Implications for the Use of Projective Techniques in ...

Perceptua[ and Motor Skills, 1997,84, 171 -175. O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1997

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE USE OF PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING: SOME FINDINGS FROM A GERMAN SURVEY STUDY ' PANTALEON FASSBENDER Bonn, Germany Summary.-Relevance and scope of projective techniques for the purpose of organizational consulting are discussed. As an example, responses to a word-association task requiring each participanr to visualize his company as an animal were compared with the rated appraisal For different values and qualifications as elements of corporate success. The sample consisted of 219 German managers (48% of them were CEOs or board members). Meaningful relationships between the choice of certain animals and value preferences were shown. Finally, widespread &sapproval of projective techniques in management d ~ n p o s r sand organizational consulting may be challenged.

The application of projective techniques in dagnosis of management (Spitznagel, 1990) and in organizational consulting (Czander, 1993; Levinson, 1994) is stdl widely disputed (Schaipp & Plaurn, 19951, although the focus of interest in industrial and organizational psychology has been continuously shlfting away from this topic for decades (Kinslinger, 1966). Currently, at least in Germany, only a small group of researchers and consulting firms practice psychoanalycicdy based organizational consulting or frequently use projective techniques in organizational diagnosis (Mertens & Lang, 1991). Some other consulting firms rely on such ''qualitative methods" in executive search (Jochmann, 1995). Foci of the critical discussions are the psychometric qualities of projective techniques, their often vague theoretical underpinning, and, last but not least, their vahdity. The present study concentrated on the validational aspect and related the outcome of a word-association task to whether different values and qualdications may be assessed as elements of corporate success. METHOD

In the course of a study which focused on the perspectives of management of human resources and corporate communications (Fassbender, in press), 219 German managers holding positions with varying levels of responsibility were given a list of 25 values, e.g., fairness, autonomy, justice, and quatdications, see, e.g., communicative skills, flexibhty. On a scale, anchored by "0 = very low contribution to the corporation's success" and "4 = very high contribution to the corporation's success," the managers were ask'Request reprints from Dr. Pantaleon Fassbender, Wilhehstrasse 24, D-53111 Bonn, Germany.

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ed to rate the amount each item contributed to the success of their company. Also, they were asked to compare their company with an animal. This word-association task was adapted from RLng (1992) and may be described as a projective technique. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows the appraisal of the different values and qualrfications in relation to the choice of animals. As about 28% of the managers refused to take part in the word-association task, this choice was used as an additional treatment group in the analyses of variance. Only values and qualdications ddferentiating significantly between the groups are presented. Given the exploratory purpose of the study, significance level was not adjusted for the multiple testing. Especially the choice of predacious cats such as lions or tigers suggests a strong appraisal of teamwork, achievement, and initiative among the managers "identdymg" their companies with these animals of prey. Even their notion of "creativity" as a feature of the "lionu-association is in line with find~ngsof iconography and symbol theory: a major tradtion in Judaeo-Christian thought identifies the lion as a symbol of transformation and resurrection from death to a new and enriched life (Lurker, 1973). We reported some meaningful relationships between items taken from a set of values and qualdications and different "projective" choices ( G h o r e & Krantz, 1985). Further analyses of variance indicated (F,,2,= 6.15, p < .006) that the per-employee-turnover of high-tech firms whose managers had participated in our study and who had imagined their companies as predacious cats was about three times higher (M=960,000 Deutschmarks [DM], n = 5 ) than the per-employee-turnover of high-tech firms in the sample which had been compared with other animals (M=300,000 DM, n = 16) and the "blank" (managers of high-tech firms in the sample who refused to take part in the word-association task) category (M = 240,000 DM, n = 8). Unfortunately, some questions raised by the data still rest without a satisfactory answer. Although the choice of an animal in our design may be projective, we cannot rule out the possibility of choices that do not involve unconscious processes. A word-association may rather reflect (a) an intellectual choice or (b) an attitude based upon real experiences the manager has had with his company. Thus, the inference from the word-association task to an interpretation in terms of projective processes is by now not demonstrated. Nevertheless, the data seem promising enough to ask for further research in the proposed direction. Until results may possibly illustrate the "projective" nature of such word-associations, e.g., by the use of in-depth-interviews and the incorporation of more tradtional projective tests into appropriate research designs, we propose to interpret the present data as a pathway into the study of corporate images. Image, although an often weakly defined con-

TABLE 1 RATEDAPPRAISAL FORD I F F E R ~ VALUES NT AND QUALIFICATIONS I N REIATION TO

Values

Group 2 Group 1 No ~ a r ~ i c i p a ~olphin, tion in WordFox, etc. M SD n association Task M SD n

Group 3 ~lephanr

M

SD

tz

Group 4 Bear, Bison, etc. M SD n

THE

WORD-ASSOCIATION TASK

Group 5 Predacious Cats (Lion, Tiger, etc.)

