Copies of research reports and articles are available on request. Click here for contact details.

Research Reports

Executive Summaries of the following project reports are available from Innovative Practice. For the full reports, please contact the respective government department noted for each title.

• A Step in the Right Direction: Evaluation of the Change Process for Integrated Oral Health Services, action research conducted for Department of Human Services, 2007


• A Seat at the Table: Evaluation of Collaborative Initiatives in Hume Region, action research conducted in collaboration with FourLeaf Consulting on behalf of Hume Regional Management Forum, 2007.


• Community Partnerships Action Research, conducted for Sport and Recreation Victoria, 2002.

Published Books and Articles

Allan Shafer (in press, due 2012) Introducing Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Emotional Engagement in the Therapeutic Relationship. London, Open University Press.

Allan Shafer (in press, 2011) What is the value of money? in Towards a Socioanalysis of Money, Finance and Capitalism: Beneath the Surface of the Financial Industry, edited by S Long and B. Sievers. London, Routledge.

Brigid Nossal (2010) The Use of Drawing in Socio-Analytic Exploration, Socio-Analysis 12: pp. 77 - 92  Click here to download

This paper argues for the enduring power and utility of drawing as a tool in socio-analytic and systems psychodynamic consultancy and research. Through presenting the responses from interviews with 12 experienced practitioners in the field, it documents the use of drawing in some detail and in so doing, serves as a guide to practice. The idea is presented that this method for engaging clients in socio-analytic exploration generates important data about the emotional dimension of experience in organisations, offers a way to promote a ‘mind’ in the client for the work and, most significantly, creates opportunities for learning and transformation.

Jinette de Gooijer (2010) Drawing down the blinds on reflection: what is to be shut out, or in? in The Reflective Citizen: Organizational and Social Dynamics, edited by Laurence J Gould, Aideen Lucy and Lionel Stapley, London: Karnac Books.

The concern of this chapter is on the use and experience of reflection in organisational work, whether this be from the role of consultant or manager. Its purpose is to examine the concept and practice of reflection from the perspective of social and political relations in organisations, and to consider the unconscious processes which may transpire from consultancy engagements. The working hypothesis is that engaging people in organisations to reflect on their work experiences is a social and political act that arouses feelings of vulnerability for the individual and the group.

Jinette de Gooijer (2009) The Murder in Merger: A Systems Psychodynamic Exploration of a Corporate Merger. London: Karnac Books. Price $50, plus postage. Available also from Karnac Books. A merger of organisations, or of business divisions within an enterprise, is a radical change to the identities of the existing enterprises. Attachments are broken and need to be reformed, experiences of loss and gain prevail. Projective processes of splitting, fears of annihilation and anxieties about loss of loved objects are typical of some of the primitive impulses invoked by a merger. These processes are equally present for intra-organisational mergers. Mergers and acquisitions carry the primitive hope of pairing: that the two will generate new life. The psychodynamic processes of this pairing, and the primitive impulses unleashed by them, are rarely considered by those who are charged with managing the implementation, even when popular business literature commonly cites a high failure rate of mergers. What is more often experienced in reality is that the merger is a takeover – one firm’s management, systems, processes, work values and culture dominates the other; the identity of the second firm is virtually obliterated as a result. Understandably, members of the subordinate firm are likely to feel disenfranchised or annihilated. Similar dynamics are observable on a smaller scale when organisations restructure and merge functional units or work groups. An article based on the research documented in this book is currently in press, due November 2011: ‘Chapter 1, Murderous mergers’ in Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Modern World, edited by H. Brunning. London, Karnac Books.

Wendy Harding and Brigid Nossal (2008) The opening up of a different space: ORA from the client's perspective. Socio Analysis 10: pp. 51 - 64

Organisational Role Analysis (ORA) is a consultancy method aimed at developing capabilities in work role.ORA works at the intersection of the person and the system dynamics as experienced by the client. Through a small qualitative study the experiences of four women ORA clients are explored. Overall the study shows ORA as a helpful intervention for the women and their organisations. Themes cover 'contracting and entering an ORA', 'task focus of the ORA' and 'the relational space between the ORA consultant and the client'. Discussion of the themes illuminates what was important for the clients in the ORA experience and what was less helpful.

Allan Shafer (2006) Group Relations and the Politics of Engagement in Dare to think the unthought known? International Perspectives on Group Relations (Festschrift for Gouranga Chattopadhyay), edited by A Mathur Finland: Aivoairut Oy.

Stanley Gold (2006) Are the Basic Assumptions Basic? Organizational and Social Dynamics, 6(1) pp. 86 - 94.

Stanley Gold (2004) Harold Bridger: Conversations and Recollections, Part 1 and 2 (with Lisl Klein) Organizational and Social Dynamics, 4(1): pp. 1-21; and 4(2): pp. 173-190

Stanley Gold (2004) Swimming With Sharks: The Politics of Survival in the Large Group, Socio-Analysis, 6: pp 1 - 19

Jinette de Gooijer (2003) An exploration of the dynamics of emotional connectedness in a matrix structure, Socio-analysis, 5: pp 88-104.

In this paper a case study of a large professional services firm employing over 50,000 staff across the globe is explored. The focus is on those staff who live in the Australia-New Zealand region of the firm and their emotional connectedness at work. The multi-matrix structure of the organisation is aimed at connecting people through group membership, but the reality is that few staff experience these groups as real. Additionally, these groups are designed to provide containment for work aspects, such as professional development, service delivery and sales. Staff experience these aspects as being contained by personal relationships with individuals, rather than in the relatedness within or between groups.

Conference presentations

Stanley Gold (2010) The Transfer of Evil. Paper presented at ISPSO 2010 Annual Meeting Symposium, Denmark. Explores the dynamics of scapegoating in organisations, and has application for understanding the processes of bullying.

Allan Shafer (2008) Managing or Caring: Cultural Systemic Obstacles to the Management of Mental Health Organisations. Paper presented to the 8th International Conference Organisational Behaviour in Health Care, Sydney.

Jinette de Gooijer (2000), 'Emotional contact in computer-mediated communication', Paper presented at AISA Scientific Conference, Canberra.

 

Unpublished Papers and Works-in-Progress

Jinette de Gooijer (2000) Virtual Communities: A conceptual exploration.
Jinette de Gooijer (1998) Understanding the Forces of Change: an exploration of theories and curiosities.