Sabbatical Application -- Business
Title of project: The Economy of Communion Business: Is There a Difference that
Makes a Difference?
Abstract:
This study examines the internal managerial practices of (14) U.S. businesses formed
and operated as a part of the Economy of Communion (EoC). Through a series of
management queries via open-ended questionnaires and telephone interviews, it seeks to
identify distinguishing characteristics among EoC companies, particularly with regard to
managerial values and philosophies, and their impact on operations, marketing strategies
and decision-making employee practices. The study looks for common themes and
unique challenges in EoC businesses, and asks how a strong commitment to the common
good that is rooted in spiritual beliefs, influences organizational culture, structure,
policies and performance. A series of 6-8 surveys will be administered to each company
over a 9-month period, each focusing on different aspect of the business, e.g., marketing,
operations, human resources, financial management, internal policies, competitive
strategies, and communication of mission and values.
A. Significance of this work.
Background. In Laborem Exercens (1981) John Paul II identifies three spheres of values
necessarily linked to work: the personal, the family and the “great society to which man
belongs.” The project I hope to pursue during my sabbatical addresses all three spheres,
but particularly the third, by examining the formation and ongoing management of a
handful of American small businesses representative of companies participating in the
Economy of Communion in Freedom (EoC).
Chiara Lubich and several friends initiated Focolare in Trent, Italy, as they
struggled through the deprivation and threats of WWII. Believing that “God is the only
ideal worth living for,” Lubich and her companions created what has become an ecclesial
community, also described as a charism of the Catholic Church. With nearly 90,000
members of many faiths worldwide, Focolare emphasizes messages and practices to
inspire unity – within the individual, within families and businesses; and unity across
cultures and faith traditions. This is a unity based on the prayer of Christ to his Fathers
before the crucifixion: “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21). Focolare is a self-described
“spirituality of unity based in love” come to life to give rise to a movement of spiritual
and social renewal.
During a 1992 visit to Focolare members in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Lubich was struck
by the disparity of wealth and the millions of poor living in favelas – or shanty towns –
outside the city. Her spontaneous response to these conditions led her to call on Focolare
members to extend the movement’s principles into business and industry, to address
poverty at a structural level by forming a new kind of enterprise, the EoC:
…which would be run by our people [of the Focolare], who would put all the
profits in common for the poor, having kept what is necessary to keep the business
running. (Gold 2004)
In Lubich’s vision, these enterprises would be run efficiently and profitably by skilled
managers who would “promote the increase of profits, which the business people freely
decide to assign with equal attention” to the growth of the enterprise, people in economic
difficulty, and the diffusion of the EoC culture. Australian researcher, Keith Linard
(2008) describes EoC this way:
This radical social phenomenon is played out in intersecting local and global
networks. Businesses operating within the paradigm form communications and thought
networks spanning the globe, but function typically within local markets.
Today nearly 800 businesses worldwide participate as EoC members.
The Genesis and Intention of This Project. In spring 2008, I worked with coauthors John Gallagher, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Garlow, to research and write a case on
Mundell & Associates, a successful Indiana-based earth and environmental consulting
business founded in 1995 as an EoC company. The Mundell Case was developed as part
of an international project co-sponsored by the UST’s John A. Ryan Institute, to create an
inventory, and perhaps a book of cases addressing questions of faith and work in actual
businesses. As a teaching case, Mundell is written for use in a classroom where the
social, ethical and spiritual concerns of business leaders are given attention comparable to
concerns for economic and competitive matters. It is one of very few, if not the only case,
featuring an EoC business in the U.S. In addition to the paucity of EoC cases, there
appears to be no published research addressing the ongoing management of these
businesses. These findings are confirmed by John Mundell, a member of EoC
international leaders’ group, who reported in a case interview that such information is
virtually non-existent.
Researching and writing the Mundell case involved site visits, hours of interviews
with John Mundell and his employees, as well as independent research on EoC and the
environmental consulting industry. Having thus been introduced to an EoC company and
the challenges it creates, my co-author and I want to broaden the study in a research
project involving additional EoC businesses. While we are interested generally in the
EoC philosophy and its spreading influence around the world, our particular interests lie
in the management challenges posed for individual companies. What are the
distinguishing marks of the managerial values and philosophies in these companies, and
how do they affect operational and marketing strategies and decision-making employee
practices? What common themes and unique leadership challenges arise in the day-today life of these businesses? How does a commitment to serving the common good in
such an intentional and spiritually rooted way (i.e., the “spirituality of unity”), influence
the culture, structure, policies or performance of the business?
