Authenticity / ةحصلا (as-sehah) in Employment Relations: Theology of the Workplace Comparative Analysis of Islam and Roman Catholic Social Teaching A paper accepted for presentation at the Management Spirituality and Religion Interest Group, Academy of Management Conference, 2015

Authenticity / ةحصلا (as-sehah) serves as a criterion or predictor variable in a comparative theological investigation of employment relations parameters in light of social teachings from Sunni Islam and Roman Catholicism. Authenticity finds initial, shared significance in both religious traditions because of its critically important role in judgments concerning the legitimacy of source documents. It also stands in both traditions as an inspirational goal for human life. Particular issues of theological method for cross-cultural analysis are addressed by use of insightbased critical realism as a transcultural foundation. Workplace parameters, the minimal enabling conditions for the possibility of authentic employment relations, are then identified and compared. We explore common expectations for a theology of the workplace in terms of the direct and indirect employer: those national laws, systems, and traditions that condition the functional range of authenticity that can be actualized within national or other work settings as experienced in the direct employment contract. The method and findings are a first effort to clarify thought and aid mutual understanding for inter-faith employment circumstances, with criterion variable content now available to support research in management spirituality, corporate social responsibility and enterprise sustainability.