Transforming Experience in Organisations

Susan Long supervises research students and conducts organisational research at a variety of universities including INSEAD in Singapore, MEICAT, University of Melbourne, University of Divinity in Melbourne and Crossfields. As an organisational consultant in private practice she works with organisational change, executive coaching, board development, role analysis, team development and management training. She originally trained as a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. Her experience of working with people as individuals and in groups and organisations gives her a broad perspective on management practices. Susan's capacity as a teacher and organizational consultant/ researcher has led her to be invited onto the boards of prestigious organizations and elected onto the committees of professional bodies. She is a Faculty Member in the Grubb School of Organisational Analysis. She is a member of the Board of the Judicial College of Victoria and of Comcare's advisory board for the Center of Excellence for Research into Mental Health at Work. She was the founding President of Group Relations Australia and a past president of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations. Her participative action research has attracted grants through the Australian research Council and industry. She has published six books and many journal articles.

Preface -- Introduction -- The transforming experience framework -- Background to the TEF -- The transforming experience framework and unconscious processes: a brief journey through the history of the concept of the unconscious as applied to person, system, and context with an exploratory hypothesis of unconscious as source -- Reframing reality in human experience: the relevance of the Grubb Institute’s contributions as a Christian foundation to group relations in the post-9/11 world -- Daring to desire: ambition, competition, and role transformation in “idealistic” organisations -- Working to improve institutional strength: the challenge of taking multiple roles in multiple systems -- Finding, making, and taking role: a case study from the complexity of inter-agency dynamics -- Transitioning tasks in an impossible context through use of drawings: a case example -- Connectedness with source: our collective reality -- The experience of connectedness with source: how does one’s understanding of connectedness with source contribute to thinking about accountability in role?