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Download Organizational Stress as a Barrier to
Trauma-Sensitive Change
Audio File: Dr. Bloom talks about the impact of
organizational stress (5 min)
Chronic organizational stress, including a history of
organizational trauma, can produce a spiraling set of consequences that produces
processes that are surprisingly
parallel to the impact of chronic stress on individuals.
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Social
service systems today are experiencing significant stress.
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(CHRONIC
STRESSORS: HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT)
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In
many helping organizations, neither the staff nor the administrators feel
particularly safe with their clients or even with each other.
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Atmospheres
of recurrent or constant crisis severely constrain the ability of staff to
constructively confront problems, engage in complex problem-solving, and involve
all levels of staff in decision making processes – or even talk to each other
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(LOSS
OF EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT).
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Communication
networks tend to break down under stress and as this occurs, service delivery
becomes increasingly fragmented.
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(DISSOCIATION,
FRAGMENTATION)
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When
communication networks break down so too do the feedback loops that are
necessary for consistent and timely error correction.
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As
decision-making becomes increasingly non-participatory and problem solving more
reactive an increasing number of short-sighted policy decisions are made that
appear to compound existing problems.
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Unresolved
interpersonal conflicts increase and are not resolved.
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(IMPOVERISHED
RELATIONSHIPS)
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As
the situation feels increasingly out of control, organizational leaders become
more controlling, instituting ever more punitive measures in an attempt to
forestall chaos
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As
the organization becomes more hierarchical there is a progressive and
simultaneous isolation of leaders and a “dumbing down” of staff.
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(DISEMPOWERMENT,
HELPLESSNESS)
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Staff
respond to the perceived punitive measures instituted by leaders by acting-out
and passive-aggressive behaviors.
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Over
time, leaders and staff lose sight of the essential purpose of their work
together and derive less and less satisfaction and meaning from the work.
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(LOSS
OF MEANING, PURPOSE, SENSE OF FORESHORTENED FUTURE)
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Standards
of care deteriorate and quality assurance standards are lowered in an attempt to
deny or hide this deterioration.
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When
this spiral is occurring, staff feel increasingly angry, demoralized, “burned
out”, helpless and hopeless about the people they are working to serve.
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Ultimately,
if this destructive sequence is not arrested, the organization begins to look
and act in uncannily similar ways to the traumatized clients it is supposed to
be helping.
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(SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
BEHAVIOR, REENACTMENT, FORE-SHORTENED FUTURE, LOSS OF CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING)
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The
Result……………………………… "Organizational Complex Stress Disorder"
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