Organizational Stress as a Barrier to Trauma-Sensitive Change and Systems Transformation
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Description:
This paper explores the notion that organizations are living systems themselves and as such they manifest various degrees of health and dysfunction, analogous to those of individuals. Organizations, like individuals, are vulnerable to the impact of repetitive and/or chronic stress conditions, but since we do not recognize our systems as alive, we treat them as if they were machines, slaves to the whims of current political, social and economic forces. Becoming a truly trauma-informed system therefore requires a process of reconstitution within our organizations top to bottom. It is the job of the staff to become trauma-informed about the impact of past experiences on the evolution of the client’s problems. But it is the shared responsibility of staff and administrators to become “trauma sensitive” to the ways in which past and present overwhelming experiences impact individual performance, leadership styles, and group performance. A system cannot be truly trauma-informed unless the system can create and sustain a process of understanding itself. A program cannot be safe for clients unless it is simultaneously safe for staff and administrators. Lacking such a process, and despite well-intentioned training efforts, there will be no true system transformation in “trauma organized” systems that are now largely repeating, rather than healing, the injuries previously experienced by clients and staff. The author contends that applying concepts from trauma theory to organizational function can serve multiple purposes. While it provides the leaders and staff of the organization a framework for understanding the frequently dysfunctional adaptations they have made to chronic stress, it simultaneously serves to heighten their awareness of the ways in which exposure to chronic stress has impacted their clients and provides a window into the interaction between organizational dysfunction and individual dysfunction. Better identification of the true nature of the problems leads to better approaches to solve those problems. Interestingly, the world of business, at least as it is reflected in the organizational development literature, is far ahead of the social service world in applying group concepts to the workplace. This paper draws on the organizational development and communications literature, much of which has its roots in group dynamics and the therapeutic community, to help us remember and reintegrate knowledge that has been lost from our own systems. (Author)
Content:
Draws on notions of organizational culture, chronic stress and collective trauma to identify barriers to developing systems of trauma-informed care
Type of Resource:
Report
Organization:
CommunityWorks
Publication Date:
2006
Location:
Philadelphia, PA