Bill Braun wrote:
> I'm puzzled about this. On one hand I have a hightened sensitivity to
> cultural respect. On the other, I cannot see how using a custom from
> another culture raises the dilemma. Could you develop your thoughts a bit
> more?
I have no idea what your spiritual or religious background is. Suppose
for a minute you are a devout Christian. Let's say you join a company in
another culture (pick one that is not predominantly Christian in
heritage), and this company is big on shared vision. They have a large
meeting of the entire company (some 200-300 people). As part of that
meeting, to show people's commitment to and union with the organization,
they have a "communion" in which everyone eats from a common loaf of bread
and drinks from a common cup of wine. Later, others in the organization
rave about how this novel ceremony gave them a feeling of a common bond.
You (in this hypothetical scenario) felt revulsion as they secularized and
profaned something that was very important to you, and you felt coerced
into participation, because no one else in the room shared your beliefs or
even understood the meaning and import of this act in your eyes and in
your tradition.
Whether it profaned the act or not, and whether you personally (i.e., in
reacting to this scenario) felt revulsion or not, is (IMHO) not the issue.
I think it is reasonable to expect there would be a number of people in
that situation who would feel revulsion or at least great discomfort and
exclusion. If the goal is to create an open and inclusive environment,
appropriating such religious symbolism for corporate purposes seems very
dangerous.
"But there aren't any Native Americans in my session," some might say. I
don't think that helps. Using a talking stick in sessions with no (are
you sure?) Native Americans present seems analogous to telling an ethnic
joke when no (again, are you sure?) people of that ethnicity are present.
Even if you make no one present feel uncomfortable, you reinforce the
notion that this is acceptable behavior and increase the probability that
someone who will have cause to be offended will end up in this situation
in the future.
Just my $0.02.
Bill
-- Bill Harris Year 2000 Program Office mailto: bill_harris@hp.com Hewlett-Packard Company phone: (425) 335-2200 M/S 330C fax: (425) 335-2483 8600 Soper Hill Road web: http://hpweb.lsid.hp.com:8080/~billh/ Everett, WA 98205-1298 cupertino: (408) 447-0452 (no voicemail)Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>