2. Clifford Geertz
“Man is an
animal trapped
in webs of
significance he
himself has spun“
(thinkexist.com,
October 2010).
3. Psychic Webs
Favored Ways of Thinking
Organizations and the Unconscious
Organization and Patriarchal Family
Organization, Death, & Immortality
4. Psychic Webs (Continued)
Organization and Anxiety
Organization and Teddy Bear
Organization, Shadow, and Archetype
5. Favored Ways of Thinking
Getting caught up in past excellence
Blockbuster
USPS
Yahoo
Pathological Organizations
Enron
WorldCom
KMart
Bernie Madoff
6. Groupthink
Irving Janis coined the
term groupthink
Group illusions and
perceptions that are self
sealing
Charisma
Invulnerability
Conformity
Rationalizing
Ingredients necessary
for groupthink
7. Organizations & the Unconscious
Everyday life has preoccupations & concerns that lie
beneath conscious awareness
Tangible actions seen are caused by human psyche
People are meeting hidden dimensions of themselves
Psyche and unconscious hold us as psychological
prisoners
Self Understanding is necessary to overcome this
9. Frederick Taylor & Scientific
Management
Control was the preoccupation
Mastering every aspect of life and business
Meticulous
Controlling self through controlling the world
Productive Neurosis
Clash of management styles
Scientific Manager vs. Laissez faire
10. Control of the Body
Connection between the rise of organizations and
sexual control
Michel Foucault feels control of the body is needed to
control social, political life
Correlation? Breakdown of organization to increase in
sexual crimes.
11. Organization and the Patriarchal
Family
Conceptual prison
Produces and reproduces organizational structures
with male values
Intuition, nurture, empathy-downplayed
Fortitude, courage, heroism valued
Frustration/Prison lies in having your philosophy
undervalued
12. Organization, Death, & Immortality
Humans push thoughts of
their demise into their
unconscious
Symbolic acts are flights
from our own mortality
Accomplishments,
positions held, legacy are
larger accomplishments
larger than ourselves
13. Quest for Immortality
Behavior in organizations are better understood by
realizing what we do is our own personal quest for
immortality
Organizations are:
Larger than life surviving for generations
We find meaning in being involved with organizations
Our roles become our reality
14. Illusions of Control
Work smarter not harder
Pretend you are your own CEO no matter your role
Lets learn to do things better every day
Be different, don’t do things the same way
Arrogant, underestimation, over valuing our roles
15. Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms
Dependency-What do we do? How do we finish this?
If only the country had a leader like Ronald Reagan!
Pairing-Barack Obama-The candidate
Fight-flight-Toyota, AT&T, provisioning (internal
departments)
Scapegoat, persecution stance-Rich Rodriguez
16. Organizations and Teddy Bears
What objects do we cherish in our organization?
First roles, jobs
A decade in time
Ways to communicate
Organizations before technology
Never working on holidays-Past rules, regulations
Allow people to be in control when making changes
17. Archetypes
Recurring themes of thoughts and experience that
seem to have universal significance
Mythology, literature (apocalyptic, demonic, romantic,
tragic)
These themes give people a sense of place in their lives
Gives sense of who you are, where they are
19. Meaning of quote
Getting caught up in a psychic prison can sap your
energy
Psychic Prisons can alter daily routines for the worse
Can create negative group dynamics
Relevance of self and group can be doubted
20. Adjusting to the Unconscious
Psychic prison metaphor allows:
Sensitivity to hidden meanings of every day actions
Us to learn how to transform unconscious energy into
constructive actions
Affects group dynamics, leadership, innovation and
change
Improvement in understanding about how we construct
and interpret our realities
21. Strengths of the psychic prison
metaphor
Encourages us to challenge basic assumptions about
how we see and experience the world
Gain insights into the challenges of organizational
innovation and change
Irrational is put in a new perspective
Allows integration and to manage competing tensions
Allows us to become more ethical
22. Limitations to the psychic prison
metaphor
Lose sight of other factors that play a role in leading
and organizing
Ignores vested interest and reality of power
Unconscious can be exploited