Social defense structures in organizations: how A lack of authorization keeps managers from moving to transformational leadership

Abstract

The systems psychodynamic perspective was used to explore the functioning of a management team at one of the plants of a South African production company experiencing change. The focus was on the impact of social defenses on the leadership style being exercised. During a day long consultation session with the team a dynamic of control and dependency was observed. The transactional culture that can be regarded as “normal,” in this environment, actually became part of a defense strategy, resulting in dependency and a lack of authorization that limited the use of transformational leadership. A lack of clarity in terms of role and boundary definitions furthermore resulted in a struggle in terms of interrelatedness and a lack of interdependent functioning at a system's level.

Citation

van Eeden, R. and Cilliers, F. (2009), "Social defense structures in organizations: how A lack of authorization keeps managers from moving to transformational leadership", International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 475-501. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-12-03-2009-B004