Inculturating Christian Values in Corporate Cultures

This reflective-analytical study is meant to be a light
perception of how Christian virtues can abound between corporate
cultures - even when they clash as a result of pursuing the
completion of their end-services or products.

For example, if a corporate developer were to deal with a
financial institution, one of the possible clashes in corporate
cultures would be in the speed at which they process their end-
products or services. Corporate developers would plan slowly and
very carefully so that the end-product (which usually takes years
to complete) is constructed according to what is planned. In
this corporate structure, workers tend to move slow (with the
exception probably of their finance department).

As for financial institutions, the end-product is money. Thus,
the wise-old adage that says, "time is gold", is at the back of
every employee of financial institutions. So, people and workers
in these financial institutions, move very fast and efficiently
(especially those in sales departments of investment departments)
as they have to take into account of immediate deadlines,
maturity dates, and especially interest rates.

A problem scenario is now experienced when one member from a
corporate developer environment were to deal with someone from a
financial institution. Given the corporate cultural "speed" by
which each one "thinks, moves, acts", and by how they were trained
by their companies, the one from a corporate developer culture
would think and act very slowly, while the one from a financial
institution, would think and act very fast. If both workers,
employees, and managers of both these corporations would forget
the values of knowledge and understanding, clashes would be
inevitable. Knowledge and understanding of each one's corporate
culture can help smoothen out the roughness in dealing with each
other.

Here is where the Christian virtues of knowledge and
understanding come into place. And we can add to it also:
patience, prudence (tact and diplomacy), peace, goodness, and
kindness in interpersonal or electronic communications. This is
how we can make the workplace and corporate environment a more
Christian environment. When each corporate member would be looking
not only at the objective of his or her corporation's mission, but
also at the mission and cultural context by which the other
coporation operates, then there would be better harmony and
understanding between corporations. Peace and profits are
difficult to obtain in these hard times. But it is possible.
Goodness always triumphs over evil (in the long-term and
ultimately). Peace and profits for both corporate entities can
be achieved when the right balance of corporate needs/profits and
corporate other-centeredness is imbued with the Christian
virtues.

For more ideas as to this topic of corporate culture, you may
want to refer to Dolores Lynn Torrell's book, "Heart-Business:
Building a Kinder, Gentler Workplace".