This has been an interesting and difficult discussion. One thing I note
is the tendency to frame trustworthiness as an individual quality, e.g., I
am either trustworthy or I am not. Wondered, then, about how
*expectations* and perspective figure into this. I can give a person a
task and ask them to complete it as soon as possible. Yet if 2 weeks go
by and the task is not yet completed, I begin to believe this person is
untrustworthy in this work. Is that the case, or was something skewed with
my expectations? or communication? or how clearly I stated my needs?
Similar questions with honesty. Seems like there could be danger in
viewing honesty from a dualistic perspective, black or white.
Rol, you stated
> Posner has said the two words 'honest' and 'trustworthy' are synonyms.
> They use them that way in their most recent book as well. That is how I
> intended them to be used as well. In the original notion of honesty there
> is a requirement of honorable.
I like the idea of honorableness, but wonder if a person could be at once
honest and untrustworthy. Seems like they could be. And how about when a
person's intentions are honorable, but the outcomes lead to other's
perceptions of them as untrustworthy? I have a hard time bringing all of
this together.
--Terri A Deems tadeems@aol.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>