theoretical question unresolved. Many authorities continued to assert “that the only usury condemned by natural law is that which oppresses the poor” (Noonan & John, 1957, p. 383). The revised Code of Canon law in 1917, would eventually take all of these opinions and commentaries, decrees and papal bulls, on usury and summarise them in canon 1735 (Noonan & John, 1957, p. 391). In 1950, Pope Pius XII addressed the employees and directors of the Bank of Rome and he sought to diferentiate his position from one that saw the activities of bankers and banking institutions as fraught with guilt and where employees ran the risk of becoming addicted to material riches.
Catholic social teaching In a series of letters and social encyclicals, beginning in 1891, the Church assumed the role of teacher, commentator and critic on the major trends and changes that surfaced in society, reminding everyone that the family was the basic building block of society, pointing to the dangers that could result from any disruption to the normal patterns of family life and identifying the dangers that were inherent in the concentration of too much unaccountable power or wealth in the hands of a few (Benedict XVI, 2004; Francis, 2004; John Paul II, 2004a, 2004b; John Paul XXIII, 2004; Leo XIII, 2004; Paul VI, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c; Pius XI, 2004). Restructured labour forces, large-scale industrialisation, the consequent movement to the cities and the centralisation of the means of production in a factory and manufacturing system fnanced by entrepreneurs and corporations, was considered responsible for weakening the structure of the family unit, which produced a reaction in social Catholicism resulting in experiments like the “Christian factory”, the establishment of labour unions and the regulation of working conditions in factories (Shadle, 2018, p. 50). Many of these ideas were captured in the 1891 encyclical letter “On the Condition of the Working Classes”, where Pope Leo XIII condemned “rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless under a diferent guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men” (Noonan & John, 1957, p. 389).
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Later, the concept of corporatism that envisions “a society in which workers and owners are organised into associations, sometimes called corporations are vocational orders, intended to promote harmony between the two classes and cooperation between frms” was introduced into the conversation. This was built on the views expressed earlier by Pope Leo and developed further in Quadragesimo Anno, the encyclical by Pope Pius XI in 1931 (Shadle, 2018, p. 51). In some countries these associations were organised into national networks and placed under the authority of the hierarchy, conservatively protecting a natural order in society with the church and the state working together for the well-being of all. The catastrophic consequences of World War II and the ongoing struggle between free market capitalism and state-controlled communism, required fnding a balance between the rights of private ownership of property and the demands of the common good; economic initiative and respecting the rights of workers proved challenging. In Populorum Progressio (2004c), Pope Paul VI, wrestled with the great disparity that existed between diferent regions of the world, recognised that much of this was the result of a system of colonisation and called for proposals and programmes to address inequity and promote integral development for all. For example, in the 1960 and 1970s, church leaders were warning about the danger of unrestricted competition, unchecked and unregulated markets and had little to say about their role in coordinating supply and demand and their efciency. By 1991 and post-Cold War with communism’s collapse, in the encyclical Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II addressed the issue of economic systems and questioned whether “capitalism should be the goal of the countries now making eforts to rebuild their economy and society”. The answer he wrote, “is obviously complex”, as he pointed out how the Catholic tradition could provide guidance in the search for answers after the collapse of Communism (John Paul II, 2004a). In the same document he goes on to afrm that, The free market is the most efcient instrument for utilising resources and efectively responding to needs. But this is true only for those needs which are ‘solvent’, insofar as they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources which are ‘marketable’, insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory price. But there are many human needs which fnd no place on the market. (Pius XI, 2004, p. 34) In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI articulated a vision and a comprehensive framework where justice is identifed as the core virtue that “must be applied to every phase of economic activity because this is always concerned with men and his needs” (2004, p. 17). He continues by considering the theme of creation and economic activity and clearly identifes the duties and responsibilities that those in the fnancial sector must assume in relationship to the
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natural environment as “God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole”(2004, p. 48). Thus the urgent duty “to fnd institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources, involving poor countries in the process, in order to plan together for the future”(Benedict XVI, 2004, p. 49). In 2015, Pope Francis, building on his predecessors, published the encyclical, Laudato Sí and proposed a new ecological framework for Catholic Social Teaching. Through this encyclical he is “no longer leading a church confronted with a world of declining religious faith but, rather, one in the midst of a diversity of spirituality’s and religious traditions competing with a deadening consumerism and technocratic mindset”(Shadle, 2018, p. 285). He places the relationship of humankind to the natural environment front and centre in his theological vision stating, This sister [Mother Earth] now cries out to us because of the harm we have inficted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also refected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the Earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’. (Romans 8:22) (Francis, 2004)
Principles that emerged from the tradition Any refection on faith and fnance, the fnancial system and on economic life today, from the Roman Catholic perspective, is rooted in the biblical vision that we have examined and shaped by the rich and complex tradition of Catholic experience and thought and is generally referred to as Catholic Social Teaching, an inheritance and tradition often shared by other Christian denominations. The specifc guidance and principles in the area of fnance and economics that have emerged in the tradition are ofered for both the beneft and guidance of individual believers, as well as for institutions and organisations, including governments and private corporations. These principles are enumerated in the following sections. The human person in community Every human person is created as an image of God and the denial of dignity to any person is a blot on this image. The same God, who came to the aid of an oppressed people, as detailed in the Hebrew scriptures, continues to hear the cries of the oppressed today and call them to a community that is grounded in His word. The principle of the “common good”, which means
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“the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulflment more fully and more easily” (Second Vatican Council, 1992) is a core expression of this belief. All economic activity and political decision-making should be governed by this principle. The human person and the Earth The misuse of the world’s resources or appropriation of them by a minority of the world’s population betrays the gift of creation and the principle of the “universal destination of goods” is a clear and consistent reminder of the purpose of the goods of the Earth. Pope Benedict XVI afrms the responsibility that human beings have to creation when he writes, “At the same time we must recognise our grave duty to hand the Earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it” (Benedict XVI, 2004, p. 50). How we acknowledge our inherent dependence on the natural world and how we account for the use and depletion of natural resources is a critical dimension of our vocation as explicated in the encyclical Laudato Sí. Subsidiarity This principle is a reminder of the human network of relationships and associations to which each person belongs and within which they are free to act. All have a right to freely participate in the economic life of society through their private initiative, through collaborative eforts, respecting the balance between the public and private spheres and without the dominance of a centralised top-down authority. The adoption of the principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent, which is recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (United Nations, 2016), is an example of the extension of this principle as applied to Indigenous peoples. Solidarity All have a special obligation to respect and care for one another and especially the poor and vulnerable. The exercise of solidarity within each society is valid when its members recognise one another as persons. Those who are more infuential, because they have a greater share of goods and common services, should feel responsible for the weak and be ready to share with them all they possess. Those who are weaker, for their part, in the same spirit of solidarity, should not adopt a purely passive attitude or one that is destructive of the social fabric, but, while claiming their legitimate rights, should do what they can for the good of all. (John Paul II, 2004b, p. 19)
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The quality of the justice and goodness that is practiced in a society is to be judged by the treatment of the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger.
Applying the teaching of the tradition Over the last two centuries, philosophers, theologians, political and business leaders have engaged in robust debates about the merits and defciencies of diferent fnancial systems. These debates have often paralleled discussions about which political system best accommodates a specifc fnancial system. The positions taken in these conversations ranged from a libertarian, laissez faire, maximum individual freedom position on the one hand to a centralised, controlled, collective and top-down authoritarian position on the other or some modifed combination that embraced elements of both. The statements or critiques that Christian faith traditions have issued historically to individuals, leaders, governments and institutions have been grounded in the principles discussed previously, giving priority to protecting human freedom, dignity and the environment and displaying a very explicit preference for the care of those who are neglected, marginalised or in any way dependent on the charity of others while also supporting individual freedom through entrepreneurship and creativity. Evaluating fnancial systems and economic models Teaching and practice in the realms of faith and fnance have evolved to meet changing technology, changing political expressions and changing ecological conditions over time. In evaluating any developments in a fnancial system or in an economic model, faith leaders usually begin by urging regulators and reformers to revisit the fundamental principles found in most faith traditions and to consider how to make the system more responsive to the needs of all. Leaders must eliminate acts of fraud, dishonesty and lack of transparency which may disproportionately impact the poor or distressed communities. Excessive speculative risk detrimental to the common good must be examined and monitored so derivatives, credit default swaps and other activities such as short selling deserve attention. The 1986 pastoral letter on the economy by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gives a starting point as they refect on the US economy: “What does the economy do for people? What does it do to people? And how do people participate in it?” (United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1986, p. 1). The same questions could be posed to a global economy and the role of government in this. Catholic Social Teaching on the role of government is twofold: to guarantee the public order and to promote the common good. Therefore, boundaries in law along with regulatory enforcement mechanisms and tools to monitor
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behaviour by institutions and individuals to achieve this is important. Depending on the expressed needs and wants of citizens this will vary from country to country. Framework for the choices and actions of believers There is much more information, transparency and accountability either directly available through the world wide web, or through intermediary associations and clubs that people of faith can pursue to quickly accumulate the information needed to evaluate the reputation, integrity and honesty of the businesses and merchants that we are working with, our credit card statements or in the records of other institutions that we engage for loans or mortgages or fnancing. Advances in technology, databases and research frms allow insights into investments, insurances and pension funds. Investing in a matter that is consistent with one’s faith is the fundamental commitment that is required, after which technology and other resources can be accessed and applied to our decision-making methods and choices and can be enhanced, if we join with others who are wrestling to align choices consistent with their faith and being responsible stewards of assets.
Conclusion All of us, in some capacity, have the ability and the authority to align our own personal fnancial activities with our faith to a certain extent. Beginning with a commitment to honesty, transparency, truthfulness and justice, we have the basic principles and foundation to guide us and to build a reputation for integrity and reliability in our dealings with others. We can also employ these same values and principles to the ways in which we manage and make decisions about the institutions that we choose to manage our fnancial afairs, or the enterprises that we choose to invest in, made even easier by technological advancements. As citizens of the body politic, we are aforded the opportunity to review and analyse the budgets at diferent levels of government that are funded by our taxes, and to consider if and how the approved expenditures are in line with our beliefs and values. This begins with a review of items for education, safety, infrastructure and support for those who are homeless, hungry or sick. This oversight can also extend to the safety and the salaries that are paid to public sector workers. The recent emergence of a more robust discussion on stakeholder vs. shareholder capitalism provides new opportunities for people of faith. This commitment to the creation of a fnancial system that will integrate the well-being of people and planet and support practices that promote a sustainable future, should align more readily with the teachings of faith traditions.
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References Benedict XVI. (2004). Caritas in Veritate 2009. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Francis. (2004). Laudato Sí 2015. In P. C. f. J. a. Peace (Ed.), Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Henriques, D. B. (2018). A case study of a Con Man: Bernie Madof and the timeless lessons of history’s biggest ponzi scheme [Article]. Social Research, 85(4), 745–766. John Paul II. (2004a). Centesimus annus 1991. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. John Paul II. (2004b). Solicitudo Rei Socialis 1987. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. John Paul XXIII. (2004). Mater et Magistra, 1961. In P. C. f. J. a. Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Leo XIII. (2004). Rerum Novarum 1891. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & I. John Paul (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. McLean, B., & Elkind, P. (2003). The smartest guys in the room: The amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. New York, NY: Portfolio. Noonan, J. R., & John, T. (1957). The scholastic analysis of usury. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Paul VI. (2004a). Octogesima Adveniens 1971. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church, 2004. The principal documents under papal signature that are included in this body of teaching are: Rerum Novarum 1891; Quadragesimo Anno 1931; Mater et Magistra, 1961; Pacem in Terris 1963; Populorum Progressio 1967; Octogesima Adveniens 1971; Solicitudo Rei Socialis 1987; Centesimus Annus 1991; Caritas in Veritate 2009; Laudato Sí 2015. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Paul VI. (2004b). Pacem in Terris 1963. In John Paul II (Ed.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Paul VI. (2004c). Populorum Progressio 1967. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Pius XI. (2004). Quadragesimo Anno 1931. In Pontifcal Council for Justice and Peace & John Paul II (Eds.), Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Second Vatican Council. (1992). Second Vatican council, pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world. In O. P. Austin Flannery (Ed.), Vatican council II, volume 1: The post conciliar documents (Vol. 26, new revised ed.). Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Co. Selman, M. J., & Manser, M. H. (1965). “Sabbath”; “jubilee”. In M. J. Selman & M. H. Manser (Eds.), Dictionary of the bible. Bedford, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Shadle, M. A. (2018). Interrupting capitalism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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United Nations. (2016). Indigenous peoples. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from www. un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-andinformed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-localcommunities-fao/ 06/25/2020 United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1986). Economic justice for all. Presented at the meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops 1986, Washington, DC.
20 Marketing of faith Robert Kilpatrick, Louise von Sierakowski, Godfrey D’Lima and Edwina Pio
Just watch the believer and learn What’s valued and what she might spurn Then ofer the best To answer her quest Godfrey And business will take a new turn D’Lima
Introduction Seemingly, little depth of thought is given by Western mainstream marketing practitioners as to how marketing and religion impact one another, despite a more globalised society, the proliferation of international brands, a growing customer-centric approach to business and many brands embracing a valuesbased approach to marketing. Perhaps, this is the result of many marketers having ofces located within cities of secular societies, where religion is less evident, dismissed or tabooed. A contributing factor might be the risk of getting it wrong and unintentionally causing ofence such as the furore caused by a British Airways dress code that prevented an employee wearing a cross at work (Telegraph Reporters, 2018, p. 29). Yet, there is more that connects us in humanity than separates, suggesting there is more opportunity to explore how brand and marketing interacts with the religious convictions of consumers. This chapter encourages business leaders, marketers and non-marketers, to expand their thinking and pay greater attention to the characteristics of religious consumers in order to deliver more efective marketing outcomes. Equally, the chapter may also encourage business leaders to consider their understanding of humanity from their own worldview. Furthermore, the chapter acknowledges the difering dynamics of marketing secular products to religious consumers, and the marketing of religions themselves. We highlight the market opportunities available to those considering the needs and wants of religious consumers then provide an overview of the ways marketing and religion connect and overlap. We show the potential of branding to provide an authentic connection with religious consumers
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through the alignment of core values; and consider how religion can facilitate a fundamental principle of marketing – know your customer. This leads us to considering the possible tension between religion and consumerisation, sustainability, luxury products and fast fashion. Finally, we refect on how religion itself may be considered a brand and product.
Market opportunities there for the taking Businesses, particularly marketers, are always on the lookout for new ways to drive sales growth or increase market share. Generally, this is achieved by seeing a gap in the market to either address a need that hasn’t been fulflled or to better meet the needs of a target group. Globalisation has led to a mix of diferent religions and faith traditions within many societies, creating a demand for products and services that take into consideration the lifestyles outlined by diferent religious teachings. The Muslim population is estimated to rise globally from 1.8 billion in 2020 to 2.8 billion by 2050, representing signifcant market potential. In 2018, these consumers spent US$2.2 trillion on Islamic faith inspired products across the food, pharmaceutical and lifestyle sectors, all positioned to increase to US$3.2 trillion by 2024 (Cochrane, 2019). Global consumer demand is increasing for products including food, pharmaceuticals, fnancial services, fashion, tourism and entertainment that meet the needs of Muslim consumers as being halal (permissible) and true to Islamic faith values. Importantly, these consumers are young, increasingly afuent, digitally connected, highly ethical and have increasing afnity to their faith. This shapes a contemporary Muslim who is both faithful and modern, labelled ‘Muslim M’ (Janmohamed, 2016). Despite the growth opportunity this represents, backed by calls from the Muslim community to be better considered by brands, much of the opportunity remains unaddressed (El-Bassiouny, El-Bassiouny, Mohamed, & Basuony, 2020). Some multinationals, such as Haribo and Nestlé, are changing and have successfully started to make ‘permissible’ or halal products. Other smaller organisations have also recognised the opportunity such as EasiYo (homemade yoghurt kits), Kohu Road (artisan ice cream), Puhoi Valley, Bouton D’Or and Ornelle cheeses with some failures like Better Burgers (Shaw, 2019). Halal food goes beyond the concept of ritually slaughtered and permissible meat to embrace food that is wholesome and pure including the traceability of raw ingredients and assuring ethical business practices. For many brands with ethics at their core, morality and social responsibility are inherent in their products, and sharing these will appeal to Muslims (ElBassiouny et al., 2020) and other ethically minded consumers. Equally, the opportunity exists for marketing practitioners to educate mainstream consumers about positive attributes of halal food in terms of quality, nutrition and social responsibility. In doing so a mainstream brand stays true to its core values, can build a mutually benefcial relationship with
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Muslim consumers, and may encourage consumers of other religions, atheists and agonists to see that halal food aligns to their own values. Conversely, there can be a negative spill-over efects of halal labelling for people outside the Muslim faith. Caution should be taken to consider the local context of nationalism and religious perception. In the case where attitudes may be negative a specifc sub-brand may still be the safer way to go (Rauschnabel, Herz, Schlegelmilch, & Ivens, 2015).
