The aim of this article is to propose the adoption of a Catholic social teaching (CST) perspective as a universal approach to business ethics. We assume that the common good, as understood in CST, is an extension of the Aristotelian and Thomistic concepts of the organic relations between economics and ethics, which, prior to the Enlightment, was a basic rational way of management (oikonomia). We aim to show both the influence of religious ethics on the shape of economic life and the influence of the Catholic understanding of the common good on leadership. CST encourages business leaders to focus not only on the material, but also the transcendental aims of human work and life. From this perspective, the responsibility of a business leader can be understood as a practical realisation of the Commandment of Love and divided into three levels, each of which contributes to the common good. On the micro level, leaders are responsible for their own actions; on the mezzo level, they are responsible for the organisations they lead—especially for their employees—and on the macro level, they should be responsible for actions towards external stakeholders, which might ultimately be extended to the world as a whole. In this way, leaders can cooperate with God and contribute to the common good of their organisations, society, and humanity.

Prayer in human life enables directing attention to God and a transcendent goal beyond Earthly life. Singing has been present in the life of Israel since the oldest times, which is proved on the pages of the Holy Scriptures, in the Books of Exodus and Psalms. In the New Testament, there is a lot of encouragement to sing the glory of God in psalms and songs, as well as praising God Most High in Revelation. The Catholic Church is concerned with the quality of liturgical music through a number of recommendations and requirements defining the pieces that may become a part of the liturgy. Liturgical choir singing is a special form of common prayer. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effect of prayer by choral singing on human flourishing. The aim was achieved by analyzing recommendations of the Church on liturgical music, presenting the assumptions of the theoretical model investigating the effect of art on human flourishing, and then conducting empirical studies. Sixteen in-depth interviews were carried out with members of fourteen choirs. There were four groups of respondents according to their gender and family status. All obtained codes were organized into five main themes with four subcategories. They confirmed the assumptions of the model presented in the theoretical part and made it possible to identify the effect of choral singing on the performers’ health and the improvement of their skills. In addition, they showed a direct relation between prayer and spiritual well-being when singing in a choir, a coherence of activities with values as well as the striving for happiness.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a subject of great interest to both theoreticians and practitioners of management as well as to international organisations that promote this idea among existing enterprises. Despite many years of research on CSR, there is no single binding definition of this concept, therefore for the needs of this publication, the definition of Archie B. Carroll, and the resulting approach to CSR implementation in companies, has been adopted. The aim of the article is to analyse CSR activities undertaken by FC Barcelona in the framework of a system derived from Carroll’s CSR pyramid, therefore its activities have been divided into four groups corresponding to the dimension of financial, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. Due to the commercialisation of football, FC Barcelona is treated as a global enterprise, considering, however, the specificity of regulations governing the sports sector as well as goods and services offered by the club. The research has been based on an analysis of literature and available documents published by the club itself as well as by international organisations regulating football tournaments on national and international levels. The study has indicated that FC Barcelona is taking action in all the dimensions of social responsibility highlighted in Carroll’s pyramid and can be seen as a socially responsible organisation, at the same time meeting expectations of its stakeholders.

People should be at the centre of attention within knowledge-based economics. The leaders of each enterprise ought to focus on providing the best conditions for their employees’ professional and individual development and treat them with respect in terms of their dignity and needs. In contemporary literature two notions in perceiving people in organisations are noticeable. The first one treats employees as ‘resources’ which have to be properly used or as ‘capital’ that should bring a decent return on investment. The second notion derives a lot from Christian philosophy and sees the human as a person who treats work as a way to realize his calling and thus is able to take responsibility for the decisions made and actions taken. Acting in a constantly changing environment, people have to be flexible and able to take advantage of emerging opportunities and avoid threats. Within this process it is not a matter of being a human ‘being’ but rather becoming, which means that they are incessantly developing their potential. Although it is hard to predict human behaviour, the main task for managers is to lead in a way that will help employees use their full potential for both their own and the company’s benefit.

This publication aims to identify similarities and differences in the ways of implementing the principle of the common good in classical (commercial) and social enterprises. Given the differences between social and classical enterprises in terms of their objectives and modes of action, it has to be stressed that the nature of the contribution they make to the common good differs in terms of subject and object. The research is embedded in Catholic social teaching (CST) because this approach presents one of the theoretically and practically richest theories of the common good, and secondly, it allows to discover modern ways of building the common good while respecting centuries of tradition and referring to philosophical classics. The common good principle in the light of CST lets us focus not only on the material but also the transcendental aims of human work and life which lead to more sustainable management. Commercial enterprises strengthen intellectual capital and expand technological and business knowledge. The profit earned by these companies essentially contributes to the good of society (taxes, investment, charity), including employees (bonuses, training). Social enterprises, on the other hand, have the advantage of investing in social capital and thus building a civil society based on mutual trust and support, especially at a local and institutional level. The profit generated by these organisations is a means to achieve social goals and not an end in itself. The results of our research show that both commercial and social enterprises contribute to common good on their own ways but the best results can be achieved when they cooperate and use all of their strengths for building the better future.