Baker 1

Brandon Baker
Lisa Fowler
BUS105

My Renaissance through Business Literature

I have always thought to myself, even all throughout high school career into college, that
critical thinking was always done by powering through difficulties with nit and grit and hoping
things turn out alright at the end. I had never realized its incredible meaning until Professor Engh
in his Critical Thinking book helped me understand through a numerous amount of philosophers
and professors just how fundamental and necessary critical thinking is. He changed my thoughts
on how much religion effects business, and how it always played a role in the large economies it
was a part of. He has changed the way I think about leadership positions and how to manage
employees. He also brought to light the fundamental questions that many economists and
philosophers debate over today, which is the relationship of the employer and the employee.
Religions role in the economy has always been an interesting concept and has played a
much greater role than I ever thought it did. One of the philosophers I read about relating to
religion and business was R. H. Tawney. Tawny talked about how there were 4 different types of
attitudes related to religion influencing business; indifferentist, renunciationist, quietist and
ascetic, all of which showed different influences on religion towards business. Engh himself
went into detail about how religion was the same as a monopoly, comparing it to when the
Romans adopted Christianity, this monopoly of the Christian religion eliminated the free market
for religion, causing many people to fall unhappy. Before reading and studying this book, my
opinion on religion was that it had very little effect on business and the economy, but after

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researching Ive come to find it has a much larger influence that I earlier perceived. Religion
guides the thoughts of many people, and helps people justify their actions if found immoral.
My most favorite chapter in the book, is not only the shortest, but the most meaningful
short 3 pages on effective leadership. I have found myself influenced by much of the media and
being a leader was very different than what I thought. I thought leaders were people that
possessed every quality someone to lead whoever they are leading. For example the leader of a
company possesses the skills to perform every position within the company more effectively than
everyone else, and most possess all leadership skills and dont need anyone else to help with
leading. Peter Drucker, one of the most famous economists and the most well-known stated that
all effective leaders have these four qualities; A leader is someone who has followers. Someone
such has Donald Trump can call himself a leader because he has a lot of money, but at the same
time he has very few followers A leader has followers who do the right things. (For purposes of
argument) The devil may call himself a leader, but god has followers who do the right things.
Leaders are highly visible and set examples. The examples our parents set for us make them very
qualified leaders (hopefully), and are very well perceived by us. My mother has a lot of
responsibility, she has the title of a mother, but she isnt a professional sports player, she doesnt
have large enormous amounts money, but she has the responsibility of raising me, which is the
greatest (and as she tells me the hardest) responsibility of them all. The most important concept I
fell that I learned from Peter is that leaders are not afraid of others strengths. This is something
that I had always question but he supports this theory by saying that leaders are always looking
to expand their knowledge and they cant do this if they dont surround themselves by people
who possess the qualities that you are trying to attain.

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The relationship of the employer vs. the employee has always brought around a conflict
of interest between two opposing parties. A study was done in 2010 that compared what an
average American is making now versus what they were 40 years ago, and how it relates how
much CEOs were making. The study showed that americans are working 13.5 more weeks per
year and making the same amount of money the were 40 years ago, CEOs still work the same,
but they make almost 3 times as much as they were 40 years ago. This aspect altogether shows
CEOs seem to be exploiting their employees to work more and make the same while they are
receiving the profit, and the way this is justified is that the wealth should trickle down to their
employees, the studies show differently. I had not made this realization until I studied this
relationship during the 18-19th centuries. This period is famous because it brought about much
legislation that governed how businesses should operate, such as the clean air act, workers
compensations etc. While the peak of this movement of the creation of legislation was intact, it
was clearly showing that because now business owners had to act in moral and environmental
ways, they were losing a lot of money. The largest cost to a company is its employees, and I
have come to find that trends show that business owners started to pay their workers less because
it was compensating for the money they had lost through this new legislation. Before researching
this I had a very Elite-Democratic attitude toward this subject, always thinking that corporate
CEOs knew what is best and I trusted their actions, but they werent in the best interest of their
employees, the public, or the environment.
Throughout this course of learning critical thinking, my ideas and concepts about
business and the world have dramatically changed. Religion plays a large role in influencing
business. Religion acts as a monopoly, destroying the free-market, and justifying immoral
actions. Leadership qualities are ones that lead people in the right direction, and help people

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grow as they are being lead. The relationship between the Employer and Employee has changed
dramatically, showing that business leaders conduct their business in a way that serves only their
interest.