Phenomenology of life, Zen and management

摘要

Purpose – The purpose of this paper consists in rethinking today's management systems in order to look for ways of management which are better adapted to human life. It is assumed that a management practice which takes into consideration the characteristics of human life must be accepted by a large number of people and would be effective and sustainable. Today, the overdevelopment of science and capitalism forget individuals and condemn them to alienation. To cope with this problem, the paper tries to identify ways of management which respect human life more. Design/methodology/approach – To do this, the paper studies the phenomenology of life of Michel Henry and Zen Buddhism in order to understand the profound sense of life, knowledge and community developed by their philosophy. It then examines Toyotism and Fordism under the two dimensions of knowledge and community to illustrate how their management system considers human life. Findings – The phenomenology of life and Zen share some common ground as both consider the importance of experienced life which constitutes the individual's subjectivity. Living experience generates embodied and tacit knowledge for men. The system of Kaizen which enables Toyota to develop significantly is based on its workers' tacit knowledge. In this dimension, Toyotism is a management system which recognizes better than Fordism the importance of living experiences and as such is better suited to human nature. The paper then discusses Toyotism, Fordism and post-Fordism in the light of the concept of community. Toyotism appears as a constraining “total community,” whereas attempts to reintroduce a sense of community into the post-Fordist model reveal its limits due to the fact that such a sense of community does not exist at a company level. Originality/value – The originality of this paper lies in its comparison of the phenomenology of life with Zen in order to understand the importance of life and also in the introduction of the consideration of living workers in managerial performance.