No Quick Fix, Analysis of Organisation; An exploration of a mismatch between business management and the individual

Business management includes a quick fix type of practice that promotes programatic shortcuts applied to individuals in an attempt to produce immediate business results. These quick fixes are adopted and abandoned with changes to time, industry, or culture. Despite the promise of the quick fix, the individual worker can be unaffected or even disaffected by attempted changes. This thesis looks at quick fix practice and the assumptions made about the individual. It is these assumptions that drive the programs aimed at modifying behaviour in order to increase work effort and meet business objectives. Looking at the assumptions that underlie the quick fix practice of business management, this thesis compares them to a sample of individuals to assess their accuracy. A repertory grid methodology is used to generate unconscious content from the internal world of the individual. An internal world that reflects the individual’s experience at work. It is the unconscious phantasies in this internal world that shape the actions of individuals. Psychoanalysis is the framework used to interpret the unconscious content to determine if the unconscious of the individual is a mismatch with the practice of quick fix business management.