ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the violent nature of organizational culture. There are also more sweeping forms of organizational violence, such as downsizing and postmerger restructuring. The nature of this and other forms of organizational violence can be further understood from the perspective of four cultural quadrants-narcissism, arrogance, dependence, and avoidance. Much like the corporate world, the public sector is often combined, recombined, cut down, eliminated, and outsourced. The pursuit of good feelings leads to a partial leadership void that spans all levels of the organization. Cultures of dependency share some of the attributes of cultures of avoidance, although the underlying individual, interpersonal, and organizational dynamics differ qualitatively based on the underlying basic assumptions. Cultures of organizational violence create the experiential context for this alienating self-experience, which must be compartmentalized in order for organizational members to have a psychic life. Psychic life is juxtaposed with organizational life to examine the interplay of the psyche and the workplace.
