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For many years I traveled around this country teaching business seminars mostly in customer service and communication areas. What I taught were principles based on the Bible. My job was to teach something that would work, and I know from experience that Bible-based principles work. And they work in American business just as effectively as anywhere else.
Usually, when we see people who operate without integrity, they have a very short-term perspective, and their lack of integrity will always come back to haunt them long-term. Living our lives by biblical principles allows us to sleep good at night, because we know they will prove right in the end.
Proverbs 21:21 tells us, Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor. In part one, we defined pursuing righteousness as always trying to do the right thing. But what is the right thing? We must have a standard, right?
Today, everyone wants to use their own definition of the right thing. It’s called situational ethics—the ethics depend on the situation. But we’ve discovered this doesn’t work so well. And American businesspeople are starting to realize we need some unshakable and immovable values and codes of conduct to be successful!
There’s no doubt God’s Word gives us that standard, and as Christians in the marketplace, we can go to it with any dilemma we face and find guidance to know what the right thing is. Then, of course, it becomes our responsibility to obey and put it in practice, regardless of the results.
To bring this right down where we all live, we’ll look at two more real-life case studies and see how God’s Word applies in these ethical choices.
Case #2
You work for a manager who has a large ego and feels threatened by anyone who makes suggestions for improvement. You have an idea for a change in procedures which would improve the department’s efficiency, save money, and serve customers better. It would also make life on the job more pleasant for everyone in the department.
Your colleagues agree, but you must have your manager’s approval to make it work. If you want to get his approval, you know you must make him think it’s his idea. If you simply present it as your idea, with your rationale, it is not likely to be approved.
So, you’re thinking of ways to do this, but you’re concerned your plan may border on deceit and dishonesty. However, you’re also concerned with getting the job done.
Is there a problem here with honesty? Is this manipulative? If so, is this wrong?
Here’s a passage that gives us some guidance in this decision:
I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).
You know, as we practice integrity in a world which often doesn’t, we are exposed, and we may appear to be naive and simple—like sheep, operating in a world of wolves. You may have felt this way on your job.
Remember, Jesus has sent us out exactly that way; if we practice integrity in every area of our lives, it may well appear that we are at the mercy of all those wolves, and they’re going to devour us. But we don’t have to worry, because we’ve got Jesus on our team, fighting that battle for us.
But as Jesus went on to say, we are not to be naive in our dealings, but rather, we are to be shrewd. Let me remind you shrewd does not mean deceptive or manipulative. Shrewd means “astute or sharp in practical matters.”
So, based on that principle, I would think you could find a way to present your ideas in a non-threatening way, dropping seeds here and there and helping this difficult boss come to your conclusion. Since the motivation is to do what’s good for the customer, company, and employees, shrewdness would lead you to find a diplomatic, yet honest, way to have your idea accepted.
There were times when Jesus was very shrewd in his dealings with people. For example, do you remember when the chief priests and elders tried to trap Jesus, asking him what authority he had to teach and do the things he was doing? Jesus answered them very shrewdly. Paraphrasing him from Matthew 21:23-37, he said, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?”
Now, Jesus knew he had them trapped with this question. Any answer they gave would be bad for them, so they had to answer:
“We don’t know.” Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things (Matthew 21:27).
That, I believe, is an example of being wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And in this case study example, you should find a way to get your idea accepted without seeming like you’re just pushing it.
And that reminds me of another passage:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time (1 Peter 5:6).
Allowing someone else to take the credit for what you’ve done is certainly a way to humble yourself. That’s not easy to do, is it? You truly must be motivated for the good of others to have this attitude. And it will be humbling, which means God will honor you for it, in his time.
Case #3
A bright young lawyer works hard to get a position in a prestigious law firm. She does her work exceptionally well, she works many hours of overtime, she aspires to be a partner in this firm someday.
The firm has billing hour goals for each lawyer, and the goals are often unrealistic. Our young lawyer, being a Christian and a woman of integrity, turns in exactly the hours she has worked, which she knows to be more than most of the other lawyers in the firm actually work. Yet it appears to be less, because everyone else pads their hours on their reports.
She has an annual review coming up, and she knows the subject will surface. Her billing hours are not what the company would like.
What does she say to the managing partner who questions her about her hours? What will she do if she is encouraged to pad her hours? What effect could it have on her career?
The ethical course of action is very clear in this case. It is without question wrong to pad your hours, and she has done the right thing in turning in only what she has truly worked, no matter how it makes her look. The question now is, how does she address this situation during her review without pointing a finger of condemnation at others?
Really her only answer is to focus on herself and keep the focus off others. “Those are the actual hours I’ve worked. I’ve kept accurate records, and it’s an honest accounting of my time.” That’s her answer.
If her management should explicitly ask or imply that she needs to turn in more hours, she will then have to address it more specifically. Perhaps she could ask, “Do you mean, then, I should be working more hours, more overtime, in order to bill more?”
If she has already established that she’s working considerable extra hours, this will flush the issue out in the open. It’s unlikely, especially in a law firm, that she will be explicitly asked or told to pad the hours.
However, let’s face the fact, if she doesn’t comply, she might be overlooked by the powers that be. She may discover promotions pass her up, and the partnership she wants isn’t offered.
Can you and I, as marketplace Christians, maintain high levels of personal integrity without adverse effects on our career? That’s the question I posed at the beginning. And the answer is, we should never ask the question. This may sound strange but let me explain.
As Christians in the marketplace, or anywhere else for that matter, we should be so committed to doing what is right—pursuing righteousness—that the consequences of that course of action become inconsequential. It simply doesn’t matter whether it has adverse effects on your career, or whether it advances you. In either case, you’re going to do the right thing.
If this is your heart desire and if you go to God’s Word for guidance whenever you face these sometimes less than clear situations, I can promise you he’ll give you guidance. And when you pursue righteousness and love, with pure motives and a genuine concern for others, you can be certain God will stick by his end of the bargain. As Proverbs 21:21 tells us, you will find life, prosperity, and honor.
To apply Bible standards in our lives on a regular basis takes more strength and power than any of us have naturally and normally. It takes supernatural power. But the good news is Jesus Christ came to this earth, died, and rose again to provide for each of us the power we need to live supernatural lives—lives of integrity, lives that care about other people, lives that are pleasing to God.
I challenge you to recommit yourself to a life of integrity, doing the right thing at any cost.