Transactional Analysis Journal

This article contrasts the history and rigorous requirements of traditional ethical standards governing therapist-client and teacher-student relationships with the more ambiguous and diverse standards necessary for work in training and organizational settings. Thirty-one ethical principles are proposed. The reader is invited to discover and confirm his or her personal code of ethics for organizational and training work.

This article describes the concept of organizational holistics, a practical application of the universal concept of holistics as it pertains to the two basic facets of organizational reality: matter (structure, results) and time (process, strategies, games). Examples are given of the use of this concept, and some implications for the consultant's role are described.

This article describes the evolution of the capitalist economic system and five organizational theories associated with it–the scientific, bureaucratic, human relations, systems, and contingency theories. Tenets of each are related to the transactional analysis concept of the Parent ego state, with occasional reference to the Adult and Child ego states. The mechanism for their relationship with TA is the definition of their policies, values, and behavioral rules as the Organizational Parent.

This article discusses the use of script theory in organizational settings and in the understanding of unconscious individual and group processes that may impair organizational effectiveness. The concept of organizational ideology is proposed as an alternative way to analyze external adaptation and internal integration in organizations. Four basic types of organizational scripts are presented.

This article discusses the difference between the individual and social dynamics of games as enunciated by Berne. It presents a format for integrating intrapsychic, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup analysis within organizations and offers several case studies. The characteristics of organizational games are highlighted by contrasting them with individual games and relating them to Berne's elements of organizational structure and dynamics.

Self-managing work teams are being introduced into corporations and businesses to reduce levels of management, to increase worker empowerment, and to foster cooperation and creativity. In some cases they work, and in others they fail, sometimes because teams are not given the kinds of tools needed to produce successful groups. This article describes both factors that give rise to self-managing teams and TA concepts and tools that are useful for team members to learn.