Psychodynamics of the Workplace
by Dr. Anil Behal
Within groups, and as a society, we rarely talk about personal issues that somehow stir up feelings and emotions in us. There is a tendency to be overly concerned with boundaries, personal space, and privacy. The exalted notion that sharing feelings and emotions means letting someone into our private space or giving up our deeply cherished individualism, is in my opinion, a resistance that stems from our own narcissism and insecurities. It is a defense we create to keep people from getting to know our real insides. Yes indeed, it is scary to let people in. We sometimes invest our psychic energy in trying to guard and protect from others, exactly what we would like them to see, if we felt safe with them. This inner conflict is the reason we feel so ambivalent about many of our relationships.
As a past corporate executive, I have experienced firsthand, both the joys and horrors of organizational life. What I am writing about in this paper are my personal experiences with group dynamics and how it can affect people in the workplace. It is a primal force that pervades the very soul of an organization. As groups come together within organizations, there is a somewhat mechanistic, almost robotic approach to their formation. We like to think of them as a task force, committed, a project team etc. The idea is to consciously suppress the anxiety that is the precursor to their formation. Thinking of groups in a structural, rather than a humanistic context tends to alleviate the anxiety at a conscious level. The anxiety is not forgotten, though. It is simply disavowed.
If I were to ask you how you see yourself enacting certain roles within an organization, what would your answer be? Are you a nontraditional, nonlinear, and a nonconformist individual or do you readily conform and like to become a part of the inner circle? There is no right or wrong answer. Some people are movers and shakers, while others like to avoid controversy within the workplace. They mind their own business and believe that things that have to go wrong probably will. They do not feel responsible for identifying and fixing problems. There is a comfort and a sense of security in aligning themselves with the majority that has a common consensus over issues. The problem is that there are far too many people out there who fit this paradigm. Feelings and emotions are suppressed and a subservient attitude begins to develop toward authority figures within the organization. The "everything's going great" attitude can be a facade for the underlying anxiety that is felt, but not verbalized.
For the purpose of protecting the identity of my past employers and some of the people who worked with me, I have chosen to use fictitious names.
About five years ago, one of my peer managers hired a young lady, who I will call Lauren. She was attractive, rebellious, free-spirited, and strong willed on the outside. I could see the heads turn on the sales floor as Lauren would show up for work each morning. What puzzled me about her was a side to her personality that seemed so inconsistent with her external demeanor. Her steps were always hurried and she would barely exchange greetings with anyone in the hallway. It seemed that she was anxious to get inside her little office, as fast as she possibly could. She quickly gained a reputation for being extremely good on the phones and always came out on top with the number of appointments booked.
As the weeks rolled by, Lauren ran more appointments than the other sales people did. However, everyone soon became concerned because she was not getting any sales, even though she had her manager Doug, with her on all the sales calls. Lauren seemed to come under a lot of stress, and began to shut herself out. She talked to no one about the situation she was in, sought no help, and her response was that everything was going fine. During a casual conversation with her manager Doug, I asked if he needed any help with the situation. He became very defensive and lashed out at me. It wasn't the altercation as much as the violent outburst on Doug's part that surprised me. I had known Doug for sometime and had not seen this side before.
Meanwhile, a strange undercurrent began developing in our sales organization. Lauren was being described as nonchalant, manipulative, egocentric, and a user. Honestly, I did not know where all this was coming from, at first. What I did know was, that deep down within, I felt a need to protect Lauren, either professionally or personally, yet I couldn't help feeling empathic toward her. There was no immediate explanation, but the transference I felt was very strong. I felt as if I was in the process of getting ostracized not Lauren. There was an unconscious desire in me to talk to Lauren and ask her to stand up for herself. That opportunity did not present itself till weeks later.
I have always believed in Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity and the power of thinking beyond the obvious. There are moments, situations, and people in the present that are a prelude to what is sure to unfold in our future. There are no accidents or coincidences, though the easier route is to have a contrary belief. When we are suddenly compelled to do something that has an irrational explanation, we usually stop short and listen to our left brain. Logic prevails and we abandon the thought. However, it is precisely at that moment when we need to listen to the inner voice.
Lauren approached me one afternoon and wanted to talk to me. She had a feeling that I would understand and perhaps help her with her predicament. I was quite ambivalent all of a sudden. There was a part of me that wanted to listen and understand, yet I felt a certain amount of anxiety coming from my irrational mind. For a moment I almost decided to bail out and let her fight her own battle. However, I felt an urgent need to embrace this situation that had disaster written all over it. I knew that Doug would be furious and would surely see my intervention as interference. I encouraged Lauren to approach the general manager. She said she feared reprisal and that what she had to say would fall on deaf ears anyway.
It turned out that Lauren was under a lot of pressure because Doug was asking for sexual favors in return for helping her in the field. I was shocked and wanted to disbelieve it. Lauren produced a number of little gifts and notes that Doug had given her over the few months that they had worked together. I asked her why she continued to accept the gifts, howsoever small they were. She replied that initially she did not think there was anything wrong, but started becoming suspicious when Doug asked her out to dinner a couple of times. When she refused, he became angry and agitated. That is when she though he began to spread rumors about her. They could not sell together, either because she was too tense and uptight in his presence, or he intentionally blew the sale and postponed it.
By now I was caught in the controversy. I had no recourse but to address this situation with the human resources department and my general manager. I was following the rules, I thought. Little did I know that my intervention was soon seen (covertly) as engineering trouble, undermining the authority of a peer manager, and misguiding sales people. I was shocked and speechless when I heard that I was being given the opportunity to transfer to another location or look for another job. I am no longer with that organization, Lauren is long gone and decided to change her line of work from sales to administration, and Doug just got promoted to general manager. What hasn't changed though, is the ferocity with which truth and fairness continues to be devalued and discounted within many organizations. There is a greater need to sweep it under the rug, than to take the time to understand and resolve the organizational neuroses and alleviate the social defenses and stress felt by employees.
As long as the outcry toward unfairness, inequity, and injustice remains silent, groups and organizations will continue to suppress and annihilate innocent and unsuspecting victims.
© Copyright, 1999, Anil Behal, MSM, Ph.D.About the author:
Anil Behal, MSM, Ph.D., is a consultant and psychotherapist. He is a graduate of The American College, Bryn Mawr, PA and the American Institute of Holistic Theology where he is an adjunct faculty member. Dr. Behal may be contacted at (610) 517-5381, e-mail: motivtraks@aol.com, or visit his Web site: www.motivtraks.com.
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