People, organisations and management: lessons for the industrialised world from the rest of the world

Western ways of managing were increasingly applied in the non-Western world during the later part of the 20th century. There is more and more resistance to their application in the 21st century. The ideas have led to the marginalisation of human beings at work and the dehumanising treatment of individuals. Individuals are often treated as if they were replaceable and interchangeable components of a rational machine-like organisation. Often, only a small fraction of the characteristics that make individuals fully human are engaged with at work. Many non-Western ideas give priority to being fully human in relationship with other human beings at work. The emphasis on the whole person (mind, body, emotions and spirit) and their relationship with other 'whole individuals' as the central idea of organisation is illustrated with New Zealand Maori, African and Indian examples. This underlying idea offers an alternative model with which to understand and manage organisations in the West and the East.