Christian Thought Relative to Work in God’s World
MELISSA\’S POST:
Christian Thought Relative to Work in God’s World Christians’ fundamental calling in the New Testament is not to specific social careers, jobs or roles, but to new ways of life, which has been described as following Christ (1 Peter 2:21), having fellowship with Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:9), and leaving darkness and moving towards the light (1 Peter 2:9).
The concept of work as vocation comes to mind when one asks himself or herself how they propose to follow Jesus Christ. Hardy (1990) suggests the concept of vocation which picks up on New Testament’s image of the church as a body—everyone is called to follow Jesus Christ as the head of the church, but each individual has to assume a special role in the body on grounds of a unique gift. Hardy’s concept of work as vocation maintain that the same principle holds for the general society. Hardy suggests that vocation is humans’ divine calling for addressing others’ needs. God has thus chosen to use humans as his agent in ensuring His work and will is done (Hardy, 1990).
According to Hardy (1990), divine economy is a system that depends on working collaboratively and investing oneself in made-made organizations and the creation.
Implications to Employee Engagement/Retention and Globalization Stewardship serves as the main principle of Hardy’s divine economy. Stewardship theory supports relationship-centered collaboration between members of an organization that facilitates trustworthy and pro-organizational behavior in managers (Eddleston, Kellermanns & Kidwell, 2018). Stewardship can be demonstrated by fostering a moral obligation that binds individuals and organizations to work together to attain a mutual goal without exploiting either party (Harrison et al., 2017).
Stewardship requires leaders to position long-term interests of the group before personal desires or individual self-interest. Hardy maintains that God chose to make people interdependent to foster collaborative work and service to each other. When people find their own place in such an interlined system of mutual support, they start to take part in God’s way of caring for humans by investing themselves in the divine economy.
Stewardship provides for a working environment that fosters employee motivation, which aligns to Valentine et al. (2020) recommendations on creating an organizational environment that promotes employee engagement and retention.
According to Valentine et al. (2020), organizational attributes have a direct impact on employee work attitudes, motivation and engagement.
Employee turnover and absenteeism typically occur when an organization is not managed well, with high employee retention occurring when an organization creates a satisfying work environment (Valentine et al., 2020). A satisfying work environment motivates employees to take ownership of their work. Keller (2012) describes that when an individual takes ownership of their work, they tend to be more committed to it. Managers can therefore capitalize on this by creating conducive work environments for enhanced employee engagement and improved productivity.
References
Eddleston, K. A., Kellermanns, F. W., & Kidwell, R. E. (2018).
Managing family members: How monitoring and collaboration affect extra?role behavior in family firms. Human Resource Management, 57(5), 957-977.
Hardy, L. (1990). The fabric of this world: Inquiries into calling, career choice, and the design of human work.
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.Harrison, V. S., Xiao, A., Ott, H. K., & Bortree, D. (2017). Calling all volunteers: The role of stewardship and involvement in volunteer-organization relationships. Public Relations Review, 43(4), 872-881.
Keller, T. (2012). Every good endeavor: Connecting your work to God’s work. New York, NY: Dutton/Penguin Group.Valentine, S.R. et al. (2020). Human Resource Management (16th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
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