Chapter 12: Psychodynamic Approach

Overview

• Psychodynamic Approach Perspective

• The Clinical Paradigm
• History of the Psychodynamic Approach
• Key Concepts and Dynamics within the
Psychodynamic Approach
• How Does the Psychodynamic Approach Work?

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Description
• Leadership involves harnessing the complex
forces and dynamics at play in organizations.
• Constantly shifting and irrational forces underlie
seemingly rational behaviors and choices.
• Approach acknowledges that people are
complex, unique and paradoxical beings with
rich and myriad motivational drivers.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 The Clinical Paradigm
• Four basic premises:
1) There is a rationale behind every human act
2) A great deal of mental life lies outside of
conscious awareness
3) Most central part of a person is the way he or
she regulates and expresses emotions
4) We are all products of our past experiences

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History

Freud
- Neurotic symptoms manifest a person’s inner drivers
- Acting-out behaviors help us understand the unconscious
- Repetition of certain dysfunctional patterns suggests
motivational undercurrents that affect decision making
- Didn’t apply his ideas to the working world

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History

London Tavistock Institute

- Among the first to apply psychoanalytic concepts to
organizational life
- Studied the unconscious functioning of the group as a
whole rather than as aggregate of individuals
- Hidden dynamics within organizations influence
leadership through socio-technical systems, industrial
democracy, defense systems against anxiety, social
dreaming, and organizational roles 17 year study of
Glacier Metal in Scotland

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History

Menninger Clinic (Menninger and Levinson)

- Mid-1950s conducted extensive national survey of
mental health problems in industries and recommended
how to solve them
- Offered weeklong seminars for executives to help them
understand why people act as they do
- Levinson linked failure of managers to contain anxieties of
workers to employee depression and low productivity
- Levinson developed concept of the “psychological
contract”

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History
Zaleznik
- Influenced group of scholars interested in combining
organizational studies with psychoanalysis (e.g.,
Kets de Vries, Kakar, Laurin, and others)
- Argued that business focused too much on process
and structure and not enough on ideas and emotion
- Leaders should relate to followers in more
empathetic and intuitive ways.
- Seminal study – The Neurotic Organization (Kets de
Vries & Miller) proposed that neuroses of a top
leader can be recreated throughout the organization
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History

Hirschhorn
- Used the term “applied clinical practice” to describe
organizational consulting interventions that included
diagnostic methods and actions based on clinical
psychology
- The Workplace Within: Psychodynamics of organizational
Life (1988) – understanding the irrational and emotional
character of organizations
- Proposed working with real clients on practical outcomes
by addressing the hidden and unconscious mechanisms
underlying patterns of organizational behavior
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History

Mitscherlich
- Applied psychoanalytic principles to post–WWII society
- Society without the Father, The Inability to Mourn –
shaped Germany’s analyses of the causes of their war
- Opened field of social psychology to a broader audience
- How fantasies, projections, identifications, suppression,
repression, and idealization play out in groups

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 History

Summary
- Field has come a long way since Freud to apply
concepts to functioning of leaders in organizations
- Psychoanalytic techniques and theory have become
increasingly sophisticated
- Interfacing with other domains such as anthropology,
neuroscience, cognitive theory, family systems theory,
and so on
- Many components of theory have been empirically
tested and verified
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

1) Focus on the inner theater

- Inner theatre is stage filled with people who have
influenced our lives for better or worse
- Early experiences with key individuals contribute to
creation of response patterns that tend to repeat
themselves
- “Core conflictual relationship themes” (CCRT) develop
over time and carry over into adulthood
- We act out these themes in the workplace
- Understanding a person’s CCRT helps us understand
the motivation behind his or her behavior and key
relationship conflicts and works to align his or her deep
wishes with more productive interpersonal relationships
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

2) Focus on leader-follower relationships

- Wilfrid Bion (1959), three basic assumptions in groups:
dependency, fight-flight, pairing
- These behaviors may result in regressive processes,
deflecting people from tasks to be performed
- Unconscious assumption 1: People may unconsciously
expect organizations or leaders to offer parental
protection and guidance, and so give up their autonomy,
thus hindering their critical thinking and initiative.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concept: Leader-Follower Relationships

