ABSTRACT
Part I of the book makes several references to the in¯uence of the organisation in which the staff support group is set. Michael Maher's chapter goes further by illustrating how behaviour is a product of the organisation, and his approach to working with it. He writes about establishing staff support groups for different teams in a single organisation, and offers an understanding of how a strategic decision to offer staff support groups is affected by the organisational dynamics. His aim for staff support groups to `make more aspects of the work open to authentic discourse' echoes the aim stated in Chapter 1 `to enable staff to use the full range of their emotional responses in the service of the task'. Maher introduces the systemic model, which gives the reader another way of conceptualising and working with group process. He is clear that working towards this aim can take years, as does the deeper aim of cultural change. Interestingly, his ®nding that half of staff bene®ted from support groups is consistent with our conclusion in Chapter 8 from the research evidence on staff support groups in general.
