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The Inuence of Christian Identity

on SME OwnerManagersConceptualisations of Business Practice Andrea Werner

ABSTRACT. This paper reports on the findings of aqualitative study to understand how active adherence tothe Christian faith influences the way SME owner managers conceptualise their business practices. The studywas based on in-depth interviews with 21 Christian SMEownermanagers in Germany and the UK. Using a socio-psychological approach, the data analysis yielded a rangeof linguistic and conceptual resources that are peculiar toChristian discourse and that have the potential to influ-ence business activity in rather distinctive ways. Thispaper particularly focuses on those Christian concepts thatcould be regarded as distinct frames for action. It out-lines what effect these concepts had on the respondentsand how they were related to business practices. Thepaper also discusses how this study could inform further research into the influence of other socio-cultural forms

of identity on economic actors conceptualisations of their own practice.

KEY WORDS: business practice, Christianity, discursiveframing, Germany, small- to medium-sized enterprises,social psychology, socio-cultural identity, UK

Introduction

The theme of this conference is European Identityin Business and Social Ethics. Its premise is that the

European context has given shape to distinct ways of carrying out economic activity, reecting distinctunderlying social norms, values and beliefs. Thequestion is asked to what extent European identitystill impacts on business practices in an era of theincreasing proliferation and predominance of the USAmerican business model in a globalised world.

The theme of identity was also taken up in thestudy on which this paper reports in particular,the role of Christianity as an intermediary social

institution and identity-creating context. The studysought to nd out to what extent and how Christianreligiousidentity impacts on the way business activity

is carried out. The focus on Christianity was rootedin the fact that it has been one of the strongest andlongest standing socio-cultural institutions in Europe(and the Western world) that has based on tran-scendent beliefs espoused other regarding normsand values (cf. Hendry, 2004 , p. 126). Christianvalues, norms and beliefs can have a considerableimpact on how social actors interact with others insociety and the economic sphere. However, secu-larisation processes particularly in the Europeancontext suggest a decline in the inuence of Christianity. Although the majority of the populationstill claims nominal afliation to the Christian reli-gion, fewer and fewer people actively practiceChristianity, as the strong decline in church atten-dance indicates (Hall, 1999 , p. 429; Offe and Fuchs,2001 , p. 433). As a result, at least the overt inuence of Christianity has been waning. At the same time, anumber of scholars argue that secularisation goeshand in hand with a privatisation of religion(e.g. Fort, 1999 ; Herms, 1991 ). This means that thosesocietal actors who (still) regard themselves asChristians might consider religious moral tenets to be

relevant only for their private sphere and not for their participation in the public sphere; or that they mightdivide their lives into a sacred and a secular part, withthe former not impinging on the latter. Thesedevelopments raise the attention in analogy to theconference theme to what extent does Christianitystill have an impact on economic activity?

The study was particularly concerned withhow Christian identity affects the way individual economic actors carry out their business activities.

Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 82:449462 Springer 2008DOI 10.1007/s10551-008-9896-8
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Singled out for investigation were ownermanagersof small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) whoconsider themselves practising Christians. The reasonfor this focus lay in the fact that in SMEs ownershipand control coincide and that therefore owner managers are thought to be in a better position tobring their personal values to bear on their businesscompared, for example, to managers who act onbehalf of absent shareholders (Spence, 1999 ). In other words, it was assumed that if Christian identity doeshave an impact on economic activity, this group of economic actors will be relatively likely to revealsuch effects. A further, comparative dimension wasallowed by carrying out the research in two coun-tries, Germany and the UK. This embedded the re-

search in a European context and enabled anexploration of possible national differences.The study was based on qualitative, in-depth

interviews with 21 SME ownermanagers (10 fromGermany, 11 from the UK) who considered them-selves practising Christians. A socio-psychologicalframework was used for data analysis. This analyticalapproach centres on how respondents draw onavailable discursive resources to conceptualise andrationalise their practices (Harre and Gillett, 1994 ;Watson and Harris, 1999 ). This paper explores theChristian conceptual frames to which the respon-dents referred in their accounts, and explains whateffects these concepts had on the respondents andhow they were linked to business practice.

The following section will outline in more detailhow the research was conceptualised and framed,and give a brief evaluation of previous empiricalstudies that have looked at the relationship betweenChristianity/religiosity and economic activity. Fur-ther, a description of the research methodology isgiven. Then, the research ndings will be presented,analysed and discussed. The concluding section

reects on the advantages and limitations of thechosen methodological framework and makes somesuggestions for further research.

Setting up the research

The research issue

The issue explored in this study is a specic case of the more general issue of how identities derived

from socio-cultural contexts (interpersonal, political,historical, etc.) impact on the way social actors carryout economic activity. Such identity-creating con-texts contain certain clusters of signications,norms, rules and conventions which can provideconstraints or enablers for action (Giddens, 1984 ;Harre and Gillett, 1994 ). The aim of this study wasto gain an in-depth understanding of how Chris-tianity as one such context may, with its underlyingbeliefs, norms and values, impact on the way SMEownermanagers as one particular group of eco-nomic actors carry out their business activities.Another aim was to explore what other facets of identity might have an (interacting) inuence onthis group of economic actors.