- Unconscious assumption 2: The organizational world is

dangerous and participants must use fight-or-flight as a
defense mechanism.
- Creates a bipolar view of the world: friend or foe, in-
group/out-group. Results in a sense of unity but makes
the group more dependent on the leader.
- Unconscious assumption 3: Pairing up with a powerful
person or subgroup will help a person cope with anxiety,
alienation, and loneliness. Pairing may result in splitting
and intra- and inter-group conflict, or ganging up against
a leader perceived as aggressor.
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

Social Defense Mechanisms

- Organizational life is filled with fear and unpredictability
- When organizational anxiety is not properly managed,
people may act out (splitting, projection, displacement,
denial)
- Typically, executives rely on existing structures and
processes to contain anxiety
- These bureaucratic routines end up creating obstacles
and create employee detachment

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

Mirroring and Idealizing

- Mirroring: Taking our cues about being and behaving
from those around us.
- Can become collusive: Followers are eager to use their
leaders to reflect what they would like to see. Leaders
find affirmation of followers hard to resist. Result—
leaders may act to shore up image rather than serve
organizational needs.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

Identification with the Aggressor

- Faced with a superior force, people sometimes feel the
need to become like that force, to protect themselves.
- In the extreme, those who have been threatened
become those making threats.
- Leader sees people either for or against him/her.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

Folie a Deux
- Shared madness
- Collusion where a dominant person’s delusions are
adopted by other members of the organization.
- Leader whose capacity for reality testing is impaired may
transfer delusions to followers who, in order to minimize
conflict, sacrifice truth and honest criticism to maintain a
connection with the leader.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Key Concepts

3) Focus on the Shadow Side of Leadership

- Narcissism: Behaviors that range from normal self-
interest to pathological self-absorption.
- Constructive narcissists are well-balanced, have healthy
self-esteem, capacity for introspection and empathy.
Inspire others to be better and even change what they
do.
- Reactive narcissists are fixated on issues of power,
status, and superiority. Don’t tolerate disagreement and
criticism; rarely consult with others.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 How Does the Psychodynamic Approach
Work?
• An effective organization needs to understand the
complexity of why leaders act the way they do
• People differ in their motivational patterns
• Leaders and followers are not one-dimensional but
complex and paradoxical
• The essence of leadership is the ability to use
motivational patterns to influence others
• Leadership also has a dark side, and success can
come from unexpected places; it is not entirely
rational
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 How Does the Psychodynamic Approach
Work?
• Challenge is to relate psychodynamic theory to
other organizational theories
• Focusing solely on unconscious motivations of
individuals and groups limits application to larger
systems
• Focusing solely on large systems may overlook
sources of motivation and energy of individuals
who make up the system

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Strengths

• Addresses undercurrents of organizational life

• Develops personal insight on the part of the
leader
• Involves an in-depth and systemic investigation
of a single person, group, event, or community
• Focuses on the underlying drivers of leaders
and followers

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Criticisms

• Much of early work based on clinical observation

of people with mental illness.
• Does not lend itself to training in the
conventional sense. No standard solution for
every individual.
• Situates the intervention at the individual level;
more structural and systemic organizational
issues remain in the background.

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Application
• Peer group coaching: Participants work together to
uncover blind spots, challenge one another, identify
behavior for change, and experiment with new
behavior in their workplace.
• Tipping points for change: When participants
make a connection between their current choices in
life, see discrepancies in their lives, and work to
realign those.
• Consultant and client work together to address
social defenses with the aim of healing
organizational neurosis.
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Application
• Group Coaching
• External group facilitator
• Pre-intervention interviews with participants to identify
major issues and complete 360-degree feedback
surveys
• Day of intervention: Self-portrait exercise; 360-degree
feedback discussion; two-way dialogue for person in the
“hot seat”; voicing one’s commitment to change
• Follow-up: Group becomes mutually invested in
encouraging new behaviors; encourages courageous
conversations; people learn how to give and receive
feedback
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Application

Processes to bring about tipping points for change

1. Cathartic experiences
2. Mutual identification
3. Psychodynamic lens
4. Willingness to experiment
5. Vicarious learning
6. Real community
7. Collective learning
8. Altruistic motive

Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. © 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc.