The Pain of (Organisational) Change

Ireland is the third most globalised nation in the world - Ernest and Young 2013 report. This reflective paper addresses key drivers of organisational change (including globalisation as referred to in the quote above) and what this means at the level of the organisation and at the level of the Lacanian subject[1] (individual employee). It looks at strategies organisations are adopting to survive in a hyper competitive environment and how these strategies are interpreted / responded to by the subject. The paper utilises a Freudian / Lacanian lens to interrogate subjective responses to organisational change. For some subjects the changed organisational landscape will bring benefits and for others pain.[1] Subject - The term Subject refers to a person in their uniqueness. The Subject comprises both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the person. For Lacan the true Subject is the Subject of the unconscious. Lacan struck through the symbol to produce the symbol $, the barred $ubject, to depict that the $ubject is essentially divided. We recognise the singularity (uniqueness) of the Subject.