This book reports the results of a research project that spanned more than a decade. Integrity is the foundation of business. However, the marketplace is highly competitive and sometimes hostile to basic moral aspirations. It is not easy for Christian executives to remain faithful to their Christian values in the business world. This project interviewed a total of 119 Christian executives in Hong Kong. They were known among their peers as committed Christians. Based on their stories recounting the challenges they faced in the marketplace, the authors managed to collect a total of 539 critical incidents that illustrate how they responded when they sensed their integrity was on the line. This study makes use of H. Richard Niebuhr’s framework on Christ and Culture, and also the Negotiation Styles Framework in the negotiation literature. When putting these two frameworks together, the new integrated framework enabled us to understand the Christian executives’ responses to ethical challenges and their implications to profitableness. This book demonstrates the usefulness and limitation of positive science, and the importance of normative reflection in handling ethical challenges. Based on positive science findings, we can see Christian executives’ typical responses as these are shaped by external circumstances such as doing business in China or operating within a Christian corporate culture. Based on normative reflection, we can see that not infrequently when taking all possible factors into consideration Christian executives may pick atypical ways to respond to ethical challenges. In handling such challenges, it is important to understand both positive science and normative reflection. Christian executives may benefit directly from the insights in this study to better prepare themselves for the ethical challenges in the marketplace. Interested readers who are not Christians can also use these insights to compare and contrast, as well as develop further, their own ways of conducting business with integrity.
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Christians in the Marketplace
Our Approach
Chapter 2: H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture
Chapter 3: Christ and Business Culture
Chapter 4: Christian Business Ethics as Positive Science and Normative Reflection
The Findings of Positive Science
Chapter 5: China Business - When the Dominant Culture is Challenging
Chapter 6: Christian Corporate Culture - When the Dominant Culture is Supportive
Normative Reflection
Chapter 7: Type I – Christ against Culture/Avoiding
Chapter 8: Type 2 – Christ of Culture/Yielding
Chapter 9: Type 3 – Christ above Culture/Integrating
Chapter 10: Type 4 – Christ and Culture in Paradox/Compromising
Chapter 11: Type 5 – Christ the Transformer of Culture/Dominating
Concluding Remarks
Chapter 12: Christ and Business Culture Revisited
References
Endnotes
Appendices
About the Authors
這書是李金漢教授和兩位研究夥伴（Professor Dennis McCann和Ms. MaryAnn Ching Yuen）的研究成果。
誠信是商業的基石。然而商塲競爭激烈，基督徒行政人員要為鹽為光，殊不容易。本研究訪問119位委身基督的香港行政人員，從他們的經歷中收集得539件面對道德挑戰的事件。這些事件成為基本研究素材。
本研究採用H. Richard Niebuhr的基督與文化框架，以及商業談判文獻中的談判風格（negotiation styles）框架，作為解讀及分析這些事件的基礎。然後循實然研究（positive science）以及應然反思（normative reflection）的進路，加以講論。研究成果可以幫助基督徒明白怎樣準備自己，在職塲有好見證。有理想的商界行政人員，自己不是基督徒，也可以參考這些研究成果，探索自己誠信經商的道路。
李金漢教授現任香港中文大學市場學榮休講座教授。李教授的研究範圍包括商業道德及商業談判。李教授的著作見於《市場學學報》，《國際企業研究學報》，《商業道德學報》，以及其他學報。李教授並為政府以及商業機構提供諮詢服務。