Charity
Other names:
Love
Definition:
To will and act for the good of others.
"Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God." (CCC 1822)
Advice:
Empirical Research:
The most significant study of one aspect of love, adult bonding, is that conducted by Hazan and Shaver (1987), which focuses on identifying and comparing secure, ambivalent or avoidant styles of attachment. Secure attachment in adults is linked to using compromise in conflict resolution (Pistole, 1989; Gaines et al., 1997), greater likelihood of seeking support when distressed (Simpson, Rholes & Nelligan, 1992) and lower likelihood of divorce (Hazan & Shaver, 1987).
Case examples:
Gifts of the Spirit:
Wisdom
Further reading:
Vices opposed:
Hatred
Sloth
Envy
Discord
Contention
Schism
War
Strife
Sedition
Scandal
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his autobiography, Pizza Tiger, Tom Monaghan describes how his faith shaped his priorities according to the virtue of charity, giving moral direction to his ambitions on the cusp of his business career. "I was certain that no matter how elaborate or grandiose my daydreams got, I would never get to the point where I would violate my Catholic upbringing. I couldn't knowingly do things that were wrong. From these kinds of thoughts I developed my priorities.
"After that, my dreams of success became even richer because I was comfortable in the knowledge that they had a strong ethical foundation." (Monaghan, Pizza Tiger, p. 47-48)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his book, It's Your Ship, Captain Michael Abrashoff of the U.S. Navy explains how to tactfully engage in fraternal correction, which is itself an act of charity. "When I left Benfold, I went to work for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, the high-tech arm of the Navy. I was the deputy to one of the senior civilian executives. Whenever he could not attend the Monday board of directors’ meeting, I was tagged to take his place. These meetings were difficult because the senior admiral who ran them could not bear criticism, especially if it involved his immediate staff. If you pointed out deficiencies in his operation, his defenses hit the panic button and he wound up fighting with everyone in the room. I don’t think he understood the silencing effect he had on people when he lashed out at them. His message was clear: My operation is perfect; no need for improvement.
"Although he is hugely talented, his response to criticism was keeping us from addressing deep-seated problems in the organization. I tried to think of some way to help. I decided to send him a private e-mail, in which I quietly described how his outbursts stifled progress and cast a pall over the discussions. I suggested that he consider trying to control his emotions.
"Guess what: I got an e-mail back from him saying, 'You’re absolutely right. I didn’t realize the effect I was having on people. Now that you have pointed it out, I will be a lot more restrained.' And he actually started to improve. If I had confronted him in public, the results would have been devastating.
"I had nothing to gain and everything to lose by e-mailing the admiral, which in itself is a key to my success in challenging senior people. I made it clear that my only agenda was helping the Navy improve, with all due credit to my superiors, not to myself. If I were viewed as a self-promoter, I would have been squashed long before I had a chance to command a ship. It helps when your motives are pure and you make sure they come across that way." (Abrashoff, It’s Your Ship, pp. 54-55)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his book, It's Your Ship, Captain Michael Abrashoff explains how his ship, the U.S.S. Benfold, "adopted" a local elementary school in San Diego, and then carried the same sort of practices with them overseas. "I never took attendance. I didn’t know who was going except for the original social worker. But whenever we were back from sea duty, sailors could always be found at the school tutoring, coaching, and doing anything else they were asked to. And the idea of community service spread: Whenever we pulled into a foreign port, forty or fifty sailors would go off and find an orphanage or hospital that could use a few helping hands.
