slides/notes from workshop delivered for Business Colab (Sheffield) exploring Values in the workplace, including consideration of the impact and contribution of Christian Values

2. "values in the workplace –
a paradigm shift, or a passing fad?"
07786 492313
www.adrianashton.co.uk

3. Who am I for you to bother listening..?
• Worked with different faith communities to develop, grow, (and kill
off) different enterprises
• Keynote speaker at conferences and within national programmes on
how faith influences business practice and decisions (including
structurally)
• Only freelance consultant globally to annually publish an impact
report on myself based on values
• Auditor for quality management standards (including some that are
based on values)

4. But why bother with values?

5. Business cases for values
• Employee recruitment, engagement, and productivity
• Stronger point of differentiation
• Better compliance
• Strengthened supply chain
• Enhanced customer relationships
• Continuation and succession
• https://www.christiantoday.com/article/spirituality-in-the-workplace-
boosts-morale-values-among-employees/49426.htm

7. But don’t take my word for it
Personal boycotts 2018;
ethical consumer, 2018 ethical markets report

8. ethical consumer, 2018 ethical markets report

11. Changing business models
• Slavery
• Recycling and circular economy
• Sustainable agriculture and fishing
• FairTrade and FairTax
• Environmental Profit and Loss reporting
• McDonalds (!)

12. Where does God fit into a conversation about
values in business?

15. http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/a-biblical-model-for-organizational-values/

16. Christian workplace values (as identified from
various google search results…)
• Diligence
• Fairness
• Respect for others
• Acceptance without judgement
• Avoidance of laziness
• Recognition (aka just remuneration)
• Integrity
• Trust
• Caring
• Loyalty
• Servant leadership
• Grace
• Benevolence (doing unto others as you would have them do unto you…)
• Stewardship (micro and macro)
• ‘people before profit’ (wealth should enrich lives, not be its own goal)
• Social justice

17. And in applied practice:
• Quakers
• Salt Network (Christian Aid)
• Christian Socialists (co-ops and IPS Acts)
• Governance Codes reflective of books such as Leviticus and Proverbs?
• 10 commandments – declaration of human rights – UN global goals =
values framework for all businesses everywhere…
• Legislation always seems to be catching up with business practices and
society’s values…

18. So why the disconnect about values and God
and work?
• All started to go wrong with Henry VIII and dissolution of
monasteries..?
• Employment legislation and protected characteristics = direct/indirect
discrimination (less favourable treatment), harassment, victimisation
• But works both ways: not just to protect individual believer, but also non-
believers for how they are treated by Christians…
• https://www.eauk.org/assets/files/downloads/Christianity-in-the-
Workplace.pdf

19. • Timblerland CEO Jeff Swartz is well-known for his
commitment to promoting corporate social responsibility.
• For example, Swartz moved to sever the company's ties
with a Chinese factory where human rights violations
were allegedly occurring despite the fact that it took a hit
to the shoemaking company's bottom line. Swartz
attributed his motivation to his own personal Jewish
faith in a 2008 Fast Company profile.
• "I can't show you the scripture that relates to the rights
of a worker, but I can show you text that insists upon
treating others with dignity," he said. "It says in the
Hebrew Bible one time that you should love your
neighbor as yourself, but it says dozens of times that you
shall treat the stranger with dignity."

20. So how to get better at ‘doing values’?
• Old Testament littered with stories of God’s people having ‘lapses’,
and New Testament with stories of founded churches ‘losing the plot’
after founder moves on
• Succession a key issue (see Quakers)
• Tensions with compliance and legislation
• Businesses focus on KPIs – but how to create a metric around a
value?

23. “Go forth into the world…”
What will hinder your being able to take these conversations further
and start to use them in how you lead and manage your businesses?

24. • https://www.faith-in-business.org/
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-016-3323-3
• http://www.icf-online.org/