Abstract
There is a practical five-step method of ethics dialog developed by John Woolman, an 18th c. businessman and ethical activist, that was used by Robert K. Greenleaf, a 20th c. A.T.&T. Corporate Vice-President, that includes: (a) friendly, emotive affect; (b) discussion of mutual commonalities; (c) discussion of issue entanglements; (d) discussion of potential experimental solutions; and, (e) trial and feedback discussion. This method of dialog appears to proceed with a type of consciousness considered by John Woolman and Bernard Lonergan as one where the “I” is conscious that “I” and “Others” are part of a more foundational, larger and prior “We.” This type of dialog is different than Socratic dialog. The corresponding type of consciousness is different than the more derivative, e.g., two allies being united in their response to a common goal. It is also different than Buber's “I and Thou” appreciative consciounsess of the interestingness, value, diversity, and uniqueness of others. Woolman dialog as seen in four cases appears to be a concrete method that has some value both as an end in itself and as instrumental means that can: be issue effective, help build ethical organization/community culture, and help facilitate peaceful, evolutionary change and development. Limitations of the method are also considered. The method may also be a several hundred year anticipation of experiment based pragmatist philosophy that is anthropologically sensitive to cultural entanglements.
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe, ... Each is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine....
John Donne (17th c.)
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Richard P. Nielsen is a professor in the Department of Organizational Studies, School of Management, Boston College. Related articles of his include: ‘Dialogic Leadership As Organizational Ethics Action (Praxis) Method’, Journal of Business Ethics(October 1990); ‘Negotiating As An Ethics Action (Praxis) Strategy’, Journal of Business Ethics(May 1989); ‘Changing Unethical Organizational Behavior’, Academy of Management Executive(May 1989); ‘Arendt's Action Philosophy and the Manager as Eichmann, Richard III, Faust, or Institution Citizen’, California Management Review(Spring 1984); and ‘Cooperative Strategy’, Strategic Management Journal(September–October 1988).
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Nielsen, R.P. ‘I am we’ consciousness and dialog as organizational ethics method. J Bus Ethics 10, 649–663 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705872
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705872