Introduction

Gaitanidis, Anastasios; Curk, Polona

doi:10.4324/9780429260728-101

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Participants showed signs of narcissistic injury or woundedness (Gaitanidis & Curk, 2007), which are evident in the following statements: 'I have to navigate through a situation and get people to accept that I can offer a better service' and 'I had been in management for 16 years. In a snap of fingers my management was taken away'.…”

Section: Theme 7: Identity Under Attackmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence suggests that this organisation did not function as a competent system (Hodgkinson & Sparrow, 2002) in terms of strategic and knowledge management, cognitive behaviour (rationality and objectivity in decision-making), emotional intelligence and sense making (being emotional attuned) or an internal motivation (locus of control). Furthermore, the organisation showed evidence of managerial mismanagement and toxicity (Allcorn & Stein, 2015;Lubit, 2004), characterised by irrational decisionmaking, ('misuse of power', 'playing [of] political games'), emotional violence ('intolerance', 'distrust' and 'disrespect') and narcissism (Gaitanidis & Curk, 2007). The organisation's primary defence mechanism was the splitting of the good from the bad, owning the good ('want to be seen as competent') and projecting the bad onto and into (through projective identification - Blackman, 2004) the professionals in acting capacities, who acted out the toxicity in the following behaviours.…”

Section: Containers Of Systemic Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The systems psychodynamic experiences of professionals appointed in acting capacities

Shongwe

Cilliers

2020

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology

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Orientation: During times of organisational change and restructuring, employees are often placed in acting capacities. The unconscious experiences and systemic impact thereof have not been researched in South Africa or globally.Research purpose: The research aim was to report on the systems psychodynamic lived experiences of professional employees functioning in acting capacities for an extended period of time.Motivation for the study: Consciously, the appointment of acting staff serves the restructuring agenda by testing change endeavours. Unconsciously, they may become representatives of change and containers of systemic anxiety.Research design, approach and method: A qualitative and descriptive research approach was undertaken using five participants as collective case study. Data were gathered through interviews and hermeneutically analysed.Main findings: The manifesting themes were conflict, anxiety, task, role, boundary, authorisation and identity. Further interrogation of the data revealed the interrelated aspects of becoming containers of systemic toxicity, employment and psychological contracts being violated, being placed on hold, seduced, bullied and traumatised.Practical/managerial implications: A dysfunctional organisation experiencing anxiety about restructuring, manifesting as incompetence, emotion turmoil and systemic toxicity, (unconsciously) projected its anxiety into professionals in acting capacities, who became the containers of the toxicity. The symptoms (anxiety) as well as the cause (restructuring) need to be studied and addressed.Contribution/value add: This research illustrated how professionals in acting capacities were unconsciously used to perform the emotional labour related to change and became the unconscious containers of larger systemic dynamics, specifically about the anxiety of change and restructuring.

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Section: Theme 7: Identity Under Attackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Containers Of Systemic Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%