CSDC 344

The roles of business owners and management have a central importance from the viewpoint of society, because they are at the heart of that network of technical, commercial, financial and cultural bonds that characterizes the modern business reality. Due to the increasing complexity of business activities, decisions made by companies produce a number of very significant interrelated effects, both in the economic and social spheres. For this reason the exercise of responsibility by business owners and management requires — in addition to specific updating that is
the object of continuous efforts — constant reflection on the moral motivations that should guide the personal choices of those to whom these tasks fall. Business owners and management must not limit themselves to taking into account only the economic objectives of the company, the criteria for economic efficiency and the proper care of “capital” as the sum of the means of production. It is also their precise duty to respect concretely the human dignity of those who work within the company.⁷¹⁹ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2432. These workers constitute “the firm's most valuable asset” ⁷²⁰ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 35: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 837. and the decisive factor of production.⁷²¹ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 32: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 832-835. In important decisions concerning strategy and finances, in decisions to buy or sell, to resize, close or to merge a site, financial and commercial criteria must not be the only considerations made.