I am an adjunct faculty member in Eastern University’s Fast Track MBA program. The issue of integrating our faith with the curricula I teach speaks to overriding purpose of Eastern College offering a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Current day business enterprise as practiced in our society is generally depicted as an amoral activity driven solely by the desire for profit. Unfortunately that depiction has substantial validation in our common experience. One wag has it that, looking at our society today we see ample demonstration of a culture that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. If a Christian institution seeks to join in on the production of new MBAs to enter the world of business, it should be looking at why another MBA program is needed, and what can that program offer that can make a difference in the world of business. I believe that having a curriculum that is grounded in and integrated with the principles of my Christian faith answers that question.
I facilitate instruction in the area of quantitative methods – arguably a part of the curriculum that can at first seem the most remote from the underpinnings of Christian theology. Its purpose is to equip the MBA student with a familiarization of the more common quantitative models used in the operations facets of an enterprise. To some, the curriculum appears numbers-driven, sterile, and insensitive to the human side of business. Where is the need for the grounding of a curriculum in our faith felt more keenly? In this quest I employ basically four methods in my attempt to maintain the perspective of using quantitative methodologies in a qualitative framework when managing a business.
The first method is through links with Scripture. Ken Burkett has said that after prayer, the most referenced topic in the Bible is money. He has a lot of evidence. But in addition, the Bible deals again and again where the Holy Spirit has used quantitative based or related tools to help those chosen by God to lead. I have used Exodus 16 to illustrate just-in-time inventory protocols, and Second Chronicles, chapters 3 and 4 to introduce program evaluation and review techniques, and Genesis 1 for critical path management. The purpose is to share with the students the perceived hand of God in the order that springs from the chaos that surrounds us. The danger here that a facilitator must avoid is relying on the examples as Christian gimmicks just to get a rise out of the class. That is where the second method helps out tremendously.
This second method is the use of stories that illustrate the ethical and moral dilemma that a sterile quantitative analysis can lead a decision maker to if he lacks a qualitative internal compass. These stories are often similar to those shared in The Daily Bread or The Upper Room. They must spring from the honest experience of the storyteller to be effective. If they can be related back to Scripture, or to the general track of a person or group’s spiritual journey, then they have considerable impact. Which leads to the third method that a facilitator can use.
The third method is personal witness of confronting, succeeding or failing in making a business decision through the reliance on/or rejection of the results of a quantitative methodology when viewed through a qualitative framework – in my case one I am growing in though my relationship with Jesus and the study of the Bible. I have come to often rely on the words of John Newton at this juncture:
Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor yet what I hope to be, I can truly say I am not what I once was... By the grace of God I am what I am!
The key point is that we all must make use of the tools we have while we grow in our ability to apply them in such as way as to fulfill the Great Commandment. In this respect, the way in which a facilitator deals with the stresses that the students are under, the manner in which criticism is given in class or on a paper, the process of grading itself are all opportunities to profess our Christian witness. If the facilitator can do this in a classroom, why can’t a businessperson do likewise in a workplace?
The fourth and final method I use is prayer. I pray for the students, and I ask them to pray for me. This is a process not only of surrender to God’s will, but also one of making yourself vulnerable in the eyes of the participants, and inviting them to be vulnerable with you. The most effective bosses I have ever had are the ones who have exhibited a willingness to honestly admit that they need their associates in the workplace. I find that this level of honesty in the classroom invites a participation and ownership in the learning process on the part of the students that is invaluable in making the course material relevant.
In conclusion, I see the issue of faith integration in my curriculum as one that is vital in the delivery of the body of knowledge within a framework that protects the original intent and promotes its effective use. The process of assimilating the quantitative tools presented is meaningless without an ethical framework, or moral standard within which they are to operate.