Response to Keller - Essay Sample

Introduction

Timothy Keller critically assesses and represents God's meaning and purpose in his book, Every Good Endeavor. The discussions as presented in the book gave me more profound insights into the religious view of work and its impact in today's organizational context. Keller gives the bigger picture on work in the world is based on four bases which include, design, dignity, cultivation, and service. The aspects mentioned above are all related to work in today's setting. The book Every Good Endeavor is an excellent piece for those who want to know more about the relationship between work and God.

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Keller depicts that God had a plan for work from the very beginning. His discussions are represented with facts from the bible. He develops the idea that work existed even before the fall of Adam and Eve, which is contrary to the popular beliefs that work was incorporated as a punishment to man. Keller showcases that work is holy, pure, comfortable and useful because it existed before the Fall of man (Keller, 2012). He showcases that God's designed Adam and Eve as agents of work who would work on the land, and therefore he created the land to work for them. Therefore, every work done by Adam and Eve was successful. However, the entry of sin made work more painful and difficult. Nevertheless, Keller presents that work was designed to honor the Lord right from the start; therefore, a man should still find dignity in work.

Keller still presents that God continues to create through the work of humans as shown in tin the concept of cultivation. In this case, people should use what God has provided to make better advancement. Individuals can also use the resources available to continue with the co-creation process which will help in making work easier (Bailey, Mankin, Kelliher, & Garavan, 2018). The concept of service through work is also ideal as it helps to depict the essentiality of working. The author indicates that individuals should love their neighbors and God through work. This can only be achieved through service to others and God through various practices.

Implications to the Human Resource Development

Human resource development departments can use Keller's big picture of work in mentoring their employees to become their better self. The concepts of designing work can be incorporated in the human resource concept to showcase that each person has a specific design to which they have a vocation to work (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017). They will, therefore, be able to distinguish the different aspects of each worker. The design work systems will help to determine what workers need, what they do and the job's interfaces with other tasks. They will then establish the best work systems that will enable every employee to work towards achieving their best in their line of work.

The concept of service to others can also be incorporated to ensure human resource development with an organizational context. Service towards others may entail working to help others and sharing of responsibilities in doing a specific task (Taylor, Doherty & McGraw,2015). Mello presents that work is an interdependent process and it relies on the performance of another worker at a specific position (Mello, 2015). Therefore, human resource managers must ensure effective coordination to enable great service to all stakeholders.

The concept of applying change initiatives within an organization is also important within the organizational setting. Human resource managers should work effectively to remove the barriers to change. This can be achieved through the implementation of technological advancements. Employees should be trained towards accepting change and developing of new inventions to help in working.

Works Cited

Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C., & Garavan, T. (2018). Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Keller, T. (2012). Every good endeavor (1st ed.). New York: Cengage Learning.

Mello, J. (2015). Strategic management of human resource. South-Western: Thomson Learning.

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Taylor, T., Doherty, A., & McGraw, P. (2015). Managing people in sports organizations: A strategic human resource management perspective. Routledge.