A historical analysis of "our leader": a university ten-year study on emotion in executive succession—Part I

The aim of this article was to explore how the collapse of a leadership structure was followed by distrust, a radical governance change, emotional turmoil, and, over the following ten years, several successful successions. An initial role and system analysis was the basis for applying a neuropsychoanalytic theory suggesting PANIC, CARE, and RAGE¹ (Panksepp et al., 2012) are the main underlying feelings that contributes to disruption in succession processes. A model for the primary task of governance enabled a system analysis, as an alternative to assuming individual idiosyncratic and/or oedipal emotional states, and offered an updated and more coherent system–psychoanalytic perspective. A longitudinal action research project included participative bottom-up processes, facilitative processes, coaching, observations of board meetings, interviews, and archive data.