Christian Scripture and Human Resource Management

Human resource (HR) management is one of the foundational “windows on the heart” reflecting the individual and collective values and beliefs of leaders, managers, and employees regarding the “theology of work” and its relationship to human nature. Does the HR system honor biblical principles through shaping the values and incentives to serve, work, lead, and manage in truly a God-honoring and joyous, humble, and accountable fashion? Are we “hearers and doers” of the Word as stated in James 1:23, or do we forget to honor the principles of servant leadership as modeled by Jesus? As it states in Luke 12:48 (NRSV), “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.” This book is dedicated to assisting Christian leaders and managers to assume the mantle of servant leadership in human resource management (SLHRM), the God-directed and endorsed means for achieving our Great Commandment and Commission missions. Servant leadership is the approach to leadership promoted by scripture and provides the greatest opportunity to honor God and bless our employers.

It is vitally important to establish the biblical foundation for the various servant leader principles that comprise SLHRM. This chapter provides a systematic list of key biblical attributes organized by five global servant leader attributes: servanthood, stewardship, servant leader behavior, servant leader character, and servant leader foresight. Each attribute includes biblical examples followed by contemporary servant leader application insight.

One of the great management challenges is cultivating long-term organizational culture change. There are many key decision points in the success of such a complex effort, and hence many “veto” opportunities to impede change progress. In this chapter, we present a diagnostic change resistance typology that identifies the various motivational attributes that contribute to opposing change. This chapter concludes with an outline of a change management process to overcome resistance and obstacles from a SLHRM perspective. It is important to embrace the belief that the power to change organizational culture begins with committed SLHRM leaders who love their employees and other key stakeholders.

SLHRM organizations possess a passionate commitment to dignified employee treatment. Employees are not just “resources,” but souls made in the image of God. Promoting employee rights is a foundational Christian servant leadership principle. How we treat employees is an essential interface between core servanthood and stewardship values in an organizational decision-making environment that typically possesses a schizophrenic view toward employees. In one perspective, employees are human beings with souls while from another standpoint they are instrumental “costs” of production that must be minimized in our hypercompetitive marketplace. Which of these views prevails? For SLHRM organizations, the response is simple: employees are not costs, but the human flesh and blood foundation of the enterprise.

Performance management and performance appraisal is the single most important “window on the soul” SLHRM practice. An appropriate performance appraisal analogy is the tending of a garden. In securing a bountiful harvest, the most difficult work is at the beginning as we toil in clearing the land of rocks, brush, stumps, and trees. Then we must plow, sow, and weed. The harvest comes later. The great daily demand placed on managers through “fire-engine management” reduces the available time for employee development. This creates a vicious cycle as poorly trained and managed employees generating increased “downstream” problems. The answer is patient, long-term investment in employees. A major solution to the time dilemma is promoting a culture of delegation and empowerment. Hence, supervisors devote less time to micromanagement responsibilities and more time to strategic thinking and planning, value-enhancing goal setting, problem solving, and communication augmenting activities that increase quality, efficiency, and effectiveness. When managers possess more time to plan, they can invest more time and effort in “management by walking around” thereby cultivating relationships. It is also important to understand the basic terms used related to performance management and performance appraisal. (See table 8.1 for more detail.)

The SLHRM organization and leader can never lose sight that the collective policies and practices of human resource management are the product of individual and group decision making. The SLHRM culture rests upon a worldview and the associated attitudes and behaviors that construct the edifice of HR policies and practices. Hence, there is always ethical, moral, and spiritual accountability for our HR systems. No matter how formalized, routinized, and bureaucratized, human free-will decision making is at the heart of ethical and moral accountability. Hence, a SLHRM organization begins and ends with leaders who embrace character growth and integrity through self-knowledge. Growth in SLHRM is a lifelong and intermittently painful, individual and collective growth process. We can all relate to the central role of trial and tribulation in the shaping and restoration of the heart. A mountaintop experience inspires given the breadth and depth of vision, but the close-quarter spiritual warfare combat involved in the Christian maturation process is waged on a daily basis in the dense undergrowth of the spiritual jungle with limited lines of sight. We must rely on the Holy Spirit for direction, strength, and wisdom to resist the hidden dangers of ambush by the idols of this world that seek to rule our hearts. We must resist the root cause of our great enemies of discouragement and despair, as there are specific actions we must undertake while relying on God to do the rest.