For at lykkes med organisation, må vi først lykkes med det menneskelige

Her et argument for humanisme i organisation fremført af Chester Barnard i The functions of the executive fra 1938:

"I have found it impossible to go far in the study of organizations or of behavior of people in relation to them without being confronted with a few questions which can be simply stated. For example: 'What is an individual?' 'What is a person?' 'To what extent do people have power of choice or free will?' The temptation is to avoid such difficult questions, leaving them to philosophers and scientists who still debate them after centuries. It quickly appears, however, that even if we avoid answering such questions definitely, we cannot avoid them" (1968/1938, p. 8).

Citeret i Domènec Melé The Challenge of Humanistic Management, 2003, Journal of Business Ethics 44:77-88

Ledelse og organisationsteori må tale med filosofi, teologi og humanistiske videnskaber for at få besvaret disse spørgsmål. Et er sikkert - nemlig at ledelse og organisationsteori ikke kan finde svaret på disse spørgsmål i dem selv.

Se også The Humanistic Management Network