The Essay On Christian Principles In Business Activities.

Students are to undertake research into at least two enterprises undertaking activities in the context of missional business and to critically report on their effectiveness, discussing comparisons or contrast with the models presented in the unit, together with a discussion of the enterprises Christian distinctive/s you need to pick two organisations and write easy for each by using the 5 p models how do they do business according to christian perspective 

City Vision University: An Overview

Business operations are widespread at every part of the globe. The success of every organization doing business is as a result of following the underlying principles. The guiding principles that guide conducting of business activities include the drive for profits, involvement in corporate social responsibility, the addition of value, adaptation to change and efficiency. The principles are in line with the Christianity philosophy on conducting business activities only to some extent. Other principles of doing business contradict with those in the view Christianity. The Christian philosophy values humanity and advocates for morality, equality, value, ethics and putting the needs of others first by giving. Christianity follows the biblical principles of service, faith, creativity, generosity, and promotion of life.

This report describes the effectiveness of The City Vision University and Partners Worldwide in doing business activities behind the Christian philosophy and to their application of the 5p's model of Purpose, Principles, People, Processes, and Performance.

The City Vision University is an online university which was established in 1998 with the objective of providing affordable Christian education through open distance learning.

The institution provides affordable college education with a Christian foundation. Most communities that are underserved and had no such chance to attain higher education due to poverty (Schwartz, 2016). Some faculties such as a recently launched masters’ program are entirely free of charge. The university makes graduates who are employed to the job market and others continue with studies. The programs of City Vision University are aimed at improving the quality of life and include business administration, addiction studies, technology and ministry, urban missions and non-profit management. The purpose of City Vision University is to lead students to the Lord. The mission of education keeps the institution to continue working in a going concern. The overall objective is to Serve the Lord while meeting the other human material needs. Use of money by the institution to give scholarships is honoring of God. Salvation keeps student living within the promises of Jesus. The organization works through discipleship by witnessing Christ to the students. Besides profits, the purpose of existence of human being as a Christian which is achieved by City Vision University mission is to the glorification of God.

The Bible states a set of values that guide the performance of a business owned by a Christian as discussed below.

City Vision University provides education to the underserved. According to the Bible, integrity is doing what is right and is based on truth, honesty, and righteousness.

Christianity and Business Principles

The program of addiction studies expresses the glorification of God. They are committed to free people, the image of God, from the evil of drug abuse, and it is an honor to the creator. Graduates from the institution are an improvement in human life (Philips, 2016). Attainment of excellence is a demonstration of the power of God by transforming lives.

Christianity has a view of doing everything from the heart, and this is the will of God. City Vision University’s commitment to people is depicted in scholarships and salvation.

A Christian business is required to be conducted in processes that thorough, modest and creativity. Truth should control the giving of services by a Christian institution. Christians view themselves as co-creators with God. Hard work and enthusiasm are strongly advocated. The Bible does not condone laziness (2 Corinthians 9:8). Unless there is a critical issue to be solved urgently, the days off from work are Saturdays and Sundays at the institution.

Christianity views people as the most valued of all the creations of God. People are the image of God, and their bodies are His temples. City Vision University has given itself to serve humanity. Firstly, people should be witnessed to Christ’s salvation. Everyone is believed to be created equal, and City Vision University decides to give university education to people to which it is unaffordable it to make them learn just like those who are rich and can educate themselves. Drug addiction is viewed in Christianity as an evil that destroys the body, and this has driven City Vision University to train rehabilitation specialists to take addicts through the process of recovery. Compensation and growth opportunities for City Vision University employees is done in a way to bring the best out of them and in recognition of all their needs (Fontrodona, 2016). Employees are trained to serve with sincerity of heart as they could have when working for the Lord. The institution believes in giving employees what is right and fair with a reasonable respect being an act of giving glory to God.

