Humanistic management: A history of a management paradigm from the human dignity

Abstract

This chapter discusses how two similar currents of thought evolved at different times into what people know as humanistic management. The idea of humanistic management is centred on human development, human integrity, human dignity and human liberty. The St. Gallen school of thought also pursues the idea of human dignity over financial and operational performance within the firm. The thinkers of the Montreal school assume that a good leader is a person who knows how to manage the “government of the people” at the level of sophistication achieved by the “administration of things.” The students of the seminar realised after this reflexive exercise that every human being has biological, psychological and social components that continuously interact among them. The ontological dimension is the one that identifies the essential features of being, the characteristics, their own reality or activity; it differs from the accidental or contingent attributes.