Olympus Inc. : Intervening for Cultural Change in Organizations 9781855758049, 9780429477744

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OLYMPUS INC.

OLYMPUS INC. ‘Just occasionally, a book stuns you with its freshness and wisdom. Olympus Inc. is the best thing on corporate culture I*ve read. Go get it.’ Guy Claxton - University of Bristol Author of The W ayward Mind ‘Excellent. . . scholarly . . . well-researched . . . They analyze organizations as self-organizing, living systems filled with deep archetypal patterns . . . Their creative approach provides richness and color to our insights about complexities of organizational culture.’ Richard N. Knowles Author of The Leadership Dance: Pathways to Extraordinary Organizational Effectiveness \ . . an impressive case for redefining the role of executives, consultants and change agents in organizational transformation. This book goes from ‘soup to nuts’ in its deep exploration of culture and Greco-Roman mythology, to real hands-on assessment tools and facilitation strategies. A wonderful and valued addition to the practitioner’s tool bag.’ Steve Zuieback - International Management Consultant President of Synectics: Creative Management Strategies ‘This book is a treat for cognitive-oriented readers. The bibliography serves as a compendium in the field. I personally await a whole book on just the material in the Appendix.’ Michael Grinder - International Management Consultant Author o f Patterns o f Permission: The Science o f Group Dynamics \ . . extraordinary; as remarkable for its wisdom and practicality as for the depth and breadth o f its scholarship . . . Neville and Dalmau throw light into the dark places of organizations - revealing why things are the way they are . . . Invaluable, ‘divinely inspired’ guidance for those seriously interested in the dynamics o f organizations life and change.’ Peter Waterhouse Managing Director, Workplace Learning Initiatives ‘Bernie Neville and Tim Dalmau are the right people to introduce you to archetypes. In addition they have the experience to explain the application of the archetypes for organizational diagnosis and intervention. As a bonus you also learn about their DNAI, the Dalmau-Neville Archetypology Indicator, and how it might be used.’ Bob Dick - Southern Cross University Author of Jung for Sceptics

Also by Bernie Neville

Educating Psyche - Flat Chat Press (2005) Qualitative Research In Adult Education - CREW (1994) Qualitative Research Practice In Adult Education - David Lovell Publishing (1996) New Learning Technologies: A Challenge For Teachers - Graduate School of Education, Melbourne (1999) Towards Re-Enchantment: Education, Imagination and the Search for Meaning Post Pressed Publishers (2005) As Others See Us: The Values Debate in Australia - Australian Scholarly Publishing (2008)

Also by Tim Dalmau

From The Profane To The Sacred: Small Groups As Vehicles For Cultural Change Interchange Publications (1990) Managing Transitions: A Key To Creating Effective Learning Environments Interchange Publications (1990) To Tame A Unicom .. .: Recipes for Cultural Intervention - Abridged Version Revised - Interchange Publications (1989) Values In Action: Applying the Ideas o f Argyris and Schon - Second Edition Interchange Publications (1999)

OLYMPUS INC. Intervening for Cultural Change in Organizations

Bernie Neville

Tim Dalmau

First published as e-book - Contemporary Arts Media 2004 Published by Flat Chat Press 2008 This edition published in 2010 by Kamac Books Ltd. Published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Bemie Neville 2008 Copyright © Tim Dalmau 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Libraiy ISBN: 9781855758049 (pbk)

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Bernie Neville is Associate Professor of Education at La Trobe University. He has taught, researched, written and consulted widely on educational practice, communication and organizational change for over 30 years. Neville’s Educating Psyche, a companion volume to Olympus Inc., has received extensive praise from educators and critics.

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Tim Dalm au is regarded as one o f Australia’s forem ost m anagem ent consultants* H e has consulted for private and public institutions all over the w orld for more than 25 years. H e is the author or co-author o f an extensive range o f publications on action research, m anagem ent and organizational change.