Christianity advocates for thorough work. Complete focus is paid to the education of students, and this is done with due diligence at such low costs as they offer (Schwartz, 2016) which is the reason for their existence. The Bible emphasizes them to be stewards. Management of finances in City Vision University is backed by the view of stewardship. Performance gets to be strictly the measure of performance appraisal and salary increment for the human resource of City Vision University to reward good performance because of the Bible advocates for hard work.

Partners Worldwide: An Overview

Conclusion

City Vision University follows the principles of business carefully. Rational thinking is employed in handling issues that do not have direct reference to the Bible. The human perspective is always put first in their services.

Partners Worldwide began in 1994 as Christian Development formed to provide loan funding to small-medium enterprises. They also offer a savings plan, cooperative loans and partnerships with the entrepreneurs. Its members are faith-based Christians on recognizing the importance of engaging business owners with professionals (Abutalibov, 2016). Today they provide services to four continents all over the world. The vision of Partners Worldwide is the value of life through the elimination of poverty so that everyone gets the life. The Christian philosophy says that every human being has a right to abundant life which is in Jesus Christ; no one deserves to be poor. The organization treasures human life and aims to see economies all over the world flourish. They mobilize Christian networks to build relationships to create a pool of resources and avail capital, training, mentorship and advocacy.

The values of Partners Worldwide are in exceptional value, innovation, never giving up, advocating for the rights of the underserved, embrace God’s calling and helping others. The values are a reflection of the 5P's model as highlighted below.

The goal of Partners Worldwide is the elimination of poverty. Their Christian view is that God created a human being and sent His Son Jesus Christ to come on the earth as a sacrifice to give life freely to everyone. Christianity views poverty as death which is brought by sin. The actual picture of poverty is laziness, not sin. Sin is a deviation from the right way, and Jesus died so that sin can be forgiven. Christians are supposed to be generous in helping those who lack.

Operations of Partners Worldwide are embedded on the principle of exceptional value. Doing good works as stated in (2 Corinthians 2:9) that God can make all grace to abound to them by so doing. The view of Partners Worldwide on innovation is controversial as they believe in life first and the spread of the word of the Kingdom of God. The correct application here is that invention will always make life better, and thus it improves the quality of life (Richard, 2017).

Partners Worldwide believe in never giving up to attain success. The Christian philosophy supporting this view is in being joyful where there are hope and patience during afflictions. Prayerfulness with faith is a key to get a breakthrough. Apart from other values, patience in sufferings should be accompanied with rational thinking and actions to get solutions to problems (Richard, 2017). God will reward the effort which has been done. Walking alongside the oppressed, fatherless and widows by Partners Worldwide is continuing with the course of Jesus when he was in this world. Embracing Gods call and sharing with others is the other value of Partners Worldwide.  According to (Ephesians 2:10), Christians view that everyone was created with a purpose to do the work of Jesus for God is pleased with that sacrifice (Hebrews 13:16).

The 5P's Model of Partners Worldwide

Partners Worldwide conducts mentorship to business startups, training to impart skills and knowledge, provision of loan capital to entrepreneurs who are not able to raise enough funds and advocating for human rights (Schwartz, 2016). The Christian philosophy supporting advocating is that every person was created equal and no one is expected to deprive the other of their rights. Jesus Christ came to the world to free the afflicted, give joy to the sorrowful, free the imprisoned and bring forgiveness of sins (Philips, 2016).

Helping people get out of poverty is the primary goal of Partners Worldwide. They believe that no human being is supposed to suffer from poverty (Giorgino, 2016). People have many ideas but lack the necessary capital resource to set the ideas to work. Individuals who are always oppressed by the fellow human beings ought to be protected and supported (Fontrodona, 2016). Christianity treasures human life because they were created to have fellowship with God. They were given authority to rule the world and above all the other creatures. Poverty is a great oppression to live, and as a business community, Partners Worldwide could not stand and watch. As Christians, they are supposed to help the poor because they can do so (Laetus, 2016). Their business is after making profits, and this is not supported by Christian principles.

