Obviously, no member of the organization will appreciate being left out in the dark about the fate of their organization – or their job. Even if it means being anxious for a while, the news must be delivered—but the leader can pause for a moment (or a short period of time) to not only determine how best to deliver the troubling news, but also determine the best time to communicate the critical information. This is critical metabolism.
The challenge of containment for the leader of an organization is either reduced or amplified by the way in which the organization’s anxiety is addressed through the culture of the organization. It is to this final, critical, mode of containment that we now turn.
Organizational Culture as a Container of Anxiety: There is this one other type of container that I wish to identify. It is particularly important when considering the role played by leaders in the containment and metabolization of anxiety. This container is the culture of an organization. It is through the culture of an organization that anxiety can be either accentuated or contained. It is also through the culture of an organization, that the bonding of its members can be engaged in the constructive reframing and redirecting of anxiety (the metabolism).
There is another benefit. A strong culture enables members of an organization to better understand, overcome or adapt to the real (or imagined) threats inherent in the anxiety. In other words, metabolism occurs when members of an organization collectively (culturally) create a narrative about the source of the anxiety, the current impact of the anxiety on the organization, and the way(s) in which the anxiety will be reduced and/or the sources of the anxiety will be addressed.
As Edgar Schein noted, this often means creating, maintaining or modifying existing organizational narratives.[xvi] This is a critical and quite tangible form of metabolism, for organizations are, in a very real sense, nothing more (or less) than sustained narratives. As proponents of appreciative inquiry (AI) (reference) have noted, the shift in an organization’s narrative might be the most powerful way in which to bring about change and improvement in the functioning of an organization. Schein suggests that an organizational culture should be built on the narratives of past successes.[xvii] The AI practitioners would agree to the narrative—and we would suggest that this focus on an organization’s real (not imagined) strengths and successes can be a highly effective mode of metabolism.
The fundamental interplay between the containment of anxiety and the formation of organizational cultures was carefully and persuasively documented by Isabel Menzies Lyth (1988). She describes ways in which nurses in an English hospital cope with the anxiety that is inevitably associated with issues of health, life and death. Menzies Lyth notes how the hospital in which nurses work help to ameliorate or at least protect the nurses from anxiety. She suggests that a health care organization is primarily in the business of reducing this anxiety. On a daily basis, all other functions of the organization are secondary to this anxiety-reduction function.
It is specifically the culture of the organization that serves as the primary vehicle for addressing anxiety and stress. The culture of an organization is highly resistant to change precisely because change directly threatens the informal system that has been established in the organization to help those working in it to confront and make sense of the anxiety inherent in the operations of the organization.
Menzies Lyth’s observations have been reaffirmed in many other organizational settings. Anxiety is to be found in most contemporary organizations and efforts to reduce this anxiety are of prominent importance. Somehow an organization that is inclined to evoke anxiety among its employees must discover or construct a buffer that both isolates (contains) the anxiety and addresses the realistic, daily needs of its employees.
Containing the Anxiety
In our brief reflection on the diverse containers of anxiety, we begin to discover the answer to our first question: how is anxiety contained? Our identification of sanctuaries as containers of anxiety suggests that a protective function is critical. A sanctuary isolated or protects us for at least a short period of time from anxiety (or perhaps even the source of the anxiety). In this protected state we can do something with the anxiety while it is not engulfing us. We can for a specific period of time not be anxious about our anxiety – and can metabolize it (as we will describe in the next section).
Our reflection on the role played by culture as a container takes us to a somewhat different place. The culture of our organization (or family or clan) provides a structure and process for finding meaning and purpose in anxiety. We find out why we are anxious and can better identify the source of the anxiety. This assignment of meaning and etiology (cause/source) might not be accurate.
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