Social Defenses Against Organizational Learning
Abstract
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.
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3. This work is increasingly being referred to as "socio-analysis," i.e., the activity of exploration, consultancy, and action research that combines and synthesizes methodologies derived from psychoanalysis, group relations theory, social systems thinking, social dreaming, and organizational behavior.
4. Quoted in Menzies Lyth, I. E. P. Containing anxiety in institutions. London: Free Association Books, 1988, p. 89.
5. Ibid., p. 94.
6. Ibid., p. 107.
7. The social defenses Menzies described were widespread in U.K. hospitals at the time (and indeed still persist in varying forms in Australian hospitals in the 1990s). When people move from one local institution within a system domain to another, in this case from hospital to hospital, they carry with them their "System Domain in the Mind" to the new institution, which is likely to include the current system domain defenses. Unless there are concurrent shifts in significant domain fabric factors, such as authority systems, policies and procedures, professional training, and system domain culture, changes in a local institution are likely to be eroded over time. The more positive aspect of this is that where local change has been successful the people involved become the carriers for these ideas into other institutions. The concept of the "System Domain in the Mind" is a development of Pierre Turquet's original concept of the "Institution in the Mind" (see Lawrence, 1986).
8. See Bain, A., Long, S., & Ross, S., Paper houses: The authority vacuum in a government school. Australian institute of social analysis report, Melbourne: Collins Dove, 1992, p. 6.
9. Besides sharing a similar primary task the school also shared with other Victorian public secondary schools a similar authority system at the level of the school, the same accountabilities to a Council, Region, and Department, the same selection and deselection procedures for staff, curriculum areas (within which there were some choices), teacher training, trade union authority and membership, pay and conditions, funding arrangements, and a "system domain in the mind," i.e., the system domain fabric.
10. See 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, p. 59.
11. There is a large literature on organizational learning much of which is concerned with cognitive tearning at the expense of emotional learning. For a recent article that reviews (in the main) the cognitive learning approach to organizational learning see Martin B. Meznar and Davide Nicolini, The social construction of organizational learning: Conceptual and practical issues in the field. Human Relations, 1995, 48(7).
12. The concept of "container" and "contained" was developed by Wilfred Bion. See Bion, W. R. Attention and interpretation. London: Tavistock Publications Ltd., 1970, Chap. 7, pp. 72-82.
13. The long-term success of this project could not be assessed as a decision was made by the Victorian State Government (during the project) to close the prison. The prison is scheduled to finally close its doors in 1997.
14. See 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. This project that formed part of a 10-year engagement with the computer bureau took place 1974-1976 with reviews of the experiment in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1982.
15. See 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. This project, which took place between 1976 and 1979 had the aim of designing and implementing an optimum system of day nursery care for children under five.
16. This 1-year change management program took place in 1993 and 1994 with a review one year later in 1995.
17. Managing Director of Baric, Officer in Charge of the Day Nursery, Governor of Pentridge.
18. For a description of this process, see Bain, A. The Basic experiment, Chapter 7, Work culture analysis.
19. The main threat to this process of evolution focused around the difficulty for the wider management culture (not involved in the experiment) understanding and accepting the principles of the experiment. Even though productivity had risen 34%, labor turnover had been reduced from 110% to 24%, revenue per operator had been increased by 2000 pounds a year, three levels of managerial hierarchy had been removed, and job satisfaction and morale was very high among the operators, given all this there were still attempts by managers to turn back a successful self-managing team structure to a conventional management hierarchy with section supervisors, etc. This was successfully resisted.
20. To manage input, transformation, and output processes.
21. While system domain factors were not significant in the Baric example, nevertheless the CEO's active support of the evolution of the experiment was vital in preventing its erosion through the reassertion of traditional management practices and culture.
22. In the Baric Experiment, for example, there were three major changes to the project organization that came about through learning as it developed.
References
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. 6-6.
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: Iavistock Publications, 1955.
KLEIN, M. The psychoanalysis 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. 59-59.
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. 89-89.
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.
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