Systems Psychodynamics Research Articles

Voluntary turnover of high achievers: A systems psychodynamics analysis with CIBART

Orientation: Voluntary turnover is a costly and frequently disruptive organisational phenomenon, particularly when it involves high achievers.Research purpose: The study aimed to develop a psychodynamic exposé of voluntary turnover by applying the conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, roles and task (CIBART) model to the lived experiences of high achievers.Motivation for the study: The research primarily focusses on voluntary turnover as an individual, rational decision-making process. It recognises the contribution of unconscious systems psychodynamics to voluntary turnover. Research conducted from this perspective is necessary to gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the topic.Research approach/design and method: Seven case studies of individual voluntary turnover were conducted in a large private retail company. Data were collected using free association narrative (FANI) interviews. The analysis of the data was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology, and the interpretive frame used was the CIBART model.Main findings: Six themes were constructed to describe the conflict dynamics along each of the six CIBART dimensions. Within each theme, the conflict dynamic is exposed, revealing the subsequent anxiety and defences that accumulate leading to the decision to leave. Ultimately, the six themes synthesise to propose that voluntary turnover is a conscious manifestation, yet an unconscious defence against system-wide conflict.Practical/managerial implications: Facilitating leaders’ understanding and processing of the conflict dynamics that occur across the CIBART dimensions, and which contribute to voluntary turnover, create opportunities for both transformation and prevention.Contribution/value-add: The research offers insights into the psychodynamics of voluntary turnover, which consulting psychologists and organisational leaders can utilise to address this phenomenon within their work groups.

Racial Inequality in Organizations: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

Racial Inequality in Organizations: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

From mother earth to earth community: a perceptual shift in our relationship with the earth

This article explores a change in the symbols and metaphors used to describe nature and the earth. The central argument is that the metaphor of "mother earth" (and likewise "mother nature") is being replaced by "earth community", and that this represents not just a change in our psychological relationship to the planetary ecosystem, but a countering of powerlessness, and a claim for a collective, humane, "of the earth", voice. This change in the earth–human relationship is evidenced in current developments in philosophy, eco psychotherapy, the ecological unconscious, environmentalist theories of change, eco-activism and other social movements, our legal systems, and an increasing appreciation of indigenous ontologies. A key aspect of this change in our relationship with the earth is the concept and practice of regeneration. The author argues that regeneration of our minds, emotions, and consciousness is something that systems psychodynamics has been undertaking for many decades.

Discussion of Bakó, T. & Zana, K. “The Reality of Trauma; the Trauma of Reality”

ABSTRACT This discussion of Bakó & Zana’s paper, “The Reality of Trauma; the Trauma of Reality,” will be organized in several parts: the first will summarize their promising ideas, integrating large systems with psychoanalysis; the second, will roughly outline some shortcomings; the third, will highlight some salient differences between the Hungarian and American socio-political contexts and provide a discussion of the author’s evolution toward a socio-centric psychoanalysis. This conception of a socio-centric psychoanalysis, in addition to addressing the impact of the social unconscious on the traditional consulting room, seeks to move psychoanalysis outward – outward to group interventions and socio-political deliberation – culminating in two experimental practices: the “psycho-social citizenship dream group” and whole systems change relying on social dreaming and systems psychodynamics applied to “deliberative democracy.”

Implicit organisational trauma and a dis-membered congregation: a psychoanalytic exploration

This article will explore the phenomenon of implicit organisational trauma through a case study example of a religious congregation that was closed following cumulative experiences of enduring collective trauma over the course of several decades. These included the traumatic death of a beloved member, repeated violations of relational trust, and betrayal by congregational leaders, as well as intergenerational child sexual abuse perpetrated by various clergy members. Psychoanalytic and systems psychodynamics views of traumatogenic processes within an organisational level of experience will be explored and applied. Particular attention will be given to discussing the phenomenon of splitting and affective dissociation within the psychological, relational, and organisational experiences of a traumatised congregation. In addition, the process of organisational healing will be explored through the perspective of reintegrating implicit emotional memories of trauma within the collective consciousness of its members, through which the community's sense of agency was rediscovered. In the case study reviewed throughout this article, we highlight the organisational decision that promoted healing from the history of shared trauma, which was the community's collective choice to close their congregation.

Unconscious system-psychodynamics within a German 4IR engineering company in South Africa.

