Why the infatuation with management books?
One of the phenomenal publishing successes of all time has been In Search of Excellence, by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. Subtitled “Lessons from America’s Best-run Corporations,” this book was first published by Harper & Row in October 1982 and has since sold more than 2.4 million copies in hardcover and one million in paperback. That is about 3,400 copies each day—a record for Harper’s 157-year history.
And this may be just the beginning. The authors have produced a series of audio- and videotapes that are sweeping the business world, as well as an ‘In Search of Excellence’ desk calendar. In January, the Public Broadcasting System presented a 90-minute TV documentary on the book and its impact.
Both Peters and Waterman have themselves become multinational corporations, jetting around the world to deliver lectures to this group and that, reputedly at $ 15,000 a shot. Their volume stands at the head of the list of a series of best-selling books in the management field that have come to the fore in the past few years. Anyone who takes time to browse the displays at city or airport bookshops will be familiar with Megatrends by John Naisbitt and The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, both of which have made megabucks for their authors and publishers. Yet these are merely the best known. At the time of writing, for example, half of the books listed on Time’s nonfiction best-sellers list focus on management.
Why The Search?
When you consider the figures, it becomes obvious that In Search of Excellence is being read by people outside the board rooms of corporate America. There simply are not that many managers in the business community. (It’s not even certain there are that many readers.)
Among those outside the board rooms reading the book have been church and parachurch leaders. Some denominational executives and parachurch CEO’s have even made it required reading for their subordinates. (Every Evangelical Covenant Church pastor, for example, was urged in a letter from the denomination’s president to read the book.)
How can one account for the success of Search and so many other books on management and management principles? A first and obvious answer is that they fill a gap: many of the people who find themselves in management positions today, whether in business, government, or the nonprofit sector, have had little or no training in management skills. Like Topsy, they just grew into their present jobs—and they are all too conscious of their personal inadequacies.
If this is true of secular corporations, it is even more true of the church and parachurch organizations. Seminaries and Bible colleges do not normally offer courses in management, yet most of their graduates become managers sooner or later. Management courses are sometimes available through the commerce departments of Christian colleges, but pastors and parachurch leaders seldom darken the doors of these departments.
It usually takes three or four years for Christian leaders to realize that their formal education has been woefully lacking in this area; some, alas, never recognize their need. To remedy this ignorance, they begin to look around to see what help is available. They may pick up books like the ones mentioned above, or they may have the good fortune of having a friend in the corporate world who recommends a seminar by the American Management Association or some other group. They may hear of seminars offered by an organization like the Development Association of Christian Institutions in Dallas or Fuller Theological Seminary’s Institute for Christian Organizational Management in Pasadena. Or they may join the Christian Management Association, a Los Angeles-based AMA look-alike for managers of Christian organizations. Seeking to overcome a “handicap” imposed upon them by the lack of educational training, they seek to improve their management skills in whatever ways they can.
Structure Versus The Spirit
Not everyone approves, however, of this new emphasis on management in Christian ministries. Still very much a part of evangelical thinking is the sense that the secular structures of the business world work to limit the free expression of God’s Spirit springing forth from these spiritual enclaves. Indeed, the article on “Spirituality” in the recently published Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker, 1985) lists the current interest in administration as one of the primary reasons for the “dearth of spiritual leadership and direction in the evangelical world” today.
Moreover, some feel this particular pursuit of excellence is simply another example of the world’s encroachment on the church—the latest attempt by Christians to ape current secular concerns. A graduate of the Harvard Business School, who had been tremendously helped in the past by a Christian ministry, recently asked to be removed from its mailing list “because I see that you are beginning to use the same principles they taught me in my M.B.A. program.”
But should Christian organizations seek to use bad management principles as they go about serving the Lord? Is there nothing of value for Christian ministry taught in the business schools? Are the principles of management that are to be applied to churches entirely different from those that are to be applied to business and government agencies?
It may come as a surprise to the Harvard grad that the particular organization whose style bothered his Christian conscience used to find it difficult to hire any other than single staff or people who had independent incomes, due to the limited support they received from the Christian community (and in spite of the fact that it was the most effective ministry in its area of specialization). Today staff members are still not overpaid, but at least they are paid a livable wage (and on time).
