The Manager as Facilitator of Dialogue

Abstract

In this paper a new role for managers is advocated to create conditions for genuine collaborative engagement in Twenty-First Century organizations. The new role is as a facilitator of emancipatory dialogue, a discourse among parties that can lead to mutual learning, deep understanding and insight, and collaborative consciousness and action. The facilitator role is described and illustrated in the article as a means to encourage free expression and inquiry, but the article also warns about the imposition of coercive norms within the work group that might be externally imposed or even self-imposed. As managers promote an emancipatory form of dialogic engagement, conversations ensue that bring out people’s individual and collective wisdom, creativity, and dignity.

Keywords: facilitation, dialogue, deliberation, emancipation, Habermas, managerial role, post-bureaucracy, critical management studies, Bohmian dialogue

JEL Classification: D23, J52, M10, M12, M14, M53, M54