ABSTRACT
The study of social defences systems in organizations has tended to focus on task-related anxiety. This chapter explores the way in which anxiety to do with the wider societal context to social defence systems in organizations. It proposes that the performance culture of large corporate organizations carries unconscious anxiety and defences, which are connected to the wider social context and serve the purpose of attempting to protect people from inner conflicts related to the societal context of work. The chapter suggests that the performance culture produces superficial ways of functioning similar to second-skin-type defences that distort reality. The superficiality of the performance culture is a significant aspect of social defence systems in contemporary organizations, creating a kind of systemic blindness. The chapter argues that instrumental thinking and ways of functioning have been privileged over more substantive ways of thinking in contemporary organizations.
