Chapter 5: Dignity, Personhood, and Inclusive Decision-Making

This chapter explores the relationship between personhood and human dignity in the leader-follower relationship. At times, organizational leadership is understood and practiced almost exclusively with instrumental outcomes in mind: profitability, productivity, efficiency. But what about human outcomes such as employee well-being and the opportunity for meaning making in the workplace? Would it be possible to practice a form of organizational leadership that contributes to both instrumental and human outcomes? In this chapter, we will consider inclusive decision-making as a leadership behavior that not only produces better decisions, but also contributes to the sense of personhood and acknowledgment of human dignity. Our conception of human dignity and personhood is often limited by an individualistic framework of autonomy. To expand our perception of these concepts, we will also explore autonomy as a relational concept rather than as an isolated and individualistic concept.