MAKATI CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- A Catholic woman business leader has developed an assessment tool to help organizations and institutions live up to the values and ethical standards they commit to.

Isabelita Palanca, who chairs Women's Business Council Philippines, is a board member of the Bishops-Businessmen's Conference for Human Development (BBC). This 31-year-old organization brings Catholic bishops and Manila-based business leaders, educators and other professionals together to work for social reform through democratic means.

In 2005, Palanca convened the BBC-ISQ Movement to promote values, ethics and good governance in workplaces through the use of the Institutional Spirituality Quotient (ISQ).

The following year, the conference launched a workbook authored by Palanca titled ISQ: Living One's Values in the Workplace. The workbook was designed for use in evaluating how well an institution practices what it professes as its values, vision, mission and objectives.

More than a dozen religious, government and private institutions have commissioned the evaluation, and more parishes and organizations are slated for evaluation this year.

In his foreword to Palanca's book, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president and BBC national co-chairperson, said the bishops have taken "great interest" in her work.

Noting that more than 60 percent of the country's 76 million people are working, the CBCP president said ISQ offers "a means to create the critical mass that is needed to come up with a new breed of leaders" who will renew the nation.

Palanca, a 56-year-old mother of two, serves as project officer of Pondo ng Pinoy (fund of the Filipino) a foundation initiated by Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila that raises funds for the Church's social ministry. She holds a psychology degree and also teaches spirituality while studying for her doctorate in organizational management.

In an interview with UCA News in Makati City, south of Manila, on Dec. 19, Palanca explained the vision and spirit behind ISQ and its varied applications.

UCA News: What are the concept, vision and spirit behind ISQ?

ISABELITA PALANCA: ISQ is a diagnostic tool to measure if the institution walks its talk, if it lives its values. It is about values identification, values alignment and values enhancement. ISQ's vision is to be an instrument for converting workplaces into communities with ethics. Our group's mission is to trail-blaze a movement that will renew our country by renewing a very important segment, our workers and their workplaces.

How do you measure values?

Values are ultimately seen in relationships. So we gauge if the institution is faithful to its values by looking at relationships among various groups either within or outside the institution. For example, we look at relationships among employees or volunteers, depending on the type of institution, customers or beneficiaries, the board of directors, the government, and the community or society. We divide the institution into 10 areas, called "relationship dimensions," to make analysis manageable.

We evaluate to see whether values articulated in an institution's statement of vision, deepened in its mission statement, and quantified in its objectives find expression in concrete policies, systems, structures and programs.

If the institution says it stands for the value of fairness, ISQ will study its human resources (HR) policies to see if they include a clear list of duties and responsibilities of employees. It will examine if the policies are supplemented by evaluation forms, if they are written and made known to all, if there is a person or a unit or department clearly in charge of carrying out the evaluation at prescribed time periods, and if the HR person is trained to do evaluation.

We see if their vision of themselves as an institution, and their goals and practices are consistent with their professed values. ISQ has a technical formula for this, which requires examining the institution's vision-mission, objectives, policies, work structures and programs, even their strategies and work methods.

What kinds of institutions can this quotient apply to?

It is for institutions of any religion. In the first 12 months, we worked with 12 institutions. Three got certified: Don Bosco Center of Studies, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women [governmental] and Sun Microsystems Philippines [multinational corporation].

The Church can use ISQ to make the crucial connection between faith and practice. ISQ is a tool to reverse such current trends in societal psyche as the "get rich quick" mentality to the point of uncontrolled greed, half-heartedness with regard to responsibilities, callousness about sacred matters, indifference to those outside the immediate circles of family, personal friends and colleagues.

Why is there need for renewal of workers and workplaces?

Over 93 percent of Filipinos today are Christians. Yet our Filipino values have not resulted in a sound sociopolitical and economic situation for the nation. There is dichotomy in the Philippines today. There is material poverty as well as spiritual poverty among many of the materially capable, which makes them cling to material affluence to the point of indifference to the poverty around them.

How does the evaluation process start?

The institution commissions the rating team. The ISQ Movement Secretariat will go to a prospective ratee to make a presentation and answer queries. If the ratee is located outside of Metro Manila, the secretariat will do the presentation via email and answer questions via Internet.

Once the ratee institution confirms its desire to be rated, it will appoint a coordinator. The coordinator will gather documents requested and make them available. The secretariat will nominate the lead rater, who will work out a schedule of interviews with the coordinator.

Expenses for raters' fees and secretariat expenses for communications, messenger services, cost of meetings, services of a coordinator, cost of panel judging process, etc. are discussed with the ratee and the coverage and time frame as well as prospective volunteer raters are worked out. Some expenses for rating Catholic parishes may be subsidized. For commercial establishments, expenses reach at least 450,000 pesos (US$11,134).

What is the rating process like?

First, we agree with the ratee on what documents to submit, the profile of interviewees and the schedule of interviews and workshops. Under consultation with BBC program co-chairs Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro and Vicente Paterno, a rating panel of bishops or their clergy representatives and lay BBC members is formed.

After studying the documents, the rating team proceeds with interviews, workshops, or focus group discussions. Then the raters have their rating sessions.

They give preliminary ratings and also identify the institution's best practices, or those that help them most to live their values, and recommend how the institution can enhance its ISQ.

The ISQ follows a scale of 1-5. Five (excellent) shows workplace provisions or conditions are extensive and/or functioning excellently, four (very good) is given when workplace provisions or conditions are extensive and functioning well, or are moderately extensive but functioning excellently. An institution gets three (good) when the workplace provisions or conditions are moderately extensive and functioning well. Two is a passing rating (fair) given when workplace provisions or conditions are moderately extensive but functioning poorly, or limited but functioning well.

The raters must defend their ratings before a BBC-ISQ panel of certifiers and accreditors. The panel comes up with the final ISQ rating, a numerical figure. The final report approved by the panel is presented to the ratee.

Can you give a concrete example of how an organization improved after an evaluation?

A master's program in a center for religious studies now requires its professors, clergy and lay alike, to submit lesson plans. These lesson plans will be synthesized and form the basis for the review for oral exams. Students had complained that the classroom learning did not match the high demands of the comprehensive oral exams at the end of the course.

A multinational corporation will use its network to access and provide cheap housing terms for its employees. It will also donate a dollar for every peso the employees are able to raise for Gawad Kalinga [a housing and community development program for the poor].

Does anyone fail?

Technically, no one can fail. Only those who do not wish to or cannot address the ISQ enhancement plans will fail. As long as the institution is willing to work and is working on its enhancement plans, the ISQ Movement will help it through till certification. We ask the ratee to commit to the institution completely addressing the recommended ISQ enhancement plan.

END

(Accompanying photos available at here)