idea magazine

Bringing God into the workplace

May / June 2007

Author and businessman Ken Costa believes the Bible has a lot to say about work-life issues such as ambition, balance, stress andgiving. In this excerpt from his new book God at Work, he examines tough decisions...

Today, we have more knowledge than ever before: we have access to databases, we can surf the net, we can communicate across continents - but the task of making tricky decisions is no easier. We can almost not live without Google.

If knowledge is out there, it is instantly accessible. We are long on knowledge but short on wisdom. How then do we make wise, tough decisions at work?

A senior stockbroker told me that it was not possible to hold a general moral view of the workplace. Harsh choices had to be made, compromises reached and truth had at times to be "qualified" because we lived in the real commercial world where everyone knew the game and would not be dealing "as if the workplace were a church". Special rules therefore had to be applied to the business world.

I have never accepted this. Medical ethics, cyber ethics and business ethics describe different areas of choice with differing complexities, but the choices are all based on the same objective biblical standard. There are right and wrong choices.

One of the richest men in the world, King Solomon, prayed for "a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong" (1 Kings 3.9). All the invented terms such as "inappropriate" and "counterproductive" are efforts to avoid the simple ethical fact that there is a right and wrong course of action which should, without embarrassment, be described as such.

This does not mean that there are instant obvious answers to complex moral questions. On the contrary, there is frequently a process to go through as we reach a conclusion. When seeking a compass through the confusing maze of commercial decisions, I have found four ways of reaching a decision helpful. First, our relationship with God provides the context for all our decisions. We look to the Bible, which provides a moral framework for our actions. Second, we have God-given faculties of reasoning underlined throughout the Bible, and demonstrated by the prophet Isaiah's call: "Come now, let us reason together" (Isaiah 1.18). Third, we are given what Augustine called "a kind of silent clamour of truth ringing inside" - our conscience. This is the Spirit prodding us in a Godward direction. Last, we need to assess the consequences of our decisions not only for ourselves, but also the effect on others. The best decisions are made when these are aligned.

How to be consistent 

Making tough decisions is one of the most crucial issues in the workplace. We need to be clear, robust and determined in making our choices. Of course, everyone makes decisions based, sometimes unconsciously, on a set of values. There is often a tacit assumption at work that we all share a set of common values, but this may not be the case.

Paul Groves, an insurance broker, tells this story: "A client asked me to pass some vital information about his business to the underwriter. I forgot to pass it on, resulting in a very restrictive decision from the underwriter regarding my client's insurance policy and a very annoyed client. My initial reaction was to hide the fact that this was my mistake. It would have been easy to pass it off as the underwriter's neglect and I spent a while trying to work out the best way to do this. However, as I did so, I became aware of a growing sense of shame. I realised, having prayed under my breath, that the only thing to do was to risk the client's anger and tell him that the mistake was mine. So I rang him and confessed. His response surprised me: 'Don't worry - if you never make mistakes, that just shows that you never do anything.' I have learnt a lot from this one, and have become more confident about living out my values in the workplace."

At the heart of all business scandals is an individual person exercising a judgement both of what is right and wrong but also, sadly, of what can be got away with. There is a need for regulation, but these rules of the game are merely a guide and not a substitute for a set of faith-based values. Like our faith, our values will affect our decisions in every area of our lives. In this sense there is no distinction between so called personal decisions and work-related decisions.

Integrity is the word we use when our actions are aligned with our principles and there is no disconnection. This comes into sharp focus when the values that public figures live by are seen to differ from those they promote. We cannot compartmentalise our lives into a private sphere and a professional sphere, with separate rules for each.

• Ken Costa is chairman of Alpha International and a chairman at the investment bank UBS Warburg. God at Work (Continuum) will be accompanied by a course for use in small groups, supported by a DVD and website: www.godatwork.org.uk