Servant Leadership in Business through the Eyes of Faith by Richard Chewning - Literature review Example

?Business through the Eyes of Faith A summary Richard Chewning, John Eby, and Shirley Roels “Business through the Eyes of Faith” by Richard Chewning, John Eby, and Shirley Roels is about running a business that is grounded on a Christian perspective. It is composed of five chapters. The first chapter dealt with improving a manager’s vision on how to overcome shortsightedness or myopia and look at the “big picture” which is common among business enterprise. Vision through a Christian perspective meant prioritizing production and delivery of goods and services that enhances the quality of life instead of profit. The workplace should be meaningful that provides opportunities for all stakesholders. This meant power is distributed equitably in the business organization where the costs and benefits of doing business are shared by all. Ultimately, the vision of Christian based business should provide growth and development not only among those who are in the organization but also on the society at large. Chapter two deals with the formulation of an employment strategy that reflects Christian values that will overcome any form of injustice and discrimination. This differs from the traditional perspective of work in a way that a business run through faith views “work is a healing process” that seeks to reconcile and overcome past injustices. It affirms the diversity in the workplace and thrives on it as it looks at differences as assets rather than a liability. Part three talks about Christian leadership which is unique among different leadership styles because it focuses on servant leadership. The overall plan or strategic plan of a business is being implemented through the use of servant leadership which inspires employees to focus on the bigger purpose of the organization. Ethics and moral leadership comes naturally which is lacking in today’s business leadership and desists from using manipulation to motivate employees and emphasizes true stewardship of a business. A management that is Christian centered is one that listens and truthful and values cultivation of communication as an essential element towards business success. While being truthful, Christian centered management is neither brash or harsh nor judgmental in conveying truths. Finally, “Business through the Eyes of Faith” translates the broader meaning of its principles into ethical practice on how it deals with its external stakeholders. It exegetes "business, as an institution, provides the opportunity to participate with God in the creation and distribution of God’s wealth in God’s world " (pg. 195). It enforces it social contract theory to reconcile the business dilemma of making profits and calls on to exercise “its stewardship responsibility to God by managing businesses in ways that serve the needs of their communities” (pg. 208). It distinguishes what it produce by having the right criteria between wants and needs and treats the marketplace with honesty and competition where competition is viewed as a healthy competition rather than a guerilla warfare that abandons ethical propriety. Ultimately, business that is run through the eyes intends to make the world better by having a business that is less rapacious and more concerned and conscientious not only within its organization but also towards the society at large. Mere Christian Summary Clive Staples Lewis Book I. We as humans are created by some being who also dictates, through our conscience, how we ought to behave.  All of us are subjected of a Law of Nature which is present within us in a form of a conscience that provides us a common sense of what is right and what is wrong. Many of us fails to follow it because of our inordinate instinct but this Law can provide us a better instinct that will defeat our baser instincts which are often justified with our excuse of circuitous reasoning. The world is created with two opposing theories. The church posits that this Law is given to us by God through our conscience to guide us and to serve His purpose. The other thinking presupposes that this Law of Nature is imposed on us therefore we are doomed because we failed to live up to it. Book II. Christianity is the only logical explanation for the world we live in.  This two opposing forces in this world that is good and evil highlights the existence of God. It is not easy to live a Christian life because evil exists whom we are vulnerable to its existence. But God gave us the freedom to choose that we may do good and able to love, and because of His love to us, He suffered for us to be delivered from our sins and faults. He even went as far as becoming a man to be with us, and died upon a cross that we may be saved. Such that when we become Christians, we also became that body of Christ who suffered on the cross. Book III.  Christian behavior begets Christian identity.  To promote morals, three conditions of good must exist which are society’s good, self and a healthy direction. Virtue must be cultivated for its own goodness. Be charitable even if it hurts. And ultimately, it is the ulterior intention of your action that will judged. If you are struggling to live a moral life in your sexual conduct, keep on trying for marriage exists not for the sake of union. Be humble and be charitable and do not be condescending when you are better than your neighbor. Loving your neighbor does not only being fond of him or her. It is our faith that keeps us strong when fear is upon us. Having faith meant having the confidence of leaving things to God. This faith is within us when we strive to make this world better which is a beacon from heaven. Book IV. Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity “God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another”. It meant that God is infinite and omnipotent and is not subjected to our concept of time. Such, we have to pray for His grace. For by praying, we became Christian and become His flock. This is the beginning of our conversion that will lead to a better change in us that will make us better Christians. Case I. Facts of the case of a particular business incident Perhaps one of the best case to illustrate a management case that is bereft of a Christian management is the recent case Enron scandal whose lack of Christian ethical propriety led to notorious accounting practices which were not only improper but criminal as well. Enron was considered as a blueprint of white collar crime that is purported by individuals with advance education. This illustrates how wrongdoings can be justified by circuitous logic as cited in “Business through the Eyes of Faith”. The scandal began when the commercial activity of a business were deregulated of which Enron availed for. This resulted in Enron’s greater latitude to oversee its own earning reports that will be released to its investors and the general public. Instead of being truthful in communicating its financial standing to its stakeholders, Enron skewed its reports to its favor where losses were not reflected accurately to entice more investments to what appears to be a profitable company. II. How management failed or succeded Enron failed as a management in every stage of management beginning in the planning, leading and controlling part of the business; a Planning As a business enterprise, it is not ethical to have it as among its objectives the increased valuation of its stock prices. After all, it is a responsibility of management to give returns to its shareholders for it to continue and to thrive as a business entity. Enron’s mistake begun when it solely focused on increasing its stock prices and the enjoyment of benefits that can be derived from it like bonuses and perks. What could have it done instead is to plan how to deliver better products and services that provide customers real value and service. That way, Enron will be able to increase the value its stock prices based on sound economic fundamentals. With regard Arthur Andersen, it entered into a business relationship with Enron that is considered to have a conflict of interest. It served as its auditor while also taking up management consultancy projects for the company which it also serves as its auditor. The relationship is already wrong at the beginning because Andersen lost its objectivity and independence as an auditing firm when it became an employee of Enron being a management consultant. b Organizing There is nothing wrong with hiring the best and the brightest employees. In fact, it is to be desired for the optimum performance of an organization that can ultimately translate to an increased bottom line. What Enron did that was construed as unethical was when it trained to make these best and bright employees to be ruthless traders when it organized its staffing needs. By doing so, it perpetuated a culture of greed and fraud which was eventually uncovered. What Enron could have done is to follow Google’s creed which states “you don’t have to do evil to make money”. It could have organized and trained its human resources to perform excellently within the limit of ethics. They could have set high standards that cannot be achieved yet, but in trying to achieve those objectives, they are stretching themselves to perform better than what is expected. c Leading Leadership at Enron took a twisted turn when it became obsessed with increasing the value of its stock prices. Its sense of excellence also became crooked as reinforced and perpetuated by its leadership. It promoted a corporate culture of callousness when it arbitrarily ranked half of its employees as non-performer which it will eventually fire. The other half remaining may have remained in the company but adopted a corporate value system that is virulently greedy and fraudulent as promoted and reinforced by its leadership through its performance appraisals. What could Enron have done was, instead of forcing its employees to arbitrarily rank other employees to be low performer, Enron should have promoted a culture of excellence and integrity; to continuously look for ways to improve and to stretch their capabilities and not the ability to survive in a dog eat dog environment. Enron’s obsession to increase the value its stock prices made its leadership fail because it neglected to teach its new recruits the value of ethics and pervaded the culture of fraud and deceit which precipitated its collapse and downfall. d Controlling Perhaps this is the biggest blunder of Arthur Andersen as an auditing company that it was charged with obstruction of justice. Instead of an institution of control where financial anomalies are supposed to be reported, it did not only fail to do it but instead shredded documents that related to Enron when it learned that the latter is under the investigation of Department of Justice. It may be unthinkable in the auditing industry for a big firm such as Arthur Andersen not to report Enron’s exotic accounting practices but it did so by turning a blind eye to it. Worst, it certified its financial statements to be in accordance with the generally accepted accounting practices. What meted Arthur Andersen not only to be unethical but criminal as well was when it connived with Enron in covering its fraud. It shredded volumes and volumes of documents that relates to Enron when it learned that the latter is under the investigation of the Department of Justice. III. Ways in which management could be reformed As recommended in the book “business through the eyes of faith”, Enron could be reformed by shifting its priority as a business entity away from the single motive of making profit to creating products and and services that would better the general public. This way, profit will naturally follow because the intention to serve the public has been performed and the patronizing public will naturally respond. Second, Enron can be reformed by emphasizing truthfulness in its business dealings both to its internal and external stakeholders. The mechanism of check and balances such as employment of auditing firms should not be circumvented such as the employment of Arthur Andersen. It can instead, avail the service of a third party auditing firm that is independent, objective and truthful in its reporting. Internally, Enron should promote the virtue of Christian integrity not the performance at all cost which was ingrained in the culture of Enron. This resulted in impropriety that led to the scandal. Leadership should enforce it by communicating the idea of servant leadership within that the employees may also practice it. Read More