Organizational Humanism

Public administration scholars Michael Milakovich and George Gordon define organizational humanism as “a set of organizational theories stressing that work holds intrinsic interest for the worker, that workers seek satisfaction in their work, that they want to work rather than avoid it, and that they can be motivated through systems of positive incentives, such as participation on decision-making and public recognition for work well done” (2007, p. 167). Organizational humanism emerged from the quest for increased workplace productivity and worker satisfaction and the organizational relations thereof. Management theorists had been thinking and making observations about behaviors of humans in organizations. A good number of scholars in the management field attempted to position the field as a science and wanted to minimize philosophical and humanistic traditions. The initial laboratory for….