The intersections of marketing and religion Marketing and religion are seen to be interwoven in four main ways: (1) the sacralisation of the ordinary, (2) spiritual meaning attributed to consumption, (3) the spiritual turned into a commodity, and (4) consumption of religious products and services (Rinallo, Scott, & MacLaren, 2013). Today’s society comprises people who have predominately been born into a world shaped by consumerism, leading to a blurring of lines between the sacred and profane. Some suggest that Santa has been attributed status akin to Christ, providing an alternative narrative (giving, family) as the ‘reason for the season’ (Belk, 1987). An all-seeing Santa outlines how children should behave, holds them accountable for their behaviour and rewards them when they follow his guidelines. In a similar manner, we regularly see ordinary products being given sacred status. Consumerism is becoming the new religion of the modern age (Stolz, 2008) leaving some with a spiritual and social void so they have found meaning in the community of a brand (Michele & Mara, 2019) flled with ideological values, symbols and rituals. Such brands are plentiful and as diverse as Apple, Nike, Star Wars, Harley Davidson or The Body Shop. Meanwhile, the sacred is turned into a commodity. Statues of Buddha or Ganesha can be found in garden centres and bookstores. Yoga is marketed as a fashionable exercise. The Christian cross has long adorned earrings and necklaces, while clothing fashion has often been seen to appropriate the Catholic rosary, or Islamic veil (Geiger-Oneto & Minton, 2019). Spiritual destinations like El Camino or Kumano Kodo have become desirable holiday options for even those without faith. Add to that, the combining of the desire for wealth and the willingness of some religious leaders to proft from human need, which leads to aberrations, such as prosperity preachers like Benny Hinn within Christianity, Kyai Haji Abdullah Gymnastiar in Muslim Indonesia and Basnagoda Rahula within Buddhism.
It all starts with brand A brand is at the heart of any organisation that sells goods and/or services. Often a brand, representing an organisation’s purpose, and raison d’être is its greatest asset. It defnes what customer-needs its products seek to
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address, how the organisation adds value by addressing them, and what expectations a consumer can have of you. Hence, a brand conveys what you do, why you do it, how you do it and who you do it for. It is, in its essence, everything an organisation stands for, building credibility and trust (Keller & Swaminathanm, 2019; Laidler-Kylander & Stenzel, 2013; Edelman, 2019). The (not-so) secret recipe for building a strong brand is summarised by Keller’s (2001) Brand Equity Model, which has four levels. The frst two levels are identity (who you are) and meaning (what you are). These are what initially attract people to a brand through visual cues, tone of voice and the brand story. The next two levels are response (what you are about) and relationships (what about you and me) and they serve to ‘seal the deal’. Brand response is the judgement that is made about a brand, while brand resonance is when a relationship is solidifed. Today consumers, including the religious will evaluate a brand at each of these four levels, buying from brands that align with their own beliefs, seeing that their choice of brands becomes a personal expression of their own intrinsic values and beliefs. This becomes the basis of authentic relationships between customer and brand. To hold that place in the lives of religious consumers, a brand’s values must be clear, consistent and visible (Minton, 2014) and not necessarily safe, dull and boring. Many crave brands that are modern, inspiring and exciting while in keeping with their self-perceived values (Janmohamed, 2016). This alignment of brand values can have powerful efects on consumer behaviour as groups like the Fair Trade movement (Fairtrade International, 2020), the ‘Ten Thousand Villages’ (Mennonite Central Committee, 2020), Catholic Relief Services (Catholic Relief Serives, 2020) and Lutheran World Relief (Lutheran World Relief, 2020) have all had a signifcant efect on several mass consumption items, with rising percentages of the Western world insisting on a fairer trading mechanism. Religious organisations like World Vision Australia introduced an ethical chocolate guide (World Vision Australia, 2020) and has had some success in pressuring chocolate brands to ensure they have production lines free of child labour. Brand managers beneft from understanding whether their brand values align with those of religious consumers. Brands that proclaim values of fair trade and sustainability will fnd natural afnity with religious groups who take peace, justice and creation care seriously. Conversely, a contraceptive brand may be considered perfectly acceptable by some religious consumers if backed by values aligned to sex within marriage, but may not align in values if the brand seeks to connect with a market segment understood to have more transient sexual relations. In some cases, giving up the religious segment of the market or clinging to it and letting a broader community go, may be a conscious decision as some of the culture wars over LGBTQI rights in the United States have shown (Dunn, 2020). Importantly, consumers and organisations don’t necessarily need to share the same religious beliefs, but common values and ethical principles can draw religious consumers to a brand. By way of example, Muslims may buy non-Muslim
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brands that resonate with their aspirations for living life as a good Muslim (Janmohamed, 2016). Many mainstream brands take an approach of acknowledging various religions in the spirit of diversity and inclusion. This may show consideration and respect for religious consumers, without tailoring the brand specifcally to these niche-markets. By respectfully acknowledging religious consumers’ needs and/or marking moments of religious signifcance, brands could connect with religious consumers. Potentially, this may facilitate the opportunity for those not of that faith to learn a little more about the beliefs of others in an increasingly multicultural society. If done in way that is true to the brand, religious inclusion could be comfortably woven into the brand’s DNA, which some have done with success. Toyota’s 2018 Super Bowl story of transporting a group of friends, a Catholic, Rabbi, Imam, Buddhist Monk and some nuns to indulge their passion of football ends with the message ‘we’re all one team’; strongly communicating Toyota’s values around unity (Hirshfeld, 2018). Integrating religion into brands may not be easily achieved, but those who do so are often rewarded. Seeing the opportunity of integrating religion into brands, marketing agencies such as Ogilvy Noor started helping brands navigate authentically, meaningfully and successfully with Muslim religious consumers (Ogilvy, 2020) focusing on the needs and wants of a segment of Muslim consumers they call ‘Muslim Futurists’; for whom faith and modernity go hand in glove with no willingness to trade-of between the two. Seemingly, putting the authentic needs of people frst can deliver bottom line benefts for companies who take a genuine, empathetic, curious and innovative approach to brand development.
Understanding religious consumers’ needs and desires Brand and marketing go hand in glove. A brand defnes what makes an organisation diferent, while marketing is how that diference is communicated. The father of marketing, Kotler, defnes marketing as “understanding and satisfying customer’s needs” and ofering solutions to those needs (Armstrong & Kotler, 2018, p. 29). Lancaster and Reynolds (2002, p. 16) quote Drucker when stating, There will always, one can assume, be a need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfuous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fts him and sells itself. At the centre of marketing is the aim of developing proftable customer relationships; through applying the familiar marketing mix of the 4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Place (McCarthy, 1960).
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Religion can be seen to have a direct or indirect infuence on each aspect of the marketing mix. Religion infuences what products or services religious consumers want to purchase, and in some markets what products and services can be sold, for example, Halal or Kosher food. Religion may infuence consumer perceptions of price points, how they respond to advertising, and when, where and how they buy. Thus, religion can be seen as central to consumer behaviour (Agarwala, Mishra, & Singh, 2019). Marketers segment and target demographics, such as age, gender, income and life stage; psychographics, such as lifestyles, attitudes and personality types; and behaviours, such as frequency of purchase, usage rates and engagement are also considered (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown, & Armstrong, 2012). However, the demographic of religion seems largely conspicuous in its absence (El-Bassiouny, 2014; Janmohamed, 2016; Peterson & Minton, 2018). To be successful in marketing, one frst must understand customers’ needs, and what makes them tick. Ideally, one seeks to understand the whole person in a genuine, authentic and unbiased way (Janmohamed, 2016). Religion gives marketers insight into people’s intrinsic values and attitudes. Religious doctrines play a signifcant and enduring role in transmitting moral values to defne the norms of acceptable behaviour, norms and interactions (Agarwala et al., 2019; Leary, Minton, & Mittelstaedt, 2016; McLeod & Palmer, 2015; Michele & Mara, 2019). Religions can be seen to shape society and culture, infuencing every area of a consumer’s actions, and ultimately how they conduct themselves as consumers (Alhouti, Musgrove, Butler, & D’Souza, 2015). Considering this more closely, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Atkins & Harmon, 2016) suggests that people are motivated to fulfl their needs at fve progressive levels. Basic needs like food, water and clean air at level 1, needs for health and safety at level 2, love, companionship and a sense of belonging at 3, and self-esteem and to be valued by others at 4. Level 5 is self-actualisation. This includes things like morality, well-being and a sense of fulflment. Faith has an infuence on our needs at each of these levels. Many religions outline what food is appropriate to eat, and when it can be eaten, like Christians fasting during Lent, Buddhists often eating only one full meal a day, Muslims requiring Halal practices and fasting between dawn and dusk during Ramadan, Jews not eating pork or shellfsh and fasting at key moments such as Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av, while Hinduism advocates a vegetarian diet (Dhiman, 2016). Appearance and clothing are also infuenced by religion: Muslim women wearing a burqa (veil), Sikhs wearing the fve articles of faith (Panj Kakka), Hindu women wearing a bindi, such as a red dot on the forehead (Agarwala et al., 2019). Moreover, religions provide a meaningful connection to a community, a coping mechanism for existential anxiety, guidance on morality, a sense of meaning, and ultimately the opportunity for self-identity, self-fulflment and enlightenment (Michele & Mara, 2019). For example, Islam refects a complete way
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of life, in which all acts in one’s day are a form of divine worship. Thus, a consciousness of Allah is important in all facets of life (Janmohamed, 2016). The religious drive that encourages these practices may be intrinsic (Alhouti et al., 2015), or extrinsically motivated to be seen well by others (Agarwala et al., 2019). Brands and product scan appeal to these motivations (ElBassiouny et al., 2020) making the understanding of religion highly relevant to marketing.
The relationship between religion and consumerism Where religion and marketing perhaps connect uncomfortably is in relation to materialism. For example, while full of importance for Christians, Christmas is also the focus of considerable marketing in the West and indeed represents the strongest sales period of the year. Thus, Belk (1987, p. 91) suggests, “If Santa is God he is the God of materialism”. Consumption is fundamental to marketing, yet most religious scriptures advocate for living a simple life, content with the core basics of life, humble, unostentatious and without search of status (Geiger-Oneto & Minton, 2019). Research indicates that religious consumers tend to be less materialistic, less impulsive and more frugal in their shopping behaviour (Agarwala et al., 2019). Buddhism advocates keeping ‘wants’ in check. Desire is the root of sufering (dukkha) noting the interdependence of all things on each other (anitya) highlighting the potential damage inficted on nature brought about through unnecessary consumption. This also includes the concept of non-self (anatman) which asserts that ‘I’ is an illusion and therefore consumption to build personal identity is unwarranted. Furthermore, excess consumption is seen by Buddhists to have societal implications by stretching the inequality gap (Pace, 2013). Christianity encourages giving rather than taking. Muslims are reminded that they should not be slaves to materialism, but servants to God. Hinduism acknowledges ‘want’ rather than ‘need’. Such principles seem to counter the ‘latest and greatest must-have’ attitude of today’s consumer society. A worrying aspect of consumerism is that it contributes to pollution and climate change (Goldhill, 2019; Hope & Jones, 2014), which raises the overlap between faith, consumption and sustainability. Religion provides a way of understanding diferent consumers’ perspectives on and commitment to sustainability and environmental care (Hope & Jones, 2014; Itani, 2015). Religious ideologies have traditionally difered in the status they attribute to nature. Religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam teach that nature, as created by God, should be cared for, but they place God and humankind in an elevated position over creation. Contrastingly, Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism teach that Deities can be found throughout nature and that there is an intrinsic interconnectedness and ‘oneness’ throughout the universe (Minton, Kahle, & Kim, 2015).
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Understanding faith provides insights that marketing practitioners can access, while educating and reframing religious ideologies of the natural world, to fnd common ground and peaceful solutions to environmental concerns (Chaturvedi & Doyle, 2015). Belz and Peattie (2012 support the concept of the 4Cs (Customer solution, Customer cost, Convenience and Communication), as an adaptation of McCarthy’s (1960) traditional 4Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) to provide a more sustainable approach to marketing strategy. One might see the value in taking this approach to marketing strategy with religious consumers in mind (Figure 20.1). In a similar vein, religion may support the move away from the perils of fast fashion and intolerable non-ethical production methods. The collapse of the Rana Plaza Building in Bangladesh in 2013, with a death toll of 1,134 people, lead to substantial changes in the textile sector (Hira & Benson-Rea, 2017) largely through market-led pressure driving business to make positive change. Other eforts have sought to provide a diferent model of operation in niche-fashion marketing, such as the not-for-proft organisation, Freeset that makes apparel and accessories to support communities marked by extreme poverty and vulnerability (Kilpatrick & Pio, 2013). Yet religious forces were counter to market forces, with the Hefajate-Islam (protector of Islam) responding with demands for women not to mix freely with men and receive mandatory Islamic education (Kazmin, 2013) demands that could be seen as not advancing the cause of the majority of females (Begum, 2019). It is also interesting to consider how luxury products, supposedly representing quality, reliability, exclusivity and prestige (Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Klarmann, 2012), represent a conundrum for religion. Places of worship are often decorated with symbolic opulence while religious consumers, generally speaking, are guided not to act in showy or wasteful ways, seemingly contradictory to understandings of luxury. For some luxury purchase may bring on feelings of regret and remorse (Geiger-Oneto &
Figure 20.1 The 4Cs
Product
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Minton, 2019). Conversely, luxury products can often represent quality and longevity thus less disposable purchases and also often highly artisanal, potentially increasing the likelihood of a supply chain with high integrity, thus giving increased legitimacy to such products for religious consumers (Geiger-Oneto & Minton, 2019). Additionally, ‘prosperity gospel’ preachers have huge followings not just in the West but in many parts of Africa and Asia. Asking followers to help provide for a US$54 million private plane (Wooston, 2018) seems an efective way to break religiously conceived resistance to luxury spending. Religious consumers are potential purchasers of luxury products but marketers need to understand the difering perspectives around marketing luxury products to religious consumers (Geiger-Oneto & Minton, 2019). The issues of religion and consumerism are clearly ‘highly nuanced’.
Religion as a consumer product The marketing of religion, likely as old as religions themselves, is powerful (Hackett, 2015) and is faced with the market dynamics of supply and demand operating in an increasingly tough competitive environment. Over recent decades, many religious organisations have evolved from a status as powerful social and political institutions, to being reliant on voluntary membership (Stolz, 2008) with postmodern consumers having access to a raft of information on diferent religious, spiritual and secular views (Rinallo et al., 2013). Religions now compete against ‘pick-and-mix’ blends of other sources of identity ideals and spirituality, including ‘inter-religious’. ‘Trade barriers’ are set up to disallow other products from entering, depriving people of the choice in how to fnd satisfaction, growth and fulflment in life. Sometimes competitive rivalries lead to ‘cut-throat’ competition where throat cutting (or burning, drowning, shooting, etc.) is literal (Dougill, 2016; Eccher, 2017; Fletcher, 1999; Lone, Oo, Lewis, & Slodkowski, 2018; McLean & Schmitt, 2019; Sälävästru, 2017). In the case of global religions, traditional religious institutions compete against more modern entrepreneurial religious communities. In some countries, the recruitment processes can be signifcant, ofering not only the promise of salvation but also access to otherwise unobtainable opportunities and assets. Land is made available to the converted – or as an encouragement to stay true to the faith, preference is given in education and health institutions, and sought-after jobs are made available to followers. Sometimes governments are called on to make conditions to support the dominant religion, as for instance, bans on Sunday activities in post-coup Fiji (Akram-Lodhi & Doornbos, 2000, p. 7) or to legislate against proselytisation (Griswold, 2019). Religion can inspire benefcial efects in persons and societies and can be improved by competition to include gender, environment, racial diversity, etc. in its thinking, processes and practice. Such competition can increase
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transparency too. Unfortunately, it can also promote harmful efects as mentioned earlier. A ‘product review’ of sorts would focus on retaining the best aspects of religious teachings and practice, such as the numerous ways that religion enhances human well-being and those detrimental to humanity could be abandoned, modifed or reframed. This process is continually underway in the ‘progressive’ branches of all religions, where traditional practices and rules are forgotten, tweaked or reinterpreted to meet new situations. Stylish and chic Islamic women’s attire, changing attitudes to the LGBTQI, yoga morphing into health and ftness sessions, are all indications of this continual process. On a related front, religious organisations are also confronted with the challenge of how to market their goods and services to secular consumers. For example, sacred sites and pilgrimages becoming tourist destinations, yoga retreats, or well-being seminars, parenting retreats, etc. all provide necessary income, while also meeting expectations of customers and staying true to their respective faith-based traditions and values. Despite the challenges, religious institutions have always seen value in marketing wanting that others see the best advantages of their ‘product’ and adopt it. Religion can be seen to be marketed both overtly as well as covertly spreading by open propaganda or more subtle methods. Most religions today can be seen to embrace a mix of marketing tactics and channels (like government support). Religious organisations consider the ‘customer experience’, survey customer needs, design products and services specifc to the needs of their congregations, and run advertising, engagement and branding campaigns. Daily messages appear in social media feeds, religious TV broadcasts 24/7 and youth are engaged through festivals and music. If Twitter followers can be considered as a show of marketing competency, then the Pope, with 15 million followers and the Dalai Lama, with 19.3 million followers, are certainly up with the play, with more followers than big brands, such as PlayStation, Starbucks or Samsung.
