Maslow on Enlightened Management

“…any partner would take upon his own shoulders in emergencies any functions of the enterprise if he happened to be the one closest to the emergency. Any one of them, for instance, if he saw a fire breaking out would without taking votes about it or anything of the sort immediately go to put out the fire …

Now the point is this: All the experiments on enlightened management and humanistic supervision can be seen from this point of view, that in a brotherhood situation of this sort. every person is transformed into a partner rather than into an employee. He tends to think like a partner and act like a partner. He tends to take upon his own shoulders all the responsibilities of the whole enterprise. He tends voluntarily and automatically to assume responsibility for any of the various functions of an enterprise which an emergency might call for.

Partnership is the same as synergy, which is the same as recognizing that the interests of the other and one’s own interests merge and pool and unite instead of remaining separate or opposed or mutually exclusive."

~ Abraham Maslow, Maslow on Management, 1998, pp. 86-87