Humanistic Management in Practice

Humanistic Management in Practice is a collection of business cases from all corners of the globe, in a variety of industries and sizes. What unites this group of businesses is that all of them are highly successful market actors in a competitive environment and yet they consider their ultimate raison d’etre as the generation of societal benefit rather than maximum profit. These companies are managed as an integrated and responsive part of society and complement theoretical arguments on a humanistic management approach with proof of concept. They demonstrate that managerial freedom includes the option to align social purpose and business success.

Humanistic management has a profoundly liberating effect on a company by putting people first and integrating the desire to generate benefits for all stakeholders into managerial decision making. Consequently, internal as well as external stakeholders can derive meaning and find purpose in a company’s activities that create value for society, making them loyal customers, engaged employees, long-term-oriented investors and collaborative civil society stakeholders. True business leadership proves that business success and societal benefit generation can go hand in hand.

With this book The Humanistic Management Network presents convincing evidence of businesses that stand out by showing that it is not only possible for companies to earn healthy profits when putting people first, but that those who do, deliver outstanding results to their owners and to society.