(If you have found this sermon helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org or www.ChristianWisdom.info)
In Ephesians 6:5-9, we read that servants are to be obedient to masters. Presumably today this applies to employees and other workers. They are to be obedient to whatever authority is over them. Reading a little further we find that employers (masters) must be worthy of obedience, faithfully caring for employees, and not using threats so accomplish management goals. In 1Timothy 5:8 we read, “But if anyone not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” These rules are applicable to management practices within churches, schools, businesses, and other organizations. The workers in an organization are management’s “household”. Management is responsible for the well-being of his/her organization.
Researchers today are finding that the most successful organizations are those in which the organizational leader establishes a climate of “well-being” for members of the organization. This sense of well-being was described as “Eudaimonia” by the 4th century B. C. Greek philosopher Aristotle. Eudaimonia comes about as the result of human flourishing; i.e., a sense that one is performing well and living up to one’s potential by making meaningful contributions. There is a philosophical concept referred to as “natural law” that determines flourishing as opposed to
not-flourishing in the broad ontological sense; i.e. “being” as opposed to “entropy”, entropy being the degradation of matter to the point of wasting away into non-being or chaos. Healthy being or “well-being” occurs when people are habitually living in conformity with natural law. Aristotle calls good habitual modes of functioning by the term “virtues”. Christianity has a similar concept. It is, however, expressed in the negative: The opposite of living in conformity to God’s natural law is “sin”, which the soul, if awakened to perception, sees as a loathsome threat to spiritual life; i.e. the cause of “death” in the broad ontological sense of the word “death” (see Romans 7:22-25).
If the human soul seeks happiness (in the sense of harmony with natural law) as Aristotle seems to maintain, then the things that make us most “happy” are the habits of virtuous living which are in harmony with natural law, and therefore favorable for survival (in the ontological sense). Jesus taught something similar in the section of Scripture known as “The Beatitudes”. He lists reasons for being blessed (happy), all of which suggest that obedience to the natural law of God may result in suffering in this life but will ultimately result in happiness in the next life. For example, “Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward in heaven….” (see Matthew 5:3-12). Being in harmony with natural law is the same as being in harmony with God’s law, for God created natural law by which the universe and everything in it is held together. The closer we ourselves conform to “natural law”, the closer we come to resembling Christ, the teleological end goal that God intends for humanity.
All physical matter was created through the word of God which separated that which exists from chaos (see Genesis 1:1-26). The word of God is the natural law. That which exists must conform to the natural law if it is to continue to exist. For example, an element such plutonium has an atomic structure. So long as the atomic structure conforms to the “law”, by which it was called into being, it exists as plutonium. If you break up the internal atomic structure of plutonium, plutonium ceases to exist. It is no longer in conformity with the law by which plutonium was defined, separated by God’s word, the natural law, out of chaos. Extrapolate this into all that exists, including humanity itself. If humanity goes against the natural law which make us human; i.e., if one engage sin habitual “sin”, not conforming to the natural law by which “human” is defined to be human, or in the biblical sense is defined to be a son or daughter of God, humanity breaks down, decays, entropies, and eventually the human soul is obscured to the point of being lost.
The concept of natural law is in harmony with both the Bible’s description of the fall of man as described in Genesis, and the redemption of man, as described in the New Testament. It is also similar to Aristotle’s concept of right and wrong, good and evil, as put forth in his Nicomachean Ethics. Now the really interesting thing is that recent secular research supports both the biblical concept of God’s law, and Aristotle’s concept of good and evil. That which is favorable to survival in the ontological sense; referred to by Aristotle as “well-being”, is the good we should be striving to reinforce in both our personal and our institution life.
Certain patterns of personal and social behavior are conducive to physical, spiritual, social, and psychological well-being, and to survival itself (not just survival in the physical or economic sense but in the larger eternal ontological sense), and this we call “good”. Other patterns of behavior are not conducive to physical, social and psychological well-being, and these we call “bad”.
Let me introduce now an assumption that can be drawn both from the Bible and from current understanding of best practices as far as organizational management is concerned. In the religious sense, everyone has an inner, if unrecognized, longing for redemption; i.e. to become like Adam before the fall, to become like Christ. In the social sense, the typical person is seeking “well-being” in the work place, a sense of contribution to in a meaningful way to the mission of the organization.
Every person has an inner yearning first to do no harm to others, and second to live up to one’s potential, making meaningful contributions to organizational and societal life. This desire may be corrupted, obscured, even as our very soul has been corrupted, obscured, through “original sin”, lost to the point of being unrecognizable. But a fundamental kernel of desire remains buried somewhere in the recesses of the human psyche. This should and can be the starting point, the foundational understanding upon which our philosophy of organizational management is based, and the starting point for the evaluation and supervision of staff , employees and co-workers in Christian and secular organizations alike. All people, whether they recognize it or not, even if only a small seed buried within them, the desire to conform to natural law; i.e., do what is right and good, do what defines us as human.
