The Psychodynamics of Top Teams and the Impact on Strategic Organisational Learning: Three Case Studies in the Public Sector
The growing literature on organisational change, organisational learning and the role ofthe top team prompted the question: what is the relationship between top teams andorganisational leaming? It seemed that role of the top team was important to attainsuccessful change and ultimately learning. Yet how this was achieved seemed to bepoorly understood in the literature.Thus, the thesis focused attention on the dynamics of the top team, its organisationalcontext and the state of the external environment to gain a clearer understanding of theserelationships. In order to deepen that understanding, the thesis took a systemic andpsychoanalytical approach and a clinical research methodology, which provided adifferent perspective and seemed to be more suited to this type of inquiry onorganisational dynamics.The 'findings' from the three, in-depth, public sector case studies suggested that while thedynamics of the top team could impact negatively on the group task, its impact onstrategic organisational learning was less significant.The main conclusion drawn from the study was that strategic organisational learning wasimpaired not so much by the top team's dynamics, but by organisational and systemicdefensive routines.The source of these recursive pattems was threefold:psychodynamic ego and social defenses among top team members, within the topteam's group and within the dynamics of the BoardA poor 'holding environment' so that these organisational dynamics were notsufficiently contained and thus each strategic subsystem was less 'task' focusedan underbounded strategic apex that reinforced the dysfunctional dynamics already inplayThe implication from these public sector, case studies was that while the externalenvironment and the dynamics of the top team were not insignificant, it was the poorquality and instability of the internal organisational context that inhibited learning. Therole of the Board or elected officials was particularly significant in contributing to thisoutcome.
Year of publication: |
1998-04-21
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Authors: | Jarrett, Michael |
Other Persons: | James, Kim (contributor) |
Publisher: |
Cranfield University |
Saved in:
freely available
Saved in favorites
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