ABSTRACT
This chapter presents various ethical positions developed by philosophers throughout history. It aims to underscore the role that values play in coaching and other fruitful professional and private everyday dialogues. Values are becoming a hot topic in the professional literature on management and leadership, coaching and other aspects of organizational and dialogue practice. The chapter describes how values can be defined and their specific impact on promoting a deeper dialogue. A similar orientation that strengthens the individual’s agency through empathy and compassion is also pursued in third-generation coaching and in protreptic or value-ethical conversations. Conscious reflection, including ethical reflection, can be unfolded in a coaching conversation and in other types of transformative and fruitful dialogues. Social-constructionists tend to view values as a co-creative and collaborative outcome that takes shape within human relationships. The chapter concludes with several approaches to value-oriented dialogues that spring from either a protreptic or a situation-specific point of departure.