PREFACE

PREFACE In July 1991, we found ourselves in Copenhagen presenting papers at the annual meeting of the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism. Our papers both dealt with organizational culture and how cultural change can be initiated. We were both interested in exploring the nature of what we were calling ‘the postmodern organization’ and we had both brought a Jungian orientation to our work. When we looked closely at the market-driven, opportunistic, ethically bereft, image-obsessed, structurally slippery corporations and bureaucracies that had flourished in the eighties, we imagined we saw an ancient, deeply embedded pattern - Jungians would call it archetypal - in which the classical Greeks would recognized the god Hermes at work. Talk about Hermes-inflated organizations led to talk about Zeus organizations, Eros organizations, and the like - all of which were familiar to us. Further latenight, wine-enhanced conversation led to the light-hearted experiment of designing a diagnostic instrument, called - with appropriate hubris - the Dalmau-Neville Archetypology Indicator, to provide consultants with a tool for distinguishing one god-inflated culture from another. As you can see, the DNAI began its life as a joke. However, it seems significant that it has had a life. It has been used as a consulting tool and as a research instrument by ourselves and others for more than a decade. It has been subjected to statistical analysis and made the basis of strategic interventions. Ongoing experience and feedback (statistical as well as professional) have led to various modifications and its eventual electronic incarnation as an appendix to this book. The book itself can be read as background information for consultants, change agents, students, or the simply curious who want to use the DNAI. Or it can stand as one of the very few serious attempts to bring depth psychology to the discussion of organizational change. One of us (Tim) is a management consultant who likes to write a bit. The other (Bernie) is an academic who does a bit of consulting when his teaching and research allow him time for it. The thinking in Olympus Inc. has been shaped through innumerable conversations with friends and colleagues; the text itself has been shaped through the editing skills of Helen Neville. We are deeply grateful to all who have contributed. Bernie Neville Tim Dalmau

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CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION GUIDING IDEAS ORGANIZATION, CULTURE AND CHANGE THE FIVE-MINDED ORGANIZATION GODS, MYTHS AND ARCHETYPES THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS GODS OF LIFE AND DEATH HEROES AND SAVIORS THE VIRGIN GODDESSES SONS AND LOVERS THE POLYTHEISTIC ORGANIZATION THE ARCHETYPOLOGY INDICATOR GOD OF THE CROSSROADS APPENDIX 1: A TOOLBOX FOR CHANGE AGENTS APPENDIX 2: THE DNAI BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

ix xi 1 35 85 129 153 181 209 227 247 271 309 345 373 417 419 427

OLYMPUS I NC.

INTRODUCTION Every piece of human behavior, whatever its manifest and literal content, is always also a psychological statement.1

James Hillman

An old Zen koan points to the dilemma: How can a man riding on an ox, looking for an ox, ever find an ox.2 Sam Keen

The past two decades have seen an enormous increase in interest in the notion of organizational culture. During the same period we have seen a rise and fall of interest in the notion of the learning organization and the notion of quality in organizations. At the heart of these movements is the very reasonable assumption that it is possible for an organization or other social system to reflect on its own behavior as a system and to adjust accordingly. But just who is supposed to do this reflection, and what are they supposed to reflect upon and subsequently adjust? The two quotations at the start of this introduction point to our particular perspective on these questions. It has been

OLYMPUS INC.

our experience that much of what goes on in organizations is hidden and tacit, deeply patterned into the behavior of the people who constitute the organization, so much so that it is largely beyond their awareness and often beyond their influence. Those who study organizations and the challenges facing their leaders tell us that success in the next decade or more will depend ultimately on leaders’ ability to engage all the members of their systems in continuous regeneration. Such insights represent a significant shift away from the individualistic psychology that has pervaded so much of the literature on management and leadership in the last two decades. They signify an increasing recognition and appreciation of the role of the large group in organizational transformation and improvement. But how to think about, manage, and intervene in the large group as an entity in its own right is not something in which your average executive, manager, or consultant usually has had much experience or training; nor have they developed much know-how. This is especially the case with those dynamics and forces at work in a group which are largely unconscious, recurrent, and stable over time; many of these can be grouped under the label organizational culture. This book does not aim to provide the reader with a comprehensive model that explains everything that should be considered in trying to build a self-reflective and selfimproving organization. Rather, we explore three specific doorways of understanding through which it is possible to enter the room of organizational and systemic behavior and gain greater insight into, and influence over^ the tacit and unconscious aspects of the behavior of large groups of people in organizations. These three doorways are organizational culture, archetypal psychology, and group process intervention methodologies. These have captured our interest and demanded much of our energy over the past two decades. Nevertheless, as the Zen koan to which Keen refers suggests, entry through these doorways is fraught with contradictions, paradoxes, and dilemmas that minds who seek quick fixes or believe that ail matters can be solved by rational inquiry will find frustrating. We attempt to provide the reader with an increased appreciation of these complexities, and provide a means whereby the senior executive, manager, or change agent can bring greater reliability and intentionality to his or her attempts to influence such

