WHILE IT IS TEMPTING TO ARGUE that the behaviour of a group such as a corporation is different to that of an individual, closer examination shows that groups demonstrate the capacity to develop a coherent psyche and to operate as a single entity. Turning to a discipline that focuses on human behaviour may thus be helpful.

The psycho-analytic or psychodynamic school of psychology, which proposed that the human psyche has a subconscious element that is both the generator and repository of thoughts and feelings which indirectly influence behaviour, is a relative newcomer to the world of organisations. This branch of psychology is most closely associated with Sigmund Freud, who named this mysterious element the “unconscious”, while Carl Jung introduced the term “the shadow” to describe a version of this unconscious psyche.