| Leading dialogically is an ontological predisposition to living one's values, and believing in the primacy of relationship, in providing leadership for human and organizational prosperity. The location of this research is a place traditionally inhospitable to a relational practice, corporate America. The study involves working closely with two senior leaders in one of America's top ten financial organizations, each working in separate divisions. This research is about dialogue and through dialogue, specifically about "dialogic leadership" and through a "dialogic methodology." In keeping with a dialogic philosophy, the definition, the capacities, the practices, and the methodology, are all emergent.;The major theoretical influences that guided and challenged this work were the dialogical philosophy of Martin Buber and the relational theory of the Stone Center, a feminist research institution. The work of Bohm, Friere, Cooperrider, Lipman-Blumen, Richards, Wilber, and the theories of quantum physics, second-order cybernetics, and Eastern philosophy were also significant influences. What was common to all of them was their interest in possibility and potential within a relational framework. |
