Viktor Frankl’s Thought and Its Potential to Enrich Humanistic Management from a Personalist Perspective
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Viktor E. Frankl’s logotherapy is grounded in experience and in an explicit philosophical anthropology influenced by existentialist thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel, by Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, Max Scheler’s phenomenology, and Aristotelian-Thomistic ontology. Frankl’s conception of the person recognises the human being as an indivisible unity, irreducible to larger wholes, unique in existence, endowed with a spiritual dimension, oriented toward meaning, and essentially relational—entailing existence-with-others. The person is also endowed with freedom and the corresponding responsibility, characterised by a transcendent orientation (not closed in on self), and possesses inherent dignity rather than mere utility value. Although Frankl is often described as an existentialist psychiatrist, this article argues that he is more accurately situated within the tradition of personalism. His conception of the human being can contribute to enriching the philosophical foundations of the contemporary Humanistic Management movement by providing new horizons for a humanistic-personalist approach that places the person and his or her existential characteristics at the centre of management.
Source: Philosophy of Management
Authors: Domènec Melé, Kleio Akrivou
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,390
OpenAlex ID: W7128469985