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Dearest AOM colleagues (apologies for cross-posting),

The Humanistic Management Network invites contributions to a new volume in a series of books promoting human dignity and societal well being as the core concerns of management. If you believe people matter more than profits, then read on.

This book will meet the demand for pedagogical material to bring Humanistic Management values to management classrooms around the globe. We solicit contributions of case studies, experiential and role-play exercises and examples from the real world to educate students about management practices and organizations that impact human dignity and societal well being. Exemplars of good and bad management situations across business, government, non-government organizations are appropriate. Change management processes and transformation tools that support the transition towards a humanistic leadership and management style are also sought. Contributions are welcome from academics, consultants, practitioners, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, and entrepreneurs.

Why This Book?

In recent times, there is growing concern for the social, environmental, and humanitarian impact of corporations. The expansion of markets, liberalization of trade, globalization, and advancement of technology have made these concerns urgent due to their sheer scale. The reach and impact of businesses is unprecedented. Groups and corporations working to address these challenges have mostly functioned on the margins. Their work and ideas are portrayed as activism against the dominant corporation, as it remains disbursed. We believe that these fringe ideas and practices may have the seeds to the solutions for many of the big problems of the world.

Our aim with this book is to collate global exemplars into a compendium of teaching materials for anyone who aspires to be a part of solving these problems. By bringing together these distributed ideas, we want to bring them from obscurity to prominence. If you know of organizations and executives who have been practicing management with an emphasis on human dignity and well-being for all, and want to spread awareness to motivate others to act consistent with economically sound, environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways to conduct our lives and organizations, then write up your ideas as an abstract for submission. Success-stories as well as struggles are appropriate for this to promote candid conversations in the classrooms where fresh generation of managers and leaders are trained. Many professors, consultants and managers have already been training others by using stories, experiences and examples that lead to thought-provoking discussion. Let us help you publish these. We and will work with authors who send us their ideas and examples as an abstract.

We are unashamedly practice oriented, cross-disciplinary and interested in all aspects of the humanitarian impact of management. The most intriguing and intellectually challenging problems and solutions are complex, global and multi-faceted, with no regard for disciplinary, country, industry or other boundaries.

Some suggestions, not comprehensive, for the content is offered below:

1. Describing the Problem: Empirical evidence of the nature and scale of the problems that organizations have responsibility for i.e. impact of business on society, for e.g. inequality, access to opportunity, short-term focus, negative externalities, human rights, labor practices, gender equality, environmental concerns, governance, etc.

2. Case studies of firms, non-profits, government policies, individual executives, teams who have found strategies to address some or part of these humanitarian problems. Innovations, best practices, change management or transformation are possible exemplars.

3. Challenges that illustrate why problems (1 above) persist and what are the barriers to adoption of solutions (2 above).
4. Role-plays or exercises to make executives and management more mindful of their choices and how they use their discretion over legal, ethical, and moral responsibilities as custodians of society's resources.

5. Global and local frameworks and policies that have worked well to address these problems or failed due to unanticipated or unintended consequences.

6. Experimental new ways of organizing and managing, for e.g. peer-to-peer networks or sharing or gift-economy approaches that have the potential to organize economic activity based on value creation, with a greater role for the human aspects of organizational life.

The editors welcome other topics, besides the examples above, that address the central issues of the Humanistic Management Network. The publisher will be announced with the abstract acceptance.

Abstract Submissions

Abstracts should be no more than two pages, double-spaced, in 12 pt. Times font in word files. They should contain the author's name, contact email and phone number and professional association. Online videos, interactive games and exercises are permissible with a link plus a clear teaching note specifying the learning goals, classroom activities and discussion questions.

Book Series and related publications:
www.palgrave.com/series/Humanism-in-Business-Series/HBS/

www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/management/business-ethics/humanism-business?format=PB

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1602020

Contact:

Abstracts should be sent as e-mail attachments to: Margarita van 't Woud: M.vtwoud@nyenrode.nl

Questions or comments for the editors? Email: Jyoti Bachani, Saint Mary's College of California, jb19@stmarys-ca.edu or Michael Pirson, Fordham University New York, pirson@fordham.edu or Robert Blomme, Nyenrode Business University Netherlands, R.Blomme@nyenrode.nl.