Abstract

With the number of leadership failures growing, there has been renewed interest in the promise of humanistic leadership (Colbert et al. 2018; Lawrence and Pirson 2015; Pirson and Bachani 2018; Pirson and Lawrence 2010). The pernicious consequences of the dominant business model representing “homo economicus” are becoming more apparent: increasing inequality, dehumanizing work, downsizing, and environmentally destructive practices. Humanistic leadership proposes a paradigm that is based on the protection of dignity and the promotion of well-being rather than wealth acquisition (Pirson 2017). Yet the existing literature regarding how humanistic leadership figures in management practice remains limited. Not only is there a need for theoretical work, but there is also a pressing need to identify current examples of humanistic leadership. In our earlier work (Keim and Shadnam 2020), we explored humanistic leadership among the Old Order Amish in Ohio, arguing that the organization of this conservative religious group holds critical clues for how we can humanize secular business organizations. More critically, given the unprecedented degree of change faced by organizations, we need to consider humanistic leadership within the context of change. In this chapter, we take up this challenge by looking at the Amish leadership as it relates to change.