In the post just below, I wrote about psychic infections, based on a quote from Carl Jung. At the end of that post, I mused about the possibility of organizational infections. Can an organization have what we might call a collective psychic infection?

For a few decades theorists and practitioners alike have suggested that every organization has a distinct culture. From the perspective of organizational culture, it would be pretty easy to make the leap to organizational infections. A few possible infections:

    The group think culture

    The no one takes responsibility for anything culture

    The blame culture (which is really fun if number two also exists in the same organization)

    The burn out culture

    The bitingly sarcastic culture

OK, so you get the point.

The good news is that these infections can be healed. It takes commitment to do so, but it is worth it–just like it’s worth it to heal our physical and psychic infections. The first step in healing a organizational infection is awareness. Paying attention to symptoms and even asking non-whining -solution-based employees if they see any infections can bring the infection to the surface. Then, you’re in a better place to know what is required to heal it.