A systems psychodynamic description of clinical psychologists’ role transition towards becoming organisational development consultants

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology

 
 
Field Value
 
Title A systems psychodynamic description of clinical psychologists’ role transition towards becoming organisational development consultants
 
Creator Cilliers, Frans Henning, Sanchen
 
Subject Organisational behaviour clinical psychologists; role transition; OD consultant; systems psychodynamics; qualitative; hermeneutic phenomenology
Description Orientation: Clinical psychologists’ transition from practising in a clinical context to a large organisation implies an intensely experienced professional identity shift.Research purpose: To provide a systems psychodynamic description of the lived experiences of a group of clinical psychologists’ role transition towards becoming organisational development (OD) consultants.Motivation for the study: Although the role of clinical psychologists in organisations is theoretically explicated, limited research exists on their role transition experiences. Their lack of theoretical knowledge about and experience in organisational psychology make them vulnerable for exclusion and isolation.Research approach/design and method: A hermeneutic phenomenological research design using a collective case study, consisting of eight clinical psychologists, was used. The data gathering methods included a Listening Post and socio-analytic interviews. Systems psychodynamic data analysis was performed.Main findings: The manifesting themes related to experiences of diverse and intense anxiety, defensive structures, role, task, boundary and authorisation conflicts as well as solitary pilgrimages. Participants experienced an attack on their personal and professional identities, a sense of being overwhelmed, excluded and isolated from their colleagues and peers.Practical/managerial implications: The findings will facilitate clinical psychologists’ transition into OD roles and organisations’ awareness of their identity challenges.Contribution/value-add: Although employing clinical psychologists in OD roles is practised in many large organisations, the findings suggest that their transition into this role is underestimated in terms of emotional intensity.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2021-06-07
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative, descriptive research, psycho-social tradition, action research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1891
 
Source SA Journal of Industrial Psychology; Vol 47 (2021); 10 pages 2071-0763 0258-5200
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1891/3234 https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1891/3235 https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1891/3236 https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1891/3237
 
Coverage Gauteng, South Africa Present Females (4), males (4), Blacks (3), an Indian (1) and Whites (4), average age 38.
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Frans Cilliers, Sanchen Henning https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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