Conclusion Increasingly, consumers are looking to purchase products and services that align with their own values, beliefs and lifestyle choices and have greater technology available to do so. Organisations have the opportunity to grow their businesses by giving greater attention to how the religion and faith of consumers might impact on their brand, marketing strategies and programmes. But in order to reap rewards, religious consumers must not feel exploited. This is to assert that marketing to the religious consumers must be authentic, inclusive and mutually benefcial for both business and consumer. While the main religions hold some fundamental diferences, they also share similar values; those of community, compassion, integrity, moderation, responsibility, contentment and care for nature. An increased focus on values-based
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branding and marketing would serve to increase religious customer satisfaction and associated opportunities for revenue growth. Marketers of religion also have the opportunity to take a more customercentric approach; ensuring actions are values-based and stand up to the growing transparency demanded by followers. From numerous perspectives, it would seem that faith and marketing could beneft from being given greater attention by marketing practitioners of both mainstream and religious products and services. Given the global growth of religion, this powerful driver of market segmentation looks set to continue to grow in relevance, impact and consumer demand.
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Laidler-Kylander, N., & Stenzel, J. S. (2013). The brand IDEA: Managing nonproft brands with integrity, democracy, and afnity. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Lancaster, G. A., & Reynolds, P. (2002). Marketing: The one semester introduction. Milton Park, Oxon: Butterworth-Heinemann. Leary, R. B., Minton, E. A., & Mittelstaedt, J. D. (2016). Thou shall not? The infuence of religion on beliefs of stewardship and dominion, sustainable behaviors, and marketing systems. Journal of Macromarketing, 36(4), 457–470. Lone, W., Oo, K. S., Lewis, S., & Slodkowski, A. (2018). Myanmar burning. Retrieved July 10, 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmarrakhine-events/ Lutheran World Relief. (2020). Farmers market. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from https://www.lwrfarmersmarket.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwupD4BRD4ARIsABJ McCarthy, E. J. (1960). Basic marketing: A managerial approach. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. McLean, R., & Schmitt, E. (2019, December 27). ISIS afliate in Nigeria releases a video showing 11 executions. New York Times. McLeod, E., & Palmer, M. (2015). Why conservation needs religion. Coastal Management, 43(3), 238–252. Mennonite Central Committee. (2020). Ten thousand villages. Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://mcccanada.ca/learn/what/categories/ten-thousand-villages Michele, P., & Mara, E. (2019). Religion, science and secularisation: A consumercentric analysis of religion’s functional obsolescence. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 36(5), 582–591. Minton, E. A. (2014). Belief systems, religion, and behavioural economics: Marketing in multicultural environments. New York, NY: Business Expert Press. Minton, E. A., Kahle, L. R., & Kim, C.-H. (2015). Religion and motives for sustainable behaviours: A cross-cultural comparison and contrast. Journal of Business Research, 68(9), 1937–1944. Ogilvy. (2020). Islamic branding. Retrieved July 2, 2020, from https://ogilvy.co.uk/ agency/islamic-branding Pace, S. (2013). Does religion afect the materialism of consumers? An empirical investigation of Buddhist ethics and the resistance of the self. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(1), 25–46. Peterson, M., & Minton, E. A. (2018). Teaching belief systems in marketing classes: Preparing students for international stakeholder interactions. Journal of International Education in Business, 11(1), 43–62. Rauschnabel, P. A., Herz, M., Schlegelmilch, B. B., & Ivens, B. S. (2015). Brands and religious labels: A spillover perspective. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(11–12), 1285–1309. Rinallo, D., Scott, L., & MacLaren, P. (2013). Consumption and spirituality. New York, NY: Routledge. Sälävästru, A. (2017). Heresy and tyranny: The political discourse of the radical Catholics during the French wars of religion (1562–1598). Argumentum: Journal the Seminar of Discursive Logic, Argumentation Theory & Rhetoric, 15(2), 126–147. Shaw, A. (2019, July 9). Customer cries foul over Better Burger’s ‘contaminated’ halal cooking practices. New Zealand Herald.
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Stolz, J. (2008). Secularisation theory and rational choice. An integration of microand macro-theories of secularisation using the example of Switzerland. New York, NY: Routledge. Telegraph Reporters. (2018, 17 August). British Airways worker who won legal battle to wear cross at work suing airline again. The Telegraph. Wiedmann, K.-P., Hennigs, N., & Klarmann, C. (2012). Luxury consumption in the trade-of between genuine and counterfeit goods: What are the consumers’ underlying motives and value-based drivers? Journal of Brand Management, 19(7), 544–566. Wooston, C. R. (2018, May 29). Televangelist with three planes wants followers to pay for a $54 million private jet. Chicago Times. World Vision Australia. (2020). Publications. Retrieved July 4, 2020, from www. worldvision.com.au/media-centre/publications - Aid
21 Conclusion Timothy Pratt, Edwina Pio and Robert Kilpatrick
Ah faith what a wonderful thing That can set all our hopes on a wing Filling present and past With values that last Godfrey Till the chimes of the end surely ring D’Lima For over a century the dominant voice of business has been one of maximising efciency. Proftability has evolved to become an insatiable thirst, that must extract ever increasing levels of productivity, so that they may be recorded on perpetually growing balance sheets, at each subsequent Annual General Meeting and aford shareholders increased wealth. This seemingly omnipresent ideology, so easily translates into insidious behaviour associated with greed, for addictive personalities, where concerns for humanity and the environment are overlooked (Wiedmann, Lenzen, Keyßer, & Steinberger, 2020). One needs only scan news headlines to learn of the latest corporate scandal, where ego championed any sense of moral or personal ethical code. Furthermore, current global chronic and growing problems associated with climate change and ecological sustainability have taken root, at least in part, through unprecedented levels of afuence and consumerism. Added to these environmental challenges are the growth of mental illnesses associated with performance stress, generalised isolation, and now a global pandemic with the catastrophic rise of COVID-19. Together, these pressures on our fragile planet and often times frail humanity, have created a developing crisis and we stress the need for alternative solutions. One possible pathway is faith intertwined with management. Through the human resource movement, Mary Parker Follett is attributed with marshalling an alternative to the one-dimensional goal of proftability within business. Since her pioneering work, management literature has ballooned to examine many trajectories beyond proft-oriented capitalism, by exploring topics such as ethics, authentic leadership, the rise of social enterprise and diversity studies. Within diversity literature, increasingly religious diversity is recognised for its importance as a force impacting individuals, organisations and societies (Buren, Syed, & Mir, 2020; Pio & Syed, 2018;
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Zissler, 2017). Here, ancient cultural traditions from across the globe, principles and philosophies, expressed through movements, spiritualties, along with both minor and the major religions of the world, articulate an alternative vision to that of the self-interested ambition, which is so vital for the well-being and fourishing of contemporary organisations. Therefore, the core message of our book is that the current global crises impacting both humanity and environment, indicate the way organisations typically conduct themselves, is unsustainable. Due to this predicament there is need for urgent recalibration. Thus, we propose progress that will be achieved by reimagining the integral connection between faith and management. Specifcally, we contend business sidelining the topic of faith is no longer a mere lapse of judgement, it is careless. The need for employers to take faith seriously is urgent and a fundamental requisite of management committed to ‘best practice’ and to ‘future-proofng’ not only their organisations but also their employees and the world in which we live. The need to integrate faith with organisational life is especially relevant, when around 90 percent of the global population afliate, in some measure, with one or more forms of spirituality (O’Brien & Palmer, 2007). While sceptics critique times are changing and so presume the world has become more secularised, global trajectories of the actively religious ofer a narrative indicating escalating interest in religion. For example, Cochrane (2019) suggests that the Muslim population will increase from its current strength of 1.8 billion to 2.8 billion persons by 2050. Equally, Stonawski et al. (2015) contend by 2050, there will be an increase of some 2.3 billion persons afliated with religious communities. This growth is particularly anticipated among Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist faith communities (Grim & Connor, 2015). Contrastingly, census fgures from many Western countries interestingy suggest religious afliation to be decreasing. For example, in 2001 only 29.6 percent of New Zealanders recorded no religious afliation. However, by 2018, almost half the national population (48.2 percent) recorded afliation with no religious group (Statistics New Zealand, 2019). Yet, it would be remiss to assume such statistics imply a lack of faith within the so called West. We suggest this because woven through the tapestry of chapters within this book, whether they be located in the developed economies of the West or elsewhere, our authors understand faith more broadly, beyond subscription to a particular religious code, or of afliating with a spiritual community. Taking their lead from Fowler (2001) and Hodge (2001) when entwined, the faith our authors describe, encapsulates a belief system, a commitment, or a relationship with the divine, but also an orientation to the universe and/or rapport with that which is transcendent. This implies that faith is dynamic, often connoting, belief in something beyond our mortal minds along with bonds of mutual trust and loyalty that may be both explicit and tacit, with value and power attached to them. Faith can be viewed as synonymous with spirituality and/or religiousness, while
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spirituality is a quest for relationships with the sacred, which is manifestation of the divine, whereas religiousness is ritual or codifed spirituality (Harris, Howell, & Spurgeon, 2018). Furthermore, faith may represent a quest for meaning and knowledge in ideologies and philosophies where a higher power, or where the supernatural is absent (Schuhmann, Wojtkowiak, van Lierop & Pitstra, 2020). Faith ofers a whole new dynamic to the rationalistic, scientifc, mechanistic and/or egotistical approaches to business. It celebrates the unexplainable, the mystical, the transcendent, the divine and the creative. It is here that Miller (2007) contended ethics, and where Durkheim advocated community (Knoblauch, 1999), took centre stage. Such sentiments echo’s the assertions of Nouwen (2000), who conceived of faith as essentially involving the twin tasks of uniting and healing. When faith is constructed within these frames, then management and employees reimagining infusions of the mysterious, beyond the confnes of ourselves and our ego, deserves urgent attention to correct the global disequilibrium of crises encountered by our generation. This has been the central aim of “Reimagining Faith and Management”. Indeed, our goal has been to fuel organisations; their shareholders, boards, managers, employees and other stakeholders in their quest for collective prosperity and well-being of both people and the universe. We have intentionally chosen to assume a positive stance with regards to the value of respecting, accommodating and reimagining faith within the workplace. Our decision to exclude a chapter that covered the negative aspects of faith is not to imply a naivety, or that we view faith through rose-coloured spectacles. As with so much in life, faith is a double-edged sword and many persons choose to use faith for selfinterest, power accumulation and gain. When magnifed, the result can be widespread violence and persecution (Syed, Pio, Kamran, & Zaidi, 2016). Our hope is that this book stimulates much needed innovation concerning the positive impact faith ofers business, communities and stakeholders that will guide the diverse tapestry that is humanity, towards richness, wholeness and well-being. As readers will have noted from author biographies and the material itself, we all have been both richly blessed and humbled by the wonderful diverstity of the contributing authors and their gifts of managerial expertise, academic excellence, wisdom and lived experience. Though our book shapes, sharpens and opens a number of interesting areas for critical scrutiny, refection and conceptual exploration, graced with stories, quotes and narratives, it has its limitations. Some chapters have assumed an interfaith perspective, others have focused on case studies from within a specifc religious community, or doctrinal position, such as the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu traditions. Yet, there are a plethora of other religious communities, some large like Buddhism, or Indigenous beliefs, folk religions and many religious minorities that have not received emphasis in our book. For example, Confucianism, the Chinese religious
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movement of Falun Gong, the perspective of the Ahmadiyya Islamic revivalists, the socially concerned Islamic movement of Hizmet, the Mormon Latter-day Saints, the Jain faith and the Persian Zoroastrians. Similarly, there are adherents of Atheism, such as Humanists whose belief is devoid of theism, who seek to lead a life of goodness based on reason, evidence, cooperation and compassion. Indeed, such is the mystery of the universe, the number of ideologies and philosophies, whether they believe in the notion of God or otherwise is countless, so much so that it would be impossible to credit each within the pages of a single book. As we draw the book to a close, we ofer a brief refection, that seeks to extract each chapter from the confnes of its original context and in so doing, we seek to enlarge its contribution to a universal plane. The book was divided into three sections. The frst section ofered faithful futures that reimagined faith and management as it impacted on individuals. It included Chapters 2–5. Chapter 2 explored links between faith and perceptions of career success. Imagine staf living out the adage to “dance like there’s nobody watching, love like (they’ll) never be hurt, sing like nobody is listening, and live like it’s heaven on Earth”. What a place to work, and pure joy to manage. Yet, as Stoddard and Martin (2017) show, this is only possible if managers know what motivates people at the deepest level. Confronting our biases, such as assuming a religion is intrinsically violent, that a religion is judgemental, or that it is too heavenly minded to be any earthly good emerges from this chapter. Such bias is to presume a singular principle or truth is contained within each belief system and that the adherent not only knows the principle but has also accepted and integrated it with their own code of personal conduct. Yet, within spiritual codes of belief there is a kaleidoscope of insights. Some adherents read altruism in their faith, while for others justifcation for violence is to be found. One person perceives a call to self-sacrifce for the good of others; yet, a same-faith believer sees a premium on self-care. Some read of principles associated with thrift, stewardship and a bias for the poor, others see a promise of richness, personal blessing and wealth. These variations are common across religious traditions and create a challenge for our management of individuals in that we cannot aford to presume we know the motivation of a person’s actions, particularly the faith component of that motivation. If we desire to engage an employee’s workplace efort, we must take time to listen and explore with each individual the beliefs they hold currently, and which drive their behaviour. The focus of Chapter 3 was towards leading with faith. A Samoan proverb says, “O le fuata ma lona lou – a leader will arise for every emergency”, but what prepares such a leader for such a time? Within a Western rationalistic age, all too often the role and infuence of spirituality is neglected or even undermined and the ‘Death of God’ (Elson, 1966) or expectation that ancient religions will die (Paul-Chowdhury, 2019) has proved to be greatly
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exaggerated. Some within academia will argue strongly, there is no place for a management book focused on the transcendent. Yet, this is to overlook the global shift towards a higher percentage of faith followers and the advantages that come with integrating this shift with their business praxis. This myopia contributes to a paucity of empirical-based research that examines the role of an individual’s faith in developing their approach to national/ global leadership. This chapter has responded to that void by proposing the Christian faith of Angela Merkel directly contributes to her ongoing success in bringing about positive social change. Dawkins and Ward (2006) may wish for a post-spiritual/religious world, but Mayer produces a stimulating insight suggesting there is need for more, rather than less empirical research in this area. This is especially so with the rise of theocracies and the rise of political ambition dressed in religious vestments in societies, such as the United States and Turkey. The management-focused examination contained in this chapter adds to the extant body of literature focused on those, such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Indira Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto and the Dalai Lama, who span religious and spiritual spectrums to help explain and understand more of how an individual’s faith impacts their approach to leadership to bring forth positive global change. Managing piety, respectability and professionalism within women’s bodies was examined in Chapter 4. When Boris Johnson compared women wearing burqas to ‘letter boxes’ and ‘bank robbers’ (Salem, 2018), he expressed a prejudice often experienced by Muslims in the Western world. Wearers of a hijab may be disadvantaged for recruitment, selection and career advancement opportunities in the non-Muslim world but as Oktaviani highlights, within contemporary Indonesian Islamic society, wearing a hijab expresses commitment to education, respectability and professionalism; values of high demand in the workplace there. These same values are cherished by employers globally. Such a dichotomy emphasises the importance of workplace training and professional development that focuses on religious and cultural understanding. In an increasingly multicultural context, Oktaviani’s insights invite managers to rethink preparing staf for diversity and thus, they endorse Pio’s (2014) assertion in the merits of businesses conducting regular cultural diversity training through internal newsletters, the intranet and inhouse workshops. Here, adherents of diferent faith traditions may be invited to share various aspects of their religion and its festivals in small sound bites, to break down barriers of diference and foster appreciation across what is an increasingly international workforce. Chapter 5 addressed the problem of ethics in business and suggested the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta ofered a solution. The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha inspired the words of a song that has been favoured by some political martyrs like Robert Kennedy of the United States and Evelio Javier of the Philippines, both of whom inspired massive changes
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within their societies. It starts, “To dream the impossible dream, to fght the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go”. In this chapter Sinha queried whether we have courage that will dare to dream of a corporate world, where the foundation of organisational values and practice are built upon the cornerstone of Vedanta, which presents a dual pathway for self-interest and care of others. Here, the concept of Dharmic Artha, or of attaining wealth through a funnel of concern for human welfare is advanced. It’s a breathtaking challenge to reimagine a new management, one that will reduce workplace stress, a systems approach and one based on values shared by many religions. • • • • • • • • • •
Regard your neighbour’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss (T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien). That nature alone is good which refrains from doing to another whatsoever is not good for itself (Dadisten-I-dinik, 94, 5). And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choose for thyself (Bahá’u’lla). Recognise that your neighbour feels as you do, and keep in mind your own dislikes (Sirach 31:15). Love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord (Leviticus 19:18). Do to others as you would have them to do to you. This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets (Matthew 7:12). None of you believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself (An-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith 13). One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Other behaviour is due to selfsh desires (Brihaspati, Mahabharata 13.114.8). Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would fnd hurtful (Udanavarga 5:18). Precious like jewels are the minds of all. To hurt them is not at all good (Guru Arjan Dev Ji 259).
