Written by Sarah Mundell
Source: Living City
How to live one’s own faith in
the workplace: an interview with Michael Naughton, professor of business ethics
Work, work, work — all week long — business meetings, emails,
production deadlines. At 5pm on Friday, real life begins. Finally, we have time
to do what we really want to do: have fun, give to others, spend time with
family, get outdoors, go to church. Is that really how it should be?
“We live in a culture where there is a distinction between public and
private, church and state, faith and work. These are important distinctions,
but we have made them into separations,” says Michael Naughton, Professor of Ethics,
Business Law and Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
“The modern world has split people’s lives among these fragments of
institutions: family life over here, church life over there, fun life over
here. And it is hard sometimes to put those things back together,” he says.
Overcoming this gap is the focal point of The Vocation of the Business
Leader, published last year by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
and of which Naughton was a consultant It can be applied by all people wishing
to implement ethical social principles, working in any environment or position.
This document names the challenges that Christian business people face in
living out their faith, and it submits that it is possible to bring faith and daily
experience back together, even in the workplace. Not only that, but by finding
ways to bring these two elements back together, business leaders can rediscover
the fullness of their true calling — to work for the common good as co-creators
with God.
The document’s writers first acknowledge the many challenges of living
for the common good. Phenomena such as globalization, increased communications
technology, reducing the value of goods and services strictly to their monetary
cost, and certain cultural changes certainly impact us, and pose both positive
and negative questions. We get to know more about what goes on in other places,
we begin to share some cultural norms; technology helps us be better connected.
And yet job loss, unjust wages, discrimination, poor working conditions,
questionable laws and practices on various levels have become obstacles to the
common good. People are taken by power or wealth not connected to increasing
the common good. The obstacles reach further when an unhealthy attachment to
work becomes a detriment to family or spiritual life. A healthy work-life
balance and an economy based on values becomes the exception rather than the
rule.
Of course, many businesses do seek to benefit the community in varying
degrees. Some see a place for government regulation, or some see the buying
power of the people as the best way for a business to function in the
community.
Instead, the writers of Vocation make another proposal. Law is good,
they say, but it is a minimum. The market is important, but like any tool it
has to be used well. And profit is a good servant, but a lousy master.
How can a person rejoin his everyday life with the values or with his faith,
like the common good and respect for every person’s inherent dignity? It requires
another cultural element to transform successful business into one that is
doing good.
This added cultural element is faith put into practice — taking a step
beyond church walls or a moment of prayer — and allowing it to inform the way
we implement the law, behave in the marketplace and live the rest of our lives
as well.
“There is a richness to be found in our spiritual roots that neither
laws — no matter how good — nor the market can provide,” the authors write.
Sometimes Christians are weary of being too outspoken about their faith in the
secular world. They seek ways to connect but perhaps are afraid of being
misunderstood or labeled and ignored. So we seek universal values with which
others can relate and share.
But here Naughton gives a word of advice. While seeking to connect with
others of different beliefs, “We should always look at things in their ideal
state and never reduce them to their lowest common denominator,” he says. He
clarified that this means sticking to our religious roots while at the same
time working with others toward bringing values into the business world.
In fact, some of the world’s most respected figures who greatly impacted
humanity are those whose religious identity is quite clear: Mahatma Gandhi,
Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day. “Their lives are deeply rooted in religious
tradition,” says Naughton. “They are both grounded in it and are able to
transcend it at the same time, but in their transcendence they didn’t cut off
their root system. People were attracted to them not because they articulated
universal belief systems but because they were well-grounded. The challenge for
us when we [reach outwards toward the universal] is to not become cut flowers.
We may look pretty for a while, but is that sustainable?”
As a proposal, the Vatican document suggests a new type of business
leader: rather than making demands, it proposes a “servant leadership” — very
much in tune with Pope Francis, who asks the priests and all Christians to go
out and serve the others instead of staying closed in their own circles. The
Vocation builds on the classic Catholic social thought framework to propose
three stages for rebuilding the bridge between faith and everyday life:
- See: identify today’s challenges and opportunities presented in globalization, communications technology, wealth maximization in short-term gains and cultural changes;
- Judge: be rooted in a faith framework for judgment, such as principles of human dignity and the common good emphasized in Catholic social teaching; and
- Act: be motivated by more than financial success but by fulfilling a call to being a “servant leader,” receiving in order to give.
Vocation affirms that business leaders who wants to serve should first
humbly acknowledge all that God has done for them, and only then can they enter
into communion with others to make the world a better place. Only by
integrating the gifts of spiritual life with daily life can we manage to
overcome the divided life.
In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the economic challenges of our time
in his encyclical Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth). “As society
becomes ever more globalized, it makes us neighbors but does not make us
brothers,” he said. “Reason, by itself, is capable of grasping the equality
between individuals and of giving stability to their civic coexistence, but it
cannot establish fraternity.” So what makes us brothers and sisters? For
Christians, said Pope Benedict, it is recognizing that God loved us first and
taught us how to love one another by sending his Son.
How can this be applied on a larger scale, with those who are faithful
to other religious or simply human values? “Speak from your center,” Naughton
affirms, “meaning speak authentically, without trying to impose your ideas, but
be who you are. And invite others to do the same,” he adds. In that way,
together we can begin to cross the big
divide.
Living “servant leadership”
·
Meet the needs of the world
with goods that are truly good
·
Serve without forgetting those
in need
·
Organize work within
enterprises in a manner that is respectful of human dignity
·
Foster a sense of initiative
and competence of employees
·
Sustainably create wealth and
distribute it justly among the various stakeholders
- From The Vocation of the Business Leader
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