Previous research

A number of previous empirical studies have soughtto investigate the impact of Christianity or religiositymore generally on economic activity, but in addi-tion to the fact that almost none of them have spe-cically focused on SME ownermanagers they haveprovided only limited understanding of the researchissue. Most empirical studies in this area have em-ployed quantitative methods, investigating the rela-tionship between intrinsic religiousness and levels of ethical judgment in business situations (Clark andDawson, 1996 ; Longenecker et al., 2004 ), religious-ness and willingness to engage in unethical behaviour (Kennedy and Lawton, 1998 ), religious beliefs andpractice and attitudes towards Corporate SocialResponsibility (Agle and van Buren, 1999 ). Thesestudies have been inconclusive in their results, whichmay be partly explained by their use of differentsamples (business students versus business executives)and the diversity in which the research phenomenon

was conceptualised (Weaver and Agle, 2002 ). Fur-thermore, these studies have focused on attitudinalmeasures only (ibid.), while the use of quantitativetechniques only allowed the research ndings to bephrased in very general terms (e.g. negative, positive,weak relationship). Thus, these studies have notprovided an in-depth understanding of how and whyChristianity might inuence economic activity.

Studies that have taken up qualitative approachesseeking to obtain more in-depth insights only partlycontribute to an understanding of the research issue.

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For example, Lee et al. ( 2003 ) sought to explore towhat extent a particular Christianity and BusinessCulture typology was prevalent in the accounts of Christian executives in Hong Kong. Their study yielded insights into the diversity with which thelink between faith and business practice may berationalised by Christian business people. However,the imposed typology framework did not allow for an in-depth exploration of the underlying beliefs andvalues of the reported practices. Nashs ( 1994 )interview-based study, on the other hand, focusedspecically on how evangelical executives deal withtensionsthat may arise between Christian tenets andeconomic activity. Nash also mentions some specicChristian concepts, such as stewardship, which might

inform these peoples business practices. The studymost relevant to the research issue seems to beRoels ( 1997 ) work on evangelical business-owners.She mapped out a number of Christian concepts thatshe considered to be meaningful to these people piety, witnessing, tithing and neighbourliness but her report is based solely on personal observations andanecdotal evidence and does not provide much de-tailed insight into how these concepts are adopted ina business context.

The studies of Nash ( 1994 ) and Roels ( 1997 ) didnot systematically draw out the effects of Christianbeliefs and concepts on business activity and bothstudies were conducted in a US American context(as were most of the above studies). This leaves roomfor studies on Christian business people in other national contexts. In addition, none of the abovestudies have unlike the study on which this paper reports explicitly considered the mediating inu-ence of other identity-creating contexts.

Methodological framework

A socio-psychological framework was identied as asuitable methodological approach for the study.Drawing on ideas promoted in Harre and Gilletts(1994 ) discursive psychologyand Watson and Harris(1999 ) discursive framing approach, it was consideredas able to capture the research issue as well asaccommodate the choice of research method: qual-itative in-depth interviews.

The aim of qualitative interviews is to understanda certain issue from an individuals point of view . In a

socio-psychological analysis the focus is also on theindividual : it seeks to understand how an individualssocio-cultural contexts as discourses or discursivecontexts shape their cognition and inuence theway they conceptualise their worlds of practice(Harre and Gillett, 1994 ). Interview-based researchthat utilises a socio-psychological approach providesinsight into how individuals draw on linguistic andconceptual resources made available through thesediscursive contexts to frame and rationalise their practices (Watson and Harris, 1999 ). The ndings of such research then allow the researcher to drawsome conclusions as to how these contexts mayaffect the individuals attitudes and behaviours.

For the purpose of this study, the socio-psycho-

logical framework was utilised as follows. Christianitywas considered one specic discursive context thatthe respondents inhabit and that can have an impacton the way they conceptualise their business prac-tices. Through in-depth interviews, the researchsought to uncover how SME ownermanagers drawon Christian (and other) discursive resources inrelation to their business activities and how they linkthese concepts to specic practices.

Carrying out the research

The research sample

Interviews were carried out among 21 SME owner managers from the UK (11 respondents) and Ger-many (10 respondents). The decision to conduct thestudy in these two national contexts was driven byconsiderations of access, language and familiarity,with two contrasting socio-institutional frameworksallowing for a preliminary exploration of nationaldifferences (Lane, 1992 ).

The respondents chosen for the investigationwould describe themselves as practising Christianand could be loosely labelled as conservative Prot-estants, i.e. as Protestant Christians that adhere toconservative, Bible-based beliefs. As such, they camefrom traditional and evangelical strands of Prot-estant mainstream and free churches (see Appendix).This particular group of Christians was chosenlargely for reasons of access, respondents beingcontacted mainly through Christian business net-works and personal contacts. The sample contained a

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range of sectors and company sizes (see Appendix).Some efforts were made to match the set-up of thetwo country samples in terms of sectors, as it wasthought that sector-specic features might play somerole in the way ownermanagers conceptualise their business practices (cf. Curran and Blackburn, 2001 ,pp. 1619).

Data collection and analysis

In the interviews, an inductive strategy was pursued inorder to ensure that the phenomenon was capturedfrom the respondents point of view. Respondentswere asked general questions concerning the link

between faith and business practices (e.g. How does your faith inuence your business decisions? Towhat extent does your faith conict with your business?) as well as open-ended questions con-cerning their business and faith background. In afollow-up interview, the researcher used leads fromthe rst interview to probe the respondents further for examples and incidents that could illuminate therelationship between faith and business practice.

Applying the discursive framing approach, theresearcher identied from the data material a number of different aspects concerning the relationshipbetween the respondents beliefs and their practices.

The following data analysis section will report onspecic Christian conceptual framesto which respon-dents referred in their accounts. These concepts canbe loosely understood as different facets of Christianidentity that the respondents take on when ration-alising and explaining their actions (cf. Weick, 1995 ,p. 24). The presentation of the data analysis will notcontain any quantied statements about the use of these concepts. Instead, examples from the data willshow the effect of these concepts on the respondents

and so illustrate where and how Christianity mightmake a difference. The subsequent section will dis-cuss the research ndings further and also make somereference to other socio-cultural discourses thatmight play a part in Christian SME ownermanag-ers conceptualisations of practice.

The respondents will be referred to by referencenumbers. D denotes a German respondent, UK aBritish one. The numbers indicate the chronologicalorder in which the interviews were carried out.Respondents were interviewed in their own

languages and quotations from German respondentsare here translated.

Data analysis

The data analysis uncovered ve different Christianconcepts or conceptual frames from the interviewmaterial: calling, stewardship, witness, holinessand gen-eral Christian moral tenets. They differ in their signi-cations, as they presume different understandings of the relationship between faith and actions. They arenot to be regarded as elements of a typology as therespondents often referred to more than one of theseconcepts in their accounts. The following subsectionswill outline how each concept or frame was used bythe people in the study and include some commentsand observations on its effects.

Calling

The rst Christian concept which carried meaningfor a number of respondents in relation to their business was that of calling or vocation. In Christiantradition, the concept of calling has a number of different connotations, ranging from a more general

understanding of being called to salvation and tofollow Christ to being called to a specic task or role(Atkinson, 1988 ). In the context of the study, calling was identied as a frame when respondents talkedgenerally about God wanting me to be in thisplace or God wanting me to do this in relation totheir business. The data analysis found that people inthe study engaged with the concept of calling invarious different ways, reecting the numerousconnotations that this concept has in Christian tra-dition. These different interpretations also had dif-ferent implications for their business practices.

Some respondents stated that they had engagedwith the concept of calling to work out whether itwas acceptable for them as Christians to run abusiness or whether they should follow a moreworthwhile call and become a minister or a mis-sionary, such as UK3:

In fact after all these years Ive worked out thatthere isnt any conict. When I rst became a Chris-tian I would spend the rst ve years wonderingwhether I was gonna be a missionary And it was

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about ve years before someone said Well, wherewere you when you were called? And I said Well, Iwas here selling houses. If youve got nothing to thecontrary, thats where youre supposed to be. Oh,

really? [laughs] (UK3, estate agent).

This entailed for these respondents that they had towork out for themselves how owning and running abusiness and being a Christian tted together, andthroughout their accounts they reported how theysought to reconcile these two spheres of their lives,often by referring to other Christian concepts, such aswitnessand stewardship(see following subsections).

Other respondents said that they believedthat God had called them to run the business, butrelated the concept of calling to narrow spiritual

purposes, such as the opportunity to raise money for Christian causes through the business or their dutyto verbally communicate their faith in their businesscontext. For example, D9, who co-runs his businesswith two non-Christians, felt that God had calledhim to be an ambassador for Christ in hiscompany. This he interpreted as a duty to invite hisco-owners and employees to Christian outreach(evangelism) events.

These narrow spiritual interpretations whichseemed to make less of an impact on the way busi-ness activities were carried out contrasted with theinterpretation of a third set of respondents. Here,calling was related to the respondents general ap-proach to running their businesses, and this led therespondents to conceptualise a number of their business practices in ways that take the good of others into account. For example, UK7, who runsan engineering company, consciously rejected anarrow spiritual interpretation of the concept andstated that he believed that God had called him tolive out the Christian faith in the workplace.

And I would say my priority in business is to live outthe Christian faith in the workplace. Im not calledto be the pastor of a church, Im not called to be amissionary overseas. Im called to live out my Christianfaith in the place where I work. (UK7, engineering)

This belief led him to conceptualise a range of business practices as stewardship responsibilities (seenext subsection).

Two other respondents (UK10 and UK11) statedtheir belief that they were called by God to serve the

community through their businesses. By doing sothey came close to the interpretation of calling thatwas advanced by the reformer Martin Luther. He hadextended the concept of calling beyond the spiritualrealm and argued that believers were also called totheir place of work, where through providing a service to othersthey were in fact serving and glorifying God(Childs, 1995 ). UK11, for example, rationalised her decision to set-up her optician business in a relativelyrun-down area in terms of being put there by Godto serve the local community.

Well I thinkI serve thecommunity. I think thats quitesignicant with my business, because there isnt another optician in that community. So I feel particularly that Ive been put there to serve thecommunity,provide them with a servicethey wouldnt have had otherwise . (UK11, optician)

Serving the community meant for theserespondents who both ran businesses in thehealthcare sector among other things not to chargefor certain services and it also affected the way theydealt with vulnerable and disadvantaged customers.

Stewardship

Another Christian concept that was meaningful for a

number of respondents was that of stewardship. Thestewardship frame was attributed to the respondentsaccounts when they talked about their belief thatGod had entrusted something (e.g. their business) or someone (e.g. their employees) to them or whenthey explicitly referred to themselves as stewards.

Such beliefs created in the respondents a sense of responsibility and accountability to God for whatthey did in their businesses, as the following state-ments illustrate.

Im convinced that when we die well stand before Jesus. Well be asked how we treated the peoplewho were entrusted to us. Well be asked about howwe used the talents and gifts we were given. (D10,manufacture of measuring instruments).

I mean, you know, I feel a responsibility to God tolook after the business, I mean, He gave me it I guess.(UK11, optician)

Whereas secular business people might also refer to the concept of stewardship when seeking to use

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business-related resources in a responsible manner,the belief that God is the one that entrusts believerswith resources distinguishes it as a religious concept.Allport argues that the thought, feeling andbehaviour of individuals are inuenced by the actual,imagined or implied presence of others ( 1985 , p. 3cited in Weick, 1995 , p. 39). In the case of Christianstewardship, this other refers to God or Jesus Christwhose presence in the thoughts of Christian owner managers may create a rather strong sense of accountability and responsibility and thus a strongmotivation to act in a certain way. At the same time,stewardship as a faith-related concept is not uniqueto Christianity. The concept is also known in Judaism and Islam (Webley, 1999 ) and may thus be

more peculiar to monotheistic faiths, where believ-ers relate to an omnipresent God who is regarded asthe provider of all resources and to whom believersfeel accountable.

Interestingly, the respondents who referred to thestewardship concept varied enormously in the waythey engaged with it and linked it to their businesspractices. Some respondents linked it to matters of business conduct, such as D4.

We get contracts because customers know we dontdefraud them. And thats a very important factor.

Because Im a steward. (D4, heating and plumbing)

Others linked the concept of stewardship with awhole range of responsibilities, starting from certainresponsibilities towards their employees to nancialstewardship, with one respondent even includingenvironmental responsibilities:

If you are a good steward of your business then youwill be looking at the well-being of the environment,the well-being of the people in the business. As well aslooking after amounts of money on a prot and lossstatement or your balance sheet. (UK7, engineering)

A Christian-based concept that was often men-tioned by those who engaged with the stewardshipconcept was that of gifts and talents particularly inrelation to their employees. D10, who had statedthat he believed his employees were people thatwere entrusted to him (see above), was one of them.

Well, the business should be a place where employeescan develop their gifts. And that means seeingwhere their potential is, what are their strengths, what

are their weaknesses. That employees have the chance tobuild on their strengths. To get a sense of achievement from it.So that they can develop personally. (D10, manufacture of measuring instruments)

One might argue that such focus on the devel-opment of ones employees gifts and talents issimply good management practice or an expressionof enlightened self-interest, and may thus also bepursued by non-Christian business people. Thedifference might be that within the Christianframework of belief the potential and gifts of indi-viduals are regarded as given by God, and thereforeChristian ownermanagers may have a somewhatdifferent or stronger motivation to further their employees gifts and potential. D10s account, for example, showed clearly that he was also particularlyconcerned about the personal development of his employees, beyond their contribution to thebusiness.

Witness

In contrast to the concepts mentioned above, whichare more directly related to a business or workcontext, the respondents also engaged with Christianconcepts that are more general in nature, i.e. con-cepts that might be used by any believer and thatmight be applied in a range of contexts. One of theseconceptual frames, which had a rather strong impactfor a number of respondents, was the witness con-cept. In contrast to the common usage of the termwitness, in a Christian context it refers to bearingwitness about the Christian faith to others (non-believers) through ones actions and/or throughones words.

In the study, two main types of engagement withand interpretation of the witness concept were

identied in the respondents accounts. First, anumber of people engaged with what could becalled the negative version of the witness concept.They believed that they had a responsibility not tobehave in a way that would bring Christianity intodisrepute or make it lose its credibility. One of themwas UK3, an estate agent, who said this:

I try to make sure that nobody sees me putting a footwrong. You must remember that this is a verylegalistic profession. And I know that Jesus is not a

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legalistic God. And on the contrary, he hated religion,legalisation of faith. But if Im not to be a bad example,and then to be judged as a Christian as well as an estate agent, then Ive got to be, if not squeaky clean, then at least

reasonably respectable . (UK3, estate agent)

Respondents like him did not seek to behave in aparticular way because they believed that they had toobserve certain moral injunctions as part of their faith, but because they did not want to reect any-thing that might discredit the Christian faith. Part of this reasoning was a judgment of their actions againstwhat was imagined to be the opinions of other (non-Christian) people (cf. Allport, 1985 in previoussubsection), i.e. the respondents took into accountthe expectations that they believed others had

towards Christian believers (cf. Weaver and Agle,2002 , p. 83). This became particularly evident whenrespondents were upfront about their Christian faithto the people around them, as we can see in D10saccount:

D10 : Since I live in the community, people know thatIm a Christian and they keep an eye on me. Yourekind of being checked. Thats not a bad thing.

Interviewer : What are people looking for?

D10 : Well, I guess theyre asking What are they do-ing? They watch us. I mean, if something goes wrongwith Christians, its just the excuse people need to stayaway from church. (D10, manufacture of measuringinstruments)

In other words, their awareness of the possible judgment of other people exerted a rather strongdiscipline on them, compelling them not to doanything wrong.

Other people in the study, however, used thewitness concept in a more positive way. Their interpretation of being a witness entailed that theysought to communicate something positive aboutChristianity through their actions, and so raisepeoples attention to their faith, as UK5s statementillustrates:

I think its nice for people to have a Christian companyto compare with. And by doing our work well thats awitness in itself. (UK5, heating engineer)

D1, on the other hand, talked about the fruit of faith that other people should see through his

behaviour. As an example, he talked about the wayhe sought to treat his customers.

I think a lot of people, not only staff but also cus-

tomers who have been in the shop, have told me that theres a different, a special atmosphere here. AndI trace that back to my faith I believe that somethingof it shines through. And that people then like cominghere because they know that Ill take them seriously nomatter how much business I have with them. So Ithink that people who come in here feel this.(D1, pharmacy)

The external motivation of witnessing had a dif-ferent emphasis here than with those people whostated that they did not want to do anythingwrong, as it provided the respondents with more of an additional aspiration to live up to certain values,rather than (merely) exert some kind of externaldiscipline. At the same time, elements of internalmotivation such as wanting to live out a Christianlifestyle, or developing a Christ-like character mayhave been more strongly involved here as well (seenext subsection).

Holiness

Another, more general, conceptual frame that wasidentied in the respondents accounts was whatcould be described as holiness. The concept of holi-ness in the Christian tradition usually refers to themoral qualities of believers such as purity, integrity,moral perfection and sanctity, which believersshould develop as response to Gods holiness. Theperson of Jesus Christ is in this context regarded as arole model or pattern of holiness (Mikolaski, 1992).

In the study, several respondents engaged with thisnotionof holiness albeit in differentways. Some peoplewould refer to their aspiration of wanting to be rightbefore God, which led them to not to engage inpractices that could be considered illegal or unethical.UK4, who runs a car rental company, said this:

We wont intentionally ever rip anybody off or doanything that was dishonest. I mean, in our kind of business there are plenty of opportunities to defraudcustomers and the taxman We do our best to make sure that we live and operate our business in a way which wouldbe approved of by God. At the end of the day, to do these things would be sin. I mean, if were cleansed by His

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blood, why sin on small items and spoil your salvation. OK,we can go and ask for forgiveness and all that sort of stuff. But why do it? If you want to be right before God then why go down that line?. (UK4, car rental)

Others referred more specically to the moralexample and qualities of Christ that should be re-ected in their actions. Particularly the questionWhat would Jesus do? seemed to make severalpeople in the study stop and consider their actions inthe light of Christs moral example. For example,D2, who runs a property management business, re-ported how this question provided guidance to himin potential conict situations in his business. Heparticularly referred to instances where he sought tobe considerate of his tenants circumstances.

D2 : I set priorities and say to myself I want to do thingslike I see in the Bible, and what Jesus would have done . So when Im not sure I put my faith rst and Ive done quite well by that.

Interviewer : Can you give me an example of how youve let the Bible guide you, of what Jesus wouldhave done?

D2 : Well, particularly in our line of business, there isoften a kind of tightrope walk when people are behindwith their rent. How persistent you are and how long

youll try and chase those debts up. And Ill look atthese people and try to categorise them. And if I be-lieve that someone has problems but theyre not of their own making then well say OK, well leave it atthat and well give him another chance. (D2, propertymanagement)

Finally, one respondent explicitly stated howChrist had served him as a role model, guiding hisdecision to take on an apprentice from a disadvan-taged background.

As a Christian youve got to look at the, you know, Jesus rst ministry was often to the outcast in soci-ety the taxmen, the prostitutes and I guess a youngster whos had a brush with the law and hasdecided to go straight So I just started a new lad lastweek. (UK9, building services)

Whereas the concept of holiness is also a moregeneral concept like witness, the motivation to act ina particular way was rooted here not in an externalbut more internal motivation, as it related to the

respondents relationship with God/Christ. In other words, the presence of the other, which has animpact on the way people structure their practices(cf. Allport, 1985 ), referred here to the (imagined)presence of the transcendent (similar to the stew-ardship concept) but not to the presence of other people. Similar to the witness concept, the conceptof holiness can place a constraint on peoplesbehaviours but also provide a positive motivation tobehave in a particular way.

General Christian moral tenets

A nal conceptual frame identied in the respon-

dents accounts could be described as general Christianmoral tenets. Here, they rationalised their actions bysaying that they felt they should act in a certain waybecause they were Christian, but they did notexplicitly link their behaviours with specic spiritualframeworks such as the ones that were mentioned inthe previous subsections.

As a more encompassing frame, the people in thestudy referred to Christian moral tenets in variousdifferent ways. They would talk about followingChristian principles, duties or responsibilities thatthey found in or derived from the Bible. The fol-lowing respondent, for example, mentioned hisprinciple of being reliable and of making his wordhis bond while giving an account about his rela-tionship to one of his business partners.

I used to ring him up from time to time and say(NAME), I really think we should have something inwriting. What if, what if there is a misunderstanding?And he said Im sure if there is a misunderstanding,we can sort it out. So that was on the basis of Christianways of doing things, you are reliable. And your word is yourbond . (UK1, ceramics industry projects and manufac-ture of birthpool liners)

One might argue that these principles are rather commonplace, easily shared with other religious andnon-religious frameworks. But framing these prin-ciples as Christian principles could still make a dif-ference for the ownermanagers, as although notverbalised they might be aware of the presence of the transcendent in their lives, which could create astrong motivation to act in particular ways.

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Other people in the study referred to principles or norms that might be considered to be more peculiar to Christianity. Some respondents, for example,would say that because they were Christians theyrefused to trade on Sundays. Others would refer tothe Christian duty to forgive others, such as D8:

Interviewer : How does your faith inuence what you doin your business? [paraphrased]

D8 : Well . maybe my employees say at times that Imtoo ready to give in, too soft, but I simply cant, itscertainly to do with ones character, too. But I be-lieve you cant be a Christian in your private life andthink differently in business Perhaps others can. Of course, youare then, well, perhaps more forgiving. More willing to give in, more willing to compromise . (D8, building)

At the same time, people who used the frame of general Christian moral tenetsoften rationalised their practices not only in terms of their Christian moti-vation but also acknowledged the presence of interacting inuences or motivations. D8, for example, stated in his account (see above) that hiswillingness to forgive may have also been theconsequence of his soft character. Another examplewas D5s statement that paying correct taxes was notonly a Christian thing to do but that he would also

feel terrible if he did not do so.I dont mind paying taxes, Im kind of Christian whenit comes to taxes, I dont think its right if you try toevade tax. The taxes Im required to pay, I will pay.I wouldnt have it otherwise, Id feel terrible if I knew Ive knowingly defrauded the government . (D5, printing)

In those cases it is interesting to debate whether character or conscience inuence the way theChristian faith is interpreted and applied to onespractices or whether ones religious faith shapescharacter and conscience, which in turn has impli-cations for the ownermanagers actions.

Discussion

The aim of this study was to explore if and howreligious (Christian) identity may make a differencein the way a particular group of economic actors SME ownermanagers conceptualise their worldsof business practice.

Distinctiveness, strength and effectiveness of Christianconceptual resources

The main nding was that the respondents Chris-tianity doesmake a difference as it provides them witha range of distinct linguistic and conceptual resources;resources that are not available in that way to non-Christian economic actors. These resources leadthem to frame their practices in a highly distinctiveway which can and probably will have far-reachingimplications for the way they carry out their businessactivities. The distinctiveness and strength of theseChristian resources lie with their signications whichin one way or another relate to the presence of thetranscendent and so provide distinct constraints and

enablers for action (cf. Giddens, 1984 ). The actionsof Christian ownermanagers can, for example, beconstrained by a sense of accountability and respon-sibility to God (as with the concepts of stewardshipor holiness), or by the awareness that other people might judge their actions in the light of their faith (as withthe negative version of the witnessconcept). At thesame time, the belief that God has called them to their place of work or their desire to reect Christs holinesscan provide positive motivations for action.

Whereas these conceptual resources are notavailable in that way to non-Christian economicactors, some of these resources may be regarded asbeing more distinct than others. For instance, thewitnessor the holinessconcept may be considered tobe more distinctive than the stewardshipconcept or the reference to general Christian moral tenets, as thelatter ones might to some extent overlap with other religious and non-religious moral frameworks. Also,some of these concepts seem to be more related to abusiness or work context, such as calling andstewardship. Others seem to be more general in nat-ure, such as witness, holinessand the reference to

general Christian moral tenets; here the business con-text is just one behavioural context among others inwhich these concepts might be used.

The study found that the effectiveness of theseconcepts depend on the way individual Christianownermanagers engage and interpret them. For example, calling was interpreted by some respondentsas referring to narrow spiritual responsibilities onlyand by others in ways that affected a range of their business practices. A narrow spiritual interpretationmight be an indication of a sacred-secular divide in

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the lives of these ownermanagers. Another examplewas the witness concept. Whereas a number of respondents interpreted it in negative terms, i.e. interms of not wanting to do anything wrong, othersinterpreted it as an opportunity to communicatesomething positive about their faith. Whereas in theformer case the witnessconcept acted primarily as aconstraint and was often linked to matters of moralconduct, in the latter case it was more perceived as anenabler and linked to a wider range of practices.

Another way of assessing the effectiveness of theinuence of Christian identity is to look at the dif-ferent areas of practice that the respondents linkedwith their faith. A number of respondents despitedrawing from a range of Christian concepts would

primarily relate their faith to practices that inthemselves are not specically Christian; such asreliability and honesty in business dealings, theprovision of a good service or even to legal obliga-tions, such as paying correct taxes. As such, theywould not necessarily stand out from other owner managers who adhere to certain moral standards andto the law, and the only difference might be the wayin which these practices are rationalised and framed.However, these practices might become extraordi-nary practices if competitors do not have the samestandards or if adherence to moral principles or thelaw puts them at a disadvantage. Other practicesseemed to be very specically Christian, such as therefusal of some respondents to trade on Sundays practices that particularly stand out in the increas-ingly secularised cultures in which the study wasconducted. Thirdly, in a number of instances, dis-tinct Christian motivations were translated intomore or less distinct practices, practices that regardthe good of others. Those practices may not beexclusively Christian, but the Christian frameworkof belief provides a strong rationale for engaging in

them. An example where Christianity might make aparticularly strong impact was when respondentsalluded to the Christian belief that everyone is madein the image of God and that everyone is createdequal. One example of this was D1s account of theway he sought to treat his customers, namely seekingto treat each one of them equally well, independentof the size of business he had with them. Other practices that made more of a difference came fromthe direct application of Christian-based conceptssuch as stewardship, service for the communityand

(God-given) gifts and talents. Even though theseconcepts might be shared with other religious andnon-religious frameworks, each of them has a spe-cic Christian rationale, and so they can providedistinct motivations for engaging in environmentallyfriendly practices, putting service before prot andbeing concerned about the use and development of employees gifts and potential. Finally, some prac-tices on which the respondents reported could bedescribed as other-regarding behaviours, where therespondents showed themselves considerate of theneeds and interests of other people or where theyactively offered help to others. Examples were D8and D2s accounts of how they sought to beforgiving and considerate towards others in their

business contexts. Another example was UK9swillingness to help a disadvantaged young person bytaking him on as an apprentice.

In short, the distinctiveness, strength and effec-tiveness of the Christian inuence on ownerman-agers attitudes and behaviours may depend on threethings: the range of Christian concepts on whichthey draw in relation to their worlds of businesspractice, the way they interpret these concepts andhow they link these concepts with different areas of their business activities. This inevitably differs fromindividual to individual. The diversity amongChristian ownermanagers may be explained bydifferences in exposure to Christian teaching, dif-ferences in personal engagement with Christianthought and teaching, but also by the co-presence of a number of interacting inuences.

Interacting inuence of other identities

An inuence that certainly played an importantinteracting role for a number of respondents was

their identity as business people , as they framed their Christian practices in such ways that they could beregarded as expressions of enlightened self-interest.Examples were some respondents awareness thathonest business dealings will attract customers (e.g.D4) or that the development of their employeesgifts and talents will ultimately benet the business.

Apart from the implied co-presence of enlight-ened self-interest, the study uncovered further inuences that may have a reinforcing or comple-mentary impact, at least on certain types of behav-

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iours. As noted earlier, some respondents referred totheir conscience and their character as having animpact on their behaviour, and the question ariseswhether the respondents faith shapes their con-science or character or whether their character andconscience leads them to interpret Christianity in aparticular way. Another inuence that was men-tioned by a number of respondents was their upbringing, Christian or otherwise. Thus, the con-text of the family also seemed to have an important(interacting) inuence on the respondents behav-iours. The respondents professional identity was alsoquite frequently mentioned, for example, when therespondents talked about matters of business conductand about the quality of their service. One might

also argue that where respondents talked aboutproviding a service to the community (UK10 andUK11) their professional identity might have playedan important part as well. The fact that bothrespondents who framed their practices that way runhealthcare business and are thus expected to display acaring professional image may have had a stronginteracting inuence on their religious motivations.

Inuence of national contexts

Finally, as the study was carried out in two distinctnational cultures, some conclusions with regards tothe interacting inuenceof the national context couldbe drawn. Whereas there were certain differencesbetween the German and British accounts that couldbe traced back to the different societal structureswithinwhich business activity is taking place, in termsof the impact of faith the accounts of the respondentsin both sub-samples were rather similar. Respondentsof both nationalities referred to the same range of Christian concepts to frame their practices. People in

both samples would also refer to the biblical conceptof gifts and talents in relation to their employees, totheir aspiration to provide a high quality service, totheir Christian responsibility to be honest and reli-able in their business dealings and to their obligationto pay correct taxes. The fact that faith was linked withsimilar practices implies that the shared religiousidentity might be stronger than the national identity.However, the study found that in a few places thenational context seemed to make some difference inthe way practices were conceptualised from a faith

perspective. For instance, even though the Germanrespondents seemed generally more concerned aboutenvironmental friendly practices than their Britishcounterparts, only British respondents would usestrong religious language to frame their engagementwith environmentally sustainable practices. A possibleexplanation for this might be that in Germany owner managers are required by law to adhere to highenvironmental standards, and environmental friendlypractices are also part of their national culture. So theymay see no need to apply a particular spiritual moti-vation to environmental friendly practices. Another example was the reference to Sunday trading. OnlyBritish respondents talked about not working onSundays and this was probably inuenced by the fact

that Sunday trading is regarded more of a normalsocietal practice in the UK than in Germany, wherethe law (still) limits Sunday trading. One may con-clude from those examples that the absence of certainsocietal structures might make a spiritual motivation toengage in certain practices stronger if some spiritualsignicance is recognised there. At the same time, thepresence of such societal structures might lead owner managers not to consider particular practices from aspiritual point of view, because the law or culturalpractices already cover them.

