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The concepts of containment of anxiety and organizational boundaries can be used to explore the issues that need to be attended to as organizations undergo change. This in depth case study explores experiences in an organization undergoing rapid, radical change, drawing on a systems psychodynamics approach as the lens through which to analyse organization experience. The case example in this paper is of a global organization moving to a new organization form and may particularly resonate with organizations experiencing similar radical restructuring.
The case study suggests that changes in the company's market environment, dramatically affecting its view of the future, caused disruption at the organization's boundaries. This changed the organization's capacity to provide suitable containment for the emotions and emotionality associated with organizational membership and the organizational tasks. Changing boundaries created the widespread experience of anxiety.
This study suggests that organizations need to develop new ways of providing containment for people to work effectively. The current idea of containment practices needs to be extended. It would include a proactive approach by managers both to providing transitional spaces for reflection and working through the emotions associated with change, and also in actively working at new methods of working to manage that which has been disrupted during the change; that is to say, providing structure and extending and creating new boundaries.