This article focuses on systems psychodynamics and particularly on the CIBART-model which explores conflict, identity, boundary, authority, role and task and how these phenomena work out on an unconscious level. Therefore, this article presents empirical findings on CIBART in a German multinational engineering organization operating in South Africa. For this study, 16 managers where interviewed on their transformation toward Industry 4.0 with special interest in the interconnection how CIBART aspects play out in the South African context. Findings show that all of the CIBART-phenomena are important during the transformation to more advanced technological levels and restructuring processes. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are given how to deal with systems-psychodynamic influences within the organization.

Reconstructing Meaning After Organisational Loss — a Longitudinal Case Study of a Congregational Closure

This article explores the phenomenological experience of organisational loss among several members from a Protestant liturgical church in the North American West, which extended over a period of ten years following the closure of their congregation. A semi-structured longitudinal interview process was utilised, while applying a descriptive phenomenological analysis of members’ experiences. Considerations of psychodynamic theory were applied to provide a more in-depth contextual understanding of the members’ experiences of organisational loss and adaptive grief. A qualitative review of the data revealed the critical function of shared mourning to support adaptive grief recovery, as well as the importance of a spiritually oriented narrative to assist with reconstructing a sense of meaning. This paper reveals relevant insight into the individual and collective experiences of grief over a period of several years, which are associated with the phenomenon of organisational loss in the context of a religious congregational closure. Psychodynamic functions of identification and idealisation regarding members’ relationships with the organisation are explored within the context of collective grief, in addition to the use of adaptive narration throughout the process of reconstructing meaning. Further considerations of applying a systems psychodynamics approach within situations involving organisational loss are also discussed.

The work is alive! Systems psychodynamics and the pursuit of pluralism without polarization in human relations

This article celebrates the vitality of the systems psychodynamic approach and its potential to humanize organization studies, management practice, and working lives. An approach is a deliberate movement: a way to move closer to, inquire about, and deal with something. The systems psychodynamic approach involves moving closer to organizations and workers through research and educational efforts to study and manage the unconscious dynamics of organizing. It aims to reveal the fears, needs, and wishes that underpin rigid structures and dysfunctions in groups, organizations, and institutions—and to foster more adaptive and functional ways of dealing with those impulses. Advocates refer to this approach as ‘the work’. This article tells the story of the work as we understand it. We tell it as a life, to highlight the work’s intent and evolution, its struggles and contributions, but mostly to make the point that the work is alive. It is alive as an academic enterprise and it is a way of life. An approach devoted to dismantling defenses, countering authoritarianism, and nurturing development and democracy, we argue, is more relevant than ever. And so is what we see as the purpose of the work: fostering pluralism without polarization in human relations.

Anxiety and excitement in the fourth industrial revolution: A systems- psychodynamic perspective

Orientation: The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) creates numerous organisational changes. New technologies and their influences are studied; however, hardly any research focuses on studying the unconscious systems psychodynamics (SPs). Research purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore and understand feelings in an organisational 4IR context from a SP perspective. Motivation for the study: Scholars have recently issued calls to shift attention from describing the 4IR processes in terms of rapid structural, technological and disruptive changes towards the understanding of subjective ‘lived-through’ feelings and experiences and in situ responses to 4IR events. Based on this shift, the authors aim at exploring the ‘lived-through’ experiences in this study from a SP viewpoint. Research approach/design and method: This article presents findings from a qualitative study conducted in a technology organisation, analysing 16 interviews with managers in middle and top management positions. Main findings: The findings show SP playing out in terms of splitting, projection, projective identification and idealisation. Findings with regard to the five fundamental systemic behavioural conventions (dependency, flight/fight, pairing, me-ness, one-ness or we-ness) are also presented. Practical/managerial implications: Managers experience anxiety and excitement as strongly influential in the 4IR transformational processes and as playing an important role in SP processes. Contributions/value-add: Organisations and employees need to be made aware of the new trends in the 4IR and the underlying unconscious processes within the organisation. Employees could undergo training to improve their understanding of intra- and inter-psychological and organisational processes and the impact on organisational change and transformation within the 4IR contexts.

