ABSTRACT
This chapter explore questions of citizenship from an organizational perspective. Of the multiple roles people carry in their organizations, three prominent roles have been evolving dramatically in character and importance as we shift into the digital age. These are the work role, the role of organization citizen, and the professional role. The chapter discusses that the idea of reflective citizenship is more suited to twentieth-century organizations, and that the idea of deliberative citizenship is more suited to the emerging twenty-first century enterprises. Organizational citizenship, as a form of relatedness, connects people with the fundamental emotional dynamics that shape the meaning and experience of specific institutions. Bion’s Basic Assumptions are unconscious fantasy states that bind people together to pursue shared purposes, ideally in alignment with the overt task-based purposes of the enterprise. Bion regarded the emotional challenges posed by membership in any group as being political in nature.
