Humanizing companies is the challenge that Domènec Melé addresses  , from a theoretical perspective, in his essay Foundations for a Humanistic Company Centered on the Person.  Thinking about the Commercial Company of the Future . 

Companies are made by people, with other people, and for other people.  This seemingly simple idea, combined with the application of Aristotle’s theory of the four causes, provides Melé with the framework for developing his proposal for a people-centered company. Companies are owned by people, so  for Melé, ultimately, companies are people.  And to speak of people means referring to a rational individual being endowed with dignity, inherent rights, personal goals, and open to growth as a human being.

The work argues that people should be considered the  origin, center, and end  of business activity, and not mere “resources” or “human capital.”  Melé uses Aristotle’s theory of the four causes to structure his proposal:

• Material cause : People and resources (material, technological, financial).
• Formal cause : Cooperative relationships that form an  organized community of people  (suppliers, clients, local community).
• Efficient cause : Work in all its forms (entrepreneurial, managerial, operational and investment).
• Final cause : A legitimate purpose that must be consistent with the  common good  of the company and society. 

In his essay, Melé distinguishes businesses from other social entities. A business is an intermediate community within society, established as a social institution with its own norms, symbols, and values, with the spirit of permanence and with aims that must always be compatible with the common good. When discussing the efficient cause of the business, Melé emphasizes the importance of work in all its forms.

There have been, are, and will be notorious corporate scandals that disprove the myth of the amorality of business. Pure utilitarianism frequently leads to abuses of all kinds. For utilitarianism, the moral correctness of an action, rule, policy, or decision depends on its consequences: the morally best one is the one that produces the greatest possible amount of well-being, happiness, or utility. This contradicts the principle that the end, however good or theoretically good, never justifies a bad means to achieve it.

This work by Melé originally appeared in English in 2024, under the title  The Humanistic Person-centered Company: Conceptual Foundations .  Melé prefers the term  “company”  to ”  enterprise ” because  “company”  better highlights the associative aspect.

Chapter 1 describes the problematic view of human beings, often reduced to a mere factor of production or a “human resource” for profit.  Chapter 2 , after contrasting humanism and economism, presents the humanism adopted in this work, which revolves around the rich notion of the “human person.”  Chapter 3 proposes ethics as the driving force behind personal freedom and personal human growth, which is achieved by doing good to others.  Chapter 4 reviews several dominant ethical theories in business ethics, and Melé presents his own proposal.  Chapter 5 analyzes the role of ethics in economic activity and in decision-making in business management.  Chapter 6  considers the company within society. Melé rejects two extremes: viewing society as a mere aggregation of individuals united only by interests and seeing society as a whole in which individuals practically disappear.

In summary,  this  text presents itself as an ethical alternative to  economism  and extreme utilitarianism (such as Milton Friedman’s position), arguing that ethics must be at the heart of economic activity .  While efficiency and profit are necessary, they are given an  instrumental character  for higher purposes, promoting genuine social and ecological responsibility beyond mere economic self-interest or public relations. 

Source: More extensive review  published in Nueva Revista