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This lecture by Ernst von Kimakowitz, co-founder of the Humanistic Management Network, was focused on key drivers in Humanistic Management with a subsequent Q&A session.

To conceptualize Humanistic Management we have developed a set of key drivers that pave the road towards the humanistic management paradigm which we lay out in the Three Stepped Approach to Humanistic Management. These key drivers are purpose and legitimacy, passion and integrity and love.

  • Purpose: Purpose is defined as knowing why a business does what it does. Understanding the true rationality for its existence goes much deeper than being able to provide an accurate depiction of activities. Purpose provides the foundation for an organizational mission.
  • Legitimacy: Legitimacy is used as a proxy for public desirability of an organization and the purpose it is perusing. Legitimacy is thus a moderator for purpose as it ensures the alignment of societal needs and expectations with the purpose of a business as well as the way in which it is following that purpose.
  • Passion: In Humanistic Management Passion describes an attitude towards work rather than the big gestures we sometimes ascribe to passionate people. In fact true passion does not need to be “loud”, much more it expresses itself through the attention to detail in delivering every day work.
  • Integrity: Just as legitimacy functions as a moderator for purpose, integrity acts as a moderator for passion. Passion can make blind for externalities caused by activities and transparently saying what one does and doing what one sais helps to guide passion towards the generation of societal value.
  • Love: It is striking how difficult it is for most of us to use the word love in business contexts. Yet it is a very powerful driver. Love for an activity, the people we do it with and the people we do it for describes a deep connection with that activity and fills us with intrinsic motivation.

The event saw over 200 students attending with a lively discussion following the lecture by Ernst von Kimakowitz, co-founder of the Humanistic Management Network. The lecture and discussion which took place on the 7th of July 2016 were impeccably organized by dean Kuriyama of Soka University’s business faculty with acclaimed interpreter Rié Kasahara translating the event into Japanese.