vladimirgrebenar 
„It will be when a man who was going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possession to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one-to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talnets went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. After a long time master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Masters, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’
Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Masters, I knew you did not scatter, so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did nit scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’“ (Mk 25: 14-30).
A well-known parable from two millennia ago describes the most perfect modern organization of work for creation. The three servants are the three workers in the master’s enterprise. The master goes on some journey, for some time. There is enough time to create something new and that time is determined. The master is wise and insightful, for the business endeavors of his workers he gives everyone exactly as many inputs for work as they have the ability to use them, and the inputs in this case are money and this is important to understand.
In fact, today we would say that the entrepreneur has allocated a work budget to the workers. Money is a liquid asset of exchange for all types of property and the master did not give the workers some tools for a specific purpose, but money to decide for themselves what to create. The master’s act is full of trust and delegation of responsibility to workers and represents in management theory the ideal of work organization (Herzberg’s theory of work motivation).
The master is the entrepreneur – the leader. Entrepreneurs – managers give their workers work orders and work assignments what to do and that is a common occurrence! Entrepreneurs – leaders, on the contrary, continuously build workers and give them autonomy in work with full confidence, expecting workers to create and that is the best organization of work. So, complete trust in workers, in their innate and natural instinct to create.
It is clear here that it is man’s nature to create, and this parable testifies that man is most like God when he creates. The master entrepreneur did not tell the workers “create, work, produce, undertake, do, you must”. In fact, he said nothing! Jesus is not questioning here whether man’s mission is to create, because God is constantly creating. That is why Jesus said to those who called him out because of his way of working: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work:” (Jn 5:17).
Two workers with higher competencies who received more talents worked hard and with patient work gained more talent, doubled the money received. Financiers would say the ROI[1] was 100%. What are these two workers doing when their employer returns? Aware of the trust placed in them by the entrepreneurs and the responsibility taken for the talents they received, they carried out their mission of creating the best they knew and handed over the creation to the master
Neither of them had the need to justify or interpret their work. They simply said to the master, “I have received so much from you and I am repaying twice.” These two were fully aware of the task entrusted to them. The task was not described in the work order. They were fully aware that their mission was to create the best they could for the benefit of entrepreneurs. These two did not say, “We have done these and those tasks.”
Their result of the work testified to their work and they are aware of it. The psychological profile of these two workers perfectly corresponds to the profile of the intrinsic worker according to the Children – Ryan intrinsic – extrinsic motivation theory. According to this theory, the most perfect approach to work is when the worker is competent, has a healthy working relationship with the employer (trust – responsibility) and autonomy, and then the worker himself wants to create. It is not the amount of his salary that comes first, but the opportunity to create, and he sees salary as a just reward for creation, not primarily as his labor right.
These two workers received talents according to their competencies (abilities), they have a trust-responsibility relationship with the entrepreneur and they decided completely autonomously what to do.
Before taking over the talents and work, they did not negotiate the amount of salary, on the contrary, the employer has full confidence in them and they trust the employer to reward them. The relationship between a good employer and a good worker is a relationship of trust – trust.
In fact, these two workers acted like entrepreneurs because their employer enabled them to organize their work in such a way that they were independent, responsible and creative. Employees who are given great autonomy, trust and responsibility in business organizations are called intra-entrepreneurs or employees-entrepreneurs.
An intra-entrepreneur is a worker who is not the owner, but who behaves enterprisingly (because he is enabled), so his characteristics of work can be characterized by real entrepreneurial behavior. Today, intra-entrepreneurship is an extremely desirable phenomenon, but only about 4-5% of the total population of employees are intra-entrepreneurs[2]. Fascinating!
Modern research on entrepreneurship has proven that the most successful are those companies organized on the principle of intra-entrepreneurship, in which workers are expected to act as entrepreneurs and take initiative and responsibility, and this is prerequisite for strong delegation of responsibilities to the lowest hierarchical levels. Intra-entrepreneurship is possible only with great order in the organization, and our God is the God of order.
Should we prove what the Creator is like if we analyze only the supreme evidence of the harmony with which the Universe expands or how the electron is constantly moving around the nucleus of the atom. Therefore, it is clear why these two workers from the parable of Jesus managed to achieve a ROI rate of 100%, because they had the most perfect work organization to which they could respond. Didn’t Jesus call us all to “be perfect”?
The premise of this parable from 2000 years ago is now completely scientifically confirmed by the science of management. Obviously, the Bible is far ahead of science. It is no wonder then that the greatest geniuses of science, literature and art, such as Einstein, Newton, Dostoevsky, Michelangelo, were truly and deeply religious, and found inspiration and direction in the Bible for new research and creation. He who has ears, let him hear, and he who has understanding, let him understand.[3]
To be continued…
[1] Return of Investment – the traditional and most modern indicator of return on investment, measured in % of investment, it is used by financial investors when deciding to invest money in a business venture
[2] Bosma, N. et al. (2011). Entrepreneurs versus independent entrepreneurs. Tjalling C. Koopmans Research Institute. Utrecht.
[3] The article was published with minor changes in: Veritas. Glasnik Sv. Antuna Padovanskog. Croatian Province of St. Jerome of the Franciscan Conventuals. Zagreb. Sveti Duh 31. No. 4. April 2019. p. 32.