Biblical principles need wise interpretation in business applications
Employees want to receive a fair wage, to work in a safe environment, and to be respected. Employers want their employees to work towards the benefit of the business efficiently and consistently. The dramatic examples where this does not occur only reinforce the rule. Burkett’s descriptions, if followed as rigidly as they’re written, would not produce the results employees and employers want.
An employer who, in the name of his Christian faith, enforces a structure of morality that requires his employees to abide by the teachings of Jesus will create two problems. First, the people who are genuine in their desire to follow Jesus are likely to end up experiencing their work as a judgment zone where their every decision is silently weighed to test its adherence to the owner’s Christian interpretation. Second, those who have no desire to follow Jesus are likely to conclude that being a Christian is a straight-jacket life that complicates business matters and that God is watching everything they do to catch them in some mischief.
While the Bible contains wisdom and instruction relevant and valuable for business people, the writings of Christian authors on the subject need more than a grain of salt before application. Even a secular business person is capable of recognizing the destructive nature of failing to pay taxes, running one’s business with less revenue than expenses, or setting business goals. Burkett’s descriptions of Christian business people who ‘discover’ these truths and apply them begs the question, where on earth were they getting the foolish business ideas Burkett argues against? His book’s subjects didn’t need a reorientation to biblical principles, they needed exposure to wide-spread business practices!
The enforcement of biblical principles that Burkett prescribes would create unnecessary boundaries in a business that already has a sense of ethical responsibility, and would only engender hostility in a company that did not. If his audience is, as I suspect, the Bible Belt, he would do more good to recommend they abandon the title ‘Christian’ than to suggest they add a veneer of biblical ethics to their failing businesses.
Were I to select literature for the managers of my company to read, I would take pains to ensure ‘Business by the Book’ never made the list. If my employees are not convinced we should treat our employees fairly, should pay taxes, or should think ahead then I’m in more trouble than this book can save save me from!
In place of this burdensome book, I will instead maintain a concise description of our vision and character as a company. These concise bullet points will describe what our business looks like when it’s functioning well. When the values are not useful for my employees to settle matters I will re-word or remove them so that they are, but I will not keep adding constraints until there’s a 224-page manual for business practices.