Purpose And Power Of Authority (25 page)

In another example, someone working in the warehouse of a company may not have immediate access to the CEO on a job-flow chart, but because he has worked there for thirty years and has been there since the business was established, the CEO may seek him out directly for information or advice rather than making the request through his supervisors.

As you make your study of the organization, be sure to assess your own formal and informal relationships in the group so that you are fully aware of how you interact with others on an official and unofficial basis. Having a knowledge of both of these structures will help you to receive the support you need, make good and efficient decisions, participate in the life of the group, and accomplish your assignments, goals, and objectives in accordance with your personal authority.

Third, identify the individuals who possess “earned” authority and influence within the formal and informal structures of the organization. A person who has earned authority has knowledge, wisdom, experience, and skills that others in the group recognize and respect, so that people go to him for key information and assistance that will help the family, community, or business to solve problems and to run smoothly overall. An individual with earned authority might be the founder of an organization, someone promoted to manager from within the staff of a company, a president emeritus, a grandmother or grandfather, or a long-term employee. Note that these individuals may or may not be in a visible role; they may have a quiet role that functions in the background but wields great influence on the group as a whole.

If you have a concern or a problem that needs to be addressed, always refer to your immediate authority first, such as a parent, a committee chairman, a teacher, a supervisor, a director, or a CEO. You should follow the same course when you are in doubt about who you should go to regarding a question or situation—the immediate authority is where you begin.

In a case where the issue is your immediate authority, you may be tempted to go above him to address the problem. However, this is usually a poor move because it will undermine personal responsibility and positive interaction in the relationship.

Please note that in special circumstances, such as issues of physical abuse or sexual harassment that involve your immediate authority, you should appeal to someone who will treat the problem with confidentiality and seriousness. Most workplaces have established procedures to protect employees in these cases and to provide a neutral third party for employees to talk with, such as a human resources director. If the abuse or harassment is coming from a family member, you should contact a respected pastor, family counselor, or women’s shelter.

Generally, though, by going to your immediate authority with an issue, you will follow the proper order. You will likely incite a lack of trust in both your direct authority and any authority above him if you immediately go over his head. As uncomfortable as the interaction might be, go to the supervisor, director, chairman, or parent first and explain clearly and respectfully what the issue is.

For example, if you are having difficulty getting your work done at your job because of something the supervisor is doing, or because of some practice in your department, tell him what is hampering you. I suggest that if you do not receive a helpful response, you should go back to the supervisor two more times. You should document these conversations in some form. If you still do not receive a positive response, then you should go to the next level. This would be the one who is your supervisor’s immediate authority. You want the authority above your supervisor to know that you have followed the proper order in addressing the problem before coming to him. The company may deal with the supervisor when you explain the situation, but any such action is under their domain and is not yours to try to accomplish in some other way.

Going to your supervisor or your supervisor’s immediate authority is not something to do lightly. Don’t go to your supervisor over trivial matters or go to the next level of authority because you have a grudge against your supervisor. Instead, make appeals about matters that truly hinder you from being able to perform your job.

Similarly, never bypass, overstep, or ignore your immediate authority when it comes to other interactions in your family, community, or business. Always follow the lines of designated
authority.

For example, Jesus told His disciples, “The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 15:16, emphasis added). Jesus has all authority, and for His disciples to ask in His name maintains the power as well as the order of true authority.

In the case of Joseph, the pharaoh gave him authority over all Egypt by giving him his own signet ring. Yet even though Joseph had great latitude in ruling and was second in command, he still had to answer to the pharaoh. (See Genesis 41:40–42.)

A practical example of this guideline in the workplace would be to channel all communication—ideas, suggestions, and so forth—through your supervisor in an e-mail or memo so that it’s clear to others that this is how you operate. Let it go up the line. The first person in authority has the decision of whether or not to communicate the idea or suggestion. If you document your communication, the supervisor is the one who will answer for it if an idea is not passed along.

It’s possible that he may take credit for something you suggested. In that case, be honest if you are asked about it, but otherwise entrust it to God to work out rather than going around complaining about it. Peter’s advice to first-century slaves seems to apply here: “Submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God” (1 Peter 2:18–19). Following designated authority will honor God, and He will reward you for your work. (See Colossians 3:23–24.)

This guideline addresses how to respond to illegitimate authority. If you need to operate under someone who doesn’t understand or accept true authority, recognize that you are submitting to the position that has been delegated to him from those higher than he. The office is more important than the officer in this case.

