The food is delicious. And the recent headlines are just as tasty: "Fast Food with a Side of Faith"... "A Game of Chicken"... "Chick-fil-A Flap"... "Last Supper at Chick-fil-A"... to name but a few. The shortest simply reads, "Squawk."
So what is all the squawking about? Chick-fil-A, an Atlanta-based privately held company, has long been known for operating on Christian principles and values, most notable of which is that all 1,600 of its restaurants are closed on Sundays. To honor the biblical teaching to rest on the Sabbath, Chick-fil-A has always been closed on Sundays, thus forgoing one of the highest revenue days of the week for the restaurant industry. CEO Dan Cathy, like his father Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, lets his Christian faith serve as a guide for his business ethics and decisions. In addition, the Cathy family's WinShape Foundation has generously supported many organizations associated with their values, including orphanages and summer camps for underprivileged children. They also contribute to groups that advocate for a traditional definition of marriage and support ex-gay conversions.
Dan Cathy, in an interview with the Baptist Press, acknowledged that he personally believes that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, due to his understanding of his Christian faith ("guilty as charged," was his now infamous response). Neither he, nor Chick-fil-A, is accused of illegal discrimination against its customers, employees, or franchisees based on sexual orientation or anything else.
Cathy's comments and the ensuing global response made for good theater, entertaining press, and occasionally intelligent conversation about individual rights, First Amendment speech, religion, and corporations. But leaving all this rhetoric and hyperbole aside, why did the personal views of a CEO of a private, largely Bible-belt-based chicken fast food company to his church press on a public issue turn into a global media feast?
Regardless of one's stance on the issue of gay marriage, it seems to me we're missing an unexplored story. Namely, should and if so how does a CEO integrate his or her deepest held beliefs and values into the corporate culture and ethos, and what are the issues (positive and negative) that this raises? What happens when a CEO chooses to anchor a business model in a set of values, whether rooted in spiritual or secular thought, to create a corporate culture, an unofficial DNA that grounds and guides a company's ethics? Does it matter if the company is privately or a publicly held?
Most CEOs I know, the great ones at least, all say that a leader needs to have a North Star; some fixed point of reference to stay ethically grounded, personally and professionally. For many, this North Star is their faith. For Timberland, it was the founder's Orthodox Judaism. For Whole Foods, it is the CEO's Buddhism. For Chick-fil-A, it is the founder's Christian faith. For others, it may not be religion but a quiet source of decency and depth acquired from parents and others in their life.
Managers and employees face the same dilemmas as CEOs. If your faith teaches you values that other laugh at or disregard (e.g. Sabbath rest), what do you do? What if your faith says that following the spirit of the law is as important as the letter, and your company doesn't? What if your faith says that work should bring you meaning and purpose, and not just a paycheck? What if your faith says you can't touch certain food items, or you must wear certain clothes, or pray at certain times, and others disrespect you as a result? Or if your faith teaches you to treat women, minorities, gay people, and the disabled at work with the same rights, respect, and compensation as everyone else, but your company or country culture does not, what do you do?
In these days of seemingly unending corporate misbehaviors, the importance of business leaders being anchored with a strong moral compass seems more important than ever. They need help creating ethical corporate cultures and places to work where employees can find meaning and purpose, and be treated with dignity and respect. But what does this mean in practice? What are the possibilities and pitfalls of integrating faith and work?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. And stay tuned for more posts on integrating faith and work.
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/chick-fil-a_and_the_question_o.html
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