Humanistic Management Education – Concluding Observations and Suggestions

Abstract

For some time now, managers have been criticized for short-term oriented decision making and putting profits before principles. The financial crisis of 2007/08 has completely undermined faith in managerial decision making. Since many current managers were educated in business schools it is warranted to scrutinize these schools more closely. This book has done so by summarizing the current criticisms of business schools. This scrutiny, however, only represents the first step. The much more relevant and path-breaking step is to actually propose a workable alternative conception of management education. We argue that this book presents a holistic perspective in a rather piecemeal debate. In the following, we wish to therefore briefly summarize the books' main lessons and put them in a wider perspective on the future of management education. To do so, we outline a new paradigm for business and management in which the alternative management education needs to be placed. We further make very concise suggestions in terms of an alternative curriculum and setup of Humanistic Business Schools (HUBS). Finally, we wish to invite you to join us on the quest for a better, more sustainable, more human management education.