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The Wholeness Principle and Stories of Diversity and Inclusion: A Reflexive Approach

By: Ilene Wasserman

All eyes were glued on the stage. John, a self-avowed reformed neo-Nazi sat with the director and producer of the movie that told his story, ready and available for questions. The questions and comments came one by one. “How did you make the decision to leave the movement?” “How wonderful you are to risk your life to tell your story!” The conversation that followed the movie was both inspiring and riveting. There was time for one more question.

“My entire family was murdered in the holocaust by the Nazis. When you think back to when you were beating people up and murdering them in the street, can you tell me, where was your humanity?”

Pause “First, I want to say how sorry I am for your loss. I can’t imagine the pain that you live with having lost your entire family. To answer your question, I don’t know where my humanity was – if it was even there.”

Introduction

For those who are committed to “live” the principles and philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry, this exchange might seem like a clear example of elevating the shadow in the turns of a conversation. The question posed in the second paragraph above, spoke directly to the horrifying acts that continue to be perpetuated on innocent people and contextualize those acts in a period of history when the genocide of groups of people were conducted in a methodological way. The tenor of the question departed from the preceding pattern of comments and questions, which amplified the heroic choice of the reformer. This encounter, one of two deeply textured narratives: those of a “transformed white supremist” and a child of holocaust survivors whose life work is to share photographs of victims[1] with the world and to, in the process, help families build connections where bridges have been lost, shines a light on the value and importance of embracing the wholeness principle.

[1] Photographs, which were collected from prisoners as they entered the concentration camp, were discovered by this woman during a tour of the camps over a decade ago.

Click the link to see the full text of this article.

Metaphors of Identity and Professional Practice Learning From the Scholar–Practitioner

By: Kathy Kram, Ilene Wasserman, Jeffrey Yip

Abstract

Historically, professional identity was viewed as a singular construct, and the boundary-spanning dynamics of subidentities remained unexamined. More recently, identity scholars have paved the way to consider the multiple personal and social identities that comprise an individual’s professional identity. These dynamics are exemplified by the unique challenges that scholar–practitioners regularly encounter. To deepen understanding of variations in how scholar–practitioners enact their professional identity, we interviewed young scholar–practitioners who completed their doctorates in the past 7 years, as well as seasoned scholar–practitioners with at least 20 years of experience. We elicited metaphors from the interviewees to explore the complexities of their professional identity and subidentities and the challenges that scholar–practitioners face at different stages of career development. We offer implications for the future socialization of scholar–practitioners and others in boundary-spanning roles.

The full text of the article is available at The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

Group Work and Dialogue – NCORE May 31, 2012

Ilene, Placida Gallegos and Steve Schapiro recently presented “Group Work for Racial Justice: Transforming Self, Group & Systems” at the NCORE conference in May. If you are interested in viewing the presentation or the book chapter they co-wrote on the same subject, please email jmartin@icwconsulting.com to be added to the Dropbox folder. The files are too large to embed here.

An Ecological Systems Perspective on Mentoring at Work: A Review and Future Prospects

Abstract

After nearly 30 years as a subject of inquiry, mentoring remains a mainstay in the organizational literature, as relationships are arguably more important than ever to employees’ personal and career growth. In this paper, we take an ecological perspective to situate and review topical areas of the literature with the intention of enhancing our understanding of how mentoring outcomes for prote ́ge ́s and mentors are determined not only by individual differences (e.g., personality) and dyadic factors (e.g., the quality of a relationship)—both of which represent the most frequently examined levels of analyses—but also the influences of the people from various social spheres comprising their developmental network, the larger organization of which they are a part, and macrosystem factors (e.g., technological shifts, globalization) that enable, constrain, or shape mentoring and other developmental relationships. Our review examines multi-level influences that shape mentoring outcomes, and brings into focus how the study of mentoring can be advanced by research at the network, organizational, and macrosystem levels. To help guide future research efforts, we assert that adult development and relational schema theories, Positive Organizational Scholarship, a social network perspective, signaling theory, and institutional theories can help to address emerging and unanswered questions at each ecological level.

The full text is available in this .pdf: Annals Ecological Mentoring

The Landscape of Mentoring in the 21st Century

Excerpt from Ch. 27: The Landscape of Mentoring in the 21st Century
The Handbook of Mentoring at Work: Theory, Research, and Practice
Belle Rose Ragins
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Kathy E. Kram
Boston University
Sage Publication
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The Landscape of Mentoring in the 21st Century
Kathy E. Kram Belle Rose Ragins

As the authors in this volume have consistently demonstrated, the garden of mentoring has evolved over the past 25 years, and the landscape of our discipline will be quite different in the 21st century. Through our research and practice, we have uncovered new explanations for why some relation- ships continue to grow and flourish, while others become stagnant or dysfunctional. Our vision of mentoring has expanded with the emergence of new forms and hybrids—such as peer mentoring, cross-gender mentoring, cross-cultural mentoring, mentoring circles, and e-mentoring. Our conception of mentoring has evolved from an acknowledgement of “constellations of relationships” to an emphasis on “developmental networks.” Equally important, the work in this volume highlights how environmental conditions that surround mentoring— globalization, increasingly diverse workforces, flattened hierarchies, team-based organizations, new technologies, and a persistently rapid pace of change—influence the nature and potential of mentoring at work.