Theological Background Reflection

Towards a strategy on Developing Human Resources Management in the Diocese of Salisbury

The baby and the bathwater
 a theological reflection on the values that need to underpin the development of Human Resources Management in the Diocese of Salisbury.

With or without the nirvana of terms and conditions of services the human resources train is rapidly overhauling the Church of England.  We are all for better or for worse about to enter a bright new world of policies and procedures illuminated by openness, transparency and consistency. 

There is much that is positive about this move.  The legal distinctive of the post of office holder was developed to ensure protection of the rights of the office holder in a period when the rights of the employed were almost non-existent.  It is ironic that this distinctiveness has come to accord fewer rights to the office holder.  Common tenure notwithstanding it is clear that recent case law and legislation is moving towards redressing this anomaly and affording rights and protection to office holders not dissimilar to those enjoyed by employees.

Clarity in obligations and entitlements, a focus on support and professional development can only be a gain in relationship between clergy the wider church whether it be the local parish, the Bishop and his staff or Diocesan or central church structures.  Human resources management at its best puts on proper focus on the wellbeing of the key resource in any organisation – its workforce.  However there is also plentiful evidence to show the dangers of this relationship turned on its head with the focus primarily on the bottom line success of the organisation, and human resources practice used simply as damage limitation in seeking to avoid legal redress.

Human resources practices are simply tools which can be used or abused, or rather can be used to nurture or to abuse.  The impact depends on the core values of the organisation and its adherence to those values.  For the Church of England simply to embrace without reflection current human resources practice will not ensure the wellbeing of either clergy or the organisation as a whole, and may lead to a confusion of conflicting core values and the loss of all that is good and positive in the current culture of the church.

There is presently a haphazard approach to the introduction of human resources practices into the Church of England.  There has been considerable debate around the introduction of common tenure with the consequent implications for terms and conditions of service.  However there has been little debate about model policies devised by DRACS (deployment remuneration and conditions of service) committee in a number of areas such as grievance, maternity and paternity leave, and now anti harassment.  The Clergy Discipline Measure has introduced a complaints and disciplinary procedure which has little reference to any of the other developments.  The Lower Houses of the Convocations of York and Canterbury set up a working party to produce Guidelines for Professional Conduct.  

Amid this piecemeal provision there is little theological reflection and certainly no underpinning theological rationale which would ensure that such policies and procedures are undergirded by a clear framework of core values reflecting all that is good and wholesome in the culture of the Church of England and are critiqued against our Christian understanding of the nature of the human person and human community in the context of our relationship with God and each other.

That humankind is created in the image and likeness of God, affirms both the dignity of each individual human being and the intrinsic value of each human life.  This does not presuppose a model of Human Resource Management which does not challenge the individual or offer creative criticism, but does direct us to a model which looks for development of gifts and potential, and countenances the possibility of transformation.  Nor does it preclude a model which offers the possibility of censure and discipline, but draws on the root meaning of discipline – that of training and education, learning through our mistakes.

Crucial to Christian theology is an acceptance and understanding of failure and weakness, but only in the context of the possibility of transformation.  Redemption is a key value underlying a Christian perspective on Human Resource Management.  There is a recognition that people make mistakes and commit wrong.  However our experience of grace also allows us to recognise that people and behaviour can change and be transformed.  This is not a licence for perpetuated and uncensored committing of harm to others or to the organisation, but simply that Human Resource Management in a church context must give opportunity for and support the individual in seeking redemption.

The inhabiting of the human by the divine that we see in Jesus and the assumption of the human into the divine that we celebrate in the Ascension, affirm the dignity and worth of each and every human individual.  Thus a individual can never simply be treated as a resource enabling production and efficiency in an organisation.  Each person has worth and value in their own right.  More than that, creation speaks of the potential in each individual which is to be developed.  Models of Human Resource Management which simply regard workers as a resource alongside any other resource to be exploited to maximise return are inimicable to the core values of any Christian community.  Rather creation predicates a model which focuses on the wellbeing and the flourishing of each individual. 

Our belief in God as trinity means that we can never simply look to the individual.  The interdependence and mutuality of the triune Godhead show that community is inherent in our very humanity.  Each is affected by the welllbeing of the other.  The web of relationships that shape our being are affected by both our flourishing and our suffering.  The whole is greater than simply the sum of the individuals – together we are called to be the body of Christ.  Thus in Human Resources Management the wellbeing of the whole grows from the flourishing of the individual.  The flourishing of the individual draws from the wellbeing of the whole.  For the building up of the body of Christ we need model in which Human Resources Management provides the dialogue, the meeting place, the interaction between the individual and the whole.  Thus systems of Ministerial Review which simply focus on the development of the individual fail to build the body of Christ.  Rather such reviews need to be a dialogue focusing the individual in the context of the wider strategic picture and enables both the experiences and the aspirations of the individual to shape the wider picture, and an understanding of the strategic context to inform the individual in their reflection on experience and their setting of priorities.

The nature of the Trinity and our recognition of the charisms of the Holy Spirit need to underpin our approach to equality and diversity.  Advocacy of equality does not meant accepting all people are identical with the same gifts and skills.  Vocation is the determining of the right person in the right place – looking for a match of gifts, skills and experience with the needs and opportunities of a particular post or role.  Good human resources practice is supportive of the development and fulfilment of vocation.  One the one side it helps the individual with the support of the organisation to identify and develop their gifts and skills.  For the other part it provides a process to enable parishes and Diocese to identify the key needs and opportunities and to determine the appropriate gifts and skills to meet the situation.

The above theological reflection highlights the key values that need to underpin human resources management in the Diocese of Salisbury (and may well have relevance in other organisations).  Human resources management needs to help us to create an environment in which individuals flourish and are able to develop their God-given gifts and skills.  It also needs to be an environment in which those gifts and skills are best deployed in he furtherance of the Kingdom of God and thus hopefully in line with the priorities and needs of the Diocese and local churches and communities.  Good human resources practice needs to provide us with the tools for dialogue between individual clergy and senior staff that each may inform and influence the other.  Above all it needs to enable us to be a Diocese where learning and growth and development are valued.

John Wraw Oct 2008

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