Gitte Haslebo

Practicing Relational Ethics in Organizations Gitte Haslebo

In unforeseeable ways, events in organizations can lead to loss of face, violations of personal dignity, damaged relationships and poor results. Managers, employees and consultants search for ideas that might help them deal with complicated situations in morally respectful ways. By telling nine dramatic real life stories the authors illustrate how managers, employees and consultants might find inspiration in key social constructionist concepts and relational ethics. They introduce and unfold five key moral obligations in relational ethics: social responsibility, dialogic obligations, shared responsibility for positioning, inquiry of value to the work community and the obligation to interact as morally responsible agents. This book moves forward the discussion about ethics in organizations within a social constructionist perspective. Beautifully written and a delight to read, it provides an opportunity for readers to see how familiar ideas are being developed and practiced in a less familiar social, political, and institutional context, and the authors succeed in inscribing their wisdom and humanity. The book shows how we can make relational ethics support our being human in organizations.