Friday, March 18, 2011

Doing Virtuous Business: A Review

Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, a professor at Yale University, provides a cogent defense of capitalist society in his recent book Doing Virtuous Business. While the intent of manuscript focuses upon the incorporation of faith-based practices into corporations, he demonstrates clearly the worthlessness of socialist critiques of modern capitalism. Malloch does concede that examples of perverse business practices exist, yet he changes the argument into one where left-wing critiques are forced to understand their contributions to these shortcomings.

Malloch focuses upon spiritual capital, which he defines on page 60: “the long-term investment of trust that is contained in a religious faith, and which enables people freely to elicit the best in each other, however menial the task.” He described numerous examples of organizations that are founding upon religious principles and demonstrates their profitability. His underlying assumption stated that faith-based practices produce better profits and satisfaction for all involved.

He correctly states that “we are works in progress, and God has a purpose in it all” (xiv); however, I left this book with a fear. That fear is based upon an omission by the author because he never addressed an implication. Instead of driving home that faith acts as a personal change agent, he left impression that anyone with any belief in any higher power will attain profit by having faith. By remaining silent on the issue, Malloch inadvertently sides with historians like Paul E. Johnson who state that religion is little more than social control (see his work A Shopkeeper’s Millennium). After all, if faith is just a tool that can produce corporate profit and philanthropic drive or control the behaviors of the masses, then faith is of little, eternal value. While the author does have a short chapter (only 13 pages) devote to answering some questions, he needed more time on the issues mentioned above to fully explain away the concern.

The book is structured logically in an easy-to-follow manner. He begins through a discussion of spiritual capital but refuses to define it until much later in the work. He moves through the classical assumptions – both Greek and Roman – of virtue and highlights why he selected the specific virtues in the book. The next two chapters discuss “hard” (leadership, courage, patience, perseverance, discipline) and “soft” (justice, forgiveness, compassion, humility, gratitude) virtues in significant detail with specific, corporate examples provided for each. In my opinion, the strength of the work rests in these sections and Appendix 1 where he restates the virtue and summarizes the examples.

Assuredly, this work advances content that should reach the hands of every corporate CEO. However, I caution readers to avoid viewing these pages as a get-rich-quick scheme. Faith must change the heart before it can change the life. Even then, Jesus Christ beckons us to choose whom to serve – God or money – because no man can serve two masters.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

2 comments:

  1. You make valid observations, but my problem was different: Malloch praises CEOs' words but turns a blind eye to their actions. Too often when there's a discrepancy, he whitewashes the actions and excuses serious moral lapses, even crimes.

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  2. I cannot agree more, Kevin. I had two large paragraphs that stated your objection. I cut those and stuck with the statement about faith changing the heart in order to change the life. You and I both know that actions speak louder than words.

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