SETH ALLCORN is a principal of DyAD, a consulting firm specializing in organizational development and management, in Asheville, North Carolina. Author of eight books on management and organizational life and numerous articles, he holds an MBA and a doctorate in Higher and Adult Education. His most recent books include Managing People During Stressful Times (1997), The Human Cost of a Management Failure (1996), and Anger in the Workplace (1994).

Illustrations
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The Psychologically Defensive Workplace
The Psychological Origins of Personal Responsibility
The Psychologically Defensive Side of People at Work
The Psychologically Defensive Side of the Interpersonal World at Work: Managing People and Roles
The Psychologically Defensive Side of Group Dynamics: The Mob Within
The Psychologically Defensive Side of Organizational Dynamics
The Larger Context: The Workplace and Society
Leading and Managing Change During Stressful Times
Consulting to Change in Organizations
The Psychologically Defensive Workplace: Its Implications for Organizations, Research and Daily Living

Allcorn and Diamond argue that the workplace has become ever more threatening to employees, and that they respond by creating psychological defenses that make the workplace ever more dysfunctional. To keep organizations competitive and sustain the value of their stock, management demands constant improvements in their employees' performance, but often the result is just the opposite of what management wants. Allcorn and Diamond explore this process in depth, and introduce a comprehensive and internally consistent, psychologically informed model of human development and behavior, one that explains for the first time the nature of the psychologically defensive workplace. In doing so, they challenge readers to think systematically about the psychological side of the workplace and to understand the importance of dealing effectively with employee defensiveness. The result is an authoritative study with valuable lessons and immediate benefits for corporate executives, and for scholars and researchers in organizational behavor in the academic community.
Allcorn and Diamond's model is applicable to understanding five aspects of the workplace: first, how individuals respond to its stresses and anxieties; second, the psychologically defensive nature of interpersonal relationships at work; third, what the psychologically defensive group processes are; fourth, the dynamics of psychological defenses; and fifth, how the model is used to understand the connection of all organizations to the larger society in which they are imbedded. The authors' goal is to help management understand what actually is going on in today's workplace, the consequence of downsizing and other cost-reduction initiatives, and how important it is for management for relieve the problems they cause.