1st Edition
Doing the Business of Group Relations Conferences Exploring the Discourse
Group Relations conferences offer opportunities to learn about group, organisational and social dynamics; the exercise of authority and power; the interplay between tradition, innovation and change; and the relationship of organisations to their social, political and economic environments.
This book, the fifth in a series of Tavistock Group Relations Conferences, contains a collection of papers presented at the fifth Belgirate conference, plus three additional papers reflecting on and making sense of several participants’ conference experiences. Taken together, these chapters study the discourse of Group Relations conferences as well as reflecting on the changing nature and shifting patterns of this discourse. In Doing the Business of Group Relations Conferences, authors reflect on the vicissitudes of meanings this expression generates.
Foreword; Introduction; Section I: Exploring the Discourse of Psychoanalysis in Group Relations; 1.1 ‘Complacency: The Defence of the privileged’, Julian Lousada; 1.2 ‘Fifty Ways to Use (and Abuse) the Unconscious: An Invitation to a (Sincere and Thorough) Discussion about Certain Defences Employed in the Group Relations Community’, Daphna Bahat; 1.3 ‘Has the World Changed? Has Group Relations Changed? Considerations of the Group Relations Movement in a Postmodern World’, Bernard Gertler; Section II: Exploring the Discourse of Organisation (B-A-R-T) in Group Relations; 2.1 ‘Doing Business Together: Lateral and Vertical Relations in the Institutional Partnering for a Group Relations Conference’, Jinette De Gooijer; 2.2 ‘The Yoga Event: an important here-and-now event in the Group Relations Conference bouquet’, Rachel Kelly and Zahid Hoosein Gangee; 2.3 ‘Administration: Where the Business of Group Relations Begins and Ends’, Gordon Strauss, Neil Neidhardt and Victoria T.Y. Moore; 2.4 ‘A Conference in the Shadow of War - A Sealed Room or a Safe Area?’, Miri Tsadock and Saliem Khaliefi; Section III: Exploring the Discourse of Business in Group Relations; 3.1 ‘Group Relations Conferences: can enterprises with passion become businesses?’, Louisa Diana Brunner; 3.2 ‘Political, Ethical and Historical Dilemmas in Building a Group Relations Institution’, Eduardo Acuna and Matias Sanfuentes; 3.3 ‘Beijing Group Relations Conference 2014: Cross-cultural Learning and Implications for the Future’, Seth Harkins, Huang Xaiochang, Suma Jacob, Dannielle Kennedy, Victoria Te You Moore, John Robertson, Jeffrey D. Roth and Jeanne M.S.T. Woon; 3.4 ‘Running in-house Group Relations Conferences in and with Client Systems Characteristics, Opportunities and Risks’, Barbara Langler Özdemir and Huseyin Özdemir; 3.5 ‘The Tragedy of the Commons: what might it tell us about systemic issues in the World of Group Relations?’, Ugo Merlone and John Wilkes; Section IV: Post conference Reflections; 4.1 ‘Morning Reflections, Dreams and Associations at the Belgirate Conference 2015’, Anuradha Prasad and Mannie Sher; 4.2 'Dissing this course, or the curse of discourse? Reflection chapter for book from Belgirate V', Rune Rønning and Evangeline Sarda; 4.3 'It Takes a Village to Raise a Director’, Jeffrey D. Roth
Biography
Eliat Aram has been CEO of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) for 10 years. She has directed the Institute’s Leicester Conference for almost a decade 2007‒2015 and contributes her experience in directing and staffing GRCs internationally.
Coreene Archer, Consultant, executive coach and senior manager at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) since 2007. Co-Director of the Coaching for Leadership and Professional Development course and Director of the Launching Young Leaders group relations conference.
Rachel Kelly, BA, MSTAT, is the Professional Development Manager at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and a Teacher of the Alexander Technique. She manages/promotes the institute’s courses and conferences, including the annual group relations Leicester Conference: Task Authority Organisation.
Gordon Strauss represents the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI) on the Management and Administrative Team for the Belgirate conferences. He is a former AKRI Board member and has attended all of the Belgirate conferences since they began in 2003.
Joseph Triest (PhD), Training Psychoanalyst (IPS; IPA), Clinical Psychologist. Past president of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society, Lecturer at Tel Aviv University and founder of ‘Triest-Sarig Clinic’; Co-Director of the Program in Organizational Consultation and Development – A Psychoanalytic-Systemic Approach; Member of OFEK, Israel.
"I have experienced GRCs in different roles for almost half a century and tried to embrace my experiences as a personal living methodology - albeit with some success. Many chapters of this book presented me with new challenges that in rather old age are forcing me to start reinventing myself once more, all over again!" --Gouranga P. Chattopadhyay, Emeritus Professor, Academy of Human Resource, Ahmedabad, India.
"This book holds no punches in its thoughtful exploration of some difficult issues and is bold in offering some solutions. It can be felt as a resounding clarion call to the community of practitioners and organisers of Group Relations Conferences to hold themselves to a higher standard, to work with and through the ambivalence and defences of the human condition and strive to do what we provide space for members to explore in the conferences in our gathering and dealing with each other". --Dr Leslie B. Brissett, Director of the Group Relations Programme, The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London, UK.
