Seth Allcorn

Seth Allcorn writes his books from the perspective of a blend of decades of management and consulting experience in large complex organizations and as a student of organizations. He makes sense of organizations and their dynamics by adapting psychoanalytic theory to their study. As a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO), he is committed to this approach to understanding organizations and to making the insights gained accessible to the reader. This is one of the strengths of his writing style.

However, theory that is not informed by hands-on management and consulting experience makes it likely that what is going on in organizations may not be fully understood. Further, executive and management styles and actions are often hard to comprehend without an understanding of and insight into human nature. This appreciation is underscored throughout his work and most recently in his new (2015) book with Howard F. Stein, The Dysfunctional Workplace published by the University of Missouri Press as part of a new book series exploring the psychoanalytic study of organizations. He and Howard have also recently published two Routledge books applying psychoanalytic theory to the study of organizations – The Psychodynamics of Toxic Organizations: Applied Poems, Stories and Analysis and Psychoanalytic Insight into Social, Political and Organizational Dynamics: Understanding the Age of Trump.

Seth Allcorn’s management experience has been focused on academic medical centers. This has included experience managing large academic departments, as an assistant and associate dean of medical schools, CEO of a professional billing medical plan, and oversight of the health care system for over 30,000 offenders. He was also a Vice President of Finance and Administration of the University of New England, which was developing an academic health sciences center focus. He has over thirty years of experience in consulting, part- and full time, to public and private organizations in a broad range of areas, focused on strategic direction and planning, process improvement, and executive coaching. These decades of service at five universities, when combined with his consulting experience, permits him to ground the use of theory in practice and practice in theory. His unique contributions are his ability to span theory and practice, together with his creative way of bringing organizational experience to life through storytelling and sense-making.

Seth Allcorn has a Ph.D. in higher education and an M.B.A. and B.S. in business administration. He has extensively published. He is the author or co-author of fifteen books, a half a dozen chapters, and over ninety papers that have appeared in scholarly and practitioner journals. He is currently a Research Associate of the Center for Psychosocial Organization Studies. https://surfacingtheorganization.com/

ADVANCES IN ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHODYNAMICS

Michael A. Diamond, Series Editor

The University of Missouri Press, in partnership with The Center for the Study of Organizational Change, supports research with the publication of books explaining the theories and methods that describe relational nuances of power and personality, symbol and metaphor, psychopathology and politics, meaning and imagination in the workplace. This series will acknowledge and address questions of irrational, counterproductive, and destructive human behavior in organizations and in organizational leadership.

This book series is interested in analytic depth that advances our understanding and assessment of human organization by reviewing, addressing, and applying contemporary organizational theory and psychoanalysis to organizational behavior and culture. Interdisciplinary in scope, this series will advance knowledge of organizational culture and dynamics through immersion, participant-observation, narrative and storytelling, fieldwork, and ethnography and is intended to fill a void in the literature and offer new insights and frameworks for studying and understanding organizations and organizational participants.

Michael A. Diamond is Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Organization Studies, and Director Emeritus, Center for the Study of Organizational Change, Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri–Columbia. He is a recipient of the Levinson Award for Excellence in Consulting awarded by the American Psychological Association. He lives in New York, NY.

For more information on the series or to submit a manuscript proposal, please contact Michael A. Diamond at diamondm@missouri.edu.

Two New Books in the Series

THE DYSFUNCTIONAL WORKPLACE THEORY, STORIES, AND PRACTICE

Seth Allcorn and Howard F. Stein

“One of the true strengths of this book is the careful and clear explanation of particular aspects of psychoanalytic theory. It is rare in the field of organizational behavior to find these topics presented in a way that can be easily understood and immediately practiced.” —Aaron J. Nurick, author of The Good Enough Manager: The Making of A GEM

Allcorn and Stein use a psychoanalytically informed perspective to help readers understand why a leader, colleague, or friend behaves in ways that are destructive to others. This understanding can provide a basis for organizations to survive and thrive despite structural or individual dysfunction. Topics covered in the first section include the value of storytelling, an overview of competing paradigms in analysis, and the value of psychoanalysis and its explanatory power. This is followed by illustrative stories organized by theme, and a conclusion that explores the implications of the research and analytic practice.

Seth Allcorn is Professor of Professional Practice at the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs. He is a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations and has worked for more than twenty years as an organizational consultant.

Howard F. Stein is Professor Emeritus, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is an interdisciplinary seminar facilitator in the American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center in Oklahoma City, OK.

$45.00 S | H: 978-0-8262-2065-3 | 220 pp. | 3 illus.

DISCOVERING ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY DYNAMICS OF RELATIONAL ATTACHMENT

Michael A. Diamond

“A highly sophisticated attempt to bridge the difficult space between abstract theorizing and real life experiences. It succeeds brilliantly.”—Yiannis Gabriel, University of Bath

“Michael Diamond develops a multi-layered idea of organizational identity built on psychoanalytic object relations theory and self-psychology. This idea emphasizes the complex relationship between conscious and unconscious processes, true and false self, and conflicted needs for belonging and independence. This is a fine book that will be of value not only to students of organizations but to all of those struggling with their experiences working in organizational settings.”—David Levine, author of Psychoanalysis, Society, and the Inner World: On Embedded Meaning in Politics and Social Conflict

“The famous psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once said, ‘In the social jungle of human existence there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.’ Anyone who would like to have a deeper understanding of what happens beneath the surface of organizations would be wise to read this book.”—Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change, INSEAD

This book focuses on the theory and practice of understanding and transforming organizations with the goal to discover common ground between groups and individuals. Diamond presents a framework of reflective practice for organizational researchers, scholar-practitioner consultants, executives, managers, and workers in order to promote a more satisfying and humane work-life.

$45.00 S | H: 978-0-8262-2098-1 | 264 pp. | 7 illus.