PREFACE:
My discussion of values and beliefs in this first article all stem from the work I have done over the past several years in the field of Axiology. Axiology is the study of values and the modern father of Axiology is Dr. Robert S. Hartman. Dr. Hartman immigrated to the US in 1941. He had been a professor at the University of Berlin but left that post in 1932 and moved to England in order to escape the Nazi persecution of people of the Jewish faith.
Dr. Hartman’s life is an amazing story and would encourage everyone to do a little background research into his life. He made a big enough impact on the world that he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. But the real focus of this book is leadership and Dr. Hartman’s contribution to my understanding of leadership theory stems from his work in the field of Axiology. That work was a product of his quest for understanding how an otherwise decent and honorable people like the Germans could do what they did during the Holocaust.
What Dr. Hartman discovered though his research is that we can examine the underlying core values and beliefs of every person through a simple set of questions and the application of a fundamental mathematical calculus. As a result of his work one of his graduate students from the University of Tennessee picked up the torch and carried the work forward.
Wayne Carpenter was a student of Dr. Hartman at the University of Tennessee. Once graduated from UT and pursuing his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, he was drafted by the army and assigned the commission to design a decision simulator for commanders flying in Vietnam-based helicopters. In order to do this, he had to research all decision theories and models from Aristotle to the present. (Fortunately he could read German and French). What he discovered there was that the Value Science Theory being developed by his former Kant professor at UT was at the basis of all the decision theories. He realized then that Dr. Hartman had indeed formulated a universal theory. Wayne was excited by this realization. He decided then and there that once he was out of the army, he would devote his life to working with Hartman.
Unfortunately, Hartman died unexpectedly a year before Wayne was discharged. But Wayne did not lose his resolve, even though he had to spend following few years building a financial foundation for his family. Soon, he had given up his conventional work and had devoted himself totally to extending Hartman’s work.
Wayne relied on many of Hartman’s unfinished papers and clinical notes. Wayne took these and carefully sifted all of the possible programmable relationships from the notes. He reports that he had all four walls completely covered with equations. From this he identified the relationships that had not been made and proceeded to complete the logic and build a system of assessment such as the world has not seen.
Wayne Carpenter is one of those rare geniuses who becomes one with his life’s passion. The extension of Hartman’s work has been that passion.
Wayne Carpenter is one who has spent his entire career, spanning over 30 years, devoted to developing a coherent, computerized measurement system of this work. In fact, many who now boast of being able to measure by means of the Hartman Value Profile or its derivatives owe their ability to do so, however halting it is, to Wayne’s trailblazing work. It must be said, however, that none have been able to achieve the depth and completeness of Wayne’s system, a not surprising fact, given the 20+ year head start Wayne has had. (http://www.axiametrics.com/about/professor-wayne-carpenter/)
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