|
|
|
|
The level of emotional intelligence in an organization is likely to determine how rapidly and effectively a group manages a common but largely unconscious phenomenon known as “collective disturbance”, a specific form of parallel process. In sociological studies of the mental hospital and the democratic therapeutic community dating back to the 1950’s, it became clear to researchers that individual patients who became the focus of attention on a psychiatric unit were those who were the subject of unexpressed staff conflict and that as soon as the staff conflict was surfaced, the individual patients’ behavior improved. Similarly, collective disturbances involving several patients or an entire unit could be traced to conflicts originating near the top of the institutional hierarchy and the intensity of emotional interpersonal conflict could be followed down through the staff and into the patient community. These originating conflicts usually seemed to revolve around disagreements between the priorities of institutional purposes or incompatibility between a given purpose and some institutional need. The signs of an impending collective crisis were abundant: errors in technique, doors left unlocked, messages forgotten, increased absenteeism frequently due to functional illness, staff preoccupation with problems of or with other staff, increased withdrawal by key staff members, increased sense of helplessness, breakdown in communication, missing or canceling meetings, inability to make decisions and finally, a sense that “something bad is going to happen”. If the evolving crisis was not attended to and resolved, violence on the part of several, although not all, patients would be the result If the managers and staff members were able to confront their own unspoken conflicts they could prevent or at least terminate a collective disturbance and in doing so, reduce the level of violence within the therapeutic community.
|
|
Send mail to
webmaster@SanctuaryWeb.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
