Robert French
Negative capability: Managing the confusing uncertainties of change
French, Robert
Authors
Abstract
Explores how psychoanalytic thinking can contribute to the management of the conflicting emotions stimulated by cliange. Suggests that successful change management depends on a combination of "positive" and "negative" capabilities. The positive capabilities involve the management of the substantive content of any change initiative, the cliange process itself, and tlie roles and procedures required by both of these. However, even wlien these three "technical" aspects are iceH managed, cliange ahcays arouses anxiety and uncertainty. As a result, there is a tendency to "disperse" energy; that is, to be deflected from the task into a range of avoidance tactics. Through a particular understanding of such "dispersal" and its opposite, the "capacity to contain", psychoanalysis can suggest how this counterproductive tendency may be more effectively managed. The British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion called this capacity to contain "negative capability". © MCB University Press.
Citation
French, R. (2001). Negative capability: Managing the confusing uncertainties of change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 14(5), 480-492. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005876
Journal Article Type | Article |
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Publication Date | Jan 1, 2001 |
Journal | Journal of Organizational Change Management |
Print ISSN | 0953-4814 |
Publisher | Emerald |
Peer Reviewed | Not Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 14 |
Issue | 5 |
Pages | 480-492 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005876 |
Keywords | negative capability, managing, change |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1084471 |
Publisher URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005876 |