Brutal layoffs, corruption scandals, executive pay hikes, hedge-fund hijinks -- reading the business pages can be like following a soap opera. But it is exactly this overlap between workplace capitalism and modern values that make KIWI, a management-consulting agency based on the tenets of the Catholic Church, so important, its founder said.

So can faith, hope and charity really shed light on pension funds and profit sharing?

"At the current time, our lives are very strongly influenced by our economic surroundings," said Joachim Drumm, a theologian who heads up the Department of Church and Society within the Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, in southern Germany.

So it was a short step from peddling ethics within church walls to spreading the word in the business world, Drumm said.

"The leader of a bank that was undergoing tough consolidation changes came to me and said they were seeking a theologian who could advise them on making the right decisions," he said.

A series of similar requests got Drumm thinking that perhaps there was a market opportunity in the waiting. Along with a handful of other local church leaders, he created KIWI, which is short for Kirche und Wirtschaft, or "church and economy."

'Nobody wants to do business with thugs"

KIWI offers three product lines: training and workshops, management consulting, and networking forums, Drumm explained. The advice is based on decision making in accordance with the seven heavenly virtues: justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope, and charity.

Profitability and Christian virtue are not strange bedfellows if businesses practice the kind of market economy with social considerations and long-term sustainability that KIWI espouses, Drumm said.

"Business without values would be unthinkable," he added. "Nobody wants to do business with thugs."

Indeed, KIWI has taken the heavenly virtues and cloaked them in management-speak more at home in a Fortune 500 business statement than the local parish council meeting.

"A person with hope knows what he wants, is open to new things, and has a vision for the future," Drumm said, explaining how KIWI often expresses the virtue of hope.

Similarly, leaders exhibiting the virtue of charity "are committing themselves to a corporate culture of solidarity rather than egotism." An unjust economy is not a lasting economy, and without temperance -- or moderation -- an economic model is doomed to fail eventually, Drumm said.

"If companies go for double-digit profits and at the same time lay off thousands of people, that is the wrong way to go in the long term," he said.

Aiming at small- and midsize business

Drumm said he expects KIWI's clients to come out of Germany's Mittelstand -- the many midsize businesses that make up the vast bulk of the German economy -- and from small, family-run concerns, because "in general these companies have a stronger identification with their personnel." Thus they have a greater interest in reaching long-term solutions to problems rather than just going for immediate financial gain, he said.

Klaus Reiners, spokesman for the German Association of Management Consultants, said ethical behavior should be a consideration for all management advisers, not just those affiliated with the Catholic Church.

A glance at the business headlines tells you that ethics are always a topic business leaders and consultants need to be aware of, Reiners said, naming Siemens as merely the latest conglomerate to be tied up in corruption scandals.

"Global firms have certain responsibilities toward their workers and consumers," he said. "A firm just can't say, 'Well everyone is corrupt, so we can be corrupt as well.' You have to hold to a certain line."

If church teachings can be used to promote responsible behavior, Reiners said, then he is all for it.

"Church is part of life, and work is another part of life; there is no reason to keep them apart," he said.

According to Drumm, two-thirds of the German population is a member of one of the two main Christian churches.

Spiritual hunger and the limits of consumerism

"Christians are a big part of the German economy," Drumm said, and noted that the Catholic Church itself -- with its schools, hospitals, daycare centers and old-age homes -- is one of the country's biggest employers overall.

Business leaders are increasingly interested in combining leadership and spirituality, Drumm said, adding that society as a whole is beginning to realize the limitations of pure consumerism when it comes to increasing their quality of life.

"So many people are looking for spiritual depth in their lives," he said. "Everything in our world is becoming faster and aimed at productivity -- but we are losing quality of life at the same time. What is money for if we don't know how to enjoy it?"