Humanizing Businesses for a Better World of Work provides a strategic perspective on how organizations can transform their structures and practices to accommodate a more humanized, people-first workplace in the face of the fundamental transitions happening in the post-pandemic world.

In corporate dynamics, organizations grapple with a pressing dilemma—how to balance the pursuit of success with the well-being and sustained mental health of their workforce. Across industries, employees find themselves burdened with an ever-growing array of responsibilities, a phenomenon that takes a toll on their physical and emotional well-being, ultimately jeopardizing productivity. The pervasive threat of burnout looms large, necessitating a nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between employee welfare and organizational prosperity. Recognizing the escalating prevalence of mental health issues, particularly in developing nations, scholars are intensifying their focus on the need for comprehensive studies to unearth strategies that can mitigate workplace stress and enhance the overall mental health of employees. This critical exploration forms the crux of our upcoming book, Nurturing Prosperity: Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Wellbeing, where we unravel the profound influence of CSR on the multifaceted dimensions of employee wellness. This book presents a comprehensive synthesis of the latest empirical research findings and relevant theoretical frameworks. Tailored for academic scholars, it aims to deepen the understanding of the strategic role of trust in various domains within the information and knowledge society. Encompassing the global economy, networks and organizations, teams and workgroups, information systems, and individual actors in networked environments, the book elucidates how CSR practices can be leveraged to foster employee wellbeing in diverse settings.

This book highlights the relevance of the grand traditions of the humanities as an untapped resource for business-world problems. In a time where the humanities are viewed as in decline or in threat of collapse altogether, this book enacts and extends the best of the humanities toward prevailing challenges within the complex realities of our current cultural moment. The book presents how the humanities can contribute to humanizing business and management. It explores and discusses various ways to integrate the views and approaches of the humanities in business and management research, practice, and education responding to the unprecedented challenges of the Anthropocene. The relations between humanities and social sciences is also discussed, as models and theories of business and management are based on insights of social sciences. The book is an outcome of the “Humanities for Business” project of Princeton University Faith and Work Initiative, the European SPES Institute, Leuven, and the Business Ethics Center of Corvinus University of Budapest. It is of great value to researchers, students, policy makers and research institutions interested in using humanities for renewing and humanizing business and management.

This book is about humanizing business. In contrast to the mainstream modern management and leadership literature, this book provides distinctly humane perspectives on business. The volume travels outside the world of business to explore what Humanities – such as Philosophy, History, Literature, Creative Arts, and Cultural Studies – can offer to business. Renowned scholars from different Humanities disciplines, as well as management researchers exploring the heritage of Humanities, convey what it actually means to make business more humane. The book strives to humanize business. It aims to show that it is not people who have to suppress their human feelings, aspirations, and beliefs when they are at their workplaces, but it is business itself that needs to be redefined by the human norms of human beings. Companies should care about their employees and other stakeholders letting them be themselves, i.e. be human, at work and beyond. The book will be of interest to management scholars across various business disciplines. It can also be used as teaching material in the classroom with MBA students, especially in Business Ethics, Business and Society, Sustainability, Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management and other management courses. The volume will also be of interest to scholars that work in different Humanities fields and whose interests span organizations, management, and business. Finally, many practitioners in the business world, especially those in managerial and leadership positions, will find the book both thought-provoking and useful for them as well. Chapter 37 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

What is it to be truly human at work? Why do so many people today ache to be more human at work? In this book, Lloyd E. Sandelands unites the metaphysics of Aristotle and Aquinas and the social teachings of the Catholic Church to describe how business leaders can help people in their organizations become more truly and fully human. Being at Work is a much-needed marriage of metaphysical philosophy and managerial common sense.

The work world is changing faster than ever before. Adapting to this new reality without a significant interruption in results is increasingly a top priority for all businesses. The key to thriving through disruption is understanding and practicing human capital strategies that will drive enterprise performance and value-creation. In Humanizing Human Capital, renowned business thought leaders Solange Charas, PhD, and Stela Lupushor reframe traditional HR practices into a future-forward strategy to optimize human capital. Charas and Lupushor shift decision-making about people from a gut sense to an evidence-based approach—a critical and much-needed departure from the cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best approach of most traditional HR programs today. Humanizing Human Capital reveals a step-by-step method to apply analytics approaches to human capital while anticipating inevitable changes in the workforce landscape. This will enable human capital professionals to generate positive outcomes for all stakeholders and allow management to make decisions that work for the entire enterprise. With this book’s comparison of “traditional” with the “future-forward” approach to human capital management, case studies, real-world situations, and 20 business principles, you will learn to: Adopt a best-evidence versus best-practice approach to decision making Shift your thinking so that you view human capital as a crucial investment rather than as a sunk cost Identify what needs to change to respond to future pressures and apply critical thinking to create workable solutions Balance human capital analytics with the more human-centric elements of people management Equip yourself with approaches and tools to interpret the collective voice of the workforce Utilize methods to measure and optimize human capital efficiency, increasing your ROI Increase value for all key stakeholders, including investors, management, workers, customers, partners, and the community at large The road ahead may seem unpredictable and even treacherous, but Humanizing Human Capital provides leaders of any organization a new framework to create resilient, responsive, and innovative organizations with tangible and sustainable business results.

Este libro nace de la idea de que la empresa ha resultado ser una forma organizativa con capacidad de transformar la sociedad. Las empresas contribuyen a solucionar problemas reales, creando valor social y fomentando el cambio. La dirección y los directivos tienen una influencia notable en el bienestar de muchas personas. Pero ¿es posible que nuestras teorías de dirección sean erróneas; incluso que sean responsables de los errores que desembocaron en la crisis actual? IESE, como escuela de negocios comprometida con el desarrollo de líderes que aspiran a ejercer un impacto positivo profundo y duradero en las personas, es consciente de la tendencia de deshumanizar la profesión de directivo, pero también de la necesidad de reconocer su importancia y sus logros. Fue desde este compromiso, y con cierto sentido de urgencia, que en 2011 se organizó una conferencia internacional bajo el título Humanizing the Firm and the Management Profession , con el propósito de revertir esta tendencia, replanteando nuestras teorías de la empresa. El presente libro reúne las comunicaciones presentadas en ese encuentro. La obra se estructura en tres partes. La primera, On Leaders and Society: What Future Are We Building Today? , intenta contextualizar el debate ofreciendo un diagnóstico de la situación actual. Presenta unas perspectivas positivas pero también negativas; algunas reflexiones empíricas pero también propuestas normativas. La segunda, Building Blocks for a New Theory of the Firm , pretende desarrollar los elementos centrales de lo que sería una nueva teoría de la empresa: las bases de una teoría de gestión estratégica orientada a los grupos interesados; cuestiones filosóficas de fondo sobre en qué debería consistir la humanización; y los fundamentos de la responsabilidad social corporativa y de la implicación de los grupos interesados. Finalmente, la tercera parte, On Micro Foundations , repasa algunos de los elementos claves susceptibles de dar apoyo a una nueva teoría de la empresa. Por el camino, habremos visto algo de cómo es nuestro mundo, porqué es así, y qué podemos hacer para que sea diferente. Este libro está dirigido a un amplio público de académicos y profesionales de alto nivel interesados en aumentar la calidad de nuestra gestión por medio de una mejor teoría de la empresa.

This book responds to the growing need for understanding how we can foster wellness, raise engagement, and strengthen connections in professional contexts as human interactions become increasingly remote. Through research and case studies, the authors outline a paradox: the digital technology we use to connect with others can leave us feeling less connected. To understand what is missing from remote interactions, the authors examine the use of space, sensory cues, group dynamics, and challenges people encounter when the innate need for human connection is unmet. They provide practical advice to improve remote experiences, including ways to manage stress, avoid cognitive overload, and prevent burnout. Ultimately, the book highlights what is possible when we focus not only on the quantity and efficiency of our interactions, but also on the quality and depth of our human connections. The contemporary relevance of this topic makes the book essential for leaders, coaches, consultants, and other professionals working remotely, as well as students and interested individuals seeking to improve their personal and professional remote experiences.