Positioning the Research. It would be inaccurate to suggest that I (or we) have
completed an adequate review literature to set the stage for this research. This review is
process now, and we expect to complete it by the end of next summer. At a minimum the
review will include literature that can help us position EoC among l) other historic
movements (e.g., the distributive movement of 20th Century), 2) organizational types
uniquely designed to serve the common good (e.g., nonprofit businesses), and 3) the
current managerial concern with “Corporate Social Responsibility” in both its American
and European versions. A preliminary review of published on EoC companies focuses
primarily on the EoC as a center of entrepreneurial activity, on its sociological and
behavioral dimensions (Linard 2008), and on the history and philosophy of EoC itself
(Gold 2004). Our research interests, on the other hand, lie primarily with the internal
management challenges of EoC businesses operating in the U.S. B. Description of the
Proposed Work.
Mundell & Associates’s founder, John Mundell, is a longtime Focolare member. Since
1995 he has participated in EoC leadership activities worldwide, but particularly in North
and South America. With his help, Dr. Gallagher and I have identified and contacted
other EoC companies in North America to invite them to be subjects for our study; of
those we have contacted to date, 14 have already verbally agreed to participate. We are
in the process of getting confirmations in writing to increase the likelihood that
companies will cooperate in the research through several round of data collection, and
that they will allow their businesses to be identified in the published reports.
Initial data will be gathered through a series of open-ended surveys completed by
the principals of EoC companies in our sample. Distributed at intervals of approximately
six weeks, each survey in the series (of 6-8) will focus on a different aspect of business
operations, e.g., marketing decisions (especially product and pricing); human resources
(including employee development, recruitment and hiring, and workforce diversity);
financial management (practices around internal financing vs. debt); internal policies;
choice of competitive strategies; and communication of mission and values. The surveys
will ask for business principals to describe their business activities in each area overall,
and to provide specific examples, perhaps even documents, that will help to provide a
more complete explanation. As each round of surveys is ended data will be collected and
reviewed, with the expectation that some follow-up phone calls to seek clarification or to
get more information will be necessary. This method of data gathering, clearly qualitative
in its approach, does not require that we begin with an hypothesis for the study as a
whole, or for each round; rather it allows us to “cast a net” in a specific direction, to
examine relevant data, and from that, perhaps, to create hypothesis for testing in future
studies. In our research, comparison of company data, a search for patterns, anomalies
and unique examples will all be part of the process to create what may eventually become
a rich narrative description of, among other things, possible distinguishing marks of EoC
companies.
C. My previous work in the area of this project.
In 2006 the Opus College of Business created a department of Ethics and
Business Law, and I was invited to move from the Department of Management to the
new department. Since then my teaching and research interests have turned primarily to
business ethics and reflective management and spirituality in work. For three years onethird of my academic appointment has been with Catholic Studies, specifically the John
A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought. There my work complements my work in
business ethics, though it more closely incorporates activities around the Catholic nature
of the university and its unique contributions to business. (See vita attached.) In addition,
I have experience with small entrepreneurial business and with case writing that support
my work in the EoC project. The case study typically uses an extensive process and/or
review of corporate documents pertinent to a particular problem situation. Both research
activities are familiar to me, as are the entrepreneurial and small business setting. My
doctoral dissertation was based on both qualitative and statistical research among 14
start-up business, from which I also developed several cases.
D. Specific professional goals for this project.
A close look at my vita will indicate that my research productivity has not been
high, especially compared with current UST expectations. I attribute this to the timing of
my arrival at St. Thomas (research expectations were less significant in the 1980s than
today); to my own primary interest in teaching; and to approximately nine years (midcareer) dedicated to full-time administrative work at UST. Frankly, I am working hard to
improve my research and publishing productivity. The research described in this
document offers me the opportunity to make a unique contribution to the broad field of
business ethics, and more specifically to that area represented by the Academy of
Management’s interest group, called “Management, Spirituality and Religion (MSR).”
During the sabbatical term, I expect to be working with my co-author in putting final
touches on the research we will have done in advance (scheduled to begin in November
2008), and preparing a book manuscript for publication. We will write the book to fit the
business genre that combines case narratives and a systematic review of qualitative data,
(see, for example, Benefiel’s Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations). The
book would be a contribution to literature on business ethics, start-up and management of
small businesses, and to the growing of spirituality and work. I would expect the research
to yield as many as three new business cases, two or three conference presentations, and
at least one article for a major management or business ethics journal.
E. Off-campus locations (libraries, companies, other universities, etc.) Not applicable.