"Benfold made us all proud in so many ways that it is hard to single out one achievement above the others. But for me, the one that stands out was the volunteer spirit we created throughout the ship. It was heartwarming to see these young people, almost all of them from underprivileged backgrounds, giving of themselves to make things better for others, and not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
"I know that government programs do a lot of good and help a lot of people, but only local communities really understand the nuances of their challenges. One-size-fits-all programs tend to fit none. I think business has to pick up some of the slack. It is good for morale, good for your reputation, and good for your soul. Companies are right there in the community, and they can target their efforts to where they’re most needed. It really isn’t complicated. The need is there, staring them in the face, and filling it benefits everyone—those who do as well as those who receive." (Abrashoff, It’s Your Ship, p. 164)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn Made in America, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton explains why, after an initial period in which salaries remained consistently low, he ultimately developed a system of profit sharing amongst employees at all levels of the company. "The larger truth that I failed to see turned out to be another of those paradoxes - like the discounters' principle that the less you charge, the more you'll earn. And here it is: the more you share profits with your associates - whether it's in salaries or incentives or bonuses or stock discounts - the more profit will accrue to the company. Why? Because the way management treats the associates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers. And if the associates treat the customers well, the customers will return again and again, and that is where the real profit in this business lies, not in trying to drag strangers into your stores for one-time purchases based on splashy sales or expensive advertising. Satisfied, loyal, repeat customers are at the heart of Wal-Mart's spectacular profit margins, and those customers are loyal to us because our associates treat them better than salespeople in other stores do. So, in the whole Wal-Mart scheme of things, the most important contact ever made is between the associate in the store and the customer.” (163-64)
Indeed, Sam Walton goes even farther in maintaining instilling a spirit of charity throughout the company by opting for the practice of designating all employees, regardless of rank, as “associates.” “That may not sound like a big deal to some folks, and they're right. It wouldn't have meant a thing if we hadn't taken other actions to makes it real, to make it something other than window dressing. The decisions we reached around that time, to commit ourselves to giving the associates more equitable treatment in the company, was without a doubt the single smartest move we ever made at Wal-Mart.
"In 1971, we took our first big step: we corrected my big error of the year before, and started a profit-sharing plan for all the associates. I guess it's the move we made that I'm proudest of, for a number of reasons. Profit sharing has pretty much been the carrot that's kept Wal-Mart headed forward. Every associate of the company who has been with us at least a year, and who works at least 1,000 hours a year, is eligible for it. Using a formula based on profit growth, we contribute a percentage of every eligible associate's wages to his or her plan, which the associate can take when they leave the company - either in cash or Wal-Mart stock. There's nothing unusual about the structure of the plan. It's the performance I'm so proud of. For the last ten years, the company contributed an average of 6 percent of wages to the plan. Last year, for example, Wal-Mart's contribution was $125 million. Now, the folks who administer the profit sharing - and this includes a committee of associates - have chosen year after year to keep the plan invested mostly in Wal-Mart stock, so the thing has grown beyond belief, collectively, and in the individual accounts of a lot of associates. Today, as I write this, profit sharing has around $1.8 billion in it - equity in the company that belongs to our associate partners." (168-69) [Walton, Made in America, pp. 163-64 and 168-69]
Case Study
ReplyDeleteThroughout his career, J. C. Penney founder James Cash Penney spearheaded a number of philanthropic agricultural projects, offering employment or even partnership opportunities to resident tenant farmers when purchasing a new plot of land. Two of Penney’s most successful partners were brothers Marshal and Elden Meservey. “While both of the Meservey brothers had been ‘dirt poor’ when their agricultural partnerships with Penney had begun,” explains David Delbert Kruger in J. C. Penney: The Man, the Store and American Agriculture, “by the 1960s their hard work had made them successful enough to buy their large modern farms from Penney outright. The fact that both brothers were finally capable of doing so thrilled Penney immensely, as he privately explained to Elden Meservey in 1963.