These universal values undergird the preservation of community, where business is a visible expression of that community. As stated by Hock (1999, p. 3), “in times such as these, it is no failure to fall short of what we all might dream. The failure is to fall short of all that we might realise. We must try.” The second section of the book ofered faithful futures that reimagined faith and management as it impacted organisations, and this was the focus of Chapters 6–13. While Chapter 5 approached ethics from the perspective of an individual, Chapter 6 explored the topic at an organisational level. As the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history, the Enron debacle was the result of a sad tale of greed, hubris, deception and incompetence (Buckberg, Foster, & Miller, 2005). The senior executives
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had qualifcations from top-rated business schools, having completed mandatory gold standard ethics courses. Similar scams in Hindu and Muslim India (Satyam, IMA), Buddhist Thailand (Wat Phra Dhammakaya) and Shinto Japan (Olympus, Toshiba, Nissan) suggest fragility is shared across religion and indeed humanity. We often fall short of our ideals. Western market dynamics have increasingly normalised a global self-interest and the growing expectation that corporates must maximise proft above all else. Beyond people and environment, the end goal of business is progressively aimed towards egocentrism and materialism. McGhee asserts ethical praxis is behaviour that is less selfsh and has a focus towards the ‘common good’. Yet, we cannot assume all who adhere to a code of faith will act ethically. To do so requires a genuine, authentic faith, where based on one’s beliefs, values of compassion, justice and respect are integrated with an individual’s conduct so that they are consciously oriented towards ‘the other’. By strategically embedding a ‘faith-friendly’ approach within an organisation, ethicality becomes vital to its culture. Here, a deeper question arises as to how shareholders, stakeholders and managers might disentangle themselves from ego, selfinterest and materialism so that they are liberated to concentrate their eforts beyond a triple bottom line of proft, people and planet (Fry & Slocum, 2008) towards a more relational approach that incorporates the Indigenous Māori concept of kaitiakitanga or a stewardship approach (Spiller, Pio, Erakovic, & Henare, 2011) and includes the quadruple bottom line of community, spirituality, sustainability and entrepreneurship (Colbourne, 2017). Seeking boardroom wisdom garnered from faith is tackled in Chapter 7. The Indian scripture, Bhagavad Gita observes ‘change is the order of the universe’. This is similar to the ancient philosopher, Heraclitus, who believed life is fux and in continual change. In the middle of rapid change, as is the world currently plagued with a pandemic, we seek wisdom to decide well and act accordingly. In the thirteenth century, Rūmī noted, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Thus, it may be that wisdom governance ofers guidance and beneft not only for organisations experiencing disequilibrium but also for those in a state of perceived stability and who may merely be ‘comfortably numb’. Taylor poses the question for any faithinformed person in a governance role as to whether in such fux settings, they can have the wisdom of gardeners, parents, servants, builders and risk takers to help guide an organisation through the shifting sandbars of social upheaval and how the accumulated wisdom of their faith can resource that. In the words of a Māori proverb “Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei”, bow your head to a lofty mountain, seek what is truly valuable in your tradition and don’t be deterred by obstacles on the way.
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The focus of Chapter 8 was towards the entrepreneurial church. Lineham explored the uneasy relationship between Christian faith, its trust in God and the accumulation of wealth as both protection from hardship and an expression of approval from God. Most religions seem to have some charismatic leaders for whom wealth accumulated from neophytes is considered fair play. They seek approval from cherry picked sacred texts to justify their behaviour. The motivation, methodology and management of wealth accumulation in any organisation claiming to be faith-based has challenging aspects that any manager must navigate with a conscience honed by the same sacred texts and traditions used by both the frauds and the faithful. Nearly all forms of faith afrm entrepreneurial endeavour; yet, they usually prescribe where the results are to be distributed, and thus the moral challenge Lineham poses for us all. Employer strategies on faith at work was the title of Chapter 9. Wanting to position itself as religiously neutral, in 2006, British Airways chose to stand down Nadia Eweida because she refused to cover a small cross on a necklace at work. After seven years and six lost court cases, she was vindicated when the European Convention found the action by the airline was a violation of her human rights (Lipinski, 2013). The spiritual expression of employees in their workplace remains contested. Customer boycotts based on religious discrimination against the LGBT community by the CEO lead Chick-fl-A into a minefeld (Prouty, Spencer, & O’Rourke, 2017), resulting in a review of its attitudes and a reversal of policy. Similar encounters, such as work spaces for prayers, wearing of burkas or turbans have led to hurtful encounters for employees and company managers alike, as well as damage to company proftability. If, as Alewell and Moll suggest, that in a secularising West, work may be the new religion, then reimagining the place and beneft of collectively developing and articulating shared organisational values within the workplace is also an increasingly important component of expressing individual spirituality. However, this, in the words of Henri Nouwen, must lead to healing rather than hurt (Nolte & Dreyer, 2009). What potential might the creation of values that are genuinely created and shared across a company hold in defning a new language concerning spirituality at work and to what extent might they represent a fresh faith, or a glue that creates community and binds spiritually heterogeneous employees together? Chapter 10 was the second chapter that centred on issues related to governance. Socrates declared, “I examine myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not, for a man, worth living” (Allen, 1984, p. 100). The same can be said for organisations. Continuing as we’ve always done before, without regularly reviewing an organisation’s raison d’être, or the foundational belief systems that support it risks overlooking key issues of governance including oversight of strategy, operations and risk mitigation. There is value in governors of faith-based boards constantly pausing and being
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generously present to listen, hear and understand the difering voices that seek to guide them and to which they are ultimately accountable, including the ‘other’ or minority voices. Through this process, boards might overcome inherent ignorance and bias to gain deeper discernment and direction. Faithbased boards follow the frst principle of Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership by listening to the plethora of stakeholder perspectives, consciously sifting their values and beliefs, before fnally integrating them into the life of the organisation (Spears, 2010). Such a process creates ‘normative’ values and processes, while also developing a sense of trust with stakeholders. The importance of religious diversity for organisations is featured in Chapter 11. The attitude of Jesus towards ‘the other’ went well beyond acceptance, he welcomed. He applauded the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25), while those who don’t invite strangers in are reprimanded (Matthew 25: 43). Even the message of his seemingly callous indiference to a ‘foreigner’ begging for help was intent on mirroring the ugliness of racism (Matthew 15:21). All the Abrahamic faiths hold a similar attitude, ‘love strangers as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:34), or that interaction with those of diferent faith should lead to competition in doing good (Quran 5:48). Hinduism requires hospitality, even to an enemy (Mahabharata 12.374), and Buddha invited all to join the fold of universalism, working in harmony for the welfare and happiness of humanity (Sraman, 2012, p. 297). The Shinto religion often saw outsiders as potential gods (Teigo, 1981) When redefning holiness from an ethical perspective, Bosman (2018, p. 588) writes: I also concur with Andreas Schüle that loving the neighbour and the stranger involves special kinds of creative acts that open up new and transformative spaces and relations in all regions of social life, usually divided by race, economic class, gender orientation and religion. Holiness is thus achieved not through exclusion or separation but by an inclusive attitude, thereby including those who are diferent. This stance implies a dominant religious culture displays holiness by showing hospitality to all minorities, in a spirit of generosity. Developing this generous spirit towards diversities in religious faith and practice is the widespread expectation of multiple religions. Hermann and Erten’s case studies show how important this practice is in developing and maintaining an individual’s identity. Any organisation serious about afrming the humanity of their staf will engage seriously with the questions posed in this chapter and look with expectation to the rewards attached with such engagement. Leadership of religious organisations was addressed in Chapter 12. Carnegie is often quoted as saying, “a man (sic) convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”. Such a sentiment could well be applied as an underlying principle of Bloksberg’s chapter. We are familiar with the techniques used to achieve organisational productivity ranging from using legitimate
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positions in a hierarchy, ofering performance rewards, threats, exerting pressure, engaging experts to tell what must be done. While many organisations use these well-defned sources of power, do they represent genuine leadership? Clarifying a signifcant diference in leadership between voluntary and paid business organisations, Bloksberg posits that the only form of true leadership is conduct coming from authenticity and service, both of which are inspired by faith, rather than ‘boss’ behaviour. It’s confronting to examine the sources of one’s power in regards true leadership. Suggested in this chapter is that faith afrms infuence over coercion and that faithful leadership is detached from other forms of power, such as force. Concern over sustainability within the African church is encountered in Chapter 13, where wealth creation is examined. A fresh $20 note could rapidly pass from the hands of a bank teller, to the local café, be given as change for an executive on the run, before fnding its way to a local brothel, or to the racetrack where it gets put on a desperate ‘long shot’ before being quickly paid to the winner who uses it to pay a ‘tradie’ under the table, who buys groceries, just before it’s given as change to a widow who places it as an ofering in her local religious meeting house. Can such money be taken for spiritual purposes? As with all civil society organisations (Guo & Acar, 2005), religious ones also depend on funding, with many diferent views held concerning income generation and its sources. Some refuse to accept money from the Lottery Commission, as it generates funds through gambling, which may lead to poverty and other social ills the same organisations exist to alleviate (Krish, 2014). Yet, Gardiner (1908, p. 193) quotes the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, who accepted ‘tainted money’ because he would “wash it clean with the tears of the fatherless and lay it on the altar of humanity” (Collier, 1965, p. 217). The need for fnancial resource within civil society has led to a proliferation of academic interest in topics associated with, social entrepreneurship, social enterprise and corporate social responsibility, but they leave each organisation to answer the question of whether their activities will ultimately compromise core spiritual principles underlying the organisation. The third section of the book ofered faithful futures that reimagined faith and management within wider society. This section included Chapters 14–20. Chapter 14 explored negotiating business in settings associated with international confict. An adage states, “If your religion requires you to hate someone, you need a new religion”. Confict situations commonly involve considerable hostility but transforming that into something positive may not require a new religion so much as a diferent way of viewing the situation. Storytelling as a way of guiding communities amid confict, towards a common good is useful for changing attitudes and collectively resolving the challenges of humanity (Kilpatrick, 2016) because they sneak under the conscious constructs of normal group think to play with our imaginations, sometimes through their sheer ludicrousness, like the universal story
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of the emperor without clothes. This chapter shows how stories can appeal to religious belief and practice, replacing suspicion with collaboration and violence with cooperation. Collaboration has potential to produce scientifc and technological breakthroughs (Pittaway, Robertson, Munir, Denyer, & Neely, 2004), solutions to chronic and complex problems (Grint, 2008; Osula & Ng, 2014), and better governance (Bradshaw, Hayday, Armstrong, Levesque, & Rykert, 1998) by challenging powerbases and arguing collectivity is no longer optional but is necessary for humanity’s survival. Thus, across the academic disciplines of faith and management, one of the greatest challenges of our time is embracing an ideology that transcends the egoic self, to own greater concern for the sum of the whole. Confict is also the theme of Chapter 15, where the context is workplace disputes. McKay (2019) suggests the leading contenders of subjects to avoid discussing at work are religion and politics. What if that concept was upturned? Around 86 percent of South Africans profess Christianity, which advocates just relationships, showing mercy and humility? And what if that could be used to confront behaviour contributing to South Africa being one of the most economically unequal countries in the world (Statistics South Africa, 2019)? This is what Dlodlo’s chapter ofers. Humans are not generally intentionally doubleminded, or hypocritical in not living according to their moral code, but they are prone to fragility and imperfection. How we conduct ourselves doesn’t always mirror who we ideologically aspire to be. Here, the faith of the participants in an industrial confict is appealed to in order to move towards community fourishing. It’s a technique not often used in business, but this chapter suggests why and how such a move can lead to productive outcomes. Chapter 16 addresses workplace bullying within Africa. Such harassment can have dire consequences, particularly for those lacking self-confdence or experiencing major life transitions such as the teen years. Statistics of youth suicide, self-harm and mental health issues after bullying are more than alarming (Megan Meier Foundation, 2019). Bullying can diminish and destroy adults too, therefore, this chapter invites African managers to adopt faith-based approaches to combat the “manifestation of a spiritual crisis” (Cram, 2003, p. 48), that can be construed as workplace bullying. Rather than assuming traditional mainstream methodologies of policy, procedures and training to arrest this counterproductive and dehumanising behaviour, Sarkodine-Mensah advocates a soulful approach, appealing to the spirit or inner nature of a person. Following Kriger and Seng’s (2005) synthesis of core spiritual values found within the main religions, the chapter applies Greenleaf’s model of Servant Leadership (Spears & Lawrence, 2002) as a tool for overcoming workplace bullying. Through faith-based principles of listening, showing empathy, bringing healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community, the author contends bullying might be mitigated
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in the African continent. Yet, such an approach may have merit well beyond the African continent and may ofer important solutions to bullying behaviour globally. Perhaps, rather than the template methodology of quick fx solutions, taking a long-run methodology that seeks to address root causes of this misbehaviour, is ultimately more benefcial for the proftability of business and for the well-being of humanity. The model outlined in this chapter stands in congruence with literature focused on business ethics, such as that of Garrett (2016). Here, it is argued that value is to be gained in pausing to realign management praxis with its roots in the faith traditions. Managing Religious Diversity within State institutions in Austria is the centre of Chapter 17. In an ancient story, a village with many chronic problems seeks help from an oracle. She asks what solutions they’ve already tried. They respond that they are hungry and unhappy and need answers. She returns stating, they clearly know the problems and if they can’t source answers themselves, she can’t help. After a couple of attempts to elicit a simple solution from her, the village realises that indeed “the answers to our problems are already with us” (Noble, 2015, p. 45). The historical context of Austria suggests it unlikely the State will intentionally move to address the many challenges of religious diversity within its institutions. Therefore, religious organisations must produce their own solution. A ‘backbone’ organisation to lead such a partnership (DuBow, Hug, Serafni, & Litzler, 2018) will be needed. Pratt (2020) identifes that the ‘peak organisation’, or the group which has the most resource is often looked upon to provide this function. In the context of Austria, this would see the Catholic Church demonstrate the spiritual virtues of hospitality and generosity towards their religious colleagues by leading the development of an interfaith umbrella organisation, which advocates to the State on issues related to equal opportunities and religious inclusiveness, such as State funding, religious concessions, access to adherents sacred and administrative space for respective religious groups. Equally, such an umbrella might seek to develop a national training programme, operational protocols and shared roles and responsibilities for a wide range of faith practitioners who provide spiritual care within State institutions. Such a model ofers potential in other countries, where collaboration of this kind could beneft all involved. The focus on Chapter 18 is towards the importance of religious literacy and diversity for business. Religion has been accused of many things such as a stultifying opiate ‘Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes’ (Marx, 1844) by deadening action for justice and convincing labourers to endure current economic and social hardship for a happier later ethereal existence, or conversely being positively correlated with fuelling confict and violence (Basedau, Pfeifer, & Vüllers, 2016), where religious division is employed by ambitious politicians. Religion can certainly be counterproductive but alongside this is the empirical research of Taylor (2017), which fnds the
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exact opposite. She explores reasons why some Australians intentionally and positively turn towards faith and have converted. In this chapter, Grim has pointed to humanity’s growth in awareness of spirituality and how religious freedom positively impacts company bottom lines. Evidence indicates a growing movement of managers and employees who perceive faith is good for delivering organisational goals. The challenge then becomes for organisations to create a welcoming hospitality towards religion, including minority faiths, allowing adherents to embrace one another, and to reap the rewards in doing so. Faith and Finance features in Chapter 19. Most religions contain warnings of the negative impacts of greed: • • • •
For what does it proft a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36). Selfsh action imprisons the world. Act selfessly, without any thought of personal proft (Bhagavad Gita, 5:13). If one is guided by proft in one’s actions, one will incur much ill (The Analects IV: 11). One who performs selfess service without thought of reward shall attain his Lord and Master (Guru Granth Sahib, p. 286).
