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This paper aims to demonstrate the value of combining the strategic planning process with psychoanalytically informed interpretation through an exploratory case study.

The authors present their experiences and findings from a consulting engagement that began as a strategic planning assignment and soon evolved into an opportunity to explore unconscious forces inhibiting organizational change. The authors, trained in both areas, chose to infuse the two into a combined process that ultimately benefited the organization and suggested novel ways to think about the common process of strategic planning going forward.

The organization's strategic planning process was considerably enhanced, and its outcomes sustained, by illuminating the unconscious forces at work, particularly as they pertain to issues of power and authority in a male organizational culture found to have a profound negative influence upon the quality of the work environment and employee morale. Findings suggest that without a psychoanalytically informed approach, strategic planning would have failed to produce sustainable change.

While the findings reported are from a single case study, the themes explored are likely shared across multiple organizations. There is, therefore, significant potential in combining strategic planning with a psychoanalytic approach to improve organizational effectiveness and employee morale.

Although common in organizations, strategic planning is rarely augmented with psychoanalytic insights. This case study is the first of its kind to show how the two interventions may complement each other.

This paper describes how Avoidant Organization Disorder, a common form of narcissism, thwarts organizational health and performance. Avoidant Organization Disorder is juxtaposed with interruptions in organizational learning. A model illustrating the possible relationship between the two and how Avoidant Organization Disorder may precipitate interruptions in organization learning is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to present a psychoanalytical approach to dealing with organizational inertia.

The concept of organizational inertia is defined and factors contributing to insight inertia and action inertia are delineated.

It was found that applying psychoanalytically informed theory provides alternative insight into dealing with organizational inertia.

The paper illustrates how human nature influences the workplace in general and contributes to organizational inertia in particular.

This article aims to present an alternative approach to diagnosing behavioral barriers to organizational learning.

The paper juxtaposes interruptions in organizational learning with characteristics of narcissism and arrogant organization disorder. Psychoanalytically informed theory and DSM‐IV criteria are applied to interruptions in organizational learning and an alternative approach to diagnosing behavioral barriers to organizational learning is suggested.

This paper illustrates how managers might account for human failings when considering organizational learning in less than ideal settings.

This paper demonstrates how informed psychoanalytical theory can be applied to the learning organization and provides a framework from which to diagnose and deal with arrogant organization disorder.

The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of communities of practice from a psychoanalytically informed perspective.

The concept of communities of practice is defined, their working described, and negative attributes delineated.

The paper finds that through the exploitation of basic skills, the development and sharing of a shared language, incorporation of previous relevant experience and current information over time, the community of practice becomes more open. The group is better able to combine existing knowledge with emerging understandings.

Psychoanalytically informed theory is applied to provide alternative insight into communities of practice and how they impede organizational progress.

The paper illustrates how human nature influences the workplace in general and contributes to the working of communities of practice in particular.

This paper broadens and extends the idea of organizational death by arguing that certain organizational site moves, those in which employees hold a strong place attachment to the to be left, are a form of organizational death. It argues for the utility of viewing organizational change as involving loss and including space in studies of everyday organizational experiences. Using ethnographic research (participant‐observation and in‐depth interviews with the employees) of one such organization (the “Coffee House”) and a negotiated‐order perspective, discusses employee beliefs as to how the site move should have been managed as a means to document their understanding of the move as a loss experience and as a form of organizational death.