Thanks to Larry Pate for his thoughtful message:
>However, the broader issue, as I see it, is not whether extreme freedom for
>children or employees or anyone else can be achieved or even whether or not
>it works. Clearly, it can and does work; but it also fails. The issue
>runs deeper than merely pointing to the merits of free choice or suggesting
>that a "boundaryless" approach to freedom is inherently best, a position
>increasingly difficult to defend when everything else in life is not nearly
>so absolute.
>
>The broader issue is about the role of structure vs. freedom in a society
>and in human interaction and the assumptions that are made about the
>relative merits of each for a given set of tasks, as embedded in the
>Tannenbaum & Schmidt leadership model of 40 years ago. ....
The book, "Lila," by Persig contains some thoughts on dynamic quality and
static quality, and the necessary tension between them. They are both
necessary, of course. This seems like a helpful construct relative to this
discussion.
A dance director once explained to me how tight choreography presented the
necessary structure for the dancers to have really meaningful freedom to
create, since they didn't have to waste effort on creating the underlying
structure. Of course, the quality and appropriateness of that structure is
very critical.
Don Austin, Ph.D.
_____________________________________
Department of Organizational Behavior
Case Western Reserve University
mail: 2122 Stillman Rd.
Cleveland Hts., OH 44118
phone: (216) 932-8421
_____________________________________
Creating Appreciative Dialogue.
Researching how small groups
create valued organization.