PEP | Article - Ethical Management as Meaning Making in the University

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Abstract

This paper examines the experience and practice of a manager in the university sector who was required to dramatically “downsize” her staff. The manager D hired J and C (her co-authors) as consultants to assist her in managing the effects of the downsizing. Reflection on the experience of working together as a consulting team with the “survivors” of the downsizing revealed the importance of what the authors call “a practical ethic of meaning making” to deal with the greatly increased tension between organisational and personal relatedness in a turbulent environment. D's attempt to enact practical ethics, supported by a programme of designed interventions, led her from a personal nightmare of isolation and near disablement to a place of gradual, grudging admiration and trust from her colleagues as they rebuilt their collaboration in work.

The paper provides a theoretically informed account of a consultancy intervention that placed “meaning making” at the centre of its initiative.

Ethical Management as Meaning Making in the University

John Newton BBus MA PhD

Former Associate Professor in organisation dynamics at RMIT University, and is now a freelance consultant and author. He is past president (2012-2013) of Group Relations Australia and a member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations. He is the lead editor of J. Newton, S. Long, & B. Sievers (Eds.) Coaching in Depth. The Organisational Role Analysis Approach (Karnac, 2006) and he serves on the editorial boards of the journals Socioanalysis and Organisational and Social Dynamics.

Diana Dalton

Executive director of a large faculty at an Australian university. She has over twenty years of experience in large, complex, and dynamic organisations. She has worked in professional services, government, education, and health sectors in senior executive roles. She was the Director of Corporate Development for Victoria Legal Aid, just prior to working with the university, and before that, she was the general manager for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Victoria). She has a Master of Business in Organisational Dynamics (OD) and Graduate Diploma in Business Administration and has completed a senior executive programme with Harvard Business School. She has an extensive background in HR and OD and brings systems psychoanalytic perspective to her practice.

Cathy Whelan

Socio-analytic consultant who works with public and private sector organisations on a range of change, learning, and strategic development processes. Prior to establishing her own small consulting company in 2000, Cathy held a range of senior management and leadership roles in the community sector and local government. Cathy is an Associate of Mt Eliza Executive Education—Melbourne Business School (University of Melbourne), has been a sessional lecturer and tutor in organisational studies (Victoria University) and local government (RMIT University), and has been on staff of Group Relations Conferences. She is a member of ISPSO and OPUS. Cathy works in collaboration with other socio-analytically oriented consultants as well as associates with relevant content or specialist expertise. She is on the Group Relations Australia Committee of Management and chairs the Victorian Coastal Council.

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