Wiedmann et al. (2020, p. 7) posit that over the last 50 years, there has been a global growth in afuence and consumption. They assert, Long-term and concurrent human and planetary wellbeing will not be achieved in the Anthropocene if afuent overconsumption continues, spurred by economic systems that exploit nature and humans. We fnd that, to a large extent, the afuent lifestyles of the world’s rich determine and drive global environmental and social impact. Moreover, international trade mechanisms allow the rich world to displace its impact to the global poor. In this chapter Finn challenges us to consider, as individuals and as organisations, where we invest. He invites consideration of whether our spend enhances human freedom and dignity, is ecologically sustainable, assists the poor, fosters innovation, creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit. He asserts that if not, then it’s probably not a good investment for people of faith since almost universally, these are the primary concerns for every form of spirituality. Wiedmann et al. (2020) go wider when asking if there are learnings from traditional or Indigenous societies that are not based on models of continual economic growth? Given the fragility of our planet, there are many challenges around the issues of faith and fnance that might determine humanity’s presence on Earth and on whom we depend as mother to us all.
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Finally, Chapter 20 investigates the intersection of marketing with faith. There are two ways faith gets into market. The frst is when consumer goods with religious attachment are sold to consumers who are adherents to the faith. While this does not demand the seller necessarily share the same beliefs, it does require they understand the faith precepts that will guide consumer choice. For a rising proportion of religious adherents, this represents a growing market segment and one yet to be fully exploited. The second is the selling of faith itself. Here, someone who has had a positive spiritual experience tells family, friends and other contacts the benefts faith has brought to their lives and seeks to draw them into the fold. Some research indicates positive health, education, social and spiritual efects from Christian conversion (McGavran, 1988; Woodberry, 2006; Taylor, 2017). At another level, faith leaders may consider how best to meet needs; the fears, loneliness, guilt, shame and selfshness, or how their faith might produce a better society grounded on acceptance, hope and love. Indeed, this is the most challenging market of all. Before concluding the book, we ofer some suggestions on future research possibilities. We contend both management literature and praxis need to view faith as more than a peripheral topic to be kept on the edges. Rather it must be fully integrated so the kind of benefts to humanity and planet that are laced through the work of our book, might reach its full potential and be enhanced by coming generations of thinkers and those engaged in industry. We have classifed our research agenda across the three sections of our book: the individual, the organisational and the societal levels. At the individual level, we see a need for interdisciplinary research and dialogue that inquires if the contemporary self, with its craving for consumeristic greed and power can be tamed. If so, how is this demonstrated and how can such changes in a person’s lifestyle be motivated and sustained? Furthermore, what are the institutional, cultural and personal barriers that prevent such lifestyle changes and how might they be addressed so that as humans we are increasingly guided by our moral or ethical compass? We also need to unpack what individuals mean when they identify in census forms as holding no religious afliation. We propose this rarely indicates an absence of faith. Rather, what beliefs or faith/s do they ascribe to and take meaning from, and how might these be integrated into the values that guide organisations so that persons feel engaged and willing to contribute? Furthermore, the character of many great leaders in society, such as Angela Merkel and Mahatma Gandhi has been formed through their spirituality. More case studies are needed that examine how a person’s faith positively infuences their role as leader, not only to build a body of evidence afrming the positive contribution of faith within organisations, but also to provide models of best practice. It is also valuable to illuminate Indigenous faith beliefs and practices.
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Our organisational research agenda perceives a need to identify reasons for the existence of the contemporary organisation. Based on the rapid expansion of civil society, we hypothesise the importance of proftability is exponentially contracting as the primary mission for an increasing number of organisations. Similarly, we hypothesise the corporate social responsibility programmes of ‘for proft’ organisations, by assuming far higher levels of prioritisation, than some early initiatives, which saw social endeavour as little more than marketing strategies. If so, how might the integration of stakeholders’ personal faith be augmented by these new ‘missions’ for people, proft and planet? Lastly, both academic and practitioner writings have identifed faith as a barrier in organisations, as it can be a source of division and confict. For organisations to fully integrate faith, more research is needed based on qualitative methodologies, such as case studies, appreciative enquiry, ethnography and action research that explores how diferences caused by faith that led to confict have been constructively mitigated, so that the positive benefts of an organisation integrating faith are at liberty to fourish. At a societal level, we are concerned over the permeation of literature that distinguishes diferences between faiths, doctrines and beliefs of individuals or communities. Far greater emphasis must be placed on examination of that which binds humanity together and on what we hold in common. This is to emphasise the role of interfaith research and dialogue to identify and explain more models facilitating cooperation and collaboration in the context of ideological, spiritual and religious diferences within an organisation. What are the models of the workplace linked to faith and society which encourage fourishing? What are the digital pulpits or virtual technologies and sites for encouraging faith at work? What signifers create fourishing? We argue that for faith to become mainstream within contemporary organisations, there is need for more, much more, interdisciplinary research and public discourse at the intersection of belief and business, before the topic can tenuously be deemed as saturated. We posit that the ground for future research on faith and management is fertile. Finally, in this book we have woven many diverse strands in a tapestry, which advocates the imperative that faith be more clearly and confdently refected in the management of contemporary organisations. We contend that in the current global situation, with the growth of religiosity, spirituality and ideology, along with multiple threats to humanity and environment, the fngerprints of faith must be embossed and embodied in the workplace. Hence, the subtle evocation and inner vitality that faith can serve as the understated wind beneath the wings of management, in the service of balanced prosperity and fourishing of diverse stakeholders, both present and future, in our woven universe. Kempton (2018) evokes the wisdom and gravitas of wabi sabi or perfectly imperfect, and this epitomises the oferings in our book – perfectly imperfect. Sages, scholars and managers write that faith is entwined with
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impermanence, imperfection, great beauty and elusiveness. As the ancient Indian scriptures chant from the Upanishads ‘neti, neti, neti’ or ‘not this, not this, not this’ for faith transcends concepts and categories. Like wabi sabi, faith is how we see. And our seeing can radiate from a stillness and restraint ... a meditation with quiet contentment ... connections with humility, discipline and tranquillity ... in our timeless, evanescent, imperfect world.
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Index
Note: Page numbers in italics indicate a fgure and page numbers in bold indicate a table on the corresponding page. 5C group (Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers) 7, 18 Abercrombie & Fitch 246–247 Abraham (patriarch) 95, 212, 286 absolute apostolic poverty, doctrine of 104 accountability 8, 65, 91, 94, 184, 191, 252, 261 Activate Trust 99–100, 101 Afghanistan 245 Africa 9–10, 109, 170–172, 174, 179, 183, 187, 207–211, 213–214, 216, 218, 246, 272, 287–289; South East 186; sub-Saharan 3, 50, 213; see also North Africa ‘African Moratorium on Aid Dependency, The’ 170–171 agnostics 2, 244 All Africa Conference of Churches 170 Allah 123, 270 almsgiving 105 altruism 5, 19, 25, 36, 40, 281 America 61, 105–106, 109, 112–113, 170, 172, 185, 215, 238–240, 283; see also United States Analects 5, 81, 290 angel investors 96–97, 99 Anglican 108, 110–111, 170, 241 Anglicans 108, 111 apartheid system 191 Aquinas, Thomas 104–105 Arab Spring 51 Aristotle 255
Armenian Apostolic Church 227 Asia 183, 186, 194, 272; Central 50; East 246; South 50; Southeast 50; West 50 atheists 35, 38, 237, 244, 266, 281 attitudes 199, 269, 273, 285, 287; church 8; toward compliance 139; less egalitarian 80; employers’ 8, 117, 122–123, 128; executive 120, 121; individual 118, 120, 126; managers’ 124; toward money 20; negative 120, 266; organisational 120; personal 118, 154; positive 119–120; religious 80; secular 122; spiritual 122; subjective 120 Australasia 112–113 Australia 109, 112–113, 137, 139, 237–238, 238, 267, 290 Austria 10, 20, 126, 148–151, 153, 221, 231–232, 289; hospitals 228–231; laws about religion 10, 224; military 224–227; prisons 227–228; religious communities 223–224, 232; state institutions 10, 222, 231, 289; see also Vienna authentic: connection 264; consumers 273; faith 7–8, 79, 284; imagining 183; in- 80; leadership 164, 278, 287; model 174; needs 268; power 9, 160, 162, 166; practice 77; relationships 267; understanding 269; values 11 authority: charismatic 133, 134; rational-bureaucratic 134; traditional 133–134; unitary 139
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Bach, J. S. 172 Bahá’i Religion 5, 223 balanced living (Purushartha) 65, 68–70 Bangladesh 271 Baptists 110, 112, 229 behaviour: ethical 82, 96; unethical 5, 85 belief 3, 19, 35, 36, 38, 67, 77–79, 82–83, 92, 111, 118, 132–135, 139–141, 145, 147–148, 171–172, 188, 198–199, 203, 215, 221, 237, 244, 253, 261, 267–268, 273, 281, 284, 286, 291–292; authority of 136, 141; behavioural 121, 121; and business 292; Christian 139; deep-seated 63; ecclesiastical 38; embedded 140; espoused 138; expressions of 78; faith 82, 291; freedom of 237; fundamental 9; fundamentalist 80; in God 3, 35, 42; Indigenous 280, 291; interpretation of 141; managers’ 198; normative 131, 141; organisation of 199; organisation’s 137–138, 140–141, 177; Protestant 111; religious 2–3, 27, 38–39, 48, 154–155, 236–237, 239–240, 267, 288; shared 63, 118; spiritual 51, 83; spiritual codes of 281; system 36, 38, 40, 79, 118, 120, 279, 281, 285 Benedict XIV, Pope 255 Benedict XVI, Pope 20, 256–259 Bhagavad Gita 81, 284, 290 Bhutto, Benazir 282 Bible (Christian) 41, 81, 90, 104, 113, 135, 246, 253; Acts, Book of 95–96, 104, 255; Christian Scriptures 92, 95, 253; Colossians, Letter to the 255; 1 Corinthians, Letter to the 95–96, 97, 100, 217, 255; Deuteronomy 81, 173, 254; Ecclesiastes 95; Exodus 80, 253; Genesis 184, 253; Isaiah 253, 255; James, Letter of 81, 198, 255; Job 95; John, Gospel of 175, 213; Leviticus 81, 253–254, 283, 286; Luke, Gospel of 174–175, 253–255, 286; Malachi 175; Mark, Gospel of 254–255, 290; Matthew, Gospel of 174, 198, 201, 254, 283, 286; New Testament 81, 113, 174–175; Old Testament 96, 113, 173–175, 251, 254; Philippians, Letter to the 184; Proverbs 95; Psalms 95, 254; Sirach 283; Song of Songs 95; Wisdom 253; see also Hebrew Bible; Hebrew scriptures; Wisdom literature Black lives matter movement 191
blasphemy 237 boards 6, 90–93, 100, 102, 131–133, 135, 140–141, 163, 165, 171, 280, 285–286 Booth, William 287 boss behaviour 9, 166–167 Brahman 66–69 brand 11, 172, 240–241, 247, 264–268, 270, 273–274 Brand Equity Model 267 Britain 110; see also England; United Kingdom British 90, 207 British Airways 264, 285 British Empire 110 Buddha 123, 212, 266, 286 Buddhism 4, 26, 51, 81, 104, 184, 212, 266, 270, 280; Noble Eightfold Path 81 Buddhists 10, 20, 25–26, 229–230, 236, 268–270, 279, 284 bullying 10, 149, 210–218, 210, 288–289; horizontal 209; lateral 209; physical 208; situational 208; upward 209; verbal 208; see also cyberbullying; workplace bullying business 2–7, 9–11, 48, 50–51, 64–65, 69–71, 70, 78–80, 83, 85, 111–112, 117, 119, 132, 149, 151, 166–167, 170–171, 173, 175–179, 183, 185, 189, 236–237, 239–240, 243–245, 247, 251, 261, 264–265, 271, 273, 278–280, 282–284, 288–289, 292; attire 54; communities 244; decisions 60, 63, 71, 119; enterprise 176, 178; ethics in 7, 60–71, 282; leaders 11, 113, 260, 264; leadership 178; model 137, 144, 178, 197; organisations 287; owners 106; partners 177, 247; persons/men/people 98, 107, 109, 238, 245; principles 179; proftability of 289; school 17, 284; sense 112, 243, 247; stakeholders 247; transactions 251, 253; ventures 111, 176, 198; see also business ethics; business practices; conscious business business ethics 7, 71, 80, 198, 289 business practices 2, 9, 63, 109, 177, 265 calling 2, 20, 34, 41, 105, 171 Calvin, John 171 Calvinism 111, 172 capitalism 1, 64–65, 109–111, 172–173, 177, 257, 261, 278; conscious 64–65
