Dignity and Membership: A Route to the Heart of How Dignity Is Done in Everyday Interaction

Abstract

What is dignity? Without doubt, it is a problematic term surrounded by ambiguity and contradiction, one addressed in a wide variety of ways by different contributors within this collection. From the perspective of those interested in the conduct of empirical research, dignity presents a particular problem not dissimilar to qualities such as leadership or enterprise: it appears simple enough to identify until one tries to grasp it, when it then becomes an object of questionable validity. Unlike leadership or enterprise, dignity is something rarely discussed or represented outside situations of extreme discomfort or dehumanization. As such, although dignity has strong heuristic power in moral narrative, its existence as a tangible part of everyday interactions in organisations is not clearly defined.