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INTRODUCTION

organizational forces as culture and values. Good working models provide a bridge between theory and action. Like all working models, ours is in a state of flux, so we would value comments from readers; your reactions will help us modify the model and make it more useful. Above all, this book represents a reflection on those things that intrigue us about people and the way they behave in groups and organizations, and it documents some of the insights and techniques that we have found useful in understanding and intervening in these phenomena. There is considerable risk in a brief study of organizational culture - especially a study that aims at practical application in organizational change - of oversimplifying the notion of culture. Organizational culture cannot really be dealt with simply. As Gareth Morgan explains, during the 1970s and 1980s the metaphor of organization as culture replaced the earlier metaphors of organization as machine, as organism and as brain. However, these earlier metaphors still pervade the thinking of many managers and leaders in private and public sector organizations. Many organizations still treat their people as cogs in a machine, a consequence of the mechanical metaphor. Now, as the environment of organizations changes at an ever faster rate, the usefulness of this image decreases. Yet it is surprisingly persistent. Accompanying the later metaphor of organization as living organism, it coexists with such organismic developments as systems theory, contingency theory, socio-technical analysis, work redesign, systems redesign, and the like. In this discussion of organizational culture we are not setting up the metaphor of culture as an alternative metaphor to the machine and the organism, competing with them in a contest to determine which model most adequately expresses the real nature of organizations. We do not believe that any of these images needs to be privileged over the others. In talking about organizations from within the metaphor of culture we are imagining organizations in a particular way, but it is a way that allows the meanings embedded in the other metaphors to be heard. Using the language of archetypal psychology to explore organizational culture enables us to acknowledge the metaphor in whatever we say about organizations; it enables us to acknowledge that organizations are both machines and organisms, and many other things besides; and it enables us to reflect on the images that shape our own reflections. It also gives

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us a way of discriminating between organizational cultures, with a view to designing intervention strategies that are specifically adapted to specific organizations in specific contexts. Our approach to organizations is determined not so much by what we think about them as by how we imagine them. In this book there are three key metaphors framing our discussion. One is a vertical metaphor. We imagine an organization through a metaphor of height and depth. Our reflections on this image are strongly influenced by the ideas of Edgar Schein, Carl Lundberg; and others who see organizational culture as manifested in layers or levels, from the hidden and unconscious to the obvious and conscious, and also on the work of Jean Gebser who distinguishes several structures of consciousness ranging from the least aware to the most aware. The second key image is a horizontal one. We see the culture of any organization manifesting a number of strands or dimensions set side by side, all of them having both conscious and unconscious elements. Our thinking about this leans heavily on the archetypal psychology of Carl Jung and James Hillman. Our third image is an evolutionary one. We imagine organizations, like all living forms, to have an innate tendency to move towards greater differentiation and greater complexity in spite of the many factors that inhibit or negate this tendency. In imagining organizations in this way we have been influenced by a wide range of thinkers, among whom we are most aware of Carl Rogers and Alfred North Whitehead. Finally, our experience supports the argument that it is possible to intervene in the culture of an organization in ways that change it, for better or for worse. We hope that what we have to say will provide some guidance for those who want to make organizations more creative, more productive, and more satisfying for those who dwell in them.

1. 2.

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J Hillman