ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that profound transformation requires looking beyond the individual in order to understand organisational dysfunction, and identifies two crucial contributors to organisational behaviour which are often overlooked: the nature of the work itself, and the symbolic place a particular industry holds in ‘society’s mind’ at a particular time. These are illustrated through three examples: the insurance sector (selling a life ‘without risk’); a national electricity provider struggling to move from a command-and-control bureaucracy to a more agile collaborative way of working, which was linked to the risks, both real and fantasied, associated with the use of nuclear power; and a pharmaceutical company where the task of finding molecules to treat illnesses became perverted to developing new syndromes to fit molecules. In each case, consideration is given to what society looks to these sectors to do, consciously and unconsciously. The chapter concludes with the importance of ‘leading through purpose’ in order not to get pulled down by these societal projections.