Biblical Overtones
“Management” should not be a dirty word. It is, perhaps, the best English equivalent of a key New Testament word: oikonomia—usually translated “stewardship.” A “steward” (Greek oikonomos) in New Testament times was essentially a business manager; his responsibility was to manage his master’s affairs faithfully. It was a concept that everyone was familiar with, so it became a key image in the teaching of Jesus, Paul, and Peter to indicate the nature of Christian discipleship and the apostolic mission (Luke 12:41–48; 1 Cor. 4:1–2; 9:16–17; Col. 1:24–26; 1 Pet. 4:10).
Christians do not cease to be human when they commit their lives to Christ. Rather, they share a common humanity with all people. Therefore, it is not surprising that they should learn truth from people who are not themselves believers. The church has done so in the past, to its everlasting benefit, and will doubtless do so in the future. This will come as no surprise to anyone who believes in the biblical doctrine of creation.
One of the striking features of a book like In Search of Excellence is the way it is filled with scriptural teaching without being even slightly aware of the fact. When the authors enumerate eight basic principles followed by the “excellent companies,” what they are really doing is commenting on the residual Christian values in our Western culture. For example, Peters and Waterman’s “Productivity through people” (where excellent companies treat the rank and file as the root source of quality and productivity gain), fits neatly into Christ’s own ethic of viewing people as more important than principle. And their “Close to the customer” (learning from the people you are serving) simply reiterates Christ’s call to selfless giving and to understanding the people we are seeking to serve spiritually.
The gospel has made a profound impact on Western society, and the business world has been touched as much as any other segment (as it has, in common with other institutions, been affected by sin). Thus, it would not be difficult to attach specific Bible texts to each of Peters and Waterman’s principles, although a believer in general revelation and the “image of God” in humankind should not find it necessary to do so.
Reviewed by W. Ward Gasque, vice-principal and professor of New Testament at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.
In Search of More Excellence
CHRISTIANITY TODAY asked Ward Gasque to name two or three other management titles that he considered to be “must” reading. He responded with five (and one magazine). His reasons for selecting each follow:
Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, by Peter F. Drucker (Harper & Row, 1973)
“The ‘Bible’ of modern management studies.”
The Christian Executive, by Ted W. Engstrom and Edward R. Dayton (Word, 1979)
“Attempt to combine contemporary management studies with Christian leadership principles.”
The Organized Executive, by Stephanie Winston (W. W. Norton, 1983)
“A wonderful look at new ways to manage time, paper, and people.”
Theory Z, by William G. Ouchi (Addison Wesley, 1981)
“How successful Japanese businesses operate and how their principles can be applied here in the states.”
Spiritual Leadership, by J. Oswald Sanders (Moody Press, 1980)
“Attempt to systematize principles of Christian leadership as derived from the Bible.”
Harvard Business Review
“This outstanding quarterly journal offers a distillation of management theory and practice in extremely readable form.”
An Excerpt
“Minister or manager? Unfortunately, too many Christian organizations are led by men or women who have a gift for ministry and little training (or perhaps even inclination) for management. Witness the large number of leaders of Christian organizations who are ordained. Of course, ordination does not exclude a person from having management gifts and skills, but it does give an indication of the leader’s basic training and probable bias. This emphasis on ministry or ministering to people may lead the organization back to the same dilemma that the local church faces.
But assuming we have selected the best managers we can find to lead the organization, do we not still have a responsibility to minister to each other? Of course.
Even a tough army top sergeant knows that people are the ultimate key to a successful organization. A great deal of thought and study has been given to how to make people more productive by giving them more satisfying work, by providing adequate remuneration, by placing them in an environment which is conducive to their well-being, and by generally helping them to feel good about themselves, the organization, and their task. Most of the management literature indicates that all of this is done for the good of the organization, or the good of the product. This is probably only a half-truth. Most men and women, be they Christian or non-Christian, enjoy helping others and seeing others operating effectively.
But what about the Christian manager? If he or she is leading an organization made up of members of the same mystical body of which he or she is a part, is there not some special relationship implied?”
The Christian Executive, by Ted W. Engstrom and Edward R. Dayton (Word, 1979).
