By James L. Nolan, Executive Director, Woodstock
Business Conference Presented to the Fourth Annual Forum, International Association of Jesuit
Business Schools, July 29, 1996, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles,
California It was about 2 years ago at a meeting of the Washington DC chapter of
the Woodstock Business Conference that we were discussing the topic of
loyalty. The meeting began as it always does with a reading of
the Mission Statement, then a reading
from Scripture --- the story of Judas trying to return the 30 pieces of
silver he had been paid for betraying Jesus to the High Priest. We had
a period of silence and then a rich discussion that included thoughts
of how Judas found himself out of favor with his new team. Then we took
up the topic of loyalty. The readings sent out prior to the meeting had
included a Wall Street Journal article on investment advisors
who were paid substantial bonuses to leave their old firms and take their
customers to new firms. The discussion turned to how they hired bright young people, trained
them in the business, and just as the employees became valuable they jumped
ship and went off to a competitor --- it just isn't fair. Next, some told
how they had been working with the same outfit for 20 years, rising through
the ranks, and then the firm gets acquired and they are looking at involuntary
reemployment --- it just isn't fair. Then, we heard of a different dilemma.
One man was running a company, bringing people along, getting them invested
in the firm and the bright prospects for the future as a part of his team
when a head hunter called and offered him an opportunity with a competing
organization. He took it -- I had to consider my family. At the conclusion of the meeting, there was no real resolution. As the
meeting closed, the group decided to look at a new topic for the next
month. At the topic for the meeting the next month was wisdom. Again, there
was a reading of the mission statement, a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures
about young Solomon's prayer for wisdom, again a period of silence, and
then discussion. The meeting then turned over to the person who was to
lead the discussion of the topic but a man at the end of the table said
"Wait a minute." He reported that he had just flown in from
St. Louis and because of the trip had not planned to attend the meeting.
Then he said that because of what had just happened, he had to come. He
had just returned from visiting his facilities in St. Louis where he announced
his decision to close two plants. He stressed that given all the financial
information he and his top management were convinced the business decision
was correct. Nevertheless he was bothered. He said the discussion about
loyalty the month before told him he had to be the one to go and deliver
the news. He had to look his people in the eye. He determined that he
had to carry out the closing in a manner that was best for the employees,
the shareholders, and others. As a consequence his company extended medical
benefits, provided outplacement help, and where possible attempted to
absorb the people laid off within the organization. The decision and action
weighed so on his mind that he had to come back and report to the Woodstock
Business Conference group what had happened. Contrast this story with that of Robert Allen of AT&T who in January
of this year announced the layoff of 40,000 over the next three years;
28,000 people are slated to lose their jobs this year.. Mr. Allen explained
that these huge personnel cuts were needed so that AT&T could compete
in the new unregulated telecommunications environment, maintaining its
position of dominance in long distance and making inroads in local telephone
service. Business analysts agreed that AT&T had to take drastic action in
order to contend in the new competitive environment. However, a firestorm
of criticism descended on Mr. Allen who became, at least for a time, the
very symbol of corporate greed. The press sharply questioned the fairness of Allen's firing others. News
stories recalled some of Allen's earlier business moves which were termed
major blunders and miscues that had jeopardized AT&T's competitiveness
in the first place. They noted that Allen and others at the upper echelons
of AT&T management who made these blunders were lavishly compensated
in sharp contrast to the 40,000 co-workers who will be on the street.
When asked how he felt about the fairness of his generous compensation
in light of all this, Allen responded: Did I make the decision [in order] to increase my personal wealth?
Hell, no. Increasing shareowner value is the right incentive for me
to have at AT&T. Is it the right incentive for me to affect 40,000
people? Is it fair? Hell, I don't know if it's fair. I don't make
the rules. This account of a recent significant business decision illustrates the
complex and often contradictory demands placed upon today's business executives
and managers. Similar decisions of perhaps lesser magnitude but, nevertheless,
identical impact on individuals, families, and communities experiencing
"downsizing" or layoffs have been and are being made daily.
Mr. Allen's business decision was also a moral decision, affecting himself
and his upper management, the 40,000 employees who will lose their jobs,
the remaining AT&T employees who, Allen says, should have much better
long-term prospects, the shareholders of the most widely held business
in the world, and telephone customers. One way or another, all of us.
Today, business demands constant dedication on the part of the busy executive
who must attend ceaselessly to the enterprise in order to keep it viable
and growing, to meet competition, and to make a profit. The executive
must account for his or her decisions to the board of directors, the shareholders,
outside financial analysts, reporters, government regulators, employees,
and other stakeholders. A massive organization like AT&T exemplifies the fact that the business
enterprise itself plays a fundamental role not only in the lives of its
employees but also in our public life. As executives and entrepreneurs
address the needs of their companies, as they evaluate, judge, and act
on behalf of their businesses, they are constantly making moral decisions
that affect not only themselves and their organizations but also the broader
community and society at large. Corporate executives and managers face
risks and problems in today's business environment that place extraordinary
additional demands on them for leadership, and indeed for moral leadership.
