People Act Normal Until They Start Organizing: Using Design-Based Research and Discourse Analysis to Examine a Workshop on Humane Organizations

Abstract

People and their relations are the heart of success of every organization. Although there are no studies that directly relate company success to the happiness of the workforce, it is common sense that organizations which are over longer periods work under tension are most likely to be less productive. Humane ways of organizing - ways of organizing that fit to us people and our current state of evolution - are essential for the well being our society. As academics and practitioners in this field however, we encounter several issues that seem to contrast these recent views on putting the well-being of people upfront in order to create successful organizations. In this paper the qualitative research methods of discourse analysis and design-based research are used to discover patterns for humane organizations. It describes the preliminary findings of a research project in which a workshop was designed and tested based on design principles for humane organizations.

Keywords: Design-based research, discourse analysis, humane organizations, healthy organizations, systems

JEL Classification: B59, L23, M14