Psychosocial organization studies: What’s new?

2026 Spring/Summer Reading Group

This spring and summer, the Center for Psychosocial Organization Studies (CPOS) Reading Group will read and discuss a selection of recently published papers in psychosocial organization studies. The Reading Group brings together scholars and practitioners in a collaborative setting to engage closely with the psychosocial and to reflect on its implications for contemporary organizational research and practice.

Articles are drawn from journals such as Human Relations, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, Organization, Organization Studies, and The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. The papers represent a diverse range of approaches and topics including the dynamics of masculinity, the unconscious as a research site, analyses of affect and identity at work, unconscious dimensions of organizational dynamics, leadership, organizational change, and large group dynamics. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect critically on the selected texts, situate them within broader theoretical debates, and consider how psychosocial approaches can illuminate the hidden or unconscious dynamics that shape organizations today.

Psychosocial organization studies focus on how our inner lives intersect with social realities. As a mode of research, the psychosocial invites researchers to imagine new ways to understand organizational life – noticing emotions, tensions, and experiences that are not always fully visible, considering how unconscious dynamics influence relationships, roles, and patterns within organizations, and viewing moments of conflict, uncertainty, or disruption as opportunities to gain access to underlying dynamics.

Sign up for one or more groups on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1983176143230?aff=oddtdtcreator

Reading List

March 19

  1. Baker, D. T., & Rumens, N. (2025). Men’s anxieties and defences regarding gender (in) equality in the workplace: An object-relations psychoanalysis of organisational masculinities. Human Relations, 78(7), 905-933. Link 
  2. Özdemir Kaya, D. D., & Fotaki, M. (2024). Grounding in the unconscious: “The field” in psychosocial organizational ethnography. Organization, 31(6), 929-951. Link 

April 16

  1. Kenny, K., Fotaki, M., & Vandekerckhove, W. (2020). Whistleblower Subjectivities: Organization and Passionate Attachment. Organization Studies, 41(3), 323–343.
  2. O’Reilly, J. (2023). Fear, loss and disconnection: the emotional impact of the Covid-19 pandemic upon staff working in mental health services and how the organization can help–a psychoanalytic perspective. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 104(4), 628-656.

May 21

  1. Vanheule, S., & Arnaud, G. (2016). Working with symbolic transference: A Lacanian perspective on executive coaching. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 52(3), 296-319. Link
  2. Jarrett, M., & Vince, R. (2024). Mitigating anxiety: The role of strategic leadership groups during radical organisational change. Human Relations, 77(8), 1178-1208. Link

June 25

  1. Dajani, K. G. (2020). Cultural determinants in Winnicott’s developmental theories. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 17(1), 6-21.
  2. Eisold, K. (2023). The intolerance of controversy in psychoanalytic organizations. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 104(5), 849-854.