However, if you are asked to do something that would violate God’s principles, you cannot, of course, participate. You should follow the example of Daniel as he lived as an exile in Babylon, in an environment of idol worship under the kings Nebuchadnezzar and Darius. For example, when a royal decree was issued that all the people had to worship only King Darius for a period of thirty days, Daniel kept praying only to God and, as a result, was thrown in a lions’ den. God protected him, and his life was spared. Yet, as a testimony to Daniel’s respect for authority, when Darius came to see if he had survived, Daniel did not say to him out of anger and resentment, “O king, go to blazes!” Instead, he greeted him with an energetic, “O king, live forever!” (Daniel 6:21) and explained how God had rescued him and that he was innocent of offending the king. (See Daniel 6.)

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews gives a list of people who served God, even in the midst of dire circumstances. Some were miraculously delivered, while others were mocked, physically abused, imprisoned, or even killed. All of them were noted for their faith. Regardless of whether they were delivered or not, they all received God’s commendation and reward for staying true to Him and His ways.

Serve the position, if not the person, whenever possible, and serve God at all times.

If an unauthorized authority asks you to do something that you cannot in good conscience do, and if he is not accountable to anyone else, then you must make him accountable to your own convictions.

What does this mean? You can sometimes work under an authority figure who is contrary to your ideals and principles and end up influencing that person because you are confident in your own personal authority and because it is stronger than that person’s public authority. In the above example, Daniel did not succumb to idol worship, and those around him—including the king—had to deal with his convictions. The king’s other advisers had manipulated Darius to make the decree because they were jealous of Daniel. His principles, wisdom, and work ethic had given him such favor with the king that he was about to be made second in command, and they thought that hitting him in the area of his own convictions would cause his downfall. (See Daniel 6:3–9.) Instead, the opposite happened. Though Darius couldn’t revoke his decree, he was relieved to find that Daniel had been saved from the lions, and he not only promoted Daniel but honored Daniel’s God, as well. Those who opposed Daniel received the punishment they had sought for him. (See Daniel 6:10–28.)

Similarly, Joseph knew God as his reference in life and therefore was established in ethics and morals and understood righteous boundaries, but he seemed to be able to work with anyone in an authority role. Even after being sold into slavery, he served those over him honorably—his first Egyptian master, Potiphar; the prison warden who oversaw him after he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife; and the pharaoh.

When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, he refused to compromise his principles, and so she told lies that resulted in his imprisonment. Then, even after Pharaoh’s cupbearer, who had been jailed with him, was restored to his role after Joseph interpreted his dream but promptly forgot about his promise to help Joseph, Joseph kept trusting God to deliver him from prison. After two years, when the pharaoh had a troubling dream, the cupbearer remembered Joseph, and Joseph not only was freed but was made second in command in Egypt. (See Genesis 39:1–41:44.)

Daniel and Joseph cooperated with unauthorized authority figures as much as possible, but they never compromised their relationships with God.

One of the keys to keeping this balance is a principle I highlighted earlier: when you are operating under your personal authority and know that your Ultimate Authority is God, you are no longer threatened by anyone, and you don’t need anything from anyone else in order to feel valuable or safe; therefore, no one can manipulate or coerce you into doing something you don’t want to do.

In other scriptural examples, even under the threat of death, Esther, at her uncle Mordecai’s urging, was willing to risk her own life before King Xerxes to save her people from death. (See the book of Esther.) Daniel was not afraid to appeal to King Nebuchadnezzar, who had ordered all the king’s advisers put to death, including Daniel and his friends, or to ask God for the interpretation of the king’s troubling dream. (See Daniel 2.) When Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were threatened with death in a fiery furnace if they didn’t worship the golden idol that King Nebuchadnezzar had made, they refused, saying,

O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. (Daniel 3:16–18)

Again, the king had to respond to the convictions of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which they were willing to die for. God protected them from the furnace so that they not only survived the fire but also didn’t even have the smell of smoke on their clothes. (See verses 22–30.)

In your interactions in family, community, and business settings, you hopefully will never face anything as dire as Daniel and his friends, Joseph, or Esther did! However, their experiences illustrate that you can remain true to your principles and your personal authority while still serving unauthorized authority as you honor God in your life.

If others in your family, community, or company are grumbling and complaining about authority—either authorized or unauthorized authority—do your best to discourage or dilute this attitude by promoting positive conversation and peace among members of the group. We read in the book of Hebrews,

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.(Hebrews 12:11–15, emphasis added)

Even though circumstances may not be pleasant and may even be unfair, again, encourage respect for the office if not the person. This must be done with tact and patience, but you can often defuse a gripe session or negative situation by offering constructive, practical alternatives to complaining and by steering the conversation toward more positive topics. You can also discuss going through the proper channels to try to correct the problem, as described in numbers four and five.

What are you demonstrating about your own attitude toward authority in the various realms of corporate life you are involved in? It’s important not just to discourage others’ complaints about authority but also to encourage members of the organization to respect authority by your own example. You will always be tempted to talk negatively to others about certain people in the group or about the organization itself in regard to people’s attitudes, policies, and so forth, but resist this temptation. Paul wrote,