Stein, H. F. (2001). Nothing Personal, Just Business a Guide Journey into Organizational Darkness. Quorum Books.

Abstract

Portrays organizations as places of darkness, where emotional savagery and brutality are commonplace and where psychological forms of violence—intimidation, degradation, dehumanization—are the norm. Through the use of symbolism and metaphor, this text elucidates the interior experience of organizational life. The author employs a form of disciplined subjectivity, based on Freud’s concept of counter-transference, and other methods to help comprehend what such notions as “managed social change” really mean. Through the use of vignettes and anecdotes drawn from his own formal and informal research, the author presents not only what work has come to be in many of these dark places—but also what must happen, and can happen, to lift them into the light. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)