Management a function of charity

THAT’S right. Managing people is actually a matter of loving them, and loving them all the way.

While we have to be most thankful for the tremendous light we have gained from the many management theories so far articulated, we have to be very clear that no theory takes off the ground, let alone, flourishes unless it is infused with the living substance of charity.

Managing people, for sure, is not merely a matter of techniques, though techniques and methods, with their corresponding tools and instruments, would always be helpful and necessary.

In this regard, let’s hope and pray that the effort to refine these techniques and methods, and to improve the tools and instruments, would continue. There’s still a lot of room for improvement in this area. But we should avoid falling into the thinking that management is just a matter of playing up these elements in some clever manner.

The reason is that people are not mere objects. They are persons, and as persons they need to be dealt with properly by entering into their mind and heart, giving them the indispensable motives that should also go beyond the material and worldly values and standards.

Their innate dignity as persons and children of God should not be put in brackets in any given moment. They simply cannot and should not be managed to achieve a purely economic, social or political goal. The criteria to measure their efficiency and effectiveness should not just be in purely worldly terms, like profit, popularity, etc.

Charity has to be always the moving spirit behind every management task. It should be a constant, and not only to be seen as the principle or as the result of the management process. It should not be regarded as something that can be turned on and off in certain instances. It has to be on all the time.

No one can actually ignore the requirement of charity for long. While some immediate benefits can be reaped with a mere application of techniques and methods, the same cannot go far unless the demands of charity are truly met.

The human need for charity in the management process will always find a way to be felt. That’s the reason why there are always changes, dialogues, problems in any management environment. When badly understood and handled, this need can explode into violence. And even when well handled, this need will always seek betterment.

We need to understand that this charity is the charity that comes from God. It should not just be a product of our own making, no matter how well-intentioned. Through time we have seen many caricatures of charity that only have the name and appearance of charity but not the substance. They don’t work for long.

This is the charity expressed by Christ who said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” It is the charity that is actually being given to us in an abiding way through his grace. It’s not just an idea, a policy, a slogan, or a mere sentiment. It’s a living and effective thing that embodies all virtues proper to us.

It certainly includes justice, prudence, mercy, affection, compassion, creativity, etc. Remember St. Paul describing it as something that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,7)

We have to disabuse ourselves from the fear that charity would just put us in a weak position in our management activities, or that it would do away with penal justice altogether, or that it would lead us to be easily taken advantage of, etc.

Charity, in fact, would prod us to face certain inconvenient truths and situations bravely and would guide us in tackling difficult decisions to be made.

But it certainly starts with affection, understanding, compassion and patience. It tells us to think well of the others even if they have done some wrong for which justice also has to be served.

It is the charity of God who is “slow to anger and quick to forgive.” It knows how to reinvent itself as often as necessary all the way to death.

This is the charity that will be sustained by prayer and sacrifice, by constant recourse to the sacraments, without neglecting the human need to attain the competence we need in our management activities, which means continuing study and formation.

Charity makes use of both human and spiritual means, human and supernatural means. Only then can our management duties be carried out properly.