The Dawn Treader

Miller describes what he calls the "Faith At Work" movement.  He calls it a bona fide social movement, not a flash in the pan.  He asserts that business consultants and academics of many stripes are promoting spirituality at work ... in droves.

Miller is careful to mention that the Faith At Work movement is non-sectarian.  It is not pushing any one religion.  It merely pushes back against the separation of one's faith from the workplace.

He adds, "I find it problematic when a company, particularly a publicly traded one, overtly embraces one faith tradition as its official or de facto religion of choice."

... and then asks,

"Are we meant to be Christian marketing representatives and Christian CEOs or are we meant to be excellent marketing reps and CEOs who happen to be Christians?  In each case, I believe it to be the latter."

Miller uses the balance of the article to identify theological motifs (justice, honesty, dignity) that are grounded in scripture, and shows that these make good business sense too.

His proposal is modest.  Let's make companies that are "faith-friendly".  In so doing, we will allow employees to be more holistic and complete.

Analysis:

Miller bends over backwards to not step on any theological toes.  I realize that he is writing for a non-sectarian magazine on Ethics, and that his article appears next to ones written by a Muslim, a Rabbi, and a Buddhist.  Go figure.

Is having faith enough?  Is the goal merely to be spiritual people?  Is that the real problem that businesses are mean to people who want to be spiritual?

I don't think so.  The real problem is sin.  People are selfish, narcissistic, proud, greedy and dishonest.  Why?  Because that is our nature.  The problem is a moral one.  We allow our ethics to be guided by pragmatism, not principle.

Rather than shoot for such a low target as faith-friendliness, let's look at the case of Dennis Bakke.

Bakke is the CEO of AES, a little enterprise with $ 8 billion in revenue and 40,000 employees.

From Bakke's web site,

In Bakke’s view, successful business people should be guided by principles and purposes “meant to be ends in and of themselves, not techniques to create value for shareholders or to reach financial goals.” He is disturbed that society’s preoccupation with economics often leads people to calculate their worth as individuals based on their salaries or wealth and to judge their leaders more on financial results than on values.

Bakke views winning—especially winning financially—as, at best, a second-order goal. Yet, most business books do not go beyond this objective and thus fail to define the ultimate purpose of an enterprise. Bakke challenges us to broaden our definition of organizational performance and success beyond dollar value. The “timeless values and principles” he advocated during his tenure at AES, he says, stand on their own merits, whatever a company’s share price.

Bakke, an evangelical Christian, allows his faith to guide his philosophy of the organization.  The goal is not winning.  The goal is not profits.  It is stated in his top 10.

2. The purpose of business is not to maximize profits for shareholders but to steward our resources to serve the world in an economically sustainable way.

Wow.  How about that for a paradigm shift?

5. Fairness means treating everybody differently.

Hmmm... fails the political correctness test, no?

6. Principles and values must guide all decisions.

Excellent.

AES meets David Miller's modest goal of faith-friendly.  It goes beyond it too.  Bakke recognizes that the real problem is not a lack of faith-friendliness -- it is that corporations are driven by greed, and people are tempted to sacrifice principles for pragmatism.  In short, sin.

Bakke retooled his company ... not just making it faith-friendly, but making it values driven and fun.  It is fun to be treated with dignity, be given responsibility, and to work for a company that is ethically guided by scriptural principles.

Check out Bakke's New York Times Bestselling book .