Corporate acceleration process: a systems psychodynamics perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the emotional dynamics of the corporate acceleration process, using the systems psychodynamics perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies inductive multiple case study of embedded 10 cases of corporate acceleration, covering both incumbent and startup perspectives, occurring in the context of a corporate accelerator.FindingsWe find that (1) the process of corporate acceleration involves three phases, each of them is dominated by a different emotional state (hope, anxiety and acceptance), triggering different behavioral responses; (2) as a means to deal with negative emotions, entrepreneurs and corporate acceleration program's team members develop different mechanisms of dealing with contradictories in subsequent acceleration phases (defense and copying mechanisms), which are reflected in their behaviors. Coping mechanisms with goal reformulation (i.e. refocus from the officially declared “open innovation” goals toward mainly symbolic ones) is an effective strategy to manage negative emotions in third phase of the acceleration.Research limitations/implicationsOur sample is limited to two relatively similar accelerators established by telecom companies, and therefore, our theoretical and practical conclusions cannot be generalized.Practical implicationsWe supplement the studies of corporate accelerators that imply how to design them better and improve decision-making rules with recommendation that in order to improve their effectiveness in terms of learning and innovations, their managers need not only to learn how to manage structural and procedural differences but also how to overcome social defenses triggered by corporate–startups cooperation.Originality/valueBy documenting a multidimensional impact of acceleration process, and especially shedding light on psychodynamic aspects behind such liaisons, this paper contributes to richer understanding of corporate–startup relationships, typically examined through a rationalistic lens of strategy literature. The study contributes to interorganizational research and open innovation literature, by showing that corporate acceleration process is marked by phases based on the type of emotions intertwined with the nature and dynamism of its life cycle. It indicates how these emotions are managed depending on their type.

Coping Dynamics of Consulting Psychology Doctoral Students Transitioning a Professional Role Identity: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

To remain relevant and valuable, the psychology profession in South Africa continues to transform and evolve in response to the changing needs of society. Some psychologists embark on development opportunities to advance their professional qualifications and skills. In doing so, they experience identity tensions inherent to professional identity development and transformation. Understanding how psychologists cope with professional identity transition will enable them to develop a self-efficacious service offering and broaden the reach of psychology in the South African context. The aim of this study was to explore the identity work of a group of eight consulting psychology doctoral students to develop a system psychodynamic understanding of their coping dynamics while transitioning to a professional role identity. Students’ self-reflective essays about becoming a consulting psychologist constituted the data protocols for the study and were analysed through hermeneutic phenomenological analysis. Findings describe how students cope with performance and survival anxieties through anti-task behaviour and immature as well as sophisticated psychodynamic defences. The study contributes to the exploration of the coping concept and its manifestation, by proposing defensive coping as a natural dynamic phenomenon in the process of adapting to a transforming professional identity.

Developing collaborative interorganizational relationships: an action research approach

Purpose This paper aims to address the group dynamics that evolve when representatives from various organizations come together to develop and work on a joint goal. Its aim is to share the author’s learnings when it concerns the understanding of the group dynamics of interorganizational relationships and the development of collaboration between these organizations. Design/methodology/approach The perspective taken draws on social and organizational psychology, systems psychodynamics and organization development. Findings The paper concludes with reflections on generic learnings about collaboration, its dynamics and its development. Originality/value Various action research projects are presented that have been conducted in different sectors.

The Return of the Oppressed: A Systems Psychodynamic Approach to Organization Studies

This article reviews the history, foundations, development, and position of systems psychodynamic scholarship in organization studies. Systems psychodynamic scholarship focuses on the interaction between collective structures, norms, and practices in social systems and the cognitions, motivations, and emotions of members of those systems. It is most useful to investigate the unconscious forces that underpin the persistence of dysfunctional organizational features and the appeal of irrational leaders. It is also well equipped to challenge arrangements that stifle individual and organizational development. The article documents the tension, in this body of work, between an “outside-in” perspective, focused on institutions’ influence on individuals, and an “inside-out” perspective, focused on leaders’ influence on institutions. It also interrogates the marginalization of systems psychodynamic scholarship, positing that its marginality is both a social defense for organization studies as a whole and a generative feature of the systems psychodynamics approach. Granting it a position of functional, rather than oppressed, marginality, the article concludes, will enrich research about the experience, management, and organization of contemporary work.