Index care 34, 41, 64–65, 99, 139, 148, 153, 177, 185, 212, 214–216, 222–223, 232, 253, 259–260, 267, 283; environmental 5, 34, 270, 273; religious 222, 224, 227–228, 232; self- 281; spiritual 222, 224, 227, 232, 289; see also health care career 2, 7, 18, 21, 23, 27–28, 39, 41–42, 47, 54–56, 61–62, 91, 148–149, 282; see also career development; career success career success 6–7, 19; and religion 17–29 careers 17–19, 25, 27–28, 154; political 39, 42 Catholic Church 108, 139, 172, 225, 230–231, 289; see also popes by name; Code of Canon law; Franciscans; Jesuits; Liberation Theology; Vatican Council Catholic social teaching 11, 256–261 catholicity 92–93 Catholics 111, 221, 229, 231 Chabad movement 165 change 23, 25–26, 28, 39, 42, 49, 60, 62, 92, 100, 102, 107–108, 114, 120, 122, 124, 126, 138–139, 176–178, 186–187, 189, 191, 194, 197, 199, 202, 203, 240, 244, 254, 284, 287; behaviour 196, 199, 203; cultural 60, 62, 139; organisational 199; personal 197, 203; social 32, 137, 177–178, 194, 196, 202, 282 chaplaincy 222, 226–232, 241; see also military chaplaincy chaplains 224, 226–232, 241 charity 105–106, 131, 161, 165, 260 Chick-fl-A 240, 285 China, People’s Republic of 20, 236–238, 238, 246; see also Confucianism Christ 97, 173–174, 185, 266 Christian Democrats (Germany) 40 Christianity 4, 39, 42, 51, 104, 108–109, 128, 151, 174, 195, 212, 255, 266, 270, 288; Christmas 4, 152–153, 270; Easter 4, 153, 237; Good Friday 152, 225; Lent 152, 269; see also Bible; Christ; Christians; Jesus; Orthodox Christians; Protestantism; Ten Commandments Christians 3–4, 95, 105, 107, 134, 172, 175, 224–225, 236–237, 251, 255, 269–270
299
Christian scriptures 92, 95–96, 213, 253–255; see also Bible church 8–9, 39, 41, 92, 94–95, 98, 104–108, 110–113, 127, 132, 134–135, 137, 139, 169–179, 184, 186, 223, 227–228, 230, 232, 237, 246, 251, 255–258, 285, 287; see also entrepreneurial church; megachurches Church of England 98, 111; see also Anglicans Clare, St 104 Clares 104 climate 188; organisational 28, 61; see also climate change climate change 9, 91, 187, 190, 270, 278 Code of Canon law 139, 256 Cold War 257 colonialism 51, 194 commercial 7, 9, 11, 111, 157, 159–161, 166–167, 176–178, 251–253 common good 11, 20, 84, 176, 179, 199, 257–260, 284, 287 communal wealth 5 communication 4, 50, 52, 62, 93, 98–100, 101, 150, 196, 208, 214, 226, 271 communism 37, 245, 257 community 3–4, 6, 34, 35, 36, 41, 53, 69, 78, 81, 83, 93, 96, 99, 105–107, 113, 118, 122, 126, 133, 161, 163–165, 173, 176–177, 179, 183, 187–188, 191, 195–196, 221, 223, 232, 244, 247, 252, 254–255, 258–260, 266–267, 269, 271, 273, 280, 283–285, 287–288, 292; Buddhist 279; building 2, 138, 213, 217–218, 288; business 244; Christian 172, 227; denominational 223, 228, 231; faith 82, 133–134, 146, 191, 229, 246, 279; Hindu 279; Islamic 149, 223, 227–228; Israelite 226–227; Jewish 228; learning 93; LGBT 285; Māori 113; mining 197; monastic 105; Muslim 224, 231, 279; religious 2, 6, 10, 19, 35, 106, 146, 222–232, 272, 279–280; scientifc 252; Sikh 223; stateregistered 223, 227 company 62, 119, 120, 124, 131–132, 136, 148–149, 151–153, 166–167, 216, 239–242, 246–247, 252, 285, 290; energy trading 252; insurance 240; mergers 144; mining 195, 204; social enterprise 179
300
Index
compliance, regulatory 8, 79, 99, 132, 138–141, 202 confict 9–10, 42, 63–64, 122–123, 127, 137, 147–148, 154, 184, 186–187, 190–191, 196, 199–200, 202, 203, 204, 222, 224, 245, 287–289, 292; ethnic 188; international 287; interpersonal 61; management 202; prevention 195; resolution 10, 247; tribal 190 Confucianism 5, 51, 81, 280 Confucius 5 conscious business (Dharmic Artha) 65, 68–70, 70, 283 consumer 11, 91, 108, 173, 247, 264–274, 291 consumerism 1, 258, 266, 270, 272, 278 context 2, 4, 7–8, 10, 27, 33–34, 37–38, 40, 48, 53, 55, 77, 92–94, 97, 99–100, 102, 110, 120, 125, 126, 135, 137, 145, 147–148, 150, 169–174, 176, 188, 190, 195, 199–200, 213, 216, 227, 230, 266, 281–282, 288–289, 292; African 10, 174, 210–211, 213, 216; Austrian 227; cultural 145; multicultural 282; organisational 7, 55, 145; socio-cultural 33 contingencies 124–125, 128 convictions 33, 106, 117–118, 120–122, 121, 124, 264 Copeland, Kenneth 113, 172 corporate 2–3, 195, 239–241, 243, 247, 252, 278, 283–284, 287; culture 62, 195, 252; governance 144 Corporate Religious Equity Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Index 240–242 corporate social responsibility 4, 175, 177, 287, 292 corporatism 257 corruption 105, 245 COVID-19 pandemic 6, 9, 169, 191, 278 creation 5, 19–20, 34, 41, 66–67, 69, 81, 95, 184, 253–255, 257, 259, 261, 267, 270; see also wealth creation cross-cultural 7 Crystal Cathedral 113 culture 91, 131, 139, 195, 215, 218, 241; church 139; corporate 62, 195, 252; organisational 7, 28, 49, 60, 62–63, 71, 77, 80, 82–83, 145, 201; religious 286; wars 267 cyberbullying 208–209
Dalai Lama 273, 282 Day of Judgement 114 decentralisation 93 decision-making 5, 63–64, 79, 83–85, 91, 94, 101, 141, 158, 161, 178, 259, 261 dehumanisation 64, 71 democratisation 125 development 1, 3, 9, 18, 19, 21, 25–27, 32–34, 35, 36, 37, 47–48, 51, 55, 93–94, 96, 99, 119, 124, 126–127, 144, 170, 186–187, 189, 202, 212, 224, 232, 241, 247, 257, 260, 268, 282, 289; career 18, 61–62; faith 7, 33–34; human 185, 246; leadership 47, 55; social 246; spiritual 34, 119; sustainable 244–245, 247; see also economic: development; faith development theory (FDT) Dharma 4, 65, 68–69, 283 dialogue 8, 95, 193–195, 197–199, 201–202, 203, 204, 291–292 Dickens, Charles 106 discrimination 5, 7, 47, 55–56, 79, 83, 122, 148, 150–151, 151, 153–154, 209, 218, 225, 239; anti- 145; non120; see also religious discrimination dispute 10, 193, 196, 199, 202, 204, 288 diversity 3–4, 9–11, 42, 50, 101, 134, 144–146, 148, 154, 188–189, 221, 239–243, 243, 258, 268, 278, 282; cultural 4, 282; ethnic 4; racial 272; see also religious diversity divine fgure 4 divine, the 4, 11, 77, 279–280; see also Ultimate Concern doctrine 1, 9, 104, 114, 125, 172–173, 223, 256, 269, 292 dress code 49, 221, 247, 264 Durkheim, Emile 122, 280 Earth 5, 174, 251–252, 254–255, 258–259, 281, 290 ecological 185, 258, 260, 278, 290 economic 2–3, 9–10, 18, 20–22, 27, 34, 78, 80–81, 90, 106, 110, 124–125, 131, 147, 169, 171–172, 174, 176–177, 187–189, 194–197, 199, 201, 237, 244–247, 253, 257–259, 286, 288–289; activity 201, 245–246, 257, 259; development 2–3, 26–27, 48, 50, 187, 245–246; growth 91, 244, 290;
Index injustice 174; justice 254; life 3, 195, 258–259; model 260–261; socio- 34, 42, 48, 188–189, 194–197, 199, 244–245; system 257, 290; see also economic prosperity economic prosperity 21–22, 22, 23, 24–26, 24 economy 91, 110, 177, 246, 251, 257, 260; see also knowledge economy; wisdom economy education 17, 21–25, 34, 41, 50, 147, 177, 187–188, 200, 210, 223, 229–232, 237, 246, 261, 271–272, 282, 291 egocentrism 284 egoism 63 Egypt 48, 245 Eliot, George 109 employee assistance programmes 62 employee resource groups (ERGs) 239, 241–242 employees 2, 10, 28, 52, 64, 79–81, 83–85, 106, 122–123, 126–127, 132–134, 141, 148–149, 151–153, 166, 193, 197, 204, 209, 211–212, 215–217, 239–241, 244, 247, 256, 279–280, 285, 290; LGBTQI 209, 240; see also employee assistance programmes; employee resource groups (ERGs) employer 8, 81, 117–128, 193, 197, 239, 279, 282, 285 employment 47, 51, 62, 134, 140, 169 England 90, 98, 106; see also Britain; United Kingdom English (language) 90–91, 110, 189 enlightenment 81, 269 Enron 252, 283 enterprise 4, 97, 99, 166, 176–179, 183, 187–188, 208, 261, 278, 287; see also social enterprise entrepreneurial church 8, 104–114, 285 entrepreneurs 8, 32, 106, 109, 111, 114, 117, 176, 238, 256 environment 19, 25, 37, 125, 247; natural 6, 34, 258, 260, 278–279; social 137; work 60–61, 63, 124, 127, 136–138, 195, 197–199, 214, 216, 240, 243 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) 239 Equatorial Guinea 245 ethical action 65, 68, 77, 82; see also Dharma
301
ethical theories: consequential 63; nonconsequential 63–64; see also egoism; utilitarianism ethics 4–5, 7, 9, 80, 114, 169, 179, 184, 198, 252, 265, 278, 280, 282–284; code of 68, 84, 278; ethics in business 7, 60–71, 282; faith and 77–78, 80, 82, 85; Judeo-Christian 213; personal 3, 64, 71; see also business ethics; ethical action; ethical theories; organisational ethics Europe 42, 170–172, 174, 183 European 54, 107, 229, 232, 285 European Court 225 European Union 170 evangelical 39, 105–107, 109, 111–112, 135, 137, 170 executives 120–121, 121, 137, 241, 246, 284 Facebook 208 Fair Trade movement 267 faith: authentic 7–8, 79, 284; in boardroom 8, 90–102; defnition 77–78; and fnance 11, 251–261, 290; leaders 172, 253, 260, 291; marketing of 11, 264–274; and organisational ethics 7–8, 77–85; positive impact of 6–7, 18, 280; religion and 28, 39–40, 42, 241, 273; and spirituality 7–8, 65, 106, 117–119, 147, 285; traditions 8–9, 20, 25–28, 36, 40, 77, 80–81, 102, 134–135, 251–252, 260–261, 265, 282, 289; at work 7–8, 77–85, 117–128, 241, 292; in workplace 3, 119, 240–241; see also faith-based; faith development theory (FDT); faith-friendly faith-based 3–6, 8, 10, 97, 99, 131, 139, 207, 213, 218, 273, 285, 288; see also faith-based organisations (FBOs) faith-based organisations (FBOs) 120, 131–136, 141, 176 faith development theory (FDT) 7, 32–34, 38, 42 faith-friendly 10, 79–80, 83, 120, 240, 244, 247, 284; see also faith-friendly workplaces faith-friendly workplaces 10, 240–241, 243–244, 247 Falun Gong 281
302
Index
family 9, 27, 35, 37–38, 42, 53, 61, 69, 113, 149, 240–241, 242, 243, 243, 253, 256, 266, 291 fashion 52, 265–266 female 7, 20, 23, 24, 37, 48–52, 54, 80, 104, 210–211, 210, 226, 271; see also female/feminine body(ies) female/feminine body(ies) 49–50, 52 Fiji 272 fnance: and faith 11, 251–261, 290 fnancial: achievement 19; activities 11, 261; assets 94; bottom line 70–71; compliance 138; contributions 19; cost 61; demands 169, 173; difculties 61; goals 21; guarantees 105; independence 174; industry 241; institutions 124; interests 108; obligations 173; operations 113; performance 62; rewards 161; sector 11, 257; security 18, 19, 104; services 265; struggles 171; success 7, 18–28, 23, 24, 109; support 171; system 11, 252, 258, 260–261; transactions 11, 124, 251, 256; vulnerability 169; see also fnancial sustainability fnancial sustainability 169, 172–174 folk religions 280 Follett, Mary Parker 278 followers 84, 105, 118, 163, 223, 254, 272–274, 282 foreign aid 170 Fortune 100 companies 239–242 Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) 49 Fowler, James 7, 32–34, 36, 37–42, 279; see also faith development theory (FDT) Francis I, Pope 105, 256, 258 Francis of Assisi 41, 104, 114 Franciscans (Mendicant Order) 8, 41, 104 free market 257 freedom 42, 121, 123, 133, 245–246; of belief 236–237; of conscience 244; of expression 48–50; of speech 239; of religion and belief 10; of thought 244; see also Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB); religious freedom Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) 236–238, 244 Fresh Expressions 98 FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, West Germany) 37, 41 fundamentalism 79
Gandhi, Indira 282 Gandhi, Mahatma 33, 36, 40, 214, 282, 291 Ganesha 266 GDR (German Democratic Republic, East Germany) 37–38, 41 gender 21–22, 22, 23, 24–25, 24, 36, 40, 53, 55, 80, 144–147, 154, 203, 207, 209–211, 210, 240–242, 242, 269, 272; bias 47; discrimination 218, 239; equality 50–51; gap 50; orientation 286; relations 48 Germany 20, 39, 47, 117, 126, 128, 146–147, 150, 208; see also FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, West Germany); GDR (German Democratic Republic, East Germany) Ghana 211 Gideons International 109 global 5–7, 9–10, 17, 37, 39, 42, 47, 55, 169, 172, 185, 191, 194, 214, 238, 243–244, 265, 274, 278–280, 282, 284, 290, 292; business 144, 244; economy 260; marketplace 236, 240, 243, 247; religions 1, 214, 272; see also globalisation globalisation 64, 265 God 3, 33–34, 35, 36, 39–42, 48, 52, 95, 111, 113, 149–150, 162–164, 172, 175, 178, 184, 198, 253–255, 258, 270, 281, 285; see also Allah; Rama/Krishna good, the 64, 68, 80, 91, 190, 255, 259, 281 Google 208, 240–241 gospel 105, 172–175, 254; see also Bible; Prosperity Gospel governance 8, 90–102, 97, 101, 131–136, 138, 140, 247, 284–285, 288; constituency representation model 93–94; corporate 144; emergent cellular model 93–94; entrepreneurial model 93; faith and 90–91, 102; God’s 34, 41–42; governance model 93–94; and innovation 92–95; in nonproft organisations 8, 131–141; organisational 131; religious 94; see also wisdom governance government 50–51, 53, 90–91, 136, 188, 193–194, 225–227, 236–238, 238, 245–247, 258, 260–261, 272–273
Index Great Awakening 106, 112 Greek-Orthodox 229 Greenleaf, R. K. 213, 215, 217, 286, 288 grid model 92 habitus 54–55 Hagin, Kenneth 113, 172 halal rules 226, 231, 265–266, 269 Hashem 123 headscarves 145, 147–150; burqa 48, 269, 282; hijab 7, 47–49, 51–56, 80, 226, 282; niqab 48 health 40, 61, 119, 133, 169, 177, 179, 187–188, 195, 207–208, 217, 246, 269, 272–273, 288, 291; see also health care health care 81, 177, 246 Hebrew 164 Hebrew Bible 95; see also Wisdom literature Hebrew scriptures 8, 253–254, 258; Deuteronomy 81, 173, 254; Ecclesiastes 95; Exodus 80, 253; Genesis 184, 253; Isaiah 253, 255; Job 95; Leviticus 81, 253–254, 283, 286; Malachi 175; Proverbs 95; Psalms 95, 254; Sirach 283; Song of Songs 95; Wisdom 253; see also Talmud Henry VIII (England) 171–172 Heraclitus 284 Herzberg, F. I. 166 heterogeneity 123, 127, 144, 153, 221, 285 hierarchy 123, 157–158, 257, 287 Hillsong movement 113 Hinduism 26, 51, 81, 212, 269–270, 286; reincarnation 163; see also Bhagavad Gita; Vedanta; Vedas Hindus 10, 20, 26, 81, 236, 241 HIV/AIDS 187 Hobby Lobby 109, 240 hub and spoke model 92 human resource movement 278–279 human rights 200, 247, 285 humanity 3, 172, 179, 207, 245, 258, 264, 273, 278–280, 284, 286–292 Hungary 151 idealism 25, 65 identity 35, 38–39, 41–42, 52, 77, 79, 82, 85, 122, 131–132, 140, 148, 197, 200, 240, 267, 272, 286; categories 239–240, 243; civil 221;
303
