Vocation of a Business Leader: a Reflection

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All these are directed towards the importance of education in shaping future business leaders to be good and responsible citizens and servants of God. The cases mentioned of wrongful acts due to the constantly changing landscape of business prove that there is something wrong with the current and conventional management system. The increased vulnerability of leaders to rewards such as raising profitability is achieved with the expense of stakeholders and the society at large. Therefore, several members of the academe as well as the church provided another approach, and in retrospect, the better option, the multistream management.

Multistream management was propounded by Dr. Bruno Dyck and Dr. Mitchell Neubert, authors of “Principles of Management” (Lugtu, 2012). This serves as a guiding book for business practitioners and members of the academe as well. In relation to the document written by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the multistream management is the new approach which places higher priority on multi-dimensional well-being of the stakeholders. In the same manner as integrating faith into work, multistream management has the same principles.

Compared to mainstream approach, profit is optimized rather than maximized (Dyck & Neubert, 2012). Meaning, success in the multistream management is not only measured in terms of financial gain or material success. Instead, various successes such as employee’s well-being and social responsibility are of higher concern. Leaders in this approach are motivated in promoting the balance of stakeholders’ well-being.

With this new type of teaching approach and using the document “Vocation of a Business Leader” as a guide, current and future business practitioners will be less individualistic and materialistic. Because of this new holistic approach to management, not only financial performance is important but the physical, social, intellectual, spiritual and even ecological are taken into account. Google, for example, is known for its sky-high market capitalization but also in terms of their innovation and management styles. Google’s success is rooted in how they managed their employees – creating an environment where people can work while being themselves unleashed better, productive and more creative employees. A study conducted by Forbes, answers the real motivation of employees. They found out that not only pay or job security are the key motivators of employees but how creative an employee feels is the strongest and most pervasive driver (Sundheim, 2013). Google invested in the various forms of well-being of its employees. Its success is not only within the limits of their generated profit but extends to the creation of workplace where workers can be more than just workers and a means to create profit. A sense of self-worth while performing a job, and what multistream approach promotes, is a much more significant driver.

Although it is a challenge for the church to offer guiding principles in the field of economics and business practice, the relevance is more apparent now. The paper “Vocation of a Business Leader” offers a solution without being too abstract or too dogmatic. In the last part of the paper, it listed a set of questions and although it did not provide specific answers, they framed the right questions. By incorporating the teachings of the Church and as well as scholars and experts, this Catholic social teaching can serve as a guide in the education of existing and future leaders. In conclusion, the study of the Christian vocation of a business leader provides a new sense of dignity to how work is regarded, new set of motivations and a stronger commitment to no longer live a life that is bifurcated but one where faith is integrated – a holistic way of doing business.

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(2014). Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection. In M. Harrington, M. Child, E. Kelly, R. Czerny, & W. Bowman (Eds.). Vatican: Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.