The Stewardship Debt Management Model

Abstract

This chapter addresses the need to provide decision techniques for ethical operations management. Only if a value framework can inform the decision-taking process will it secure a place in daily operations. This chapter summarizes the main findings of our research by formulating a debt management model to provide an ethical decision support tool. The first part of this book used conceptual analysis to initiate the argument. The second part applied the concept of stewardship to four different examples: small business finance, consumer finance, mortgages and money advice. In each case studied we tested our set of values in relation to debt management operations. In this chapter the argument is brought to a conclusion by constructing a specific model for debt management operations. The chapter demonstrates that the materials considered in the previous chapters and the interaction of theory and practice enable us to produce a serviceable ethical model. If it is asked whether the research is of value to stimulate ethical thinking in business operations, this work gives an affirmative answer. The answer is demonstrated by the construction of the debt management model. Discussion of the model at work will help to reveal what is of worth in it and provide opportunity to assess its importance for individuals and managers. The model is consistent with the four prerequisites found to be necessary through our analysis in Chapter 1: use of a reasoned approach, recognition of mutual responsibilities, reckoning with economic realities and addressing matters of trust. This consistency is possible because the model takes into consideration: financial costs and benefits, nonfinancial banker-customer relationship factors and community ethical factors.