Organisational defences revisited: systems and contexts

Journal of Managerial Psychology - 2002
PaulaHyde1, Alan B.Thomas1
1Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK

Tóm tắt

It has been suggested that localised attempts at change may fail because of organisational defences that are sustained through bureaucratic systems. Mental health workers face specific threats arising from the nature and context of their work. The resulting anxieties lead to defensiveness in the workers that may be supported by organisational structures and procedures. Attempts at changing existing patterns of work can increase anxiety and lead to more (rather than less) entrenched resistance in the form of organisational defences. As a result, the service received by patients may barely change. Four health service contexts are introduced here and psychodynamic processes operating therein are explored and contrasted.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Bain, A. (1998), “Social defences against organizational learning”, Human Relations, Vol. 51 No. 3, pp. 413‐29.

Barnes, B., Ernst, S. and Hyde, K. (1999), An Introduction to Groupwork, Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Bott, E. (1976), “Hospital and society”, British Journal of Medical Psychology, Vol. 49, pp. 97‐140.

Chiesa, M. (2000), “At a crossroad between institutional and community psychiatry”, in Hinshelwood, R. and Skogstad, W. (Eds), Observing Organisations, Routledge, London, pp. 54‐67.

Daft, R. (2000), Organization Theory and Design, 7th ed., South‐Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, OH.

Donati, F. (2000), “Madness and morale”, in Hinshelwood, R. and Skogstad, W. (Eds), Observing Organisations, Routledge, London, pp. 29‐43.

Edwards, J. (2000), “Mental and physical space”, in Hinshelwood, R. and Skogstad, W. (Eds), Observing Organisations, Routledge, London, pp. 68‐81.

Freeman, H. (1998), “Mental health policy and practice in the NHS: 1948‐79”, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 225‐39.

Goffman, E. (1961), Asylums, Penguin, London.

Heginbotham, C. (1999), “The psychodynamics of mental health care”, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 253‐60.

Hinshelwood, R. and Skogstad, W. (Eds) (2000), Observing Organisations, Routledge, London.

Jaques, E. (1953), “On the dynamics of social structure”, Human Relations, Vol. 6, pp. 10‐23.

Klein, M. (1952), Developments in Psychoanalysis, Hogarth Press, London.

Maxwell, D. (2000), “Nowhere to hide”, in Hinshelwood, R. and Skogstad, W. (Eds), Observing Organisations, Routledge, London, pp. 122‐41.

Menzies, I. (1960), “A case‐study in the functioning of social systems as a defence against anxiety”, Human Relations, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 95‐121.

Morris, M. (2000), “Tyrannical equality”, in Hinshelwood, R. and Skogstad, W. (Eds), Observing Organisations, Routledge, London, pp. 82‐98.

Norman, I. and Peck, E. (1999), “Working together in adult community mental health services: an inter‐professional dialogue”, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 217‐30.

Peck, E. and Norman, I. (1999), “Working together in adult community mental health services: exploring inter‐professional role relations”, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 231‐42.

Rickards, T. (1999), Creativity and the Management of Change, Blackwell, Oxford.

Walton, P. (2000), “Psychiatric hospital care – a case of the more things change, the more they remain the same”, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 77‐88.

Willshire, L. (1999), “Psychiatric services: organizing impossibility”, Human Relations, Vol. 52 No. 6, pp. 775‐804.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Journal of Managerial Psychology

Thông tin tác giả