The duty of Partners Worldwide is partnerships, training, and mentorship. It has a coverage of over 27 nations globally following the example of Christ after ordering His disciples to go over the whole world in His example.  Performance in a Christian business setup follows the laws in the Bible (Lee, 2014). Integrity, faithfulness, non-discrimination, excellence and patience are the guiding principles. Partners Worldwide are doing advocacy with an inclination to religious affiliations which are a form of discrimination. Excellence will only work if innovations are encouraged. Matters of integrity faithfulness are right principles. When a business is faced with challenges, solutions should be sought urgently or else the organization will run out (Abutalibov, 2016). Creativity and adaptability of the firm are strategies that will enhance efficiency in business and should be adopted before competitors face Partners Worldwide out because of its inefficiencies (Fleischmann, 2014).

In light of the issues discussed above, the management of the two missionary based business organizations is encouraged to take up the recommendations below.

Innovations- There should be an enhanced environment to stimulate innovation and creativity to create an efficient business system and solve arising business problems efficiently (Dei, 2016).

Conclusion

Efficiency- Business organizations have to be effective to offset competition so that the long-term goal of the going concern is attained.

Patience- It is required that business problem is solved so that clients continue benefiting (Mees, 2017). Customer needs should be met as and when they arise and not a moment later.

The environment should not be overlooked with emphasis on people; it needs to be taken care of as it has effects on the business.

Every human being should be taken as a potential customer, and religious discrimination is a loss of that client.

Conclusion

The missionary organizations have both philosophies that will enhance the success of a business and those that will fail business. Hard work, putting the customers and employees first, creativity and integrity will lead to business success (Paul, 2017). Logical thinking should be applied, and views that are not good for business such as hindrance to creativity should never be implemented. 

References

Abutalibov, R., 2016. Ethical 10 issues in business administration and their effects on social and economic development. Journal of Sustainability management, 1(2), p. 152.

Dei, D., 2016. CHRISTIAN APPROACHES TO POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES. Journal of Business Research, 1(2), pp. 76-84.

Fleischmann, A., 2014. Subject-oriented business process management. Journal of Christian Business, 2(1), pp. 44-47.

Fontrodona, J., 2016. Christian Ethics and Spirituality in Leading Business Organizations: Editorial Introduction. Journal of Business ethics, 1(1), pp. 1-9.

Giorgino, V., 2016. Is practical wisdom and learning literature actually wise on its “right to speak”?. Wisdom Learning, 3(1), p. 140.

Laetus, L., 2016. From awareness to solution: building blocks for business ethics decision-making. Journal of Christian Scholarship, 52(4), pp. 239-257.

Lee, P., 2014. Business and Ethics. International Forum Journal, 14(2), pp. 39-54.

Mees, B., 2017. Changing approaches to business ethics. The Routlege Companion to Business History, 2(1), p. 373.

Paul, K., 2017. SEDOSSEDOS. Journal of Faith in business, 1(1), p. 7.

Philips, M., 2016. Daring to Care”: Challenging Corporate Environmentalism. Journal of Business Ethict, 3(7), pp. 1-14.

Quinn Dennis, Thomas Jones, 2014. An agent morality view of business policy. Journal of Christian Management, 20(1), pp. 22-42.

Richard, H., 2017. The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Economics. Journal of Christianity and Economics, 2(1), pp. 112-114.

Schwartz, M., 2016. Distinguishing Right from Wrong. An Ethical Decision Making Approach, 2(1), pp. 127-158.

Schwartz, M., 2016. Factors Affecting Moral Character. An Ethical Decision Approach, 2(4), pp. 271-276.

Schwartz, M., 2016. Introduction to Ethical Decision Making. An Ethical Decision Making Approach, 2(12), pp. 1-19.

Schwartz, M., 2016. Normative Ethical Decision?Making Models. An Ethical Decision Approach, 2(3), pp. 287-291.