ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the meaning of enterprises with passion. It discusses the hypothesis that Group Relations conferences are not business but enterprises with passion and that this does not allow further development especially for new audiences and markets. The chapter presents some evidence about the hypothesis from some specific issues: recruitment, international versus national conferences, staffing, and ambivalence and ambiguity in relation to the aim of the Group Relations conferences. It suggests that friendships, often deep and intimate and at the same time quite complicated, play an important role in our community and impact our culture and that of our organisation, although one does not acknowledges it publicly. The chapter also suggests the need for more understanding and management of the Group Relations community and network as a whole. The theme of friendship leads us to the issue of horizontal and vertical relationships and different ways of taking up roles and authority in contemporary organisations.
