Dignity - A Missing Piece in the Puzzle of Organizational Research?

Abstract

In line with Zald’s (1993) argument, we suggest that a reconnection with the notion of Kantian dignity would allow organizational research to pursue an “enlightenment” model viewing organizational studies as applied discipline with a goal of public and civic participation, rather than an engineering model pursuing specific problem solving toward predefined goals of profit maximization. Such a perspective has yielded many practical benefits as well as increased the theoretical accuracy for example in the field of conflict resolution and negotiation. While not all elements of organizational research need to increase accuracy at the expense of parsimony, some parts could benefit from broadening assumptions of human nature. As long as researchers can mindfully choose among options there may be renewed vigor for some streams of organizational research that also translate in relevance both scholarly and practically.

Keywords: humanistic, humanistic management, dignity, organizational research, paradigm