Midwifery and dialogue in organizations

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This book explores a dialogic organizational development process conducted with managers and employees in the Research & Development Department of Bang & Olufsen, Denmark. The action research project was unique in that it did not begin with pre-existing concepts; instead, these concepts were developed throughout the process. Key ideas emerged regarding dialogue as sharing, daring, and caring, alongside dialogic competencies such as confirmation and meta-communication, and the notion of generatively facilitated conversations as midwifery. The methodology is marked by emergent mutual involvement. The text serves as a dialogue between theory and practice, integrating research, action, training, and various theories of interpersonal and organizational communication, including Roger's humanistic psychology, Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, and Buber's philosophy of dialogue. Empirical material includes around 50 colleague supervision or midwifery conversations and group feedback sessions, as well as 24 staff appraisal interviews monitored in an adjoining room, followed by feedback sessions. The book features transcripts and analyses of these live conversations, aiming to engage graduate students, colleagues in similar research and training, and reflective practitioners such as organizational consultants, coaches, trainers, mediators, and facilitators.