The International Humanistic Management Association hosts, cohosts, and organizes a number of collaborative research groups (collaboratories). We support research on how organizations can protect dignity and promote well-being/flourishing at large, as well as several key subtopics. The Research collaboratories serve to connect with larger scientific networks, including practitioners and broader societal stakeholders. The goal is to expand resources and engage in innovative joint research, disseminate, and transfer results to academic and business professional communities. The scope of research encompasses regional projects, multinational cooperation, and the nurturing of doctoral students worldwide.
The IHMA Research Labs bring together scholars, policy-makers, artists, scientists, and business professionals for scholarly dialogue and debate around specific topic areas related to innovative ideas, models, and frameworks for instilling transformative change in business and society. The purpose of this program is to engage researchers from diverse fields to discuss potential research collaborations and share their work with broader communities.
Objectives
Research groups are to meet once a month to generate a regular dialogue around their topic area. Each group may seek opportunities for publishing in the Humanistic Management Journal, special issues in various journal outlets associated with IHMA, our own humanistic management book series, etc. Research axis groups may also wish to consider starting a Thought Leadership conference around their topic area to generate articles or chapters for their work.
- Love and Organizing (Michael Pirson, Fordham University; Matt Lee, Baylor U./Harvard Human Flourishing Program)
Love is an inconvenient value in organizations. It can contribute, however, to (human) flourishing in and of organizations. But what does it mean? Can we develop an understanding of love that supports the well-being of employees, clients, partners, suppliers, and communities, while also promoting the interests of the organization? What are productive strategies to promote love in organizational processes –from goal setting, to organizational decision-making, or managing the human factor, achieving the organization’s mission and objectives? These questions arise when outlining an agenda to further an agapeic turn in organizations directed at the well-being of others. The aim of this workstream is to develop a joint agenda for the future of love in and of organizations.
- AI and Flourishing ( Cornelia Walter, Wharton/ UPenn and Lorenn Ruster, ANU)
Stephen Hawking famously warned that “[t]he development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Less extreme views have taken the position that AI can serve people by freeing them from the routine drudgery of many types of work. Even in this latter scenario, however, analysts forecast loss of livelihood for large portions of the working population –a definite threat to human flourishing which will need to be addressed. Beyond the economic implications, the already growing use of AI and its impact on the workplace raises questions on how human work needs to be reconfigured to preserve and even enhance the positive impacts of work on various dimensions of human flourishing, such as on physical and mental health, on cognitive and emotional development, on social connections, and on moral and spiritual aspects.
- Humanistic Management and Leadership Working Group at UN PRME ( Erica Steckler, UMass Lowell, Diego Arias, Mercy University, Detroit)