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Human Relations
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The Systems Psychodynamics of a Joint Venture: Anxiety Social Defenses, and the Management of Mutual Dependence

Laurence J. Gould

Department of Psychology, The City College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York; 175 West 72 Street, #11E, New York, New York 10023.

Robert Ebers

lmpletec, Mt. Sinai, New York.

Ross McVicker Clinchy

State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York.

Joint ventures, mergers and other forms of organizational alliances are rapidly becoming a business necessity. However, on an almost daily basis, experience suggests that such alliances often pose critical dilemmas for those entering into them. Central among these are collaborating across differences in organizational cultures and forging a new organizational identity. At a deeper level, there are also often paranoid concerns and fantasies about the long-term lack of equity in the transfer of knowledge and capability. This paper, therefore, outlines a systems psychodynamic perspective on intergroup and interorganizational relationships for developing an in-depth understanding of some common irrational and emotional difficulties alliance relationships face. It then goes on to describe an illustrative case and concludes with an appraisal of the advantages of a systems psychodynamic conceptual perspective-taking both structure and process into account-which has been neglected or minimized in the literature on organizational alliances.

Key Words: institutional alliances • organizational identity • social defenses • organizational design

Human Relations, Vol. 52, No. 6, 697-722 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679905200602


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