Organisations Get Stuck Too

Abstract

It is clear from work carried out in psychotherapy and family therapy, that individuals and families get stuck because an impasse develops between a conscious desire for change and an unconscious desire to avoid change. The authors consider how this can apply to groups and organisations. It is assumed that organisations are living organisms with conscious and unconscious processes. Five different ways in which organisations “get stuck” are identified and the interventions appropriate to each particular organisation blockage are described.