Leadership Is a Matter of Organisational Life and Death

Abstract

We use this quotation to open further discussions on reasons for the scarcity of ‘true’ teams in and outside of our organisations. One of these reasons is that group psychology could be called individuals-in-the-group psychology for which Chapter 5 provides an outline. We have found that working groups and teams especially, are left wanting because of mutual causation of paradoxical development. Eros and Thanatos in the group cause individual development that causes group dedevelopment that causes individual dedevelopment.

Notwithstanding the evidence of team performance all around us, the importance of teams in managing behavioural change and high performance, and the rewards of team experiences in everyday lives, the many people undervalue, forget, or openly question the team option when confronting their own performance challenges. We cannot fully explain this resistance; there are probably as many reasons and emotions as there are people. Moreover, we do not suggest that such resistance is either “bad” or “good.” We do, however, think that it is powerful because it is held in deeply held values of individualism that neither can nor should be entirely dismissed. (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993/2003, p. 20)