Faith Integration Paper

Faith Integration Paper

Jasmine Carter, William Conlin, Joshua Dawson, and Mary Faircloth

Liberty University

Ethics

The business environment can be a difficult place to maintain your Christian values and outlook. The Bible states in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (English Standard Version). This Bible verse should be looked back upon often in order for individuals to make decisions based on their Christian values. It is often that business decisions teeter on crossing ethical boundaries, and making sure to reference the Bible and have faith during those times leads to the most favorable outcomes.

        One of the ethical decisions that have been addressed during this class is the different inventory valuation methods. The way inventories in a company are valued can have major impacts on the financial status of the company and the managers and individuals tasked with making decisions. Since the inventory items are constantly being sold and restocked and since the costs of the items are constantly changing, a company must select a cost flow assumption. Cost flow assumptions include first-in-first-out; weighted average; and last-in-first-out. The company is expected to be consistent in its application of the selected cost flow assumption (What is inventory valuation?, n.d.). If managers know that their compensation package hinders on the performance of their division, they may be tempted to choose one inventory method over another. Not all of the methods are accurate for each industry. If the manager is unethical and uses an inventory valuation method that purposely overstates income, he may be able to overstate the income of his division and make it look more profitable than it actually is in order to increase his bonus compensation. Making sure to always follow a Christian outlook and make ethical decisions is essential for all involved in business decisions such as these.

Budgeting and Planning

Lanen, Anderson, and Maher (2017) assert that there is a human element to budgeting that must be accounted for. For instance, an individual’s forecast is “likely to be greatly influenced by [his/her] experience with various segments of the company” (Lanen et al., 2017, p. 504). To counter some of these human elemental issues, Lanen et al. (2017) contend that “participative budgeting” can be employed by a company to get more individuals involved in the budgeting process (p. 504). Participative budgeting can help to “enhance employee motivation and acceptance of goals” while providing information to decision-makers that they might not have obtained if not for the participative budgeting process (Lanen et al., 2015, p. 504).  An argument can be made that participative budgeting is also a biblical concept. Proverbs 15:22 states “without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (English Standard Version). If advisers are interpreted as lower level managers or other employees, then Proverbs 15:22 is directly on point in relation to participative budgeting.