Many moral issues confront business leaders. Some involve questions of
compensation equity, conflicts of interest, diversity, sexual harassment,
discrimination. Others involve financial reporting, tax cheating, insider
trading, industrial espionage, bribe-giving or bribe-taking, embezzlement
or other white-collar crime. Moreover managers, and their companies, may
be held accountable for all manner of injuries to individuals or to the
environment resulting from malfeasance or negligence by employees. As educators of management professionals, you know better that others
that managers and business leaders must concern themselves with increasingly
changing, ever more complex issues as they mediate conflicting claims
to financial and social prosperity. In doing so they draw upon their own
personal convictions, beliefs, and experience about what is the right
thing to do. Whether or not an individual is able to articulate the particular
ethical or moral values involved, these values, like gyroscopes, provide
the guides which ground an executive's decision. For better or worse,
these values also shape the corporate culture itself, the structures and
systems which support the enterprise. When questioned about a particular business decision, most executives
are unable to articulate fully the moral and ethical values grounding
his or her decisions. Remember Mr. Allen who said, "Is it fair? Hell,
I don't know if its fair. I don't make the rules." Some business
executives would deny that moral and ethical values have anything to do
with business decisions and actions. As we know many deny that religious
faith has anything to do with business. They maintain that the world of
business and commerce must be divorced from the life of faith. A business
executive confirmed this at a recent meeting I attended of business leaders
and local pastors from several churches. He said: "A person I employ
told me Christianity has no place in business. I could not accept that
but I lacked the words to refute his claim." The sad fact is that those who believe that their faith should impact
their lives as business persons find little help from their churches or
congregations. "I see little connection between the sermons I hear
on Sunday and my life the rest of the week," another executive complained.
A third said: "I work in a dehumanizing business where the bottom
line at the end of the day is everything. There has to be more to life.
Sunday does not connect to the rest of the week for me." The professional church people at this meeting acknowledged that they
do not understand and cannot speak to the aspirations and yearnings of
people in business. "I don't have the vocabulary to communicate with
business people," one minister confessed. "I need to rely on
metaphors," she said. Anecdotal accounts such as these are reinforced by the research of sociologists
investigating ethics in business. [See for example, Robert Wuthnow's God
and Mammon in America and Robert Jackall's Moral Mazes: The World
of Corporate Managers.] People are hungry to figure out how to relate
faith and work but have trained themselves to bracket or compartmentalize
the two. The research also suggests, however, that easy acceptance of
a world where faith and work are sealed off from each other actually runs
counter to the yearnings of today's business men and women. The problem resulting from this bracketing is particularly acute today.
The traditional institutional carriers of values and morals in our country
- - the churches, educational institutions, and government - - have faltered
as prime agencies for moral formation and reinforcement. So, business
and the individuals who influence the corporate culture now assume central
importance as the bearers of moral values and mediators of moral behavior,
whether they want to or not. By default then, the schools that educate
our professional managers now may have to shoulder additional responsibilities
to aid business leaders to recognize and address ethical and moral issues.
Given the ethical conflicts in contemporary American business and the
apparently limited impact of the institutional church, how is it possible
for a business person to move beyond bracketing and denial, hunger and
restlessness? Paradoxically, spiritual yearning and materialism simultaneously
mark our society. Can the Judeo-Christian tradition, address the apparent
gap between one's faith and one's experience in the marketplace? It can and does. The Judeo-Christian tradition sees business as a calling,
a vocation. This tradition highlights the fact that business persons are
stewards, entrusted with of God's creation, when they employ their talents
and skills and manage the assets at their disposal for the creation and
distribution of wealth, employment, products, and services. To answer
the call, the manager needs to be able to perform with skill and competence.
Hopefully, he or she can do so with peace of mind. But too often, sleepless
nights follow the pressure filled days of business judgements, decisions,
and actions. In their personal and business lives, many people hunger
for a wholeness that unites religious, ethical, and business values in
an authentic way. How can people be helped to recognize and address the
desire for unity and integration? The Woodstock Business Conference is a national movement of spiritual
and social renewal for the business community. Its aim is to help business
leaders focus on their work as a call from God and move toward greater
human authenticity. Its mission is to establish and lead a national organization
of business executives to explore the Judeo-Christian tradition in order:
In the course of a two-year pilot period of testing various methods and
approaches, an effective process emerged which is now in use in chapters
in Washington, Detroit, Long Island, Boston, and Omaha. This process
is being currently offered to groups in other cities. Achieving the threefold goals of the Woodstock Business Conference requires
continuing, cumulative effort. Progress does not happen automatically;
we have to be giving thought and paying attention to what we are doing.
The Woodstock Business Conference process has a design, concrete steps
or stages, which are the practical means to the desired goals. Woodstock Business Conference participants address the practical day-today
issues confronting busy business executives in monthly chapter meetings
within a framework which facilitates focus, engagement, and informed action.
They take care to identify values consistent with their religious commitments,
to the end that decisions and actions will be based upon ethical principles
informed by and growing out of their religious faith. The format is a
helpful process, not only for the meetings themselves, but also for use
between meetings by individuals reflecting on their daily work and making
practical decisions about work, particularly where there are ethical implications.
The approach and the program of monthly meetings are deceptively simple
but each step is vital to support an atmosphere of faith inspired reflection.
The meeting begins on time and ends on time. It takes place at the same
time, on the same day of the month, at the same place. A sample of topics
which have been addressed during chapter meetings includes: Business as
a Vocation, Trust and Loyalty, Compensation, Leadership, Managing in the
Grey Areas, Greed, the Use of Time, and A Moral Vision: Creating a Corporate
Culture Consistent with Judeo-Christian Values. Does the process work? I know it does. Our Detroit group began in the
Fall of 1994. It was sponsored by Greg Ulferts who offered it to his Board
of Advisors. Fr. Gerry Cavanaugh S.J. acts as its chaplain. In March,
Joe Scallen the coordinator for the Detroit group helped arrange for me
to speak with a number of the participants after the regular monthly meeting.
One told me: The group has helped me develop an ability to listen. I value my time
with the group because I have found insight through listening. The insights
might not exactly come at the time of the meeting, but they come unexpectedly,
that day, a week, or even a month later. Business problems do not go away. The issues do not get any easier. But
from sharing, praying, and discussing together, new insights arise for
the participating managers and executives, perceptions are sharpened,
fresh frameworks for understanding emerge bringing about growth and change
for the better. Participation yields results. The program is exciting, educational, affirming, and often challenging.
Another Detroit executive told me: I have seen people get more open, and I have learned to challenge my
own assumptions. It has been very positive. I have learned from listening
to others dealing with challenging moral situations such as firing,
or going after the money and forgetting family, or the need to take
care of the organization as a whole rather than simply individual or
selfish pursuits. Participants find that communities are formed, changes occur, and they
do improve their business climate. People report a sense of peace instead
of sleepless nights, steady discernment instead of chaos. One called it
his "monthly moral checkup." A Chief Financial Officer of a healthcare organization told me: "A
challenge in any large organization is how to lead in a consistent manner.
How do I provide necessary guidance and example for others? In meeting
with this group I learned to be more open, to challenge assumptions, to
ask whether this is the morally right thing to do?" The Woodstock Business Conference provides a process and the opportunity
to help business leaders. It is an example of collaborative peer ministry
based upon the actual experience of participants reflected upon theologically.
This is promoted in no small part by the initial prayerful reading and
reflection upon Scripture. These business leaders not only make ethical decisions but grow as ethical
people. In doing so they are fulfilling their vocation, responding positively
to God's call. Notions fundamental to the Judeo-Christian tradition such
as vocation, stewardship, human authenticity, solidarity, and the common
good all support this quest and offer the means to affirm the relevance
of religious faith to business practice. Yes, it is both possible and
fitting to be a good business leader and a person of faith. Greg Ulferts offered the Woodstock Business Conference as an opportunity
for growth for those from the Detroit business community who supported
his school. In the process he graced their lives. We, at the national
office of the Woodstock Business Conference, provide the necessary resources
to help others offer similar experiences. In this regard, we supply a
step-by-step blueprint for organizing and facilitating a WBC chapter.
Our Process Book explains and illustrates
the method. It provides Scripture readings, focus questions, and background
readings from the business press for 16 topics, and explains the theory
behind the method. We continue to support our chapters by providing resources
for additional topics and issues which arise out of the interesting and
challenging monthly discussions. We also publish a newsletter, the Woodstock
Business Conference Report, to help WBC members and friends connect
and keep up to date. I am very grateful for this opportunity to speak with you today. I would
be pleased to share some of the stories we have heard from WBC members
which better illustrate the growth they experienced by their participation
in the groups. Obviously, if there is interest on your part, I would be
happy to show you how easy for your school to sponsor your own Business
Conference chapter. Woodstock Business Conference Telephone: 202-687-6565; FAX: 202-687-5835; E-Mail
Messages
For more information about
the Woodstock Business Conference contact:
Woodstock Theological Center
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1137See also: