ABSTRACT
Transactional analysis thinkers such as B. Schmid have emphasized the relevance of context and role. This chapter argues that the importance of Schmid's work is to emphasize how all contexts require roles, and so contexts shape the personality through the relational experiences gathered while inhabiting such roles. It discusses the terms context, setting, organization, workplace, scene, and stage are used interchangeably, and it is the systemic aspects of these; that is, the infrastructures created in a setting which become inherent to it. The chapter examines Eric Berne's original ideas about the nature of organizations, and the relationship between individuals and such systems. Different cultural layers which affect an individual can provide script injunctions: for example, hierarchical social class embedded within a culture might carry subtle messages about belonging. Individual proclivities, including protocols and script, may seem key in an individual feeling drawn to a particular type of work role.
