Replying to LO27606 --
Laura and Friends,
You wrote, concerning my comments about ethics, that,
>
> I have the impression that your question touches on something important
> for our thesis, but everytime I try to think about it I get lost in the
> translation. Could you please state it in other words?
I'll try. Culture from one geography to another generates veils over the
heart (and mind). These veils protect the owner from unwanted "intrusions"
into intimate spaces of personal cause and effect, spaces of essence,
shall I say. In one culture, we can literally get into another's face when
speaking, while in an other, such closeness screams danger--two extremes.
Language is more than a corollary here. What we say, and especially how we
say it, varies dramatically. This human communication involves innuendo,
finesse, "dozens of 'words' meaning snow."
Against these veils or backdrops there develop methods of doing business
i.e. I supply you with something you want, when you want it, at a price
you are willing to pay me. I want to make out well in the transaction, as
do you. At best (and I mean at best), I want you to walk from this
transaction feeling good and trusting me in the abstract, so that I feel I
have served you, and so that you would (this is the abstract part of it)
conceivably return to me because of a deep-rooting and abiding trust in
what your senses have told you about me and my motives.
Language complicates. Gestures confuse. Along within the transaction
process flow sub-signals generated by misunderstandings of many flavors.
Whenever you, Laura, or I face the unknown, there comes into play
possibilities of anxiety, mistrust, fear, all typical, natural, driven
perhaps by instinctual residues. We construct ethics, I believe, to
surface some of these issues and to alleviate tension in conducting
business. This nobility of purpose does serve us, but far from closes the
matter. Just look around. Ethics may appear to some to lie in tatters
everywhere--it's a dog-eat-dog world, so play hard, hire your legal gurus,
and dig in.
I'm not expert, so I don't choose my words all that carefully, but I do
hope you get the drift of my thinking from these words.
Best of luck to you all,
Barry
-- Barry Mallis The Organizational Trainer 110 Arch St., #27 Keene, NH 03431-2167 USA voice: 603 352-5289 FAX: 603 357-2157 cell: 603 355-0635 email: theorgtrainer@earthlink.netLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
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