Ghosts in the Corridors of Business Administration Schools: The ‘Unconscious’ at Work

The present article discusses the need for integrating practical psychological training and experimential learning in academic management programs. To do so we present a case, providing our impressions and reflections from a course we designed for MBA students.

In business environments, as in any human environment, covert and unconscious factors affect the performance of organizations and the relationships among their members. A lack of awareness of these factors may impair performance, lead to misconceptions on the part of employees and managers, divert attention from potential dangers, or support anti-task behaviour which wastes precious organizational resources. To counteract these processes many corporations now collusively engage the services of organizational consultants, and offer individual development programs for their employees and managers. In contrast, academic management programs do little in their curriculum to expose students to these unconscious factors. In addition to the case material, this article includes a review of the relevant literature and a number of illustrative points regarding the dilemmas of introducing material and experiences in such programs to assist students to learn about unconscious processes in work settings.