Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity is a moral principle that recognizes the need for decision making to be distributed throughout the organization, linked appropriately to individuals, level, and function, for the purpose of encouraging employees to use their gifts and to stand on their own integrity. The benefits of subsidiarity, though first intended for the benefit of individual persons, accrues also to the organization and clients or customers it serves. Subsidiarity rests on two basic principles: respect for the human person and the common good. It recognizes that each person has gifts in the form of knowledge, skills, aptitudes, and talents. It sees employees not simply as human resources but as persons who have much to give and to gain within a community of work. Subsidiarity requires conditions that ...