Organizational Ikigai

Organizations are increasingly faced with the challenge of recruiting and retaining suitable personnel. It is crucial to have employees who are committed to their organization and actively support change. Such commitment is primarily present when employees find suitable framework conditions for themselves that result from the lived values that are anchored in the organizational culture. Accordingly, a culture must be based on an image of human man that is worthy of man.

An image of man worthy of man is reflected in Ikigai. Ikigai pursues a meaning-centered approach (purpose-driven) and - based on the original logotherapy of Viktor E. Frankl - assumes that the core motivation of human beings is the search for meaning.

The book lays the theoretical foundation for a comprehensive individual and organizational consideration of Ikigai by describing Ikigai as a Japanese philosophy of life and, on the basis of original logotherapy, opening up Ikigai for the non-Japanese cultural area. The necessity of a purpose driven view is explained and individual Ikigai is transferred to the organizational context as a blueprint. The four central levers of organizational Ikigai are described and the theoretical foundations for a transformation to a purpose-driven organization are presented.

Dr. Bernd Ahrendt, Professor of General Business Administration, in particular Human Resource Management, teaches and researches at the FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics & Management in Hanover. He is a member of the WerteAkademie Berlin and works as a coach with a meaning-centered focus. His research interests include purpose-driven organizations, leadership, self-leadership, competence management, meaning-centered mindset. Dr. Rebecca Sabine Nikolaus holds a doctorate in Japanese studies and is an organizational development consultant, coach and lecturer at FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics & Management in Hanover. Her main areas of expertise are normative and strategic management and HR management in the context of digital globalization. Jörg Zilinski is an organizational developer, HR specialist, senior management consultant and lecturer at FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics & Management Hannover. His main fields are the transformation of future organizations with a focus on Purpose-Driven Organizations. In addition, he focuses on the holistic approach of a meaning-centred orientation. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.