On 29 Jun 96 at 7:33, Michael McMaster wrote:
> Robert raises clearly the dilemna of values as expressed from values
> in action.
>
> A similar situation applies internally and this is very important.
I agree. It is the internal issues for any individual that I am speaking
to. You are correct that social desirability is a factor, but so is, in
adults, self-perception, one's notion of oneself. More to the point one
aspect of ethical behaviour is to examine one's behaviour to obtain a
truer picture of one's values and value hierarchy in action, since our
self-perceptions (beliefs about self, including values), are somewhat
inaccurate.
> That is, the values that we really believe we hold may also be those
> that are socially acceptable in some internal representation. The
> values that we operate from may be different.
> The importance of this is that I am very careful about judging the
> authenticity of another person. An apparent conflict between
> expressed values and observed action is a signal (information) that
> suggests dialogue or more observation but is does not say which is
> "authentic".
I agree, but when I must choose (and sometimes we must make judgments
without the luxury of additional info), I look to the actions. I also try
to apply this to myself in my own self-talk.
My contention, however is that a) there are no universal values, and b) it
is often the case that following one value drives in one direction,
another value in another, and that we must sort out that conflict. I call
that a dilemna resulting from values that conflict; but I suppose one
could also call it a conflict of incompatable actions related to seperate
values. To tell you the truth, I am not sure I care what we call it, so
long as we recognize that everyday we deal with decisions (with values
attached) where we must take one path and give up the other.
Robert Bacal, CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
dbt359@freenet.mb.ca, Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
(204 888-9290.
--"Robert Bacal" <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>