M

SD

Group6 Additional Choices

M

SD

df

F

p*

N

t1

11

2.79 1.10 28 5,211 3.89 ,002 217 2.13 1.26 24 3.26 0.89 35 2.71 0.99 24 2.91 0.88 44 Creativity 2.92 0.91 62 3.26 0.89 35 2.75 1.14 28 5,211 2.59 ,027 217 2.54 1.10 24 3.02 0.85 44 2.58 0.88 24 Teamwork 2.89 0.85 62 1.37 1.03 35 1.25 1.04 28 5,209 2.21 .055 215 0.75 0.90 24 1.23 0.99 44 1.09 0.79 23 Philosophy 0.85 0.99 61 2.75 0.89 28 5,210 1.85 ,106 216 2.54 0.88 24 3.03 0.79 35 2.65 0.71 23 2.53 0.83 61 2.56 1.01 45 Jusrice 2.74 0.74 35 2.32 0.77 28 5,210 2.49 ,032 216 2.38 0.71 24 2.35 0.78 23 Tolerance 2.36 0.97 61 2.78 0.80 45 3.25 0.94 24 3.40 0.74 35 3.04 0.89 28 5,211 2.17 ,059 217 3.30 0.70 23 Achievement 3.36 0.73 62 3.62 0.61 45 2.50 1.04 28 5,211 2.98 ,013 217 3.00 0.98 24 3.26 0.92 35 3.00 0.91 23 Initiative 3.02 0.88 62 3.29 0.90 45 No/e.-Table 1 displays,,means of scales for each valuc o r distinguishing significandy among some choices in the word-association task. Scales range from O=very low contribution to the corporation's success" to "4 =very high contribution to the corporation's success." G r o u p 1 consisted of "small" and "smart" animals, Group 6 mostly of slow animals of different sizes, e.g., Cow. *No alpha-adjustment, p 5.15.

3

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P. FASSBENDER

struct, can be related to conscious as well as unconscious aspects (Armbrecht, Avenarius, & Zabel, 1993; Bergler, 1963) so image-research may provide a provisional framework for the results. Nevertheless, we appreciate that multilevel organizational diagnosis should include word-association tasks and projective techniques. This approach seems to be very useful in detecting the "shadow" (Stein & Hollwitz, 1992) of organizations or implicit factors of corporate Me and corporate culture. Thus, it might be an interesting tool in organizational consulting [see Levinson (1994, p. 40) for a comparable task to construct a "personified visual image" of the organization and then to describe this "person" to the consultant] as a recent study conducted by the management consulting firm Arthur D. Little, Inc., (ADL) indcates. While examining interrelations between change-management-slulls and corporate culture, Modano, Barbera, and Bock (1995) distinguished several stages of corporate performance that may be compared with different animals. Interestingly, their description of a "leopard-like company" matches perfectly well our empirical findtngs concerning successful high-tech firms: "Therefore, a leopard-lrke company is highly alert to all developments and trends that might affect its competitive advantage. It will spot new technologies on time, adjust its distribution policies, carefully review its products and service portfolio, and allocate its resources for the highest shareholder return" (Molano, et al., 1995, p. 52). In sum: we suggest that multilevel organizational diagnosis including word-association tasks and other "projective" techniques may provide a powerful and interesting tool in organizational consulting, although much more research is needed to show full evidence for this suggestion. REFERENCES ARMBRECHT, W., AVENARIUS, H., & ZABEL,U. (Eds.) Image und PR: Kann Image Gegenstand einer Public Relations-Wissenrchafi sein? Opladen, Germany: Westdeutscher Verlag. R. (1963) Psychologie des Marken- und Firmenbildes. Gottingen, Germany: VandenBERGLER, hoeck & Ruprecht. CZANDER, W. M. (1993) The psychodynamics of work and orga~zizations:theory and application. New York: Guilford. FASSBENDER. P (1996) Managemennverte und Unternehrnenxrfolf E r ~ b n i s s eeiner Fuhrungskraftebefragun Die Unternehmung: Schweizerische Zeitsc nft r betnebsw~rtschafiliche Forschu~zgwrdsraxis, 50, 89-97. GILMORE, T. N.,&KRANTZ,J. (1985) Proiective identification in the consulting relacionship: exploring the unconscious dimensions of a client system. Humon Relations, 38, 1159-1177. JOCHMANN, W. (Ed.) (1995) Personalberatzrng intern: Philosophien, Methoden und Resuitate fiihrender Betatungszrnternehmen. Gottingen, Germany: Verlag fiir Anpcwandte Psychologie. KINSLINGER, H. 1. (1966) A plication of projective techniques in personnel psychology since 1940. Psychological ~ u l l t i n66, , 134-149. LEVINSON, H. (1994) The practitioner ns a dia noscic instrument. In A. Howard aich Associates (Ed.), Diagnosis for organizational cgange: melhodr and modek. New York: GuilFord. Pp. 27-52. LURKER, M. (1973) W~rterbuchbiblischer Bilder und Symbole. Miