Plato as personnel manager: Exploring the classics to learn about people management

Abstract

Purpose

Describes how Plato's philosophy has influenced, and may continue to affect, modern human‐resource management.

Design/methodology/approach

Outlines some of Plato's main ideas – including the role of the philosopher king in striving for the ideal – and draws out their relevance for current HR thinking and practice.

Findings

Contends that the platonic HR manager would oppose the notion of flatter structures. Policy would encourage progression through education, recognizing that not everyone had the qualities or wisdom to become a top executive. Men would rise faster than women, and emphasis would be placed on age, experience and service. Training and development would be more segmented and orientated towards efficiency.

Practical implications

Argues that, on the basis of Plato's philosophy, educated and enlightened leaders would go the extra mile for the good of the enterprise and senior executives would set an example.

Social implications

Highlights an anti‐democratic notion at the heart of Plato's philosophy: that truth and reality reside in a universal series of ideals, or forms, that transcend the material world and are understood only by a few members of a privileged class.

Originality/value

Applies 2,500‐year‐old ideas to the modern HR world.

Citation

Short, T. (2010), "Plato as personnel manager: Exploring the classics to learn about people management", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 38-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670731011051559