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Buurtzorg Nederland is being presented as a best practice for Humanistic Management in Practice. The approach chosen here addresses the worldview that is rooted in a humane perspective of dealing with customers and employees. Furthermore a few concepts will be introduced such as integrative intelligence, bureaucracy, and the social movement theory to show its purpose and relevance for today’s management approaches. As an underlying framework to understand how the organization delivers its services and how it is organized internally, a theoretical frame under the label of integrating simplification is presented in this chapter.

In both the public and the business world, in academe as well as in practice, the ideas of Adam Smith are regarded as the bedrock of modern economics. When present economic conditions and management practices are criticised, Adam Smith is referred to by defenders and detractors of the current status quo alike. Smith, it is believed, defined the essential terms of reference of these debates, such as the rational pursuit of self-interest on part of the individual and the resultant optimal allocation of goods in free markets thanks to the workings of an "invisible hand.'' In this article, we question whether this standard view of Smith, the economist, is tenable. We provide an extensive review of the extant secondary literature from economists, business ethicists, and philosophers, comparing their assessments to crucial elements of Smith's theoretical system. As a result, we show that Smith, far from being an advocate of a value-free or even value-averse conception of economic transactions, stood for a virtue-based and values-oriented model of business. Accordingly, we argue current management education and the pedagogy of business ethics ought to be changed, and certain strategic conclusions drawn for business practice.

In seiner 2022 an der Universität Tübingen bei Prof. Dr. Claus Dierksmeier und Prof. Dr. Josef Schmid vorgelegten politikwissenschaftlichen Dissertation „Kampagnen zur Konzernverantwortung in transnationalen Lieferketten – am Beispiel der Textilindustrie. Vom Protest zur Policy“ untersucht der Tübinger Journalist und Gewerkschafter Volker Rekittke, wie die sehr unterschiedlich verteilten Machtressourcen im globalen „Fast Fashion“-System zugunsten von Menschen- und Arbeitsrechten verschoben werden können. Untersucht wurde der Gegenstand anhand von vier Fallstudien: 1. Gewerkschaftliche und entwicklungspolitische Strategien am Beispiel Bangladeschs, der Bangladesh Accord als weltweit erstes Enforceable Brand Agreement, zudem handels- und zollpolitische Maßnahmen der EU, 2. Transnationale Machtressourcen und Strategien bei IG Metall und ver.di, 3. Der KiK-Prozess von vier Pakistanis vor dem Landgericht Dortmund als Beispiel für strategische Prozessführung und transnationale Kooperation auf Augenhöhe (zudem als Initialzündung für die Lieferkettengesetz-Kampagne), 4. Die zivilgesellschaftliche Kampagne für ein Lieferkettengesetz in Deutschland, samt Analyse der Machtressourcen und Strategien der Akteur*innen. Gefördert wurde die Dissertation durch ein Stipendium der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.

Humanistic Management in Practice is a collection of business cases from all corners of the globe, in a variety of industries and sizes. What unites this group of businesses is that all of them are highly successful market actors in a competitive environment and yet they consider their ultimate raison d'etre as the generation of societal benefit rather than maximum profit. These companies are managed as an integrated and responsive part of society and complement theoretical arguments on a humanistic management approach with proof of concept. They demonstrate that managerial freedom includes the option to align social purpose and business success. Humanistic management has a profoundly liberating effect on a company by putting people first and integrating the desire to generate benefits for all stakeholders into managerial decision making. Consequently, internal as well as external stakeholders can derive meaning and find purpose in a company's activities that create value for society, making them loyal customers, engaged employees, long-term-oriented investors and collaborative civil society stakeholders. True business leadership proves that business success and societal benefit generation can go hand in hand. With this book The Humanistic Management Network presents convincing evidence of businesses that stand out by showing that it is not only possible for companies to earn healthy profits when putting people first, but that those who do, deliver outstanding results to their owners and to society.