Holding environments are interpersonal or group-based relationships that enable self-reliant workers to manage situations that trigger potentially debilitating anxiety. Working from a theoretical framework woven of concepts from developmental and clinical psychology, group dynamics, and organizational behavior, the author describes holding environments, the conditions that facilitate their creation, and the points at which they are vulnerable to failure. He also discusses the group, intergroup, and organizational contexts that shape the extent to which holding environments at work are realistic or desirable.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abram, J.
(1996). The language of Winnicott. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
2.
Alderfer, C. P.
(1980). Consulting to underbounded systems. In C. P. Alderfer & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Advances in experiential social processes (Vol. 2, pp. 267-295). New York: John Wiley.
3.
Alderfer, C. P.
(1987). An intergroup perspective on group dynamics. In J. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 190-222). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
4.
Argyris, C.
(1982). Reasoning, learning and action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
5.
Ashkenas, R.
, Ulrich, D., Jick, T., & Kerr, S. (1995). The boundaryless organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
6.
Balint, M.
(1954). Method and technique in the training of medical psychology. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 27, 37-41.
7.
Balint, M.
(1968). The basic fault. London: Tavistock.
8.
Berg, D. N.
(1998). Resurrecting the muse: Followership in organizations. In E. Klein, F. Gabelnick, & P. Herr (Eds.), The psychodynamics of leadership (pp. 27-52). Madison, CT: Psychosocial Press.
9.
Bion, W. R.
(1961). Experiences in groups. New York: Basic Books.
10.
Bolton, W.
, & Roberts, V. Z. (1994). Asking for help: Staff support and sensitivity groups re-viewed. In A. Obholzer & V. Z. Roberts (Eds.), The unconscious at work (pp. 156-165). New York: Routledge.
11.
Bowlby, J.
(1980). Attachment and loss (Vol. 3). New York: Basic.
12.
Bowlby, J.
(1988). The secure base. New York: Basic Books.
13.
Braxton, E. T.
(1995). Angry children, frightened staff: Implications for training and staff development. Residential Treatment for Children and Youth, 13(1), 13-28.
14.
Cohen, Y.
(1984). Residential treatment as a holding environment. Residential Group Care & Treatment, 2(3), 33-43.
15.
Erikson, E.
(1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
16.
Fletcher, J. K.
(1999). Disappearing acts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
17.
Gabarro, J. J.
(1987). The development of working relationships. In J. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 172-189). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
18.
Graen, G. B.
, & Scandura, T. A. (1987). Toward a psychology of dyadic organizing. Research in Organizational Behavior, 9, 175-208.
19.
Greenspan, S. I.
, & Lieberman, A. F. (1988). A clinical approach to attachment. In J. Belsky & T. Nezworkski (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 387-424). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
20.
Gustafson, J. P.
, & Cooper, L. (1985). Collaboration in small groups. In A. D. Colman & M. H. Geller (Eds.), Group relations reader 2 (pp. 139-150). Washington, DC: A. K. Rice.
21.
Hackman, J. R.
(1987). The design of work teams. In J. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 190-222). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
22.
Hakim, C.
(1994). We are all self-employed. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
23.
Halton, W.
(1994). Some unconscious aspects of organizational life: Contributions from psychoanalysis. In A. Obholzer & V. Z. Roberts (Eds.), The unconscious at work (pp. 11-18). London: Routledge.
24.
Handy, C.
(1994). The age of paradox. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
25.
Havens, L.
(1989). A safe place. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
26.
Heifetz, R.
(1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
27.
Hirschhorn, L.
(1990). Leaders and followers in a postindustrial age. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 26, 529-542.
28.
House, J. S.
(1981). Work stress and social support. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
29.
Josselson, R.
(1992). The space between us. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
30.
Jourard, S. M.
(1971). Self-disclosure. New York: John Wiley.
31.
Kahn, W. A.
(1992). To be fully there: Psychological presence at work. Human Relations, 45(4), 321-349.
32.
Kahn, W. A.
(1993). Caring for the caregivers: Patterns of organizational caregiving. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(4), 539-563.
33.
Kahn, W. A.
(1995). Organizational change and the provision of a secure base: Lessons from the field. Human Relations, 48(5), 489-514.
34.
Kahn, W. A.
(1998). Relational systems at work. In Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 20, pp. 39-76). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
35.
Kahn, W. A.
, & Kram, K. E. (1994). Authority at work: Internal models and their organizational consequences. Academy of Management Review, 19(1), 17-50.
36.
Kegan, R.
(1994). In over our heads. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
Klein, J.
(1987). Our need for others. London: Tavistock.
38.
Kohut, H.
(1977). The restoration of the self. Madison, CT: International University Press.
39.
Kotter, J.
(1995). The new rules. New York: Free Press.
40.
Kram, K. E.
(1983). Phases of the mentor relationship. Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 608-625.
41.
Kram, K. E.
(1996). A relational approach to career development. In D. T. Hall & Associates, The career is dead: Long live the career (pp. 132-157). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
42.
Lyth, I. M.
(1988). Containing anxiety in institutions. London: Free Association Books.
43.
McCollom, M. E.
(1990). Reevaluating group development. In M. McCollom & J. Gillette (Eds.), Groups in context (pp. 133-154). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
44.
Miller, A.
(1981). The drama of the gifted child. New York: Basic Books.
45.
Mirvis, P. H.
& Hall, D. T. (1996). New organizational forms and the new career. In D. T. Hall & Associates, The career is dead: Long live the career (pp. 72-101). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
46.
Modell, A.
(1976). The holding environment and the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 24, 285-307.
47.
Noddings, N.
(1984). Caring. Berkeley: University of California Press.
48.
Pines, A.
, & Aronson, E. (1988). Career burnout. New York: Free Press.
49.
Rogers, C. R.
(1958). The characteristics of a helping relationship. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 37, 6-16.
50.
Schein, E. H.
(1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
51.
Schneider, S. C.
(1991). Managing boundaries in organizations. In M. F. R. Kets de Vries & Associates (Eds.), Organizations on the couch (pp. 169-190). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
52.
Shapiro, E. R.
, & Carr, A. W. (1991). Lost in familiar places. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
53.
Smith, K. K.
, & Berg, D. N. (1987). Paradoxes of group life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
54.
Stein, H. F.
(1996). “She’s driving us nurses crazy!”: On solving the wrong problem as a consulting organizational psychologist. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48(1), 17-26.
55.
Thomas, D. A.
, & Alderfer, C. P. (1989). The influence of race on career dynamics: Theory and research on minority career experiences. In M. B. Arthur, D. T. Hall, & B. S. Lawrence (Eds.), Handbook of career theory (pp. 133-158). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
56.
Weiss, R. S.
(1982). Attachment in adult life. In C. Parkes & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds.), The place of attachment in human behavior (pp. 171-184). New York: Basic Books.
57.
Whalley, P.
(1994). Team approach to working through transference and counter-transference in a pediatric/psychiatric milieu. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 15(5), 457-469.
58.
Winnicott, D. W.
(1960). The theory of the parent-infant relationship. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 41, 585-595.
59.
Winnicott, D. W.
(1965). The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. New York: International University Press.
60.
Winnicott, D. W.
, & Britton, C. (1947). Residential management as treatment for difficult children. Human Relations, 1, 87-97.
