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Organizations as Psychic Prisons

Organizations as Psychic Prisons. Gareth Morgan. Plato’s allegory of the cave. How does Morgan relate Plato’s allegory of the cave to constructions of reality within organizations? How does he relate it to change resistance within organizations?. Favoured ways of Thinking.

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Organizations as Psychic Prisons

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  1. Organizations as Psychic Prisons Gareth Morgan

  2. Plato’s allegory of the cave • How does Morgan relate Plato’s allegory of the cave to constructions of reality within organizations? How does he relate it to change resistance within organizations?

  3. Favoured ways of Thinking • Explain what is meant by Morgan’s statement: “Powerful visions of the future can lead to blind spots. Ways of seeing become ways of not seeing.”

  4. Freudian Reading of Taylor • Morgan argues that Fredrick Taylor’s controlling personality can be read through Freud’s theory of repressed sexuality in that Taylor had an “anal-compulsive approach to life.” • Explain Morgan’s argument.

  5. What are some of the mentioned Freudian defence mechanisms?

  6. How does Morgan answer the following questions? How would you? • To what extent do modes of organization institutionalize defence mechanisms? • Do tightly controlled bureaucratic forms reflect the influence of compulsive preoccupations? • Do they attract and reward people who share characteristics? • To what extent is it possible to understand organization as an external reflection of unconscious strivings?

  7. The Patriarchal Family • Morgan argues that “a patriarchal view of organization is easy to see.” How does he defend his argument? • Do you agree with Morgan?

  8. Death and Immortality • How does Ernst Becker make use of Freud’s defence mechanisms in relation to one’s mortality?

  9. Anxiety • How is Melanie Klein’s work related to Freud? • How does Morgan tie Melanie Klein’s theory of human development into organizational cultures?

  10. Organization, Dolls, and Teddy Bears • How does Morgan describe Donald Winnicott’s term “transitional object”? • How is transitional theory useful when looking at organizations?

  11. Carl Jung • How does Morgan describe Jung’s work on general relations between the internal and external life? • How does Morgan describe Jung’s work on the role that archetypes play in shaping our understandings of the external world? • How is Jung’s work useful when looking at organizations?

  12. Critical Analysis • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the psychic prison metaphor?

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