Abstract
A focus on the humanities can yield direct benefits to business leaders and organizations, both in the short and long run. But understanding the true value of the humanities to business lies in recognizing that our experiences with the humanities put us in touch with the fundamental underpinnings of what business is ultimately all about, and in so doing, the humanities touch upon the soul of what a business truly is.
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Notes
- 1.
For a more direct and thorough examination of the impossibility of separating ‘business’ from its ethical underpinnings, see also Harris and Freeman (2008).
- 2.
On this particular point, a long quote from the preface to the paperback edition of Sensemaking is particularly instructive. “Understanding real people is at least as important in economics as in any other discipline. If you don’t understand what motivates human beings, how can you possibly predict how they will act? Sure, you can simply assume that individuals act rationally and in their own self-interest. But even the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, considered and rejected that notion. To fully understand his seminal Wealth of Nations, one must also read his complimentary volume, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, where Smith explicitly denied that human behavior could be adequately described in terms of people’s ‘rational choice’ to maximize their individual utility. Not only do people often behave foolishly; their care for others is an ‘original passion’ that is not reducible to selfish concerns. One needs a subtle appreciation for particulars, the sort of sensitivity that was dramatized a half century after Smith’s moral treatise by Jane Austen and her successors” (Morson and Schapiro 2018, vii).
- 3.
For more on the interplay between the three questions of business strategy—how, what and why—and the important role of values in the ‘strategist’s challenge’ of balancing and managing these three questions, see Chapter 1 of The Strategist’s Toolkit (Harris and Lenox 2013). Figure reprinted by permission.
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Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this essay was delivered as an invited keynote presentation at “Human/Ties”, the September 2016 conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) held at the University of Virginia. The author expresses gratitude for constructive comments on this paper’s underlying ideas from fellow panelists Gene Schutt (University of Virginia Associate Dean for Development in the College of Arts and Sciences), Liz Smith (Chairwoman and CEO, Bloomin’ Brands), and Blair Labatt (CEO, Labatt Food Services). Thanks also to the editors for feedback on the final paper, and in particular Sergiy Dmytriyev, for terrific developmental comments and input.
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Harris, J.D. (2022). Strategy Lessons from Shakespeare? Humanities and the Soul of Business. In: Dion, M., Freeman, R.E., Dmytriyev, S.D. (eds) Humanizing Business. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 53. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72204-3_39
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