Tilburg University Relational Presence Mahaffy, S.G
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Tilburg University Relational presence Mahaffy, S.G. Publication date: 2013 Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Mahaffy, S. G. (2013). Relational presence: The spatiality of breakthrough decision making through a relational constructionist lens. [s.n.]. 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Download date: 02. okt. 2021 Relational Presence: The Spatiality of Breakthrough Decision Making through a Relational Constructionist Lens Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de Ruth First zaal van de Universiteit op maandag 13 mei 2013 om 10.15 uur door Samuel George Mahaffy geboren op 21 augustus 1952 te Asmara, Eritrea RELATIONAL PRESENCE IN DECISION MAKING 2 Promotores: prof.dr. J. Stavros Prof.dr. J.B. Rijsman Overige commissieleden: Prof.dr. M. Schiller Prof.dr. H. Wittockx Prof.dr. K. Gergen Prof.dr. S. McNamee RELATIONAL PRESENCE IN DECISION MAKING 3 Abstract This inquiry initiates a “comparative constructionist analysis” (Gergen, 1994, p. 138) of decision making through a transdisciplinary lens. It explores the relational construct we identify as breakthrough decision making, focusing on its spatiality. It investigates the design component of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) seeking a big picture, multi-lens description of the architecture (spatiality) of the situation of breakthrough decision making. It does so by mapping out individual, social, organizational, linguistic, and discursive dimensions of the space and relationships among these dimensions. In so doing, the research aims to support the potential to develop new designs for change processes that are anticipatory instead of learning through trial and error (Cooperrider, 2012). The inquiry begins with the assumption of the relational constructionist approach that breakthrough decision making is shared meaning growing from coordinated action or co-action (Gergen, 1994). It is co-created by actors finding emerging shared purpose(s). The inquiry focuses on three primary research questions: 1) What is the spatiality (design and architecture) of breakthrough decision making? 2) What are the relational constructs that shape and create breakthrough decision making? 3) How does softening “the boundaries of separation” (Gergen, 2009 p. 354) between the sacred and the secular deepen our understanding of the spatiality and relational constructs of breakthrough decision making? The inquiry uses a triangulation of data, methods, and researcher perspectives in order to create “thick textured descriptions” (McNamee & Hosking, 2012, p. 47) of the spatiality of decision making. The cartographic approach of situational analysis (Clarke, 2005) provides a methodology for drawing together ” discourse and agency, action and structure, image, text and RELATIONAL PRESENCE IN DECISION MAKING 4 context, history and the present moment” (p. xxii) to chart the complexities of the situation of breakthrough decision making. The research enhances the credibility of the findings from the mapping process through hermeneutic deepening and a linguistic analysis of the discourses of an appreciative inquiry (AI) decision making process. The hermeneutic deepening process provides the opportunity for asking how the parts of the situational maps fit into the wholes, and how the focus on the big picture elucidates understanding of component parts (Van Manen, 1990). Because breakthrough decision making is itself a universe of discourse(s) the research utilizes the linguistic tools of tagmemic analysis (Pike, 1974) to enrich and enhance visual representations and move back from the pre-verbal to the verbal. This inquiry discovers twelve essential aspects of relational presence as the core construct of the spatiality of breakthrough decision making. It challenges researchers and practitioners of decision making to move beyond subject-object dualism and efforts to simply de- center the subject. While deeply grounded in the relational constructionist approach, this inquiry finds that breakthrough decision making may involve more than simply relational coordination. The construct of relational presence, which emerges from the findings and the hermeneutic, is sharply distinguished from consensus decision making models. This inquiry invites consideration of whether the positive life giving core that AI seeks as a destination, might be not only a space that we reach from time-to-time through an AI process, but might be a dwelling place which we inhabit as our human engagements and decision making processes reach beyond active listening to relational listening, and beyond consensus to relational presence. In short, this inquiry seeks to deepen our understanding of what it means, in decision making processes, to be relational beings beyond self and community (Gergen, 2009). RELATIONAL PRESENCE IN DECISION MAKING 5 Acknowledgments I honor the great teachers from my past whose scholarship and wisdom and holding of an integral vision brought me to this inquiry. In this regard, I mention Case Boot, John Struyk, John VanderStelt from Dordt College, and Kenneth Pike and Penny Eckert from the University of Michigan. Dr. Pike and Dr. Eckert fuelled my long-standing love of language and linguistic scholarship. Those who have held high the post for spiritual wisdom in my life, include first my mother Arlena Mahaffy and my grandmother Hannah Cross. You laid the foundation for values that will be with me always. I thank Murshida Rabia Ana Perez-Chisti and Murshid Hidayat Inayat-Khan for opening the door to the great masters, teachers, and saints of the spiritual journey. All of you brought me to the place where I knew the Taos Institute and Tilburg University were the next step. I thank Ken and Mary Gergen for their warm hospitality in welcoming me into the program and into their home at that first workshop that was so kindling of my excitement at finding the relational constructionist approach. My first reading of Relational Being returned me to a quest from which I had taken a long hiatus! As I dived with excitement into the stream of relational constructionism, Sheila McNamee, Harlene Anderson, Sally St. George, and Dan Wulff gave great direction and convinced me that ‘yes’-- I had landed in the right place! And then, there is my Advisor Dr. Jackie Stavros. I thank you for your rigor and attention to detail and staying with me every step of the way even through challenging circumstances. You have been of enormous encouragement and I especially thank you for that. You have exemplified the power of appreciative living in the advisor role. I could not have asked more from an advisor. Special friends who have held for me with deep encouragement the conviction that this is work that I can and must do include Dr. Shabir Bhat and Dr. Jeanne Far. I know if she were still with us, Jeanne would be dancing a jig with me singing “I am alive, alive, alive!” I have known Dr. Alan Berkowitz as a scholar of great wisdom and inspiration. I add to that my special thanks to Kari Joys. There are so many levels and so many ways you have been a gift in my life. You are a signpost for hope and a bright and shining light. To my brother Dr. Peter Mahaffy—you have been faithful in standing by and with me. Your quiet support has been an anchor for me. I especially thank those who shared their experience and wisdom for the interviews: Harlene Anderson, Michael Collier, Lon Fendall, Kari Joys, Mary Verner and a special thank you to my dear sister from Eritrea, Mehret Mehanzel. As your name means in the Tigrinya language, you are truly a blessing. Then there are my children, now such beautiful and amazing young adults: Sylvan Mahaffy Long, Hanna Sophia Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, Kamila Ana Rinderknecht-Mahaffy. Such long names and such immeasurably large spirits, each of you! In your own way, each one of you is a living miracle. You are precious to me and have taught me so much. Thank you for encouraging me, for putting up with my jokes about phonemic open junctures, and for making being a parent the greatest calling and gift I could ever have. Finally, I acknowledge the wisdom, grace, and patience of my life-partner, my inspiration, and my friend—Dr. Durdaana Renee Rinderknecht. You are truly a precious jewel in this world. You paved the way for me with your scholarship. You stood by me through dark and trying times. In this inquiry process you gave valuable advice at key points. You encouraged me to pursue the inquiry through the linguistics lens and rekindle that interest in a new way. The hours of reflective time we have shared in deep conversations have enriched my life. I am so thankful for sharing this journey with you. I know the road ahead will be even richer! RELATIONAL PRESENCE IN DECISION MAKING 6 Dedication This work is dedicated to all the children whose relationships and lives have been disrupted and torn apart by war, regional conflicts and violence. Wherever you are, in refugee camps or elsewhere, may you find relational healing and may the world you enter as an adult be better than the one you fled as a child.