This starting point requires a shift away from concepts of evaluation and supervision which seek to identify what’s wrong with employees and mandating that they fix their weaknesses to a focus on what employees do well, and giving them the opportunity to self-identify inadequacies work on growing in those areas, and doing more of what they do well. This in turn creates a positive organizational climate which stimulates more commitment, more engagement, more productivity, more creativity, more resilience, more loyalty and improved health among employees.
Sadly, this type of enlightened organizational management is not happening on a wide-spread basis. Research by the Gallup Organization shows that around 70% of employees are not working up to their potential. Research suggests that the reason for this is that many employees are not experiencing a sense of well-being in the workplace. This in turn is related to underlying philosophical assumptions governing the way an organization evaluates and supervises its employees. A sense of well-being among employees can be either improved or harmed by the way evaluation and supervision is carried out.
Additional research conducted by the University of Michigan shows that having a happy (in the Aristotelean “Eudaimonia” sense) workforce is the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy. This has led some researchers to conclude: "Sales and clients’ satisfaction does not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of you clients."
The organizational leader who creates a work place environment that supports employee well-being also creates as a result, as borne out by research, employees who are 32% more committed and 72% more satisfied with their jobs. Because of this and similar research results, The University of Michigan Ross School of Business Center for Positive Organizations has set as its mission statement “to inspire and enable leaders to build high performing organizations that bring out the best in people.”
Aristotle observed how habits can result in unhappiness or in happiness. Our goal then in building effective and efficient organizations might well be to foster habits of positive thinking in our employees and volunteers about the value of the work they are doing. This is fundamental. We want to foster an organizational culture of meaning, purpose, resilience and positive relationships. This will result in the building of four virtues, four habits of thought among the organizations work force: self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience. These habits contribute to “well-being”.
In contrast, research shows that almost 40% of employees suffer from stress at work. One survey has revealed that 7% of respondents reported being hospitalized because of work-place stress. Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, has written a revealing book titled “Dying for a Paycheck” in which he identifies stress in the workplaces as being responsible for much of the chronic disease from which so many Americans suffer today. Job stress, according to Pfeffer, may cause as many as 120,000 deaths each year. He believes that organizations should be held responsible not only for their environmental impact but also for the impact they have on human beings who work for them. Many organizations, Christian organizations included, are failing in that respect.
The World Health Organization has identified stress as the #1 health epidemic of the 21st Century. An evaluation and supervision model which adds stress to our employees and volunteers rather than contributing to a sense of meaning, purpose and well-being is antiquated, ineffective, and, by the standards of natural law both unethical and unfavorable for the long-term survival of the organization as well as the health of its employees and volunteers.
As organizational managers, leaders and board members, we have the power to boost the sense of well-being among our employees and volunteers by changing our evaluation and supervision methods. We can foster positive thoughts and behavior among our employees and volunteers. As a result, positive thoughts and behaviors can, in time, become habits of the mind which transform not only the quality of life among our staff members, but also the overall effectiveness of our organization. Caring for the staff by first implementing a proper system of evaluation and supervision can and will result in immense benefits for customers, clients, and everyone for whom our organization seeks to provide products and/or services.
Workers often face formidable challenges, some of which cannot be avoided:
1. Heavy workloads
2. Long hours
3. Tight deadlines
4. Lack of control over many circumstances
But these challenges do not have to result in discouragement, disengagement, pessimism, and lack of meaning in the work place.
By setting a climate of spiritual well-being which helps workers find meaning in what they are doing, other aspects of well-being will follow—physical well-being, intellectual well-being, relational well-being and emotional well-being. This in turn will lead to virtuous habits among workers: resilience, positive outlook, an attitude of generosity, and focused attention. These habits grow into the dominant patterns which characterize our organization as a whole and carry out into the communities we serve impacting positively on the larger world as a whole.
A sense of well-being among employees and volunteers in an organization depends on the leader. The leader directly influences the well-being of each and every member of the organization. Leader support for the worker is critical. A survey by the American Psychological Association concluded that 73% of respondents working in organizations with leaders committed to workplace well-being said that their organization was thriving while only 11% of employees in organizations whose leaders were not supportive said that their organization was thriving.
Under enlightened leadership, the evaluation and supervision model will be one of support for employees and volunteers. The enlightened leader recognizes that workers are the single most important asset of any organization.
(If you found this sermon helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org)
