Managing As If Faith Mattered

Christian Social Principles in the Modern Organization

Helen J. Alford, O.P., and Michael J. Naughton

Catholic Social Tradition

The Catholic Social Tradition series offers an in-depth exploration of the Catholic social tradition’s most persuasive and relevant responses to the pressing issues of our times. Managing As If Faith Mattered, the inaugural volume in the series, challenges the often-held double standard of private and public moralities. Authors Helen Alford and Michael Naughton bridge the fault line between work and faith by engaging current management issues with Christian ethics.

Recovering a rich social tradition found within Christianity, Alford and Naughton connect ideas such as the common good, virtue, and social principles, with concrete management issues such as job design, just wages, corporate ownership, marketing communication, and product development. In their hands, economic and social challenges become opportunities for managers to integrate their beliefs with their working environment and make decisions based on the tenets of Catholic social tradition.

HELEN J. ALFORD, O.P. is a professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas, Rome.

MICHAEL J. NAUGHTON is Director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought at the Center for Catholic Studies, St. Thomas University, St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as associate professor with joint appointments in the Department of Theology and the Graduate School of Business.

ABOUT THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TRADITION SERIES: The series examines the social teachings of the Church as they affect the situations and organizations in which people spend their lives. It provides guidance to individuals attempting to discern what actions are appropriate as they strive to integrate personal beliefs with their response to specific economic and social challenges. Editors Michael J. Naughton and Todd David Whitmore hope that the volumes in this series will invigorate Catholic social thought through public discourse.

Reviews

“. . . This inspiring book examines many timely questions related to faith and work through the lens of Christian social tradition. This creative and much needed study will be welcomed warmly by all who are searching for balance in their faith, life, and daily work.” — Religious Studies Review, Vol.30, no.3, July 2004

“The authors take Christian theology and practice seriously and strive for nothing less than a holistic integration that joins work and spirituality.” — Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology, May 2002

“The book focuses on the role of virtues in human management, organization and achievement and shows how they can be applied. This is an intriguing claim which is well deserving of the treatment it receives here.” — Theological Book Review, January 2002

“_Managing as If Faith Mattered_ is a godsend. Intelligent and sensible, it never fails to recognize the realistic tensions of business life. This book is a must for all observers and students of modern business practice, but its usefulness goes further than that: it deserves to be read in every corporate strategic planning office in every company. It is an oasis in the spiritual desert of business.” — The Tablet

“There is much to be praised in Managing as if Faith Mattered. It does not shirk many of the hard questions, such as the purpose of business, justice in wages, the need for broadening corporate ownership, or the evil of marketing harmful or useless goods. In many cases, it takes a truly courageous stand fully consistent with the radical tradition of papal social teaching. It would indeed be a useful text for seminars among Christian managers and executives trying to rediscover how to make the faith they profess part of their working lives.” — New Oxford Review

“The book deserves to be read carefully and discussed thoughtfully by everyone directly or indirectly involved in business or in business education. . . . [T]his book paves the way to a restructuring of business education in a manner that facilitates a discussion of the role of ethical values in every academic course of every discipline of study at all centers of higher education.” — American Catholic Studies

“. . . [I]nteresting reading . . . careful attention to logical development demonstration of evidence, and prescriptions for concrete action.” — Theology Today