F**k Science!? An Invitation to Humanize Organization Theory

For over half a century, systems psychodynamic scholars have been ‘sexting’ organization science, in short quips and long form, with mixed reception. This article chronicles their ambivalent relationship and argues that making it closer and more overt would benefit organization theory and organizations. It begins by tracing the history of using science as a cover for an instrumental ideology in organizations and their study. It is a history, the article contends, that is repeating itself with the advance of algorithmic capitalism. The article makes the case for a systems psychodynamic stance as a form of progress and protest, a way to embrace science’s methodical pursuit of truth while countering its dehumanizing potential. Taking this stance, it argues, might lead to more humane organization studies. That is, to more meaningful accounts of, and more useful theories about, the issues facing organizations, organizing, and the organized today. Finally, the article elaborates how systems psychodynamics can help humanize three areas of scholarship – those on identities, leadership, and institutions – and concludes with a call for celebrating, rather than tolerating, subjectivity in organization theory.

The experienced impact of systems psychodynamic leadership coaching amongst professionals in a financial services organisation

Background: Systems psychodynamic leadership coaching is a depth psychology perspective that provides opportunities for coachees to explore their leadership identity as it manifests in their conscious and unconscious role behaviour.Aim: The research aim was to explore the experienced impact of systems psychodynamic leadership coaching amongst professionals in a financial services organisation, and to report on how this impact can be understood in the context of the literature guidelines on coaching and leadership effectiveness.Setting: The research was undertaken in a large South African financial services organisation where individual leadership coaching forms part of the leadership development programme (LDP).Methods: The research was qualitative, explorative and descriptive in nature. A multi-case approach was used. Sampling was convenient and opportunistic and comprised of 15 charted accountants who attended six 90-min coaching sessions over 12 weeks. Data gathering comprised field notes and coachee essays during and after coaching. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used as the interpretive stance.Results: Anxiety, task, role, boundaries, authorisation and identity manifested as themes. Coachees explored how their leadership identity was informed by their anxiety and defence mechanisms, how they took up their leadership role, authorised themselves and their colleagues, and managed their boundaries effectively. Compared to the general guidelines for leadership coaching effectiveness and the general indicators for effective leadership, systems psychodynamic leadership coaching seems to add value to leadership effectiveness.Conclusion: Professionals in this financial services organisation experienced systems psychodynamic leadership coaching as demanding, challenging and yet fulfilling towards the exploration of their leadership identity. It seems that systems psychodynamics, as coaching stance, created a safe and good-enough container for these financial professionals to explore their own unconscious leadership behaviour and to gain a significant level of understanding and awareness of their own anxiety and defensive behaviours in their interaction with followers.

Women Leaders as Containers: Systems Psychodynamic Insights into their Unconscious Roles

The purpose of this article is to explore the self-defined roles of women leaders working in higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. The aim is to explore women leadership roles in the context of systems psychodynamics to increase the understanding of unconscious dynamics in HEIs from the perspective of women leaders. The article reports on a qualitative study based on the research paradigm of Dilthey's modern hermeneutics. Interviews were conducted with 23 women leaders from the HERS-SA (Higher Education Research Services) network across eight institutions. Observations were made in one organization to support the data analysis and interpretation. Data was analysed through content analysis. Women leaders are containers of anxieties in South African HEIs, while they also act out defense mechanisms, such as splitting, projection, projective identification, introjection, idealization, simplification and rationalization. Splitting seems to be one important defense mechanism in terms of mother/professional, mother/daughter, women/men leaders and White/Black women leaders. Women leaders further seem to have introjected the roles of their mothers and female family members from their past and childhood. They do not seem to embrace the full authority and agency of their leadership positions, and they explore their own difficulties and negative emotions in others through projective identification. The findings create awareness of the roles of women leaders, strengthen women leadership and emphasise the need for leadership training taking the systems psychodynamic perspective into account.

‘You have to keep your head on your shoulders’: A systems psychodynamic perspective on women leaders

