Social Defenses Against Organizational Learning
Tóm tắt
It is argued that for organizational learning to occur maladaptive social defenses within the organization have to be altered. The origins of the concept of social defenses are traced through the work of Jaques and Menzies. A new concept of “system domain,” and related concepts of “system domain fabric,” and “system domain defenses,” are proposed in order to account for the difficulties in sustaining organizational change in organizations that share a similar primary task. “Organizational learning” is defined as occurring when there is co-evolution of “organizational container” and “contained.” The article distills variables from three successful consultancy/action research projects which are characteristic of organizations that are learning, and it is hypothesized that the creation of “organizational awareness” is necessary for organizational learning to occur.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Bain, A. The Baric Experiment: The Design of Jobs and Organization for the Expression and Growth of Human Capacity. Tavistock Institute Occasional Paper. No. 4, 1982.
Bain, A., & Barnett, L. The Design of a Day Care System in a Nursery Setting for Children Under Five. Tavistock Institute Occasional Paper, No. 8, 1986.
Bain, A., Long, S., & Ross, S. Paper Houses: The Authority Vacuum in a Government School. Australian Institute of Social Analysis Report,Collins Dove, Melbourne, 1992, p. 6.
Bion, W. R. Attention and interpretation. London: Tavistock Publications Ltd., 1970.
Freud, S. Group psychology and the analysis of the ego. In J. Strachey, (Ed.), The standard edition of the works of Sigmund Freud Vol XVIII,London: The Hogarth Press, 1955.
Gilmore, T., & Krantz, J. The splitting of leadership and management as a social defence. Human Relations,1990, 43(2).
Jaques, E. Social systems as a defence against persecutory and depressive anxiety. In M. Klein, P. Heimann, and R. Money-Kyrle (Eds.), New directions in psycho-analysis. London: Tavistock Publications, 1955.
Klein, M. The psychoan alysis of children.London, 1932.
Klein, M. Contributions to psychoanalysis. London, 1948.
Klein, M. Developments in psychoanalysis.London, 1952.
Lawrence, W. G. Understanding organizational life. In G. P. Chattopadhyay, Z. H. Gangjee, M. L. Hunt, and W. G. Lawrence (Eds.), When the twain meet. Allahabad: A. H. Wheeler & Co., Private Limited, 1986, p. 59.
Meznar, M. B., & Nicolini, D. The social construction of organizational learning: Conceptual and practical issues in the field. Human Relations, 1995, 48(7).
Menzies, I. E. P. The functioning of social systems against anxiety: A report on a study of the nursing service of a general hospital. London: Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, 1970.
Menzies Lyth, I. E. P. Containing anxiety in institutions.London: Free Association Books, 1988, p. 89.
Senge, P. M. The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization.Sydney: Random House Australia Pty. Ltd., 1992.
Trist, E. The Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems: A Conceptual Framework and an Action Research Program.Ontario Quality of Working Life Centre Occasional Paper, No. 2, Canada, 1981.