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Aubriella Naud

Bus 1050, Professor Engh

26 July 2019

My Renaissance

Over the last several months I have gone through what is known as a personal

renaissance. Throughout history, civilizations and the individuals within, experience both

downfalls and breakthroughs, from it a new altered perspective begins to take shape in how they

function, see, and relate to their society and the world around them. Throughout this paper I

would like to expand upon the reading ​General and Industrial Management​, by Henri Fayol and

Mike LeFevre: Steel Worker​, by Studs Terkel. Share the lessons I have coined and how they

shaped my renaissance of business and life itself.

This course has shown me the power and need to be a critical thinker. Critical thinking

offers one the ability to think for themselves, error detect, and uncover fallacies we hold

personally as well as those around us. The goal for me when signing up for this class was to

better understand business, to propel me forward, and to have the tools necessary to open my

own vegan bakery one day. What I started to realize as I progressed reading by reading, was that

the business philosophy is much more than simply memorizing and learning the functions of well

running organizations. Traditionally, much of my education thus far has been less about thinking

critically and more about re-echoing what I was taught. This class has been entirely different,

given access to multiple historical philosophers, authors, and economic theorist insights, and

directly being asked to analyze their arguments and ideas through critical thinking. Little did I

know what an opportunity this was.

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I would like to start with Studs Terkel, he was a steelworker, American author, and radio

broadcaster. Popularity of Terkel came from his interviews with working class individuals. In

1972, he published ​Mike LeFevre: Steel Worker. ​Right about the time I started this reading, I was

feeling mentally and emotionally drained from the many commits and scheduling of the summer.

Working two jobs and going to school full time, I felt disconnected from any passions and

activities that previously brought joy and relaxation to my life. This chapter of steel worker

relayed many of the same difficulties I was facing through the sacrifice of time towards bettering

my current and foreseeable future. Mike LeFevre was another worker of mass production,

alienated from his product. The work from a division of labor let him, like many today,

ultimately detached from the end product that is produced. Completing the assigned tasks but not

able to see any personal impact created in the final product. The workforce and individual

workers self-esteem are heavily subject to workplace environment and management style. I

found Lefevre’s mentions of the non-recognition of all that their job entails by other people, to

be extremely relevant for today’s modern workforce. Degrading hours, lack of fair

pay/incentives causes anyone whether in school or the workforce to be less determined to bring

their best skills and effort to the table.

Henri Fayol, was a French mining engineer who wrote one of the first books on the

theory and principles of management. In 1949 he published ​General and Industrial Management.​

This work of his made me come to the realization that there are observable hierarchies within

every complex organization. From many areas within our modern lives that require organization,

structure, and management. Fayol’s hierarchies of industrial organization and the

principles/elements of management, highlight to me how universally they can be applied to any

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management position and supply chain. According to Fayol, to manage is to forecast and plan, to

organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control. One of his 14 principles of management is

the concept number 9 of a Scalar chain, effectively meaning that within every organization there

needs to be clear standards for communications up the chain of command. This has proved to be

critically important in my work force experience thus far, fuzzy communication of workers tasks,

expectations, and organization goals has lead to a lot of conflict and little improvement. A scalar

chain is important in the management of healthy and well functioning families. Another concept

I found to be enlightening but not always elementary in application, was principal number 13:

Initiative. Taking initiative is to take notice of a need, think of a plan and then act upon it without

outside instruction to do so. Reflecting on my current job, this is one aspect I have gotten the

most recognition from managers for, I believe that is because it is a hard trait to teach young

people of my generation. If you are used to being told what to do and how to do it and/or being

directly given opportunities wanted in life without much effort on yourself, it often creates little

knowledge on how to assess and take action individually. Being able to take the initiative as a

worker shows self awareness and discipline, as a leader it is mandatory to take initiative in

challenging situations, to create possible opportunities, and to stimulate change and progression

of the team as a whole.

My renaissance has clarified that being successful in business and throughout life, is not

the result of luck nor the specific degree you have, but instead attributed by being an active

participant. One who is constantly striving to improve themselves and add value to others around

them, as well as being an attentive listener and observer. This approach results in respectful

relationships which are a vital part of a healthy, successful, and happy life. Beyond interpersonal
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skills, I’ve gleaned that critical thinking is a necessary key component for decision making and

something I will employ to have success in my bakery aspiration. I’ve also discovered that I will

need to add value to my workers to fuel their self-esteem and growth in the workplace as well as

outside of it. Ultimately, I need to be an effective communicator who takes initiative, and

prioritize what is right over what is merely expedient. Business 1050 has allowed me to expand

my ways of thinking through the exposure to countless authors and business philosophers such as

Henri Fayol and Studs Terkel. I am hungry to continue learning in and outside of college, from

old and young, from anyone and anything I can gain a new perspective or way of thinking.

Which that statement alone is something I previously wouldn’t have said or wrote in any

academic paper, this is how I know I’ve experienced my own renaissance.

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Works Cited

Module 8:

Terkel, Studs, “Mike LeFevre: Steel Worker”, a chapter from his novel in ​Working​. 1972.

Module 10:

Fayol, Henri, “General and Industrial Management”, translated from the French (Dunod) by

Constance Storrs, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., London, 1949.