About this course
New awareness is growing about the importance of meaning, spirituality and ethics in organizations. After a period of strengthening rationalization, through business rules and quality protocols, leadership is challenged to bring in a humane perspective. Is it possible to combine both movements, that of rationalization and that of humanization?
About that topic prof. dr. Gert Jan van der Wilt (lecturer on Monday) points out: In our daily practice, we often experience dilemmas: What would be the right thing to do in this situation? One way to deal with such situations is to make explicit the values that are in conflict and to search for alternative specification of these values. This method of moral argumentation -specifying norms- will be illustrated using several examples; participants will be given the opportunity to apply the method on cases of their own choosing.
Spiritual caregivers often see themselves as advocate of this humane perspective in care and education; but also physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses and teachers deal with this issue. It stimulates reflection on identity: the identity of the individual professional worker, of the multidisciplinary cooperation and of the organization in general. About that topic prof. dr. Baziel van Engelen will share his thoughts on identity in the practice of care, research, education and organization from the perspective of human dignity. Prof. Dr. Toine van den Hoogen will speak about healthcare and spirituality: between “bricolage” and Presence. In times of so-called ‘late modernity’ - our time! - we have to face manifold kinds of rationality. On the one hand, our daily profession in health-care often requires a hard and strict rationality, procedures that are a main part of our work, attitudes that are focused on the ongoing necessity to public accountability. In our private life, we have to deal with a complex offer of perspectives, roads, communities, communications about what makes sense in life, about what promises a ‘good life’, a sustainable core of our existence. In times of ‘late modernity’, we have to cope with the reality of manifold rationalities and we try to do so by practices of so-called “bricolage”. The weight of modernity in our days is - at least partly - caused by the fact that we have no longer ‘maps’ available that support our orientation in the ‘grey’ domain where our professional and private lives have borders. It has become almost impossible according to many of our colleagues and friends, to evoke a Presence that supports our life, that reveals a frame work within which we are embedded, a Presence that we draw comfort from, a Presence that calls us and is a target of our vocation, a Presence we can relate to in bad and in good times. In this class, we will reflect on possible experiences, words and rites, erasing in and from our work within healthcare, that are signs of this Presence.
Concluding, what is leadership? What kind of leadership do we need in our time, especially for this identity reflection? About that prof. dr. Chris Hermans, (lecturer on Friday) will share with us the following ideas. Management is everything which you can control: time, finance, protocols, output. Leadership in the care of patients and education of students is an activity of humans, with humans, and for humans.
Life is more than survival, The aim of a good life with and for others in a just and sustainable society is happiness (Paul Ricoeur). But what is happiness for me? And for others who are known to me? And for unknown others? How does one discern what is of ultimate value? The ethicist Harry Frankfurt suggest that we can understand happiness in line with the importance of what we care about and love. If living is an art, than leadership in care and education is also an art.. Ofcourse, sometimes is leadership managing things and sometimes also survival But this is not the hart of leadership and not the purpose of leadership. Leadership aims at the future happiness of people which we cannot control. But not everything is desirable terms of the quality of life with and for others. It is the art of living, which forms the compass to lead towards this future. And sometimes, this art of living is an anchor not to subire in the contingency of organisations and human life.
Out of all these contributions we hope participants can develop their own leadership in their life, in the multidisciplinary care for clients and the education of students or other professional contexts. 
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