Psychological containment of organisational toxicity and its spillovers

Abstract

Organisational toxicity can thwart creation and sharing of knowledge necessary for collaborations. Psychological phenomena lurking in covert processes affect dynamics of containment and spillovers of organisational toxicity. This study discusses insights from four longitudinal action research studies in organisations across a spectra of technologies and technology intensities to examine containment and spillovers of organisational toxicity. This article concludes that strategic juxtaposition of ends, ways, and means requires sociotechnical structures to provide reliability; techno-economic systems for coping with anxieties around uncertainties of value-adding functions; and, socioeconomic processes for credibility and aesthetics to promote harmony. Together, under certain conditions, this trine of structures, systems, and processes may facilitate mitigation of toxicity with more understanding of the toxicity bred in systems from introjections, projections, transferences, and countertransferences. Sustaining a shared core to cultivate inner awareness and wisdom for the common good requires hermeneutic endeavours to work with unconsciously held phenomenal primary tasks. This article raises new research questions for understanding the scope and limits of these conditions in old and new combinations of scale, growth, and dominance.