construction 9, 146–147, 154; faith 84; feminine 52; gender 239; group 151, 151; Islamic 52; marker 52; moral 80, 82–83, 85; Muslimah 52; national 90; personal 34, 41, 153, 270; professional 52; religious 38; self- 38, 269; social 153; spiritual 83; stigmatised 146 ideologies 1–2, 6, 34, 35, 36, 37–38, 40, 42, 48, 50–51, 78, 144, 266, 270–271, 278, 280–281, 288, 292; economic 78; political 34, 36, 37, 40, 42; religious 270–271 imam 162, 268 impact 3, 6–7, 9, 18–28, 19, 22, 24, 50, 55, 63, 67–68, 82, 84, 102, 131, 140, 145, 150, 178, 197, 211, 247, 260, 264, 273–274, 280, 290 implicit bias 7, 56 inclusion 2, 10, 27–28, 36, 79, 148, 151, 154, 188, 239–240, 242–243, 243, 247, 268; faith 243, 247; religious 243, 268 India 7, 20, 51, 60, 65, 238, 284, 293 Indigenous beliefs 51, 280 individual: accrual 5; action 151; alienation 64; attitudes 118, 120, 126; authority 36; beings 69; believers 258; bonuses 252; bully 213; compliance 64; contacts 150; contributions 162; control 119; control variables 21, 29; convictions 120, 124; decisions 121; defance 64; freedom 260; goals 71; heroism 190; human being 148; human capital 55; identity 77, 82; job motivation 84; knowledge 153; level 9, 27, 69, 82, 121, 148, 154, 291; management strategies 62; material progress 67; members 104, 106; needs 126–127; objects 67; opinions 118; orientation 123; patterns 146; perspectives 201; preferences 127; qualifcations 153; religious activity 24–25; religious afliation 21–23; religious communities 232; resource 117, 127; responsibility 110; review 202; rights 10, 222; roles 36; selfinterest 63; shareholders 176; skills 153; spirituality 126, 285; stress 60; stress management 61; traits 3; transcendence 126; variables 21; ways 126; well-being 62–63; work careers 17; see also individualization
304
Index
individualisation 8, 122, 125–127; see also individualisation hypothesis individualisation hypothesis 7, 126 Indonesia 7, 48–54, 237, 266, 282 industrialisation 125, 256 inequality 6, 50, 55, 128, 173, 194, 270 injustice 127–128, 174, 256 Innocent II, Pope 104 innovation 2, 8, 63, 90–100, 97, 102, 172, 176, 232, 244, 247, 280, 290 institution: banking 251, 256; development 1; education 177, 272; fnancial 124–125; health 177, 272; penal 228; political 272; public 222, 229; religious 125–126, 170, 175, 272–273; residential care 139; social 272; societal 38; state 10, 221–232, 289; total 221–222; see also institutionalization institutionalisation 83–84 integration 8, 36, 65, 79, 118–122, 146, 196–198, 201, 204, 225, 292 interconnectedness 85, 270 interest (loan) 11; see also self-interest international: aid 170; brands 264; chaplaincy 227; confict 287; corporate governance 144; development 3; evidence 3; incidents 184; trade 290; understanding 41; workforce 282 investment 91, 94, 98, 101, 107–108, 111–112, 124, 132, 170, 175–179, 245–246, 261, 290 Iran 48 Islam 4, 48, 50–53, 80–81, 146, 149, 151, 184, 212, 227, 229, 269–271; Ramadan 152, 228, 269; see also halal rules; Islamism; Quran; Wahabism Islamism 48, 50 Islamophobia 146–147 Israel 185, 253–254 Israelites 173, 226–227, 253 Jainism 5, 281 Japan 20, 284; see also Shinto Javier, Evelio 282 Jehovah’s Witnesses 229 Jesuits 107 Jesus 33, 104, 107–108, 123, 173–175, 185, 189, 212–213, 254–255, 286 Jewish 96, 105, 109, 163–165, 214, 224, 226–229, 241, 251, 254, 280; banking skills 17
Jews 111, 113, 150, 162, 165, 225–226, 228, 231, 241, 269 job 47, 54, 60–62, 84, 106, 122, 125, 145, 148–150, 157, 162, 166, 188, 197, 200, 209, 211, 218, 272 John Paul II, Pope 256–257, 259 John XXIII, Pope 256 Johnson, Boris 282 Judaism 5, 151, 212, 270; Jubilee Year 253; Sabbath 253; Sabbath Year 253; Yom Kippur 225, 269; see also kosher rules; synagogue; Talmud; Ten Commandments Judeo-Christian tradition 11, 128, 213 justice 4, 34, 41–42, 79–80, 195, 252, 254–255, 257, 260–261, 267, 283, 284, 289; restorative 176; see also social justice Kalenjin people 188 Kennedy, Robert 282 kenosis 184–185, 187–189 Kenya 172, 186; Lake Naivasha 189; Nairobi 188 Kikuyu people 186, 188 king 254 King, Martin Luther, Jr, 36, 40, 214, 282 knowledge economy 91 kosher rules 165, 226, 228, 231, 269 Lambeth Partnership 98–100, 101 language 35, 49, 94, 113, 145, 147, 152–154, 190, 199, 203, 221, 246, 285 Latter-day Saints 106, 281; see also Mormons leadership 7, 9, 17, 32–33, 37, 39–40, 43, 47, 51, 55–56, 81, 95–96, 117, 145, 155, 157–167, 169, 178–179, 209, 282, 286–287; authentic 164, 278, 287; business 178; capital 55; conscious 65; development 47, 55; holistic 212; lay 111; political 42; positive 62; power 159–163, 166; situational 158; sources of power 159–165; spiritual 2, 10, 84, 212–213, 218; strategies 163; theories of 158–159, 167, 212–213; trait 214; transactional 159; transformational 159, 178; true 9, 157–167, 287; visionary 178; wisdom 96; see also servant leadership leave 27, 78, 149, 161, 163, 173, 202, 225, 238, 256, 287
Index leaving 18, 21, 25–26, 138, 215, 266 led 110, 112–113, 131, 171, 216, 229, 265, 285, 287, 292 Legatum Prosperity Index 21 Leo XIII, Pope 256–257 LeTourneau, Robert Gilmour 109 LGBTQI rights 267 Liberation Theology 105 Libya 245 life 1–3, 5, 7–8, 11, 18, 19, 23, 25–28, 32–34, 34, 35, 36, 37–38, 40, 41–42, 50, 52, 54, 61, 68–69, 78, 80–82, 94, 96, 98, 100, 105–107, 113–114, 118–119, 122–125, 128, 134, 136, 145–149, 147, 154, 166, 174, 184–187, 189, 195, 197, 199, 208, 213, 221, 230, 244, 252–256, 258–259, 265, 268–270, 272–273, 279–281, 284–286, 288, 290–291; church 255; economic 3, 195, 258–259; family 37, 256; organisational 82, 94, 134, 146, 279; private 146; social 2, 50, 146–147, 147, 286; -span 41; -style 52, 61, 113, 265, 269, 273, 290–291; systems 252; -time 7, 33 listening 2, 9, 62, 135–136, 139–140, 190, 204, 213–214, 216, 281, 286, 288 love 9, 35, 36, 40, 52, 163, 184–185, 187, 189, 253–255, 269, 281, 283, 286, 291; see also unconditional love Luhmann, N. 123–125 Luther, Martin 39, 171 Lutheran Church 172; see also Lutherans Lutherans 111 Maasai people 186, 189 Madof, Bernie 252 Mahabharata 283, 286 Malaysia 237 management: confict 202; corporate 241; diversity 144, 148; faith and 2–3, 6, 91, 94–95, 102, 279, 281, 283, 287–288, 292; faith-based 213; labour 247; language 94; literature 3, 78, 278, 291; micro- 100; of religious diversity 10, 221–232; organisational career (OCM) 28; perspective 47; positions 145; practice 48, 54–55, 141; praxis 289, 291; principles 48; responsibilities 93; risk 101, 124, 141; role 49; scholars 7; senior 47, 55, 209; skills 176; strategies 62; studies 8, 140, 144; systems 124; team 47, 197–198, 202, 204; theory 62, 82; wealth 285; women in 145
305
manager 5, 7, 48–52, 54–56, 64, 71, 78–82, 84, 97, 99, 117, 124, 134, 138, 148, 151–152, 158, 166, 188, 198, 204, 207, 209, 214, 216, 267, 280–282, 284–285, 288, 290, 292 Mandela, Nelson 282 Māori 90, 107, 110–113, 284 market 134, 264–265, 267, 272 marketing: 4Cs (Customer solution, Customer cost, Convenience and Communication) 271, 271; 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) 268, 271; and faith 11, 291; of faith 11, 264–274; mix 268–269; and religion 264, 266; of religion 264, 272; strategies 271, 273, 292; tactics 273 market model of religion 8, 126–127 Marx, K. 123, 289 Marxism 110 Maslow, A. H. 166; hierarchy of needs 166, 185, 269 materialism 20, 81, 85, 105, 270, 284 Maya 66 mediating 138, 164 Mediterranean 53 megachurches 112–113, 172 Meir, Golda 282 Mennonite 4, 267 Merkel, Angela 7, 32–42, 40, 282, 291 Methodist Church 98, 109, 225; see also Methodists Methodists 106, 110 #metoo movement 91 Middle Ages 11, 54, 108 Middle East 50, 53, 183 military 221, 224–227, 231, 240–241, 242, 243, 243; see also military chaplaincy military chaplaincy 226–227 mining 10, 49, 193–198, 202, 204; ‘Social and Labour Plan’ (SLP) 195–196 minority 4, 7, 10, 32–33, 37–38, 41–42, 47, 55, 100, 111, 146, 210, 221, 224–225, 229–230, 259, 280, 286; faiths 290; religions 2; religious 4, 9, 146, 221, 224, 280 mission 8, 95, 99, 107, 132, 134–135, 137, 141, 165, 171, 173–176, 178, 292 missionary 3, 39, 105, 107, 109–111, 170–172
306
Index
model: authentic 174; business 137, 144, 178, 197; constituency representation 93–94; economic 260–261; emergent cellular 93–94; entrepreneurial 93; governance 93–94; see also Brand Equity Model; grid model; hub and spoke model; Sustained Relationship Building Model (SRBM); market model of religion modernisation 54, 125 modesty 48 Modi, Narendra 282 Mondragon cooperatives 177 money 8–9, 17, 20, 26, 102, 104, 107, 110–111, 113–114, 132, 157, 163, 167, 170, 173–176, 198, 251, 255, 287 moral identity 80, 82–83, 85 morality 3, 35, 64, 67–68, 109, 252, 265, 269; personal 63–64, 69; social 69 Moravians 107, 112 Mormons 106, 229, 281 motivation 25–26, 61, 64, 81, 83–84, 106, 148, 153, 159–160, 270, 281, 285 Muhammad/Mohammed (Prophet) 149, 212 multicultural 54–55, 153, 282; societies 4, 268 multi-faith 11, 232 Muslim 7, 10, 25, 47–56, 80, 105, 152, 184, 207, 213, 221, 224, 226, 228, 231, 247, 265–269, 279–280, 282, 284; anti- 39; communities 224, 231, 265; consumers 265–266, 268; faith 149–150, 266; men 147; population 51, 53, 213, 265, 279; prayer rooms 228; prisoners 228; society 7, 56, 149; women 7, 47–49, 51–55, 146, 148–150, 269; see also Muslimmajority countries (MMC); Muslims Muslim world 48, 50, 55, 282 Muslimah 52–53 Muslim-majority countries (MMC) 7, 50 Muslims 3, 10, 20, 26, 48, 50–54, 111, 146, 149–151, 221, 224–226, 229, 231, 236–237, 241, 267, 269–270, 282; see also Muslimah; Uygur Muslims nationalism 266 Nazism 37 Ndabibi 189–190 Near East 53, 95
negative 22, 24, 38, 84, 95, 108, 120, 123–124, 127, 141, 146–147, 150, 154, 166, 177, 184, 197, 208, 211, 214, 247, 266, 280, 290 neoliberal 49 neoliberal postfeminism 49 Netherlands, the 232 networking 27–28, 54, 93, 109, 111, 160, 196, 230, 241, 257, 259 nevertheless 9, 105, 111, 118, 170, 226, 228–231, 255–256 New Zealand (Aotearoa) 4, 8, 90–91, 94, 105–110, 112–113, 167, 237, 279; Christchurch earthquakes 108; Te Tiriti O Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) 90; see also Māori Newton, Isaac 67 Newton, John 110; “Amazing Grace” 110 Nigeria 20, 113, 211 nones 26, 28 non-proft 131–136, 223; boards 132; see also non-proft organisations; non-proft sector non-proft organisations 8, 131–133, 136, 141, 176; faith-based 8, 131; secular 8, 131 non-proft sector 131, 133–134, 145 non-religious 10, 26, 37, 117–118, 120, 123, 125–128, 148 North Africa 50 North Korea 245 occupational 150–152; see also occupational stress occupational stress 7, 60–64, 71 Old-Alevi Religious Community 223, 225, 227 organisational career management (OCM) 28 organisational culture 7, 28, 49, 60, 62–63, 71, 77, 80, 82, 145, 201 organisational ethics: and faith 7–8, 77–85 organisations: business 287; faith types of 83, 119–120; governance in 131–141; religious diversity in 144–155; see also faith-based organisations (FBOs); non-proft organisations; religious organisations orientation 7, 18, 33, 36, 63–64, 71, 122–123, 145, 147, 201, 209, 215, 239–241, 243, 243, 252, 279, 286; gender 286; sexual 147, 209, 239–241, 243, 243
Index Orthodox Christians 221, 224–225 otherness 4 outcomes 3, 11, 78, 82–85, 98, 119, 177–178, 188, 194, 198–199, 203, 204, 246–247, 264, 288 ownership 8, 112, 164–165, 229, 253, 257 Oyedepo, David 113 Palestine 185 Pancasila 51 parenting 8, 34, 96, 97, 98–100, 101, 102, 273 Paul (Apostle) 92, 95–96, 217, 255 Paul VI, Pope 256–257 peace 10, 40–42, 185, 188–189, 193, 195–198, 212, 215, 241, 245, 267, 271 Pentecostal 8, 10, 106, 113 perception 47, 55, 65, 82, 118, 127, 149, 154, 170, 173, 188, 190, 199, 240, 245, 266, 269, 281 performance 3, 52, 55, 60, 62–63, 69, 83, 127, 138, 152–154, 176, 198, 200, 202, 203, 209, 211, 247, 278, 287 personal: attitudes 118, 154; change 197, 203; ethics 3, 64, 71; identity 34, 41, 153, 270; morality 63–64, 69 perspectives 7, 17, 32, 35, 36, 39, 131, 201, 237, 239, 252, 270, 272, 274, 286 Pew Research Center 236–238, 245 philosophy 1–2, 7, 60, 65, 69, 71, 172, 177, 282 piety see religious piety Pilate, Pontius 90, 94, 100 Pius XI, Pope 256–257 Pius XII, Pope 256 pleasant, the 68 pluralisation 125–127 pluralistic thinking 69 plurality 69, 146, 221, 229 Plymouth Brethren 106 points 19, 27, 65, 79, 128, 140, 185, 196, 224, 269 political 32–34, 38–42, 61, 127, 131, 146, 171–172, 174, 186, 199, 259–260, 272, 282; career 39, 42; decision; 40–41, 259; ideologies 34, 36, 37, 40, 42; institution 272; leaders 33, 39; leadership 42; party 42 polity 8, 92, 132–134, 139, 141 poverty 1, 8, 21, 104–105, 113–114, 179, 187, 255, 271, 287
307
power: asymmetrical 193; authentic 9, 160, 162, 166; coercive 159–161; expert 160–162, 164, 166; leadership 159–163, 166; legitimate 159–161; referent 160–163, 166; reward 159, 161; servant 160, 162, 166; sources of 159–162, 166, 287 practice 97: accepted 251; authentic 77; Christian 172; commercial 7; devotional 19; faith 84; governance 8, 102; halal 269; management 48, 54–55, 141; managerial 5; organisational 28, 146; religious 19–20, 94, 222; social 49, 178; spiritual 3, 134; traditional 273; see also business practices prayer 3, 52, 84, 98, 107, 148, 152, 164, 178, 225, 228, 232, 237, 254, 285 prejudices 4, 145, 148, 154, 225, 282 Presbyterian 108, 110, 170 presumption of inclusion principle 79 Price, Frederick K.C. 172 priest 162–164, 241 principles: biblical 198; business 179; ethical 69, 119, 267; faith-based 10, 288; leadership 117; management 48; spiritual 119, 287; see also reason: principles of prisons 10, 221, 227–228, 246, 254 profane, the 122, 266 professional: attire 54; career 149; development 282; group 21, 25; identity 52; image 210; lives 11; scientist 38; staf 179; track 252; women 54 professionalism 7, 47–56, 282 proftability 71, 198, 202, 278, 285, 289, 292 progress 51, 55, 67, 120, 171, 179, 186–187, 195–197, 200, 203, 245, 279 prophet 42, 81, 112, 150, 162, 201, 254–255, 283 proselytisation 79, 163–164, 246, 272 prosperity 21–22, 22, 23, 24–26, 24, 64, 105, 110, 113, 172, 179, 189, 195, 280, 292; see also Prosperity Gospel Prosperity Gospel 8, 106, 113, 172–173, 266, 272 prosperity theology see Prosperity Gospel
308
Index
