Abstract
Words have meaning. Words are symbols of our thoughts, ideas, and our character—both individually or as groups. We communicate ourselves, our values, and our aspirations through words along with a specific message intended in a given communication interchange. Indeed, the specific message words convey is often only incidental to the larger, more generic, and more powerful ideas loaded into certain words. These words have come to symbolize powerful cultural ideas that succinctly define what it is to be American—a citizen and a worker. Words—especially certain words like tolerance—leave an intellectual trail that captures a worker’s cultural history and shapes his or her present and future actions. Leadership in America continues practices extending back over more than 200 years of our history. Operationally, intellectually, and emotionally who we are as workers and how we do leadership in this nation is traceable to founding values and ideals immortalized in a relatively few words. These words and the historical “loading” our heritage has instilled in them provide the foundation for our individual self-perception and the character of our leadership. They give life to the leader’s words and meaning to their actions beyond the obvious.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Amir, Y. (2000). Contact hypothesis in ethnic relations. In E. Weiner (Ed.), The handbook of interethnic coexistence. New York: The Continuing Publishing Company.
Birnbaum, M. (2010, March 18). Historians speak out against proposed Texas textbook changes. The Washington Post.
Grubbs, J. (2012). Zero tolerance means zero leadership. New York Times.
Hague, A. (2001). Attitudes of high school students and teachers towards Muslims and Islam in a southeastern Australian community. Intercultural Education, 2, 185–196.
Kriesberg, L. (2000). Coexistence and the reconciliation of communal conflicts. In E. Weiner (Ed.), The handbook of interethnic coexistence. New York: The Continuing Publishing Company.
Oaks, D. H. (2011, September 11). Balancing truth and tolerance. Salt Lake City, UT: Church Educational System. Retrieved from http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article
Oberdiek, H. (2001). Tolerance: Between forbearance and acceptance. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Peterson, S. (2003). Tolerance. In G. Burgess, H. Burgess (Eds.), Beyond intractability. Boulder: Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado. Posted: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/tolerance
Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65–85.
Porter, B. D. (2011, June). Defending the family in a troubled world, Ensign. Salt Lake City, UT: LDS Church.
Rassbach, E. (2011, August 16). In W. McGurn (Ed.), Religion and the cult of tolerance. Wall Street Journal.
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rorty, R. (1982). Consequences of pragmatism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Sachs, S. (2001, December 16). In one Muslim land, an effort to enforce lessons of tolerance. The New York Times, New York.
The American heritage dictionary of the English language. (1994). 5th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Ury, W. (1999). Getting to peace. New York: The Penguin Group.
Walsham, A. (2006). Charitable hatred: Tolerance and intolerance in England, 1500–1700. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fairholm, G.W. (2015). Tolerance. In: Overcoming Workplace Pathologies. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17154-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17154-8_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17153-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17154-8
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)