The Psychodynamics View of Top Management Team

The master's thesis is devoted to the research of the psychodynamic aspect of the top management execution a primary task. Our daily lives are made up of a web of ever-changing and irrational forces that underlie seemingly rational behavior and choices. Life in the organizations is not an exception. In order to be a successful leader today, top managers need to understand the hidden, unconscious factors that affect the interaction of people within the organization. In the psychodynamic approach, the external behavior of people is considered only as a consequence of the collision of their unconscious motives, such as fear, anxiety, personal ambitions, which are not visible on the surface but have a great power of influence The relevance of this work is due to the constantly changing external context faced by the leaders of the organization today. Understanding the dynamics of the interaction of unconscious determinants in the organization helps the management team to adapt the approach in their work and allows them to be effective in working on the primary task. In this paper, the psychodynamic aspects of the work of the management team were considered. The work included the study of the theoretical basis of the psychodynamic approach, as well as its practical research in the case of the organization. This gave a holistic understanding of the practical application of psychoanalytic theory when working with an organization. The applied task of the research was to study the internal and external context of the organization, the structure, the relationship of the management team with the leader of the organization and its employees. While all of these elements have an impact on the management team's ability to perform its primary task, the CEO's personality has a dominant influence on the dynamics of the management team's relationship with the organization. Therefore, in this work, special attention was paid to the study of the grandiose narcissism of the CEO and his personal relationship with the Ego – Ideal of the company, namely, the degree of his identification with the brand of the organization. The study found that when the leader's self-identity is not intertwined with the organization's self-identity, his narcissism is detrimental to the entire organization, where the top management is caught in a dilemma between serving the leader's narcissistic ambitions and mobilizing resources to achieve the company's primary goal. The results of the study can be useful for business facing issues in achieving their primary goal/s as a result of the disconnect between the CEO and the top management.