Scapegoating in Small Groups: An Organizational Approach

Abstract

We present findings from a videotape study of naturally occurring scapegoating incidents in a Tavistock Group Relations Training Conference. Videotape recordings of three successive sessions from each of four study groups revealed nine scapegoating incidents. We offer an empirical description of the incidents together with a sociopsychological theoretical analysis. Aspects of the tasks, social structure, and culture of the group-relations training conference as a temporary organization led to a reliance upon the projective identification of work difficulties into individuals who were then scapegoated. We identify the phenomenon of task displacement in which groups whose task performance is inherently hard to measure unwittingly shift their emphasis from achievement to conformity. This may be a general phenomenon in HEW-type organizations of which the group-relations training conference is one.