Reference no: EM132327672
Assignment - A Discernment Checklist for the Business Leader
After reading and contemplating the "Vocation of the Business Leader" and reflecting on the "conviction that all Christians are called to practice charity in a manner corresponding to their vocation and according to the degree of influence they wield" each student will responses to the checklist questions poised at the end of the publication. It is not essential that every single question be addressed specifically, but the majority of questions should be responded to specifically, in general, or in a combination response where more than one question is addressed. Despite your choice to include responses to every specific question, each student is required to respond in detail to the three "In Summary" questions (As a Christian [or Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, etc.] business leader, am I promoting human dignity and the common good in my sphere of influence?; Am I supporting the culture of life, justice, international regulations, transparency, civic, environmental, and labor standards, and the fight against corruption?; Am I promoting the integral development of the person in my workplace?). Although there is no formal minimum or maximum length required, the average submission that meets my expectations is typically around 4,000 words. However, I am much more concerned about quality than quantity. You are required to incorporate at least five external sources in your responses to the questions that follow the assigned article and you should consider including any additional comments or suggestions that you deem beneficial.
Questions: A Discernment Checklist for the Business Leader
1. Do I see work as a gift from God?
2. Is my work as a "co-creator" truly a participation in God' original and continuing creative act?
3. Do I promote a culture of life through my work?
4. Am I living an integrated life or is it divided, separating Gospel principles from my work?
5. Am I receiving the sacraments regularly and with attention to how they support and inform my business practices?
6. Am I reading the Scriptures and praying with the will to avoid the risk of a divided life?
7. Am I sharing my spiritual path with other Christian business practitioners (my peers)?
8. Am I seeking to nourish my business life by learning more about the Church's social teaching?
9. Do I believe that taking the dignity of the person seriously in my business decision-making will promote integral human development while making my company more efficient, more agile and more profitable?
10. Do I recognize the importance of strong and lively "indirect employers" to ensure the right levels of labor protection and community dialogue?
11. Am I sensitive to the fact that if corporate decisions are not deeply grounded in the dignity of the human person, they will be prone to instrumentalist and utilitarian constructs that fail to promote integral human development within business?
12. Do I regularly assess the degree to which my company provides products or services that address genuine human needs and foster responsible consumption?
Organizing Good and Productive Work
13. Do I provide working conditions that allow my employees appropriate autonomy at each level? In other words, when I organize human resources, am I mindful of the subsidiarity principle in my company management system?
14. Am I assuming the risk of lower level decisions to assure that this autonomy is genuine?
15. Are jobs and responsibilities in my company designed to draw upon the full talents and skills of those doing the jobs?
Meeting the Needs of the World
16. Do I see the responsibilities of my company as extending to all the participants and stakeholders who contribute to its life, not simply to the interests of the owners?
17. Am I creating wealth, or am I engaging in rent-seeking behavior?
18. Do I truly accept the open market, or am I engaging in anti-competitive practices?
19. Is my company making every reasonable effort to take responsibility for externalities and unintended consequences of its activities (such as environmental damage or other negative effects on suppliers, local communities and even competitors)?
20. Have employees been selected and trained to be able to meet their responsibilities fully?
21. Have these responsibilities and their scope been clearly defined?
22. Am I making sure that the company provides safe working conditions, living wages, training, and the opportunity for employees to organize themselves?
23. Have I embedded a set of comprehensively defined principles and integrated them into my performance measurement process? Am I honest with my employees about their performance?
24. In all countries where my company is engaged, is it honoring the dignity of employees and of those indirectly employed? Is it contributing to the development of the communities hosting these operations? (Do I follow the same standard of morality in all geographic locations?)
25. Do I place the dignity of all workers above profit margins? Creating Sustainable Wealth and Distributing it Justly?
26. As a business leader, am I seeking ways to deliver fair returns to providers of capital, fair wages to employees, fair prices to customers and suppliers, and fair taxes to local communities?
27. Does my company honor all its fiduciary obligations to providers of capital and to local communities with regular and truthful financial reporting?
28. In anticipation of economic difficulties, is my company taking care that employees remain employable through appropriate training and variety in their work experiences?
29. When economic difficulties demand layoffs, is my company giving adequate notification, employee transition assistance and severance pay?
30. Does my company make every effort to reduce or eliminate waste in its operations, and in general to honor its responsibility for the natural environment?
IN SUMMARY
31. As a Christian business leader, am I promoting human dignity and the common good in my sphere of influence?
32. Am I supporting the culture of life; justice; international regulations; transparency; civic, environmental, and labor standards; and the fight against corruption?
33. Am I promoting the integral development of the person in my workplace?
Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar