obstacles but challenge them anyway.
Stand firm in your beliefs—most honest conflicts can be
resolved and the commitment of both parties strengthened as a
result.
When it’s a ‘‘close call’’ between risk and safety, leaders go for
the risk.
When you’re hitting difficult short-tem obstacles,
remembering your long-term goal creates courage.
Adversity energizes and motivates the courageous leader, but
quickly ‘‘quenches the fire’’ of those who lack courage.
People (and turtles) rarely get anywhere without extending
their necks.
C H A P T E R
N I N E
Justice and Fairness
‘‘Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.’’
—P. 106:3
‘‘But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!’’
—A 5:24
hapter 1 discussed honesty and integrity, which primarily re-
late to dealings between individuals. Justice and fairness ex-
tend into the group arena. Does the leader treat all people
with a respect for their basic human rights? Are the rules and
procedures applied even-handedly, without favoritism, across all seg-
ments of the company?
A corporation is not a democracy, but managers who do not lead
with a basic sense of justice and fairness soon find that they will lose
the trust and loyalty of their followers. Moreover, they will also gain a
reputation with customers, suppliers, and the society at large that, in a
crunch, they will use their personal power to make and enforce arbi-
trary decisions.
175
176
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
LEADING WITH JUSTICE
Will you lead as prescribed in Micah 6:8—‘‘to act justly, to love
mercy’’? Or will your leadership more closely resemble ‘‘you rulers . . .
who despise justice and distort all that is right’’? (Mic. 3:9)
These passages remind me of an incident that took place early in my
career when I was a training manager for a large accounting firm. Our
trainers were drawn from the ranks of the accountants, who were re-
moved from their audits for a week to instruct the firm’s new recruits.
Not all went willingly, but most completed the task loyally and compe-
tently once they arrived at the training facility.
We had a very serious exception on one occasion. The instructor
obviously saw his week-long assignment as a trainer as a ‘‘paid vacation’’
and also as an opportunity to act irresponsibly and unprofessionally—he
was visibly intoxicated when he got up in front of the class on the first
day.
As a training manager, it was my job to ensure that quality instruction
was taking place and that the new recruits were being oriented to the
firm in a positive way. I called the office where the instructor normally
worked and spoke to the administrator there, explaining that the person
they had sent was drunk in front of the class. He immediately asked me
if ‘‘a partner had observed this?’’ I told him that a partner had not been
present. The administrator proceeded to inform me that ‘‘if a partner
didn’t see it, it didn’t happen.’’ He told me that the instructor should
finish out his week of instruction, that they would not speak to him
about his actions, and that they would not send a substitute who could
act more appropriately.
This was definitely not a situation in which justice was served. The
instructor got the message that it’s OK to conduct oneself unprofession-
ally in front of new recruits, and the recruits got the message that there
are different sets of rules for different levels of people.
I refrained from quoting the administrator, which would have totally
confirmed the recruits’ worst stereotypes of large partnerships: the
higher up you go, the more leeway you have in bending and breaking
the rules.
Justice and Fairness
177
Some companies, by contrast, actually set up a system to counteract
abuses of justice, even by those at high levels. In doing so, they are
following the lead of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who set up a system
of courts and advised the newly appointed judges, ‘‘Consider carefully
what you do . . . Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no
injustice or impartiality.’’ (2 Chron. 19:4–11)
One company that has set up such a system protecting the rights of
all is FedEx, and that system is called the Guaranteed Fair Treatment
(GFT) process. The process guarantees all employees a trial by their
peers (something rather uncommon in most corporations, and one that
might have been a good vehicle for the drunken instructor situation
described earlier). The appeals process goes all the way to the CEO,
where three of five people on the panel can be picked by the employee.
One FedEx manager says that the GFT process is not only a vehicle
for justice and fairness but also for better overall management: ‘‘The
GFT process . . . is a good vehicle for the employee as well as the
manager, because if the employee never GFT’s the manager, how
would you know how you are managing?’’1 In one case, an employee
was fired on a technicality and won her case, only to be harassed by her
manager. She filed another GFT; in many cases, the employee would
have been asked to accept a transfer, but at FedEx, she was allowed to
keep her job and the manager was relieved of supervisory responsibility.
Gary Heavin of Curves for Women believes fervently in the long-
term power of justice and fairness, and is willing to make short-term
economic sacrifices in the interest of fairness. Heavin notes that in most
franchising arrangements, the franchisor gets a fixed percentage of the
franchisee’s revenues. ‘‘I thought, ‘The people doing really well—why
should they pay more?’ They’d just get angry and resent us. So I chose
a flat fee for all franchisees, according to the law of integrity. I wanted to do the fair thing.’’2
Ironically, Heavin has found that justice and fairness actually ‘‘pay’’
in the long run. ‘‘These people who did really well shouted it from
the rooftops; they don’t hide any revenues from me, and they recruit
franchisees—it was the machine that drove us.’’ Heavin, true to his
biblical principles, runs his company like David ran his kingdom:
178
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
‘‘David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his
people.’’ (2 Sam. 8:15)
Levi-Strauss has been a strong force for economic and social justice.
They were one of the first companies to adopt a socially responsible
agenda, stemming all the way back to the San Francisco earthquake of
1906, when they continued the employees’ salaries even though they
were unable to produce anything.
More recently, Levi-Strauss has offered technical assistance to Ghetto
Enterprises, Inc., a small Oakland manufacturer whom they wanted to
use as a supplier. As with Ben & Jerry’s original experiment using Greyston Bakeries as a supplier, the road was rocky, and ultimately the experi-
ment didn’t work. Peter Haas, CEO, doesn’t regret this ‘‘failed
attempt’’ at justice: ‘‘There are many times we stub our toe . . . but
that’s not for want of trying.’’
Levi Strauss also monitors the treatment of its workers by suppliers
and contractors through its Global Sourcing Guidelines. It sends inspec-
tors to manufacturing facilities to see how they are being treated. As a
result, Levi Strauss has terminated business relationships with 5 percent
of its contractors and has required improvements (such as paying work-
ers the legally mandated wage or eliminating child and prison-based
labor) from 25 percent of the contractors. Says former CEO Walter
Haas, Jr.: ‘‘Each of us has the capacity to make business not only a
source of economic wealth, but also a force for economic and social
justice.’’
Levi Strauss has often ‘‘put its money where its mouth is,’’ making
financial sacrifices to assure fair treatment of non–U.S. citizens. In Ban-
gladesh and Turkey, contractors were using underage workers. Levi
Strauss had what looked like a difficult choice: either discontinue the
use of the contractor (in which case all the children would lose their
meager means of support) or continue to use a contractor who ex-
ploited child labor. Their solution was to have the contractors pay the
children’s salary while they attended school full-time; Levi Strauss paid
for the children’s books, tuition, and uniforms. When the children
reached working age and had been educated, they were again offered
jobs in the plant.3
Justice and Fairness
179
JUSTICE FOR ALL
Leaders with the most vision seek justice for all who are affected by
their business, even if (like the children in Bangladesh and Turkey),
they are not directly in the line of sight and could be easily ignored.
The Bible is very specific about defending the rights of the ‘‘alien,’’ the poor, or the disadvantaged.
‘‘Administer true justice . . . do not oppress the alien or the poor.’’
(Zech. 7:10)
‘‘Do not take advantage of a hired man . . . whether he is a brother
Israelite or alien.’’ (Deut. 24:14)
Unfortunately, African Americans, whose ancestors were brought