| This dissertation attempted to determine the degree to which the Rule of Benedict might be used as a management model in secular, privately held, for-profit companies with no more than 100 employees. Operationalizing the Rule in a corporate environment would be a way to manifest Catholic social teaching on the value of human work and the purpose of economic development.;The Rule of Benedict was written by Benedict of Nursia around 527 CE as a governing document for two small Italian monasteries. The Rule was written for lay people who wanted to live a deeply spiritual life, improve their minds, and nurture their souls. Through the traditional Catholic religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and the unique Benedictine vows of stability and conversion of life, Benedictine women and men have been, for almost 2 millennia, standard bearers for orderliness, peacefulness, and solitude in a hectic world.;A computerized content analysis was used to code the Rule into guidelines for the production of standard practice memoranda on human resource management functions. Sample policies were developed using the recoded text of the Rule, and these sample policies were reviewed by a panel of jurors, selected for their expertise in their respective fields. Overall, jurors found that the Rule of Benedict could be used by privately held, employee-owned corporations with fewer than 100 employees as a guideline for developing an employee code of conduct, recruiting and selection policies, and job descriptions for top corporate executives. Jurors objected to the Benedictine practice of allowing the community to elect its leader---in this instance, the CEO. Such objections were surprising, especially when examined against a backdrop of current management theories. Although experts in the management field advocate employee participation, perhaps they embrace only the theory, with limited regard for the practice and its natural outcomes. |
