The Neurotic Organisation

Corporations, as well as people can be neurotic-paranoid, compulsive, depressive. Sometimes a neurosis reflects the leadership style of the top executive, but it can come to permeate the organisation at all levels. At other times, the neurosis has developed over the years as part of an irrational organisational culture. But whatever their origins, neuroses threaten an organisation’s well-being and even its continued survival. Unconventional measures are often needed to restore the neurotic organisation to health. This book offers an authoritative discussion of the irrational forces at work in organisations. It integrates psychiatric and psychological findings and insights with management and organisational behaviour theory to reveal the underlying causes of many organisational problems. With numerous intriguing vignettes and case histories, it details five different organisational neuroses – paranoid, compulsive, dramatic, depressive, and schizoid – and shows how each affects planning, decision making, organisational cultures and individual executives. Based on their extensive experience as management consultants, the authors offer numerous examples and case studies that illustrate ways of diagnosing and promoting individual and organisational change. Revealing why organisational problems often seem intractable, they expose patterns of neurotic behaviour at every level, form the overall organisation to departments and groups, two-person relationships, and individuals. They uncover the underlying causes behind such problematic organisational behaviour as repeated abrupt changes in direction, excessive studies that never lead to action, cults of secrecy and other counterproductive patterns, and they discuss how groups within organisation can lose touch with reality by creating shared fantasies. They also explain ways of dealing with psychological conflicts and working for positive change within organisations. Offereing advice to executives at various stages in their careers, they investigate psychological barriers to growth and change – and detail ways of overcoming them.