Religious Principles and The PxP Model

There have been several reports and news features of late about companies that are run with religious principles at their foundation. Ironically, several of those cited in a recent Wall Street Journal article were based here, in Tampa. Clearly, there are principles at the core of religions that could be very useful and productive as guides to business behavior. Kindness, tolerance, honesty and humility are but a few of those. But this becomes problematic in a number of ways.

First of all, there also principles in many religions that would drive conflict within the workplace. For example, when matters of doctrine arise, how can that be resolved without a religiously monolithic workforce? Do meetings get opened with prayer? If so, what kind of prayer. Does everyone have to pray? Some of the companies the WSJ explored have Bible study classes and other forms of evangelistic activities. How do non-believers get treated? Can they trust in the meritocracy based on the value of their work, or is there always a lurking suspicion that they have a glass ceiling, one that is grounded in their failure to conform/convert?

There are also, of course, legal issues--like can you legally hire only Christians, Jews, etc in order to create that monolithic workforce? That potentially violates the EEOC regulations. But it is also a deep philosophical and ethical matter. One could argue that a privately held business is entitled to establish any criteria for its job descriptions, including adherence to a certain belief system.

Some of the principles that could be natural areas of tension include other, less obvious issues. Will the company healthcare plan cover abortions if the owner is vehemently pro-life? What if an observant Jew wants to change the work week to accommodate a Friday Saturday weekend? Are there five breaks a day given to everyone for prayer in a Muslim company? Does the pay-for-performance structure embrace or set aside issues of faith and observance?

The most important issue though is the matter of how this variation of a "principle-driven" business diverges much from the Powered by Principle model--or whether it does. The bottom line is, it is NOT the same as the PxP model at all, and it is only a profoundly conflated view of the PxP approach that allows for any confusion. A religiously-driven organization simply fails to create the exact context that PxP aims to generate: An aligned organization that uses its strategic core values to guide ALL behavior and policy. Powered by Principle is not, at its heart, about generating morality or ethics--that is just a bonus. Fundamentally, the PxP model is about business results, and about generating a value system that is both inclusive of the ethical and moral boundaries of the organization, AND of its basic business model, stance toward customers and toward the marketplace.