What is Authenticity? It’s a People Thing
Maybe it would be better to look at authenticity as a human phenomenon, as Martin Heidegger and some other twentieth century philosophers associated with existentialism did. This is useful to us in exploring the authentic organization because organizations, after all, are made up of people. not Van Goghs. As with so many things, Shakespeare, in the off-quoted line, probably put it best: “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to anyone.”
As you might surmise by the fact that I’ve transitioned from Socratic questions in the case of the Van Gogh to quoting the Bard, I’m about to give up for the time being on the definition of authenticity by resorting to passion and poetry. You see, there may not be an objective definition, since what is a person’s “own self” can ultimately be known for certain only by them, and often not even then.
I nevertheless think this is enough to go on. This definition is useful, even if its unprovable. It is evocative and opens up many other approaches to the subject, in addition to the core element of genuineness, such as integrity, transparency, honesty, and (one that gets to the heart of civil society) trustworthiness. We can take these qualities and ask if an organization expresses them and supports its agents in expressing them.
It’s a start.
Posted: November 2nd, 2006 under The Text.
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Comment from Dane Keehn
Time: November 3, 2006, 9:58 am
I run a conflict resolution program for the City of Seattle. Mainly, we try to get employees of the City who are having trouble with other employees, to talk authentically to each other. Not an easy thing to do. Among other things, being authentic, and having an authentic dialogue with someone you are in conflict with, means being vulnerable. In the best of situations, most individuals shy away from that. Embed that individual deep within a bureaucracy and that shyness usually petrifies into a powerful resistance.
Yet many individuals at all levels of this organization recognize that not being authentic is death-like. It’s death-like to the individual and death-like to the organization. Many accept this as a given fact of bureaucracy and do their best to ignore the putrid smell. Many more can’t ignore it and so bring air freshener to work and wear a lot of perfume and/or deodorant. But many recognize there is no other way out, other than through this door of authenticity.
I like the start you have made and my eyeball will be there on the other side of the screen. Good luck.
Pingback from The Authentic Organization » Case Study: Conflict, Vulnerability, Bureaucracy
Time: November 5, 2006, 7:09 pm
[...] In a very clear illustration of the connection between personal authenticity and organizational dynamics, Dane Keehn writes: I run a conflict resolution program for the City of Seattle. Mainly, we try to get employees of the City who are having trouble with other employees, to talk authentically to each other. Not an easy thing to do. Among other things, being authentic, and having an authentic dialogue with someone you are in conflict with, means being vulnerable. In the best of situations, most individuals shy away from that. Embed that individual deep within a bureaucracy and that shyness usually petrifies into a powerful resistance. [...]
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