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Delbecq challenges church leaders to conversation on spirituality of organizations
2002-120-7
5/14/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
The decentralized business world of the future highlights the need for leaders who are not just trained in business techniques, but spiritually formed as well.
That's what Dr. Andre Delbecq told trustees and friends of the Episcopal Church Foundation at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California on May 2. Delbecq, professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, is also a member of the advisory board of the Business Leadership and Spirituality Network (BLSN).
'My experience with senior business leaders has taught me they are both salt and light in their organizations,' Delbecq said. 'They have accepted the Great Commission and are fulfilling it where they work.'
Delbecq described the business environment of the new global economy as one where creativity and authority exists, not at the center of a command and control hierarchy, but in the edges--on the production line and at the junction of customer and customer service. For the first time since the beginning of the Industrial Age, he said, employers need employees who bring 'whole selves' to work--employees who are creative, who take responsibility for the quality of products, and who care about the mission of their organizations as much as they do.
Delbecq observed that 88% of the adult population spends the majority of their time at work. 'The contemporary workplace is where one finds the neighbor Christ calls us to love,' he said. 'It is the new neighborhood. People do not leave their faith at home when they go to work.'
Delbecq challenged the Episcopal Church Foundation to confront the question of how the Church may enter into more meaningful and constructive dialogue with business leaders who are seeking guidance as they address the challenge of spirituality and business leadership.
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