Here We Go Again, Another Warring Faction

An urgent call from St. Angela’s; an urgent briefing meeting set up with Alex and Sue; an urgent schedule of dates required for a serious case of conflict, and possibly worse.  Here we go again, another warring faction job.  But what would this problem really be about?

I thought about Professor Leaman’s case a few years ago as I waited in the ante-chamber to Alex’s office.  It showed the inadequacy of standard organisational interventions such as “team-building” for serious behavioural problems in expert power cultures.  In the intervening years, I had gained more experience with managing the consequences of warring factions in an unpleasant merger that had gone wrong.  Perhaps I could draw on this for Alex’s new problem?  With “the Chief Executive will see you now,” I was ushered into his baronial corner office.

Psychopathy, prima-donna syndrome, personality cults – how do organisations like St. Angela’s cope with such underlying forces?  I reflected on the forthcoming assignment as I gazed out of Alex’s large dual-aspect window at the rowers pulling on their oars. Clouds of warm breath hanging in the cool morning air testified to their labours, and the coming autumn. Continue reading →