Background:Women leaders within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa have increased in numbers over the past years and they have changed the dynamics in these institutions. Yet, it is a subject that has hardly been explored from the perspective of women leaders.Aim:The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of women leaders in HEIs from a systems psychodynamic perspective using the conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, roles, task (CIBART) model, a well-researched model to analyse systems psychodynamics and to gain a deeper understanding of (un)conscious dynamics within organisations.Methods:This qualitative study is based on Dilthey‘s modern hermeneutics. Interviews were conducted with 23 women leaders from the Higher Education Resource Services South Africa, network across 8 HEIs. Observations were conducted in one organisation to support the data analysis and interpretation. Data were analysed through content analysis.Findings:Findings show that women leaders re-evaluate and reconstruct themselves constantly within organisations. This continuous re-evaluation and reconstruction become visible through the constructs of the CIBART model. The findings reveal deeper insights into systems psychodynamics, which considers anxiety within the system where women leaders seem to contain such anxiety by mobilising specific defence mechanisms. Certain diversity markers, such as race, gender, mother tongue, position within the organisation and generational belonging play a role in creating the dynamics. Women leaders’ experience of de-authorisation and role confusion impacts significantly on women leadership and their action towards ownership.Practical implications: The study provides new, valuable and context-specific insights into women leadership seen through the lens of the CIBART model, highlighting unconscious dynamics that need practical attention in the HEIs to empower women leaders for gender-specific leadership training.Originality or value: Findings provide a foundation for future research on women leaders and applied solutions to empower women leaders, whilst reducing anxiety within the system. The study provides complex insights, which should create increasing awareness in women leaders towards being containers of anxiety and creating new ways of empowered women leadership.

Agony and Ecstasy in the Gig Economy: Cultivating Holding Environments for Precarious and Personalized Work Identities

Building on an inductive, qualitative study of independent workers—people not affiliated with an organization or established profession—this paper develops a theory about the management of precarious and personalized work identities. We find that in the absence of organizational or professional membership, workers experience stark emotional tensions encompassing both the anxiety and fulfillment of working in precarious and personal conditions. Lacking the holding environment provided by an organization, the workers we studied endeavored to create one for themselves through cultivating connections to routines, places, people, and a broader purpose. These personal holding environments helped them manage the broad range of emotions stirred up by their precarious working lives and focus on producing work that let them define, express, and develop their selves. Thus holding environments transformed workers’ precariousness into a tolerable and even generative predicament. By clarifying the process through which people manage emotions associated with precarious and personalized work identities, and thereby render their work identities viable and their selves vital, this paper advances theorizing on the emotional underpinnings of identity work and the systems psychodynamics of independent work.

Research Trajectories in Organization Change & Development: Conversations With Volume 25 Authors

The Annual Research in Organization Change and Development Series has reached a milestone. The current issue is the 25th volume marking the silver anniversary of the series. The first annual research volume was published thirty years ago by JAI Press (1987). Earmarking this achievement we have asked few of the authors that contributed to the first few volumes to contribute a reflective manuscript that captures the evolution of the field through their perspective during the past 30 years. The volume includes eight such contributions, six of which are included in this symposium proposal and will join us at the upcoming AOM meeting. Volume 25 of ROCD continues the tradition of providing insightful and thought provoking chapters. Six of the manuscripts are based on a 30-year longitudinal reflection and introspection about the ODC field, specific change and development orientations, emerging research trajectories in ODC and, the evolution of foundational concepts over time. Other contributions focus on: The role that identity plays in achieving strategic change; the merger process of two academic institutions; the challenge of OD work at the eco- system level; and, the power of using a systems psychodynamics frame, attending to group dynamics, conducting Psycho-Social research, and viewing self- as-instrument as a rigorous method of sense-making when engaged in Organization Development and Change (OD&C) research and practice The interactive session provides a unique opportunity to explore research findings and emerging research directions in the field. The give and take in the small group discussions led by chapter authors' advance our collective understanding of current issues facing the field.

The systems psychodynamics of gendered hiring: Personal anxieties and defensive organizational practices within the New Zealand film industry

This article uses systems psychodynamic concepts to explore the creation and reproduction of gendered inequality within the New Zealand film industry. The article focuses on the ways in which senior film production workers’ anxieties about hiring, or working with, women influence the process of assembling project teams. It suggests that the process of choosing team members creates considerable anxiety for both senior film production workers with responsibility for hiring and lower-status team members who need to rely on them to create high-functioning teams. The industry ideal of the autonomous creative worker is implicitly gendered, conforming more closely to traditional concepts of the unencumbered male worker than traditional ideals of femininity and motherhood. The antithesis between these representations creates anxiety, raising unconscious fears that women as a category are less trustworthy workers. Consequently, discriminatory hiring practices that diminish these anxieties become collectively accepted as rational responses to organizational problems and embedded within the social system as collectively endorsed defences against anxiety. Given that project-based employment is temporary, this pattern of discrimination against women is regularly repeated and contributes to entrenched gender inequality within the film industry. Qualitative data from interviews with 12 male and 13 female film production workers is presented to illustrate this analysis.