Center for the Study of Organizational Change publications (MU)
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Items in this collection are the scholarly output of the Center for the Study of Organizational Change faculty, staff, and students, either alone or as co-authors, and which may or may not have been published in an alternate format. Items may contain more than one file type.
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Item Surfacing Perversions of Democracy in the Workplace: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Project(Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 2006) Diamond, Michael A. (Michael Alan) 1950-; Allcorn, SethIn this paper, we explore the psychodynamics of democracy in the workplace with a particular focus on unconscious and collusive forms of perverting democratic processes at work. We suggest that interpersonally and collectively the dialectical interplay between (1) autistic-contiguous, (2) paranoid-schizoid, and (3) depressive modes of experience and organized perceptions, which are necessary to the containment of divisions and conflicts in democratic organizations, is vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and psychological defenses that foster regression and collapse into more oppressive, authoritarian, and sadistic political cultures. With the objective of understanding perversions to democracy in the workplace, we find that a contemporary psychoanalytic view of organizations is more instructive than mainstream organization theory or that found in Foucault's writings on power and institutions.Item Organizational Change and the Analytic Third: Locating and Attending to Unconscious Organizational Psychodynamics(Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 2007) Diamond, Michael A. (Michael Alan) 1950-This article examines the concept of the analytic third in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically informed organizational change. The analytic third is often defined as the psychological(triangular) space between self and other, subject and object, fantasy and reality - the third dimension that emerges from two persons fully engaged in the exploration of unconscious meanings, reasons, motives and actions. In neo-Kleinian object relations, it is viewed as the intersubjective dimension of transference and counter- transference, or the emergence in analytic work of the observation and experience of ''I-as-subject'' and ''Me-as-object''(Ogden, 1994). The analytic third is what we create when we make genuine contact with one another at a deeper emotional level of experience whether in dyads, groups, communities, or organizations. It might be understood as akin to but not synonymous with Winnicott's (1971) notion of the transitional and potential space, where culture, play, creativity and imagination,reside. A case illustration is provided to better articulate the nature of the analytic third in the processes of observing, participating, and intervening in organizations.Item Organizational Immersion and Diagnosis: The Work of Harry Levinson(Karnac Books Ltd., 2003) Diamond, Michael A. (Michael Alan) 1950-In the following, I present readers with an overview of Harry Levinson's contributions to psychoanalytic organization psychology. Then, I share excerpts from an interview conducted with him in August 2002 during the American Psychological Association meetings in Chicago, Illinois. Finally, I provide a listing of his books and articles,which include published works not reviewed here. My intent is to offer readers a perspective on his impact on the psychoanalytic study of organizations.Item Moral Violence in Organizations: Hierarchic Dominance and the Absence of Potential Space(Karnac Books Ltd., 2004) Diamond, Michael A. (Michael Alan) 1950-The authors introduce the concept of moral violence in organizations, by which they refer to emotionally and psychologically abusive and harmful workplace cultures. These narcissistic, organizational cultures, are, hierarchically, governed by arbitrary use of power and authority, sadistic-masochistic, relational patterns of dominance and submission, and an absence of potential space for dialogue and play. Providing several vignettes, the authors illustrate the prevalence of moral violence in managerial practices that result in dehumanizing and demoralizing the workforce. In so doing, the authors take an object relational and self-psychological, psychoanalytic perspective in understanding and working with morally violent organizations.