Heider College of Business welcomed Lloyd Sandelands, Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan on Thursday night at the Harper Center.  His talk was “The Inhumanity of Profit Seeking” and his thesis was that when business focuses on profit instead of human flourishing, it loses track of its real purpose, and fails to fulfill its purpose, both morally and economically.   Work is for humanity, not the other way around, but we often seek our meaning in our work or in our wealth from our work, which, according to Sandeland, is the wrong place to get our sense of being.  Our true being comes only from God, and in right relationship to God we find the balance which sees work for what it is– a means of bringing about human flourishing.

After graduating from Northwestern, Sandeland taught at Columbia University College of Business in the 1980s, and moved to the University of Michigan in 1981, where he has taught for over 35 years.  Earlier in his career he was not religious, but he had reconversion experience back to his Catholic faith later in his career, and has written extensively on the central importance of God for a right conceptual understanding of business and its purpose.  His books include God and Mammon, and also Being at Work among others.  His central theme is that the business of business must be oriented towards the human and flourishing, and that will happen only when the purpose of our work is to glorify God.

The talk was very well attended, and there were many interesting questions afterwards.  The seminar class to follow was a solid hour and a half of questions from students about Dr. Sandelands thoughts on business.  All in all it was a very successful conclusion to this year’s Business, Faith, and Common Good Speaker Series!

Andy Gustafson