The Systems Psychodynamics of a Joint Venture: Anxiety Social Defenses, and the Management of Mutual Dependence

Joint ventures, mergers and other forms of organizational alliances are rapidly becoming a business necessity. However, on an almost daily basis, experience suggests that such alliances often pose critical dilemmas for those entering into them. Central among these are collaborating across differences in organizational cultures and forging a new organizational identity. At a deeper level, there are also often paranoid concerns and fantasies about the long-term lack of equity in the transfer of knowledge and capability. This paper, therefore, outlines a systems psychodynamic perspective on intergroup and interorganizational relationships for developing an in-depth understanding of some common irrational and emotional difficulties alliance relationships face. It then goes on to describe an illustrative case and concludes with an appraisal of the advantages of a systems psychodynamic conceptual perspective-taking both structure and process into account-which has been neglected or minimized in the literature on organizational alliances.