How Can Philosophy Help Management and How Can Management Help Philosophy? Towards a Holistic Approach for Management Education

Abstract

The recent and on-going global economic crisis with its failures of responsibilities and the threatening of natural and socio-cultural ecologies are among many more manifestations of a profound dis-integration and non-integral way of living. Many further symptoms and realities as well as ethical inadequacies and reductive understandings and orientations call for a more sustainable integration. This article is based on the premise that re-considering philosophical concepts can be an apt medium for realizing such integral understanding and practice. Philosophical techniques and approaches can help clarify and evaluate the aims and values of management education. On the other side, management studies and management education can contribute to the on-going revitalization of philosophy as an integral and sustainable practice and medium for the emergence of relational realities of leadership and organisation. This is why we explore the dimensions of the action and the dimensions of the agent, recalling both Aristotle’s and Kant’s theories. Our goal is to develop a ‘holistic’ model on philosophical basis that may open new streams of research in management education and may call for a more sustainable, ‘integral’ model of management in organizations. We also provide some examples of the application of this model to management education, assuming that ancient wisdom can embrace practical problem solving of business, human, and social issues.