In an era where policy and business operations are increasingly driven by data, protocols, and performance logic, the human dimension is steadily receding into the background. Efficiency thinking is widely praised as the key to growth and progress, but it has a downside that often remains underexposed: the structural anonymization of society.
This article explores how the drive for process optimization leads to a loss of human encounter and moral responsibility, and how this can be philosophically interpreted through the work of Hannah Arendt, Hartmut Rosa, and Byung-Chul Han. It also presents an alternative approach—one that invites and empowers employees to take leadership and responsibility for (sub)processes.
Efficiency thinking is aimed at optimizing processes so that minimal input yields maximum output. Fast, large-scale, and cheap is the mantra. In this logic, people are not primarily seen as unique beings with stories and values, but as links in a larger system. That system functions best when every link meets predefined standards, leading to standardization, automation, and upscaling.
While this model often results in short-term cost savings and increased output, it fundamentally alters how we view and interact with people. Where human presence once formed the heart of care, service, and governance, it has now been replaced by dashboards, risk profiles, and automated processes.
A striking example is the Dutch childcare benefits scandal (toeslagenaffaire). Thousands of parents were wrongly labeled as fraudsters by algorithmic systems. There was no room for personal assessment or the human touch; civil servants acted according to system logic, with no moral leeway. The individual was reduced to a risk profile.
We see the same pattern in the corporate world. Call center workers and frontline staff operate based on scripts and KPIs. Customers are categorized and treated according to protocols aimed at speed and cost reduction. The relationship is reduced to a transaction; reciprocity disappears.
In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt warned against the dangers of thoughtlessness in bureaucratic systems. She argued that evil does not always stem from malevolent intent, but often from blindly following rules without moral reflection. In the childcare benefits scandal, policies were carried out by people who were “just doing their job.” Moral responsibility dissolved under systemic pressure.
Hartmut Rosa argues that the modern human suffers under an ever-accelerating society. This acceleration leads to alienation and a loss of resonance—the deep, reciprocal connection between human and world. In organizations focused on targets and speed, meaningful encounters vanish. What remains is functional interaction without depth.
Byung-Chul Han describes how the neoliberal pursuit of transparency and control leads to a society in which everything must be visible, measurable, and comparable. People are reduced to data and performance. The unique, the vulnerable, and the relational disappear from view. In both organizations and policy, the human becomes a resource rather than a person.
The Ethics of Encounter
These three thinkers each show how efficiency thinking leads to anonymization: Arendt through the thoughtlessness of system followers, Rosa through the loss of resonance, and Han through the datafication of existence. What’s missing is the genuine encounter with the other as other.
As a society, we face an ethical choice: do we continue optimizing at the cost of connection? Or do we dare to design systems that make space for humanity, reflection, and relational responsibility?
Without wishing to throw process optimization and the pursuit of efficiency overboard, I invite the reader to structurally create space—within organizations and public policy—for that which cannot be optimized: the unique human being, in all their vulnerability, story, and dignity.
Programs and projects such as “purpose orientation,” “purpose-driven leadership,” “purpose-based decision-making,” developing a “values-based culture,” and building “ethical competence” already point in this direction. There is growing awareness that something has been lost in this one-sided development.
An Alternative Approach
In my view, such initiatives should be supported by a methodological system that enables employees to take leadership and responsibility for their (sub)processes.
This approach builds on the organization’s vision and mission and translates them into a values-competence matrix, tailored to the specific task area of a given group of employees:
- What results do the customer/organization require?
- What responsibilities and authorities do employees take on?
- What competencies are present / need to be developed?
- How is it monitored whether results and goals are achieved?
Where needed, this approach is supported with training and coaching.
Reintroducing the Human Encounter: Benefits
This approach moves away from the attempt to capture every process in rigid protocols. By acknowledging the uniqueness of the employee, situation, (internal) customer, and customer request, both the situation and the relationship are redefined.
The employee is engaged in terms of ability and willingness. Listening to the customer and their request takes center stage. By relating those requests to the organization’s vision, mission, and values, employees are challenged to formulate a fitting response to the current situation. The values-competence matrix provides guidance in finding the most appropriate answer.
Both customer and employee step out of anonymity and feel recognized and heard. The organization develops a system that, while maintaining efficiency, recognizes both the employee and the customer as unique individuals with their own possibilities and desires. Even in cases where no immediate satisfying solution can be found, the encounter itself makes the difference.
Henning Zorn
July 2025
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