Further research

A socio-psychological analysis as adopted in this studycan be regarded as a suitable framework for gaining anin-depthunderstanding of the inuenceof a particular socio-cultural identity on an economic actors con-ceptualisations of business practice. Using an induc-tive approach and identifying the linguistic andconceptual resources that are linked to this contextand to which the respondents attach meaning, and

mapping out their distinct signications with their specic constraints and enablers provides rich insightinto the potential effect of such context. In particular,the insights gained from the study concerning theimpact of Christian religionmake an important con-tribution to existing empirical work in this area, as itadds a complementary, in-depth perspective.

The obvious limitation of this socio-psychologicalapproach lies in the fact that it focuses solely on theway these actors rationalise their practices in their accounts in relation to a particular discursive context


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and not on observed practices. However, thestrength of the language that the respondents usedwould imply that their Christian beliefs would havea bearing on their actual practices. At the same time,subsequent research that utilises different methodssuch as participant observation or interviews withstakeholders would help to conrm whether Christian ownermanagers personal accounts arecongruent with actual behaviours. The other possi-ble limitation of the study, which comes from thesample size, is whether the research uncovered allpossible Christian concepts that could be used asframes for action. However, the fact that the con-cepts were used repeatedly acrossthe sample indicatesthat most of them were.

This study with its distinct methodological ap-proach provides a basis for further research into theinuence of socio-cultural identity on economicactivity. As it focused on Christian SME owner managers, it would be interesting to explore howother groups of economic actors who adhere to theChristian faith, such as managers in large publiclylisted companies, draw on Christian discourse andrelate it to their practices. One might argue that theSME context provides a particularly favourablecontext for bringing Christian values to bear onbusiness practices, as there are no agency issues. Itwould be interesting to nd out to what extentorganisational constraints of listed companies im-pinge on the way the link between personal faith andbusiness practice is conceptualised.

Another interesting subsequent research projectwould be a socio-psychological study into other Christian traditions, such as Catholicism, and other religions, such as Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism or Juda-ism;exploring what religious concepts are meaningfulto adherents of these faiths, what effect these conceptshave on them and how these are linked to practices.

The research ndings could be then compared withthe ndings of this study. For example, it would be

interesting to nd out whether Jewish and Muslimbusiness people draw equally strongly on the stew-ardship concept as their Christian counterparts, giventhat the concept of stewardship is also known in thesetwo religious traditions.

Finally, it would be worthwhile exploring whatidentity-creating socio-cultural frameworks non-religious economic actors use to conceptualise their worlds of business practice and how they are used particularly within the secularised European context.Will it be primarily frameworks such as professional,familial or geographical identity (e.g. local commu-nity, nationality) and to what extent might thesecontexts still contain vestiges of Christian thought?Also, as noted earlier, this study found that the dis-

tinctiveness of the Christian context and its con-ceptual resources relates particularly to the presenceof a transcendent other. This seems to create rather strong and powerful motivations and symbolic pat-terns of accountability. In frameworks that do notrefer to the divine or the transcendent, who wouldbe the other to whom people feel accountable?Would this sense of accountability arise from thepresence of other individuals who also partake inthese contexts? Would it be similarly strong to areligious identity as the accounts in this studyimplied or would it be easier for individuals toleave these identities behind in a business context?

These are questions that should be further ex-plored in qualitative empirical studies. Their ndingscould provide further valuable insights into theproblem of how socio-cultural identities inuencethe way economic activity is carried out.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Prof John Hendry, Dr

Nicole Dando and the reviewers for their helpful com-ments and feedback.

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Appendix: Research sample

Main line of business Employees Church afliation

D1 Pharmacy 10 United State Church (evangelical)D2 Property management 4 Pietistic Church FellowshipD3 Mobile home rental 0 United State Church (evangelical)D4 Heating and plumbing installation

and service65 Pentecostal

D5 Printing 20 Independent Free Church/MoravianD6 Decorating and special surface coatings 3 United State Church (evangelical)D7 Optician 7 United State Church (evangelical)D8 Industrial building services

(specialising in demolition work)20 United State Church

D9 Safety analysis projects and software

development

10 Pietistic Church Fellowship/

United State ChurchD10 Manufacture of measuring instruments 11 Lutheran State ChurchUK1 Project management in the ceramics

industry and manufacture of birthpool liners1 Anglican

UK2 Manufacture of metal parts 70 AnglicanUK3 Estate Agent 4 Anglican (evangelical)UK4 Car and van rental 18 PentecostalUK5 Heating installation and service 5 Anglican (evangelical)UK6 Civil Engineering 100 AnglicanUK7 Engineering 25 Anglican/PentecostalUK8 Industrial design 14 BaptistUK9 Building services 2 Anglican (evangelical)UK10 Pharmacy 7 Methodist/CongregationalUK11 Optician 7 Independent Free Church/Methodist

D denotes the German participants in the study, UK the British ones. Some respondents claimed afliation to morethan one denomination. The rst denomination listed in the table denotes their main/current afliation. Evangelical isonly noted where the respondents explicitly pointed out that their church was evangelical. All respondents were male,with the exception of UK11.


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