Humanistic Management Performativity (Conference Paper)

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Abstract: Humanistic management practices are often perceived as ‘unrealistic’, as they stand in steep contrast to ‘normal’ business reality shaped by the commercial logic of neoclassic economics. The conceptual lens of performative practices focuses on how practices that appear to be unrealistic can be ‘made real’ through their enactment. This paper studies such performative humanistic practices of the three companies Greyston (USA), Good-Ark (China), and Allsafe (Germany). Through a thematic template analysis, we identify two distinct types of accompanying practices that enable the performativity of the core humanistic management practices studied. Enabling practices favored the initial performativity the humanistic practices by providing a local ‘proof of concept’. Disseminating practices aided performativity by spreading humanistic practices and therefore increasing practices’ global verisimilitude.

Keywords: Values and management futures; managing for the common good; social innovation; job and work design, post bureaucratic organisations, corporate social responsibility

Please cite as Laasch, O., Dierksmeier, C., Livne-Tarandach, R., Pirson, M., Fu, P., & Qu, Q. 2018. Humanistic management performativity `in the wild’: The role of performative bundles of practices, 32nd Annual Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) Conference. Auckland.