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Towards a holistic understanding of human motivation: core values—the entrance to people's commitment?

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Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.

Notes

  1. This section is a further development of earlier publications of SMP Dahlgaard (1998, 1999a), and SMP Dahlgaard and Kondo (2000).

  2. Social psychologist Erich Fromm (1976) explained human lifestyle in terms of two concepts: 'having' and 'being'. People who understand human life as a continuous living process, in which they expand knowledge, capabilities and skills in interaction with the environment and other people can be categorized as 'being' people. On the other hand, people who understand human life as a material process and not as a living process, try to continuously acquire things. In this case, people are focused on the 'having' aspect. All their activities are carried out to own more things. Erich Fromm distinguished the two types of lifestyles, emphasising that various human sicknesses (both on the individual level and the societal level) are consequences of focusing on 'having' instead of 'being'.

  3. Confucius (BC 551–479), Mencius (BC 372–289) and Hsun Tzu (BC 298–238) from the Confucian school of thought have strongly argued the necessity of cultivation and education. They all believed that human nature could be improved and developed though continuous education and practising/training. Hsun Tzu's own words, 'Sagehood is what one attains to by such accumulation of good acts' expresses this view very clearly. For this reason these aspects of character-building in terms of developing and deepening peoples' awareness of respect, benevolence, virtue, fairness and trust, etc. were considered as one of the most important aspects of education (SMP Dahlgaard 2000).

    Erich Fromm argues in The Art of Loving (1956), that genuine altruistic love can only be exploited and developed when individuals strongly intended to develop their whole personalities in a proactive way. He argues that 'loving' can be considered a kind of art, and in order to master this loving art, it requires training of the following traits: 1. continuous practises/lifelong practises 2. contemplation 3. patience 4. empathic listening 5. self-criticism 6. self-confidence 7. education

    Both Covey (1989) and Senge (1990) seem to have a similar opinion as Fromm. Covey treats this spiritual aspect in terms of character ethics, and Senge treats this spiritual aspect in terms of personal mastery. Like Fromm, they believe that this dimension can be developed and achieved through lifelong practise and training.

  4. Traditionally, the spiritual dimension has been treated as a field of ethics and morals, which includes a core set of values and beliefs about people.

  5. The term 'distinctive competence' is adopted by Selznick (1957), Hofer and Schendel (1978) and Andrews (1971), while the term 'core competencies' is adopted by Prahalad and Hamel (1990 and 1994) and Dosi et al. (1991).

  6. In this context, we are not using the term 'empirical way' in the same way as 'empiricism', where logical/rational verification of all statements is one of the fundamental rules. Our way of using 'empirical way' is similar to the view of Taoism, Buddhism and Zen. In these religious traditions, the direct observation of reality by mobilising all human sensibility rather than mobilising intellectual reasoning has been considered to be most reliable way to attain knowledge and insight (Suzuki 1968; SMP Dahlgaard 2000) and been recognised by numerous philosophers throughout history (Plato, Aristoteles, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Descartes, Locke and Hume).

  7. See, for instance, Collins and Porras (1996),

  8. A consideration of the individual as the primary catalyst and foundation for any organisational improvement and organisational learning can be found in a wide range of management literature, especially literature on learning and knowledge management. See, for instance, Senge (1990) and Covey (1989).

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Acknowledgements

Some of the initial ideas of this paper were presented by Professor Jens J. Dahlgaard at the European Workshop on Quality of Work Life in Brussels in1999, which is the background for his co-authorship of the paper. I am grateful to the participants as well as to the organiser of the workshop (Professor Jörgen Eklund, Linköping University) who gave me valuable comments about the initial ideas. I am also grateful for valuable and constructive feedback from the three anonymous referees.

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  1. Department of Management and Economics, Linköping University, 58183 , Linköping, Sweden

    Su Mi Park Dahlgaard

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Division of Quality Technology and Management, Linköping University, 58183 , Linköping, Sweden

    Jens J. Dahlgaard

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  1. Su Mi Park Dahlgaard
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Correspondence to Su Mi Park Dahlgaard.

Appendix A

Appendix A

The factor analyis data are contained in Table 15.

Table 15. Appendix: factor analysis on the survey data rotated component matrix
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Dahlgaard, S.M.P., Dahlgaard, J.J. Towards a holistic understanding of human motivation: core values—the entrance to people's commitment?. AI & Soc 17, 150–180 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-003-0257-y

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