Humanistic Management advocates for protection of human dignity and social well-being as central concerns of management, over and above the economistic view of pure pursuit of profits and productivity. The United Nations Principles for Responsible Management (UN PRME) ask that the global Sustainable Development Goals be made local. This book is an attempt to contribute to these two goals. It does that by making several local ideas from humanistic practices around the globe available for global use by others who are interested in Humanistic Management and the UN PRME.
This book is one of two that arose from ongoing conversations among several members of the global Humanistic Management Network who had gathered for the first Humanistic Management Pre-Conference held at the University of British Columbia, alongside the Academy of Management Meetings in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2015. This one provides a humanistic perspective for Leadership and Trust and the companion volume provides it for Social Entrepreneurship and Mindfulness. These topics are commonly taught in management courses but only a few professors have incorporated the UN PRME relevant materials and even fewer have used the humanistic perspective. This book offers fresh theoretical frameworks on Leadership and Trust, along with exemplar case studies and experiential exercises to apply these theories to.
The book is organized in two sections: Leadership and Trust. Each section begins with a theoretical chapter to introduce the humanistic frameworks. The chapters following the theoretical framework are cases and exercises to apply the theory. These illustrate how to apply the theory in practice.
The first part of the book starts by conceptualizing leadership with a humanistic perspective. Using basic human drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend; it showcases the need to maintain a dignity threshold. Two case studies follow to practice applying this framework: One an exemplar of a leader in India who takes on corruption in the government, and the other a study of leadership failure to adapt to promote a culture of dignity in their organization. That leaders are human too and leadership is an interactive process of engagement with others is offered as a role-play exercise where participants can get an experience of how to identify dignity violations in interpersonal exchanges in order to learn ways to prevent its violation in the common workplace situation of assigning work.
The second part begins with a framework for the relevance of trustworthiness and trust for responsible leadership. We provide exercises and two case studies that showcase the relevance of building trust with stakeholders and specifically employees. The section concludes by offering a way for participants to understand trust by experiencing it in a powerful, innovative and practical manner, with the use of dance as an experiential exercise.
The contributions to this book showcase the global relevance of the humanistic principles for responsible leadership. By providing examples from different parts of the world, it also conveys that social problems cross political boundaries and sometimes need global solutions beyond borders.
The cases and exercise contributions have come from the “so-called” real world and have been tested in their classrooms by the authors. The book offers examples of both good and bad management situations across business, government, and nongovernment organizations. For those interested in teaching more topics from a Humanistic Management perspective, we recommend the companion volume that covers topics of Social Entrepreneurship and Mindfulness. For those new to Humanistic Management or interested in more details about this approach, an expanded overview is available in the book: Humanistic Management: Protecting Dignity and Promoting Well Being, by Michael Pirson. We also encourage you to check out the International Humanistic Management Association for more information on how to get involved (www.humanisticmanagement.international).
The editors thank the contributors, and take responsibility for any errors that may remain. We would love any feedback on experiences with the material. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Editors
Michael Pirson, Fordham University New York,
Jyoti Bachani, Saint Mary’s College of California.
Supplemental readings may be assigned from any of the other books on Humanistic Management.
www.palgrave.com/series/Humanism-in-Business-Series/HBS/
www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/management/business-ethics/humanism-business?format=PB