Building an Ethic of Service

Building an Ethic of Service

David Whyte (1994) describes the relationship that many Americans have with work:

This chapter investigates the power of service as a way of, as Whyte stated, “remembering what is essential and placing it back in the center of our lives” (pp. 294—295). It attempts to answer the question, “How can the nonprofit organization better tap the potential of the ethic of service inherent within its ordination?”

Although Whyte speaks of the corporate workplace, the nonprofit workplace is not exempt from the malaise of brokenness experienced by so many in the workforce. The nonprofit world does, however, have a singular advantage. Nonprofits are born out of human needs. While the for-profit organization spends hours and dollars crafting the perfect mission statement that will motivate its workforce to sacrifice itself in pursuit of altruistic goals undergirded by values that sound as though Mother Theresa were the CEO, the nonprofit organization's mission is clear from the outset. Certainly, that mission statement requires refocusing from time to time, but due to the fundamental nature of the nonprofit, the drive for profit does not distract it from its raison d’être. Master of business administration (MBA) students learn that the fundamental aim of business is to increase value for shareholders; nonprofit students learn that the fundamental aim of the nonprofit organization is service. Employees of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, however, according to research conducted by Jurkiewicz, Massey, and Brown (1998), appear to have similar drives and needs and do not have significant differences when rating important motivational factors. The research reported a surprising finding: “Of special note and quite contradictory to previous research is the finding that private sector employees assign a higher rank to ‘chance to benefit society’” (p. 236).

In apparent support of the research conducted by Jurkiewicz et al. (1998), on May 30, 2009, the New York Times printed an article heralding the ethic of service in the world of profit. It reported on a trend among students of the top tier business schools toward taking an oath to consciously serve the greater good and limit personal ambition:

Additionally, the power of service has been acknowledged as numerous corporations turn to providing paid time off to employees for the purpose of volunteering. Employee involvement in volunteering, although initially designed to enhance the corporations’ social responsibility profiles, is now understood to enhance overall employee morale (Basil, Runte, Easwaramoorthy, & Barr, 2009).

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