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The purpose of this is to explore the potential of the combined use of the viable system model (VSM) and social network analysis (SNA) to identify organizational pathologies.

Using a well-documented case study based on an academic consultancy intervention and Action Research Project, participative methods for the diagnostic of the VSM and questionnaires for the collection of connectivity data for the SNA were used to develop a heuristic to integrate these two tools and identify organizational pathologies.

This study provides empirical evidence of the benefits of the combined use of SNA to enhance the identification of organizational pathologies in VSM interventions, by providing an additional qualitative and quantitative framework for the interpretation of findings coming from VSM organizational diagnostics.

This work explores some analytic routines of SNA frequently used in management. The validation is constrained to the nature of the data set from a case study. The document invites to a discussion of further and more advanced applications on the integration of the VSM and SNA.

The enhanced identification of organizational pathologies can contribute to the emerging new interest in applications of the VSM in management, providing robustness to the structural analysis of organizations.

This paper proposes a guideline to exploit the potential of the combined use of SNA and VSM. It opens new avenues for the study of organizational pathologies.

The aim of this paper is to assess highly toxic leaders and dysfunctional organizations as presented via management consulting and executive coaching assignments.

The paper employs an action research approach via two participant observer case studies incorporating the DSM IV‐TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The paper finds that the nexus of dysfunctional organizational systems may be located in “pre‐existing” leadership pathologies.

First, additional research will be needed to confirm and extend the findings of individual pathologies in leaders to dysfunctional organizational systems; second, a closer look is necessary at the applicability of the DSM IV‐TR to pathologies at the organizational level; third, due to the action research, case study approach utilized, there is somewhat limited generalizability; fourth, there are limitations re: the applicability of DSM IV‐TR as an assessment tool for management researchers due to the necessity of training in clinical psychology.

The importance of distinguishing personality disorders in leaders from toxic behaviors falling within a range of “normal pathology,” and the ability to assess individual leadership pathology within organizational systems via the clinically trained usage of the DSM IV‐TR; providing clinical assessment tools for reducing the number of misdiagnoses of leadership pathology in the workplace; encouraging collaboration between management and psychology researchers and practitioners.

This paper fills a gap in the toxic organizations research by identifying personality disorders in leaders and providing an action research agenda for incorporating the DSM IV‐TR as a means of extending the repertoire of assessment tools;

The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic method for practitioners (owners, operators, designers, and performers) to identify pathologies (aberrations from healthy system function) in complex systems.

A range of published works, which aim to provide practical and theoretical underpinnings on pathologies, were critiqued with respect to method development. A systematic method with five phases was then developed to help identify and assess existence of pathologies as conditions that negatively impact system performance.

There is a range of pathological conditions and factors that affect organizational (system) performance. However, there is a lack of supporting methods that can guide practitioners in identification of pathologies that exist in systems under their purview.

The developed method is based on functional aspects of system viability as established in management cybernetics. Management cybernetics articulates functions that must be performed for continued viability of complex organizations. Therefore, the developed method supports practitioners in their responsibilities to effectively identify pathologies and develop corresponding remedies.

The proposed approach articulates a repeatable approach by which an analyst can interact with a system of interest in order to identify, assess existence of, and prioritize pathologies. This research introduces an opportunity to develop sets of feasible and purposeful responses to pathologies.

This paper fulfills an identified need to provide practitioners with an advanced systems thinking-based approach to identify deep systemic issues (pathologies) as an essential step in improving performance of an organization (system).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social psychological basis of pathologies, from which result neuroses and behaviours like corruption and sociopathic behaviour. It takes the perspective that social collectives have normative minds and can be explored in terms of their social psychological processes.

Knowledge cybernetics will be used to show how pathologies can develop from the interconnection between such noumenal attributes as ideology and ethics.

Social entities have similar psychological pathologies to individual ones. Piaget's notions of how the mind operates can be applied to corporate personality, and their inability to create and coordinate different perspectives can be seen as an organisational pathology.

The paper is a theoretical construct that explores corruption and sociopathology at a deep conceptual level. It requires elaboration through case examples to provide pragmatic meaning.

The capacity to create a methodology that is able to explore the existence and development of pathologies.

This is the first approach of this type using cybernetics to explore at a high conceptual focus the development of pathologies like corruption and sociopathic behaviour.

Defines the concept of “organisational failure” in information systems (IS) development, and proposes a diagnostic model drawn from research done into IS consultancy firms that develop systems using a variety of methodologies. The research involved a qualitative study aimed at the nature of the development process and the role of organisational issues in this process. The model’s elements and relationships were determined by the research findings. Presents two cases of failure that show how IS failure is rooted in organisational pathology and examine existing failure concepts. The concept and model proposed can be used by practitioners and management before and during a project for diagnosing organisational failure before it interferes with IS development and afterwards for extracting deeper rooted organisational learning from failure.

This paper aims to adapt the medical phenomenon of Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) to an organisational context. Specifically, MSBP serves as a novel metaphor to describe the tendency for the organisation and the leader to perpetuate cycles of illness and therapy.

A conceptual metaphor is proposed based on the clinical description of MSBP. A perpetual feedback model emphasises a constant cycle of illness and therapy among leaders and organisations, often fabricated by a narcissist through destructive management.

The metaphor presented suggests that the role of deception is important for understanding why therapeutic approaches are often unnecessary, highly disruptive and administered by a destructive leader who possesses the power to alienate or dismiss non-corroborative organisational members. The implications of continuously passing illness between the leader and the organisation are a state of organisational disequilibrium and the manufacture of depersonalised, ill members.

This conceptual paper adds to the growing body of literature on behavioural strategy and contributes to the fields of organisational psychology, organisational analysis, management and employee relations.

Develops a critical perspective on organizations and psychoanalysis. Following a brief review of various strands of psychoanalytic theorizing about organizations, argues that psychoanalysis can make an important contribution both to recognizing and to restoring the human subject in the organization. However, psychoanalysis also runs the risk of becoming complicitous with the larger context of domination that structures and governs organizations, unless it explicitly acknowledges and incorporates this context. Discusses the importance of acknowledging relations of power, recognizing the normalization of dysfunctionality in organizations, and moving away from individualizing issues of emotion, resistance and control.

This article addresses the rationales employed for the introduction of employee assistance or advisory programmes (EAPs) in UK organisations. It examines typological conceptions of rationales for the introduction of EAPs which are appraised in relation to a study of the introduction of UK based EAP programmes and the literature on organisational interventions. The article concludes that more support is offered for organisational change as a rationale for EAP introduction than for more humanistic considerations, which appear to be better related to managers’ work roles. An extended discussion examines the residual role that welfare seems to play in modern HRM strategies and how current explanations of EAP programmes based on counselling models would benefit from input from models of consultancy processes.

Most writing about organizations assumes that everyone is sensible and rational and there is a simple and homogenous culture. The paper describes why organizations are in fact difficult to manage and why leadership is always problematical.

The article is based on a review of the literature plus experience.

The dark side of organizations needs recognizing.

Organizational members need to pay attention to unrecognized elements of organizational life.

The article exposes much of the naïve writing in management and leadership.