Protestant 37, 39–40, 42, 105–107, 109, 111, 128, 146, 224–228, 230–231, 246; see also Protestantism; Protestant work ethic Protestantism 111–112; Anglican; Baptists; Bible; Calvinism; Gideons International; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Latter-day Saints; Lutheran Church; Mennonite; Methodist Church; Mormons; Moravians; Pentecostal; Presbyterian; Protestant Reformation; Quakers; Seventh-day Adventists Protestant Reformation 39, 107, 171–172 Protestant work ethic 2, 17 psychobiography 32–33 psychology 32–33 purpose 1–2, 8, 34, 42, 53, 62, 65, 78, 80, 82, 85, 91, 100, 132–133, 136–138, 140–141, 160, 173, 175–177, 259, 266, 287 Quakers 108, 110, 213, 215 Quran 52–53, 286 rabbi 162, 164–165, 268 Rama/Krishna 212 reason: principles of 66–67; theory of reasoned action 118, 120, 128 reconciliation 42 recruitment 47, 55–56, 244, 247, 272, 282 Red Cross 184 Reformation see Protestant Reformation relationships 22, 29, 35, 36, 70, 139, 160, 200–201, 203, 267, 280, 288; authentic 267; broken 10; contractual 140; customer 11, 268; exchange 122; fractured 184; group 154; human 251–252, 259; interdependent 195–196, 200; interpersonal 35, 141; legal 224; people 193; polyandrous 53; power 131; social 36; stakeholder 196; work 18, 19, 201; working 153, 202; workplace 61 religion: in Austria 10, 224; and career success 17–29; dividend 242–243, 242, 243; and faith 28, 39–40, 42, 241, 273; global 1, 214, 272; and marketing 264, 266, 272; market model of 8, 126–127; minority 2; sociology of 8, 118, 121–123, 128;
at work 3; see also Bahá’i Religion; Christianity; Confucianism; folk religions; Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB); Hinduism; Islam; Judaism; Protestantism; Shinto; Sikhism religiosity 19–20, 25, 48, 54–55, 109, 111, 117–118, 126, 292 religious activity 19–21, 24–25, 27–28, 231 religious afliation 19, 21–23, 25, 27–28, 146, 153–154, 225, 229–230, 232, 279, 291 religious attire 226m 273; see also headscarves; religious symbols religious dietary rules 225–226; see also halal rules; kosher rules religious discrimination 238–239, 246, 285 religious diversity 8, 10, 79, 144–145, 148, 154, 221–232, 236–247, 278, 286, 289 religious freedom 120, 121, 222, 238, 243–247, 290 Religious Freedom & Business Foundation 239–243 religious literacy 10, 236–247, 289 religiously unafliated 236, 244–245; see also nones religiously: active 7, 18–19, 21–23, 24, 25–26; afliated 19–23, 22, 23, 26, 236; biased 237; conceived 272; diverse 240, 244; dressed 149; heterogeneous 153; homogeneous 123, 127; inspired 109; literate 241; neutral 285; shaped 145; tone deaf 244; see also religiously unafliated religious non-accommodation 239 religious organisations 90, 92–94, 96, 99, 229, 267, 272–273, 289; and true leadership 9, 157–167, 286 religious piety 7, 47–48, 56; see also religiosity religious symbols 119, 145–146, 150–152; bindi 269; chador 48; cross 185, 264; rosary 266; turban 4, 226, 285; veil 4, 53–54, 66, 68, 80, 266, 269; yarmulke 4; see also headscarves religious traditions 2, 17, 19–20, 111, 133, 212, 258, 281 research 17–19, 27–28, 32, 34, 49–50, 52, 55, 80, 83, 93–94, 128, 132, 134–136, 138, 140, 148, 189, 210,
Index 229, 236–240, 243–247, 270, 291–292; academic 4; biographical 33; empirical 10, 18, 98, 282, 289; frms 261; global 243; governance 100; interdisciplinary 291–292; interfaith 292; leadership 160; longitudinal 98, 101; management and religion 78; organisational 122, 292; psychobiographical 33–34; published 222; question 117, 120, 122, 124, 128; team 134–135 respectability 7, 48–56, 109, 282 responsibility 19, 62, 69, 100 – 101, 110, 132, 138, 174, 196, 216, 247, 252, 258 – 259, 273; personal 83; reciprocal 254; social 85, 265; see also corporate social responsibility Rift Valley 186, 188–189 rights 80, 184, 188, 222, 226, 245, 257, 259; citizen’s 193; collective 10; employee’s 79; individual 10, 222; religious 225; women’s 147; see also human rights; LGBTQI rights rituals 122, 145–146, 152, 164, 266 Roberts, Oral 113 Rockefeller, John D. 109 Roman Catholic Church see Catholic Church Rubens, Pieter Paul 172 Rūmī 284 Russia 20, 51, 185, 238 sacred, the 118, 266, 280 Salvation Army, The 106, 137, 287 Santa Claus 266, 270 Saudi Arabia 48, 51, 237 scriptures see Christian scriptures; Hebrew scriptures secularisation 8, 125–126, 128, 137, 221–222, 232 secularisation hypothesis 125–126 secularism 4, 50 segregation: institutionalised 10 self-esteem 61, 153, 166, 210, 217, 269 self-interest 63–64, 68, 70–71, 78, 85, 247, 279, 283–284 self-refection 93–94, 96, 98–99, 101 self-sacrifce 9, 184, 281 Sen, Amartya 245 servant 9, 97, 105, 175–176, 184, 213, 217, 270, 284; see also power: servant; servant leadership
309
servant leadership 2, 10, 165, 213–218, 286, 288 Seventh-day Adventists 112, 223, 229 sexual 52, 139; harassment 207, 211; orientation 147, 209, 239–241, 242, 243, 243; relations 53, 267 Shalom concept 10, 195, 198 shareholders 6, 65, 176–177, 261, 278, 280, 284 Sharia services 52 Shia denomination 227 Shinto 284, 286 Sikhism 5 Sikhs 223–226, 269 Slovakia 151 social decisions 64, 68–69, 71 social enterprise 99, 166, 176–177, 179, 187–188, 278, 287 social entrepreneur 176 social entrepreneurship 177, 287 social hierarchies 9, 147, 154 socialism 51, 109–110 social justice 141, 174–175 social responsibility 85, 265; see also corporate social responsibility society 2, 6, 37–39, 48–50, 53–54, 69–70, 81, 85, 106, 122, 125–126, 133, 150, 173, 176–177, 207, 222–223, 237, 245, 254, 256–257, 259–260, 266, 269, 287, 291–292; Austrian 10, 224; civil 5, 169, 287, 292; consumer 270; democratic 133, 141; German 39; globalised 264; human 184; Islamic 282; multicultural 268; Muslim 7, 56, 149; secular 39; Western 173 sociology of religion 8, 118, 121–123, 128 Socrates 285 solidarity 34, 42, 259–260 Somalia 245 south 110, 128 South Africa 10, 185, 191, 193–195, 197–198, 208, 210, 288; labour laws 193; see also apartheid system; mining South Sudan 245 Southeast Asia 50 Spiral Dynamics (SD) 9, 185–191 spiritual: attitudes 122; belief 51, 83; codes of belief 281; development 34, 119; identity 83; leadership 2, 10, 84, 212–213, 218; practice 3, 134; principles 119, 287
310
Index
spirituality 1, 6, 8, 17–18, 27–28, 40, 64, 71, 78–79, 106, 117–121, 121, 123, 126–128, 174, 258, 272, 279–281, 284–285, 290–292; aboriginal 5; defnition 118; and faith 7–8, 65, 106, 117–119, 147, 285; individual 126, 285; nonreligious 118, 120, 123, 125–126, 128; religion and 6, 10, 17, 77–78, 83, 222; religious 117–118, 120, 122–124, 126–128; universal 2; at work 118–121 Sri Lanka 237 stakeholders 6, 10, 65, 69, 85, 132–133, 137, 140, 145, 148, 196, 231, 247, 261, 280, 284, 286, 292 stereotypes 7, 48, 145, 148, 154 stewardship 2, 93–94, 96–97, 97, 173, 213, 216–217, 281, 284, 288 storytelling 187, 190, 287–288 strategies: employers’ 8, 117–128, 121, 285; individual management 62; leadership 163; management 63; managerial 5; marketing 271, 273, 292; organisational 145; stress intervention 61–62 stress: intervention 61–62; management 61; post-traumatic stress disorder 211; -related absenteeism 61–62; workplace 2, 7, 60–61, 283; see also occupational stress stressors 2, 5, 60–62 structures 78, 140, 171–172, 186, 196, 228, 232; authority 125; governance 90–95, 140; labour market 147; organisational 148, 227; patriarchal 32, 53; social 149; tribal 53 subsidiarity 259 success 62, 108, 113, 144, 190, 240, 267, 282; career 6–7, 19; commercial 111; fnancial 7, 18–28, 23, 24, 109; organisational 217 Sudan 245 Suharto 53 Sunni denomination 51–52, 227 sustainability 5, 85, 170–171, 176, 179, 198, 202, 265, 267, 270, 284, 287; ecological 278; environmental 2; fnancial 169, 172–174; un- 170 Sustained Relationship Building Model (SRBM) 193–204; ABCs 199–200, 202; ACER model 197, 199–200, 203; Community Circle 202; Dignity Triad 201; PIN 197, 200–202, 202, 203
Switzerland 20, 126, 238 symbolic 8, 36, 63, 124, 144, 146–147, 147, 154, 271; see also symbolic interactionism symbolic interactionism 82 synagogue 164–165, 237 Syria 245 Talmud 5, 162 Taoism 5 Target 241 team 63, 122, 148, 152, 160, 166, 268; building 122; facilitation 198; internal police 144; interventions 212; management 47, 197–198, 202, 204; membership 154; organisational design 144; research 134–135; selfmanaging 93; spirit 62–63; SWAT 209; -work 155, 166 technology 3, 50, 94, 246, 260–261, 273 Ten Commandments 80 Teresa, Mother 214 Thailand 284 theism 51, 281 theological 6, 92–93, 95, 113, 135, 141, 170–171, 176, 258 theology 9, 92, 95, 134–135, 140–141, 174, 253; see also Prosperity Gospel; Liberation Theology theory/theories: behavioural 158, 167; of Brahman 67; of confict 196; of Dharma 68; human development 185; infuence 159; leadership 158–159, 167, 212–213; management 62, 82; occupational stress 61; power 159; psychological 7, 32–33; of reasoned action 118, 120, 128; secularisation 126; social 131; stage development 34; transformational alternative 60; utilitarian 64–65, 70; see also ethical theories; faith development theory (FDT) Tisha B’Av 269 tithe 105–106, 163, 175 Tocqueville, Alexis de 246 Toyota 268 tradition(s) 4, 11, 102, 134–135, 184, 190, 221, 251, 255–256, 258, 284–285; biblical 253; Christian 134–135, 174, 280; cultural 50, 279; faith 8–9, 20, 25–28, 36, 40, 77, 80–81, 102, 134–135, 251–252, 260–261, 265, 282, 289; faith-based 4, 273; Hindu 280; Jewish 280;
Index Muslim 280; of pious asceticism 113; of policy governance 94; prophetic 254; Protestant 106, 146; religious 2, 17, 19–20, 111, 133, 212, 258, 281; Roman Catholic 146, 257–258; wisdom 95–96; see also JudeoChristian tradition traditional: 4Ps 271; authority 133–134; belief 36; board/CEO structure 94; Carver separations 92; churches 173, 232; dress 165; economic indicators 21; enemy 189; forms of expression 126; interpretation 53; issue 189; leader 215; leadership theories 213; Maasai areas 186; mainstream methodologies 288; methods 10, 218; organisation 134; practice 273; religions 146; religious groups 229; religious institutions 272; rules 273; societies 290; spiritual suppliers 127; support 171 training 55, 91, 95, 200, 202, 288; of chaplains 230; courses 138; cultural competence 55; diversity 101, 282; gender 55; opportunities 202; programmes 84, 289; qualifcation 150; re- 179; schools 177; staf 202; workplace 212, 282 transcendence 20, 26, 34, 118, 121, 125–126 triple bottom line 4, 284 trust 8, 35, 62–63, 65, 99–101, 101, 102, 112, 125, 132–134, 141, 187–189, 194, 196, 199, 201, 204, 212, 217, 246, 252, 267, 279, 285–286; see also Activate Trust truth 27, 66–69, 81–82, 212, 214, 254, 261, 281 Turkey 50, 151, 238, 282 Tyson Foods 240–241 Ultimate Concern 77, 81 unconditional love 9, 36, 187, 189 Unitas Fratrem 111–112; see also Moravians United Kingdom (UK) 4, 47, 61, 109, 136, 208 United Nations (UN) 51 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 259 United States 4, 20, 26, 61, 110, 170, 174, 191, 207, 236, 238–239, 246, 267, 282 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 255, 260
311
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 244 Upanishads 65, 293 urbanisation 125 utilitarianism 63–65, 69–71 Uygur Muslims 237 values 3–4, 6, 11, 19, 26, 62–63, 65, 79–80, 82–83, 93–94, 96–97, 97, 101, 111, 114, 117, 119, 123, 133–136, 139–141, 145–146, 195, 198, 239, 246, 261, 264, 266, 268, 273–274, 282–286, 291; altruistic 36; authentic 11; brand 267; Christian 39, 42, 195; common 267; core 212, 214, 265; cultural 48, 54, 145; faith 84, 265; family 38; human 33; ideological 266; implicit 35; intrinsic 267, 269; Islamic 50, 265; moral 269; normative 286; organisational 283, 285; personal 36, 38; religious 11, 19, 25, 48, 122, 245; spiritual 82, 84, 119, 265, 288; universal 283; work 26; see also value systems value systems 9, 38, 111, 119 Vatican Council 259 Vedanta 7, 60, 65–67, 69, 71, 282–283 Vedas 65, 184 veil 4, 53–54, 80, 266, 269 Venezuela 245 Vienna 221, 227, 230 violence 146–147, 189, 213, 252, 258, 280, 281, 288–289; non- 68; psychological 208; religion-related 237, 245 vision 2, 84, 93–94, 96–97, 97, 174, 252, 255, 257–258, 279 Vivekananda, S. 67–68, 71 vocation 2, 33–34, 39, 41–42, 111, 218, 257, 259, 292 voice 105, 110, 133, 135–136, 140–141, 149, 187–188, 194, 204, 245, 267, 278, 286 voluntary 105–106, 179, 226, 230–231, 272, 287 volunteers 9, 132, 157–163, 166, 228 wabi sabi 6, 292–293 Wahabism 51 Wali Songo 51 Walmart 109, 241 Walton, Sam 109
312
Index
wealth 5, 21, 26, 68, 70, 104–110, 114, 188, 253, 255–256, 266, 278, 281, 283, 285; see also wealth creation wealth creation 5, 9, 69, 169–179, 287 Weber, Max 2, 111 well-being 6, 17, 34, 41, 60, 62–63, 68–69, 83–84, 122, 127, 179, 188, 195, 198, 200, 202, 214, 217, 257, 261, 269, 273, 279–280, 289–290 WEMA (WEsegis MAtarui) Area Development Programme (ADP) 188 Wesley, John 33, 105–106, 110 West, the 49, 60, 128, 170, 270, 272, 279 Western world 48, 55–56, 267, 282; see also West, the Whitefeld, George 106, 112 Widodo, Joko 51 Wilberforce, William 110 Williams, Rowan 98–99 wisdom 51, 198, 216, 251, 280, 284, 292; see also wisdom economy; wisdom governance; Wisdom literature wisdom economy 91 wisdom governance 8, 91, 95–102, 97, 101, 284 Wisdom literature 95–96, 97, 102, 254; Ecclesiastes, book of 95; Job, book of 95; Psalms, book of 95, 254; Proverbs, book of 95; Song of Songs, book of 95
women’s bodies 7, 49, 51–53, 282 work: careers 17; environment 60–61, 63, 124, 127, 136–138, 195, 197–199, 214, 216, 240, 243; faith at 7–8, 77–85, 117–128, 241, 292; relationships 18, 19, 153, 201, 202; religion at 3; spirituality at 118–121; values 26; see also work-life balance; workplace work-life balance 19, 148 workplace bullying 10, 207–218, 210, 288; efects of 211; levels of 209; of LGBTQI employees 209 workplace stress see stress workplace: faith in 3, 119, 240–241; relationships 61; stress 2, 7, 60–61, 283; training 212, 282; see also faith-friendly workplaces; workplace bullying World Bank 1, 246 World Council of Churches (WCC) 9 World Economic Forum 238 ‘World Faiths Development Dialogue’ 1–2 World Vision 186, 188–189, 267 World War II 257 Yemen 245 Zambia 170–171, 174, 177 Zoroastrianism 5, 281