ABSTRACT
This chapter further explores group relations. Group relations conferences examine authority and leadership within groups and organisations, which can often generate defensive mechanisms such as transference, often relating to individuals’ early life experiences. Group relations staff are experts in working with transference and counter-transference as well as interpreting a group's unconscious dynamics, working with boundaries, working within role and task, and with the group as a whole rather than examining individual phenomena. They are skilled in generating working hypotheses; interpreting ‘what is going on’ and inviting groups to explore and consider this. Group relations as applied to organisational consultancy often involves working with collective defences and examining relations between members of a group as well as their relatedness to institution and task. A consultant will notice what is going on covertly and will examine the distribution and enactment of authority within an organisation, in comparison to how this is formally allotted. A consultant's interpretations, rather than being given in a diagnostic manner, are fed back to the organisation in the form of seminars and discussion groups which allow a free exchange of ideas and reactions to the material presented.
