A Humanistic Narrative for Responsible Management Learning: An Ontological Perspective

Abstract

Why has responsible management been so difficult and why is the chorus of stakeholders demanding such responsibility getting louder? We argue that management learning has been framed within the narrative of economism. As such, we argue that managers need to be aware of the paradigmatic frame of the dominant economistic narrative and learn to transcend it. We also argue that for true managerial responsibility, an alternative humanistic narrative is more fit for purpose. This humanistic narrative is based on epistemological metaphors and ontological insights that integrate the latest insights from evolutionists suggesting that humans only survived by being responsible. This understanding has consequences for responsible management learning in that it focuses on dignity literacy, balance orientation, as well as creativity and innovation for the common good. We argue that managerial learning within a humanistic paradigm is more likely to lead to ethical and sustainable business conduct.

Bibliometric analyses on the emergence and present growth of humanistic management

“…The bibliographic coupling of the 160 articles in the dataset shows that 121 articles are included in the highest articles (75.63% of the data set). Pirson (2019), Pirson (2020), Acevedo (2012), Acevedo (2018) and Arnaud (2018) were the five articles with the most substantial coupling index. It implies a chance of using the relevant subject matter or inside field study networks.…”

Constellations of Transdisciplinary Practices: A Map and Research Agenda for the Responsible Management Learning Field

“…Cullen (2019) presents four types of responsible management learning and education derived from a structured literature review. Pirson (2019) proposes a humanistic management ontology as a more promising description of human nature for the RML field than the currently dominant 'economistic' ontology. Montiel et al (this issue) review the corporate sustainability literature and synthesize threshold concepts to translate academic insight into conceptual knowledge that is adequately packaged to change managers' mindsets fundamentally.…”

“…Among these conceptual papers, several achieve interdisciplinarity on the research field by integrating knowledge from multiple literatures. For instance, Pirson (2019) integrated knowledge from the humanities and evolutionary biology to build an argument for the humanistic ontology. Similarly, Cullen (2019) builds his typology on interdisciplinary conceptualizations of integrated education for ethics, responsibility, and sustainability.…”

How to Become Involved in JME? Joining the Peer-Review Process

“…As she continued her journey as an experiential learning educator, she sought out more instructional design articles related to service-learning (Fornaciari & Kenworthy-U’Ren, 2007) and team-based learning assessment practices (Michaelsen et al, 1994). Over time, management education’s field-level topics have increasingly attracted her attention, like management education reform through the Principles for Management Education (Alcaraz & Thiruvattal, 2010), the debates related to management education journal rankings (Currie & Pandher, 2013), and alternative management learning paradigms like humanistic management (Pirson, 2020).…”