Turgeon 1

Wendy Turgeon
BUS 1050-400

My Renaissance

To understand my renaissance to the fullest, I feel the reader needs to

know a little about me. I have been out of school for 20 years. Ive been
married for 18 years and have mainly been a stay at home mom raising
three boys. I have never had a professional career, so the choice to return to
school was one of the scariest choices I have ever made. Im sure you can
imagine all the information Ive had to relearn along with learning new and
exciting information as well.
Business 1050 was a challenging course for me. It challenged me to
think professionally, something that I have never had to do before. Many of
the topics discussed throughout the course made me think and feel
differently about how society has evolved and about the many lessons
humanity has hopefully learned. One of the topics I found interesting was on
general principles of management. I understand there are many principles
to management, but I had no idea how truly complex they really are.
Learning this new information made me excited about the foundation of
business which is why I chose this topic to write about for my renaissance.
We all know from history classes that before management principles
were thought up there were owners (the ones that had the means for

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production) and workers. These two social classifications gave workers very
little upward mobility. The harsh work environment and very little pay the
workers received made living conditions very poor. Many of the workers
joined together and demanded better working conditions. The owners of
course didnt like this, but it was less expensive for them to give the worker
what they wanted rather than disrupt the flow of production. Later owners
realized that if they listened to their workers, paid them a fair wages they
were much happier and production increased. This lead too many of the
modern principles of management that are applied today.
One of the readings I was assigned in this course was written by Henri
Fayol called General Principles of Management from Division of Work to
Esprit de Corps. Fayol was a French mining engineer who developed a
theory of business administration. His theory consisted of 14 principles he
felt were important to apply in all levels of administration. I found the way he
explained how his principles are flexible and can be molded to fit any
corporations needs and how to incorporate them in every level of
management enlightening. Some of the principles I enjoyed reading most
about were division of work, authority and responsibility and esprit de corps.
I thought these principles were basic, but when they were explained in more
detail pertaining to administration it changed my way of thinking about how
to manage.
I thought before taken this course that the division of work meant,
there was a CEO and through lower level worker everyone did what he need

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them to do. After reading Fayol text I now know that the division of work
results in specialization of functions and separation of powers. Meaning that
the workers develop special skills for producing and the managers help in
developing these skills by overseeing accuracy. When I thought about how
this pertained to business and myself I thought of a mother raising children.
When I child takes their first steps the mother is there to insure accuracy and
encouragement. By doing this the child develops the skills needed for their
environment.
I also liked how Fayol explained authority and responsibility. That a
distinction should be made between a managers official authority and
personal authority. And that personal authority comes from intelligence,
moral worth, past experiences and the ability to lead. He explains that
responsibility is a natural consequence when authority is exercised. How
people fear responsibility, but a good leader will encourage those around
them to accept responsibility. I always thought that the more responsibility a
person had the more authority that person has, so this way of thinking was
different and new to me.
I believe I learned the most from Fayol last principle esprit de corps
which means union is strength. His explains that harmony among employees
is strength and should be encouraged always. How managers should
acknowledge peoples strengths tactfully without causing jealousies that
would disrupt harmony within the company. He also explained how to avoid
miscommunications, this is where I thought I learned the most. To avoid

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written communication when possible is something I did not think could

disrupt harmony among employees. After reading how writing orders or tasks
can easily be misunderstood and cause bad feelings towards others, it makes
sense why Fayol would advise to avoid written communication when
possible.
In the end Im glad I took Business 1050 even though it was
challenging for me it helped me understand what critical thinking is, how to
think professionally and taught me about the foundations of business.