Embrace the Organisation Unconscious: The Next Steps for Change Leaders and Organisation Development Practitioners

Abstract

The move from an ‘A-rational’ world to the rational can be traced to the seventeenth century, in particular to the contribution of Rene Descartes, who advocated what is now known as the Cartesian view, which deifies the rational, the objective and the measurable. The problem with this advocacy was that all aspects of what did not seem rational got marginalised. This marginalisation has led, over the last couple of centuries, to a sense of disenchantment, fragmentation and ‘exclusionary processes’ in society, organisations and in general all human systems.

Carl Jung’s pioneering work on the unconscious offers us a way out of this by beckoning us to revisit and reimagine the ‘A-rational’ in a way that brings vibrancy and aliveness to organisations. By envisaging the ‘Organisation Psyche’ and by learning to work with aspects of the ‘Organisation Unconscious’, such as the ‘Organisation Shadow’ and ‘Symbolic Complexes’, it may be possible to discover new integrative paths for change leaders and organisation development (OD) practitioners alike, to adopt to bring in a new sense of endeavour, volition and adventure for organisations and their agents.