“‘One of the greatest pleasures I have is to feel that I have given men, managers of Penney stores, an opportunity to develop their God-given powers. This experience has caused me to feel that the same plan could work with farmers as it has with the managers of the stores. You and Marshal are outstanding examples of this plan. In my opinion, you men have both been very successful besides being an influence in your own communities…I do not know how many years the good Lord will allow me to live. When I pass on, I do not want people to remember me by what I was worth or how much did he leave? (sic) It would please me most if it could be said, in spirit and in truth, that he helped men to help themselves. I feel there could be no greater tribute than that.’” (Kruger, J. C. Penney, pp. 186-87)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteThroughout his career, J. C. Penney founder James Cash Penney spearheaded a number of philanthropic agricultural projects to improve the quality of life and work for American farmers. When purchasing a new plot of land, his usual practice was to offer employment, or even business partnerships, to the tenant farmers or hired hands who resided there. One such partner was Orin James, who lived on what had once been Penney’s old family farm in Hamilton, Missouri. In 1929, Penney began to buy back the property from its absentee landlord, and became acquainted with young James in person. “Orin James was a cowboy who had grown up in nearby Chillicothe,” explains David Delbert Kruger in J. C. Penney: The Man, the Store and American Agriculture, “and had moved onto the property with his wife in a desperate attempt to eke out a living as a tenant farmer…When Penney first introduced himself to the young couple and told them of his plans to buy the farm on which they were living, they feared the wealthy businessman would be kicking them off in short order. However…[Penney] saw great potential in Orin James as a farmer and stockman, especially given the right backing and facilities.”
Ultimately, Penney succeeded in acquiring the property, dubbing it Home Place Farm and making James his partner in the venture. “For the young couple living on Home Place Farm, the partnership with Penney…vastly improved their lot as struggling tenant farmers, especially after their first and only baby, Orin James Jr., was born in 1931.” While development of the property was slowed by the early years of the Depression, Penney was able to resume the project in force by 1937. “Penney completely renovated the two-story home where Orin James and his family lived, including a private bedroom in which Penney could sleep and study during his personal visits, and constructed additional homes for James’s hired hands. His farming partner was awed by the transformation. ‘When I moved to this farm there was only one barn,’ Orin James later reflected. ‘Now the improvements include four large barns, a bull barn, a machinery shed and a combination granary-milling shed where feeds are ground and mixed for the livestock. The home is also modern in every way.’ In addition to providing electricity and indoor plumbing for James’s home, Penney constructed a ninety-thousand-gallon cistern and installed two modern steel grain bins, the latter with capacity for five thousand bushels of corn and three thousand bushels of grain.” (Kruger, J. C. Penney, pp. 105-07)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn 1937, J. C. Penney founder James Cash Penney began purchasing a number or properties in Chula, Missouri from the local bank for use in his philanthropic agricultural projects. “Operating one of these parcels,” explains David Delbert Kruger in J. C. Penney: The Man, the Store and American Agriculture, “was a poor but enterprising young man, Marshal Meservey, in the capacity of a tenant farmer for the bank, renting a farmhouse that served as home to both him and his wife, Alpha.” Unlike many developers, Penney’s usual practice when purchasing land was not to evict the local tenants, but rather to offer them employment or even business partnerships. Such was the case with Marshal Meservey. “Although Penny had personally vetted the young farmer through two local bankers, it is very likely he had additionally inquired about Marshal’s wife, Alpha, and would not have considered offering the partnership had she not passed his approval as well. Once Penney had decided that Marshal Meservey was indeed the best candidate for his emerging farm, he immediately drove to the young man’s home for an unannounced visit. Marshal and Alpha were understandably surprised not only when James Cash Penney introduced himself, but when the sixty-one-year-old department store magnate revealed the purpose behind his visit, offering the farmer a lucrative partnership in the agribusiness.”
The partnership was to operate on a 50-50 basis. “After thinking the offer over, Marshal Meservey became Penney’s farming partner in 1937, to the eminent delight of both men. Ironically, no attorney or written contract was involved in the agreement between them, nor would there be for any of Penney’s subsequent agricultural partnerships. As clichéd and even risky as it may have seemed, Penney simply trusted the young farmer to honor their verbal agreement through nothing more than a handshake and both men’s word.” (Kruger, J. C. Penney, pp. 165-67)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn 1937, J. C. Penney founder James Cash Penney began purchasing a number or properties in Chula, Missouri from the local bank for use in his philanthropic agricultural projects. “Operating one of these parcels,” explains David Delbert Kruger in J. C. Penney: The Man, the Store and American Agriculture, “was a poor but enterprising young man, Marshal Meservey, in the capacity of a tenant farmer for the bank, renting a farmhouse that served as home to both him and his wife, Alpha.” Unlike many developers, Penney’s usual practice when purchasing land was not to evict the local tenants, but rather to offer them employment or even business partnerships. Such was the case with Marshal Meservey. “Although Penny had personally vetted the young farmer through two local bankers, it is very likely he had additionally inquired about Marshal’s wife, Alpha, and would not have considered offering the partnership had she not passed his approval as well. Once Penney had decided that Marshal Meservey was indeed the best candidate for his emerging farm, he immediately drove to the young man’s home for an unannounced visit. Marshal and Alpha were understandably surprised not only when James Cash Penney introduced himself, but when the sixty-one-year-old department store magnate revealed the purpose behind his visit, offering the farmer a lucrative partnership in the agribusiness.”
The partnership was to operate on a 50-50 basis. “After thinking the offer over, Marshal Meservey became Penney’s farming partner in 1937, to the eminent delight of both men. Ironically, no attorney or written contract was involved in the agreement between them, nor would there be for any of Penney’s subsequent agricultural partnerships. As clichéd and even risky as it may have seemed, Penney simply trusted the young farmer to honor their verbal agreement through nothing more than a handshake and both men’s word.” (Kruger, J. C. Penney, pp. 165-67)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1920’s, J. C. Penney founder James Cash Penney began a cattle-breeding venture at Emmadine Farm in hopes of raising the overall poor quality of America’s Guernsey cows. He promoted this project by showing livestock at exhibitions across the country. For Penney, as David Delbert Kruger explains in J. C. Penney: The Man, the Store and American Agriculture, these exhibitions were also opportunities to personally connect with the American farmers he hoped to serve. “At a 1926 National Guernsey Sale in Chicago, Penney struck up a friendly conversation with thirty-two-year old farmer August Johanik, a Slovakian immigrant who was struggling to raise purebred Guernsey cattle outside Moquah, Wisconsin. ‘There was a sort of kinship between August and me,’ Penney recalled years later. ‘Our families were poor, and shared the same struggle to turn their land into prosperity.’ In their short conversation during the sale, Penney committed a number of facts about Johanik’s life to permanent memory, recalling them in great detail in his 1950 autobiography and other writings. Notably, the young farmer had recently struggled with an infestation of blackleg, a brutal and fatal bacterial disease that had infected his small dairy herd. After he lost nine of his prize heifers to the disease, a fire subsequently wiped out his barn and grain silo as well. Unaware of Penney’s business stature, Johanik informally confided to the department store magnate that he had brought one of his best Guernsey cows to the sale, hoping that she might sell for at least $500 and help relieve some of the mounting debts on his farm back in Wisconsin. When the cow entered the sales ring, Johanik was surprised to see the bidding more than quadruple his expectations, not knowing that the final bid of $2,100 came from James Cash Penney himself. Penney recalled that the young farmer went off to cry in private after the selling price was confirmed. Nevertheless, Penney could easily empathize with Johanik’s emotions given the circumstances.
“‘A lot of himself had gone into the quality of that creature. The sale meant not only the easing of debt but freedom from it…I did him a favor in the price of the cow, because she was worth every penny of it. But the greatest part of the experience for me was seeing the encouragement August took from the incident. If, through Emmadine Farm, I could have a continuing part in helping men like August Johanik, and showing the way to better things on the American farm, it would be the best dividend I could receive on an investment.’” (Kruger, J. C. Penney, p. 48)