ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a detailed definition of organisations and what goes on within them. “A truly comprehensive understanding of organisations comes about through the help of concepts derived from systems psychodynamics and psychoanalysis”. Organisations are described as ecosystems which, by collective effort, produce goods, services or functions. They are made up of people with requisite skills for certain tasks; involve cooperative work and are made of groups of people who fit well into teams and are willing to work together, facing the challenges of economic and social trends. Organisational life can provide emotional connectedness, loyalty and cohesion as well as frustrations which can require re-ordering of thinking and behaviour. They are places in which technology is developed and work systems are organised; affecting the way people experience themselves, their social identities, their work and society. Organisations are containers of desires, ambitions, pride, passions and love, and can be sources of anxiety about potential failure to achieve these. As well as fulfilling human needs, they can be the source of frustration that individuality may be used for the organisation's collective purposes. Those in leadership positions can mediate these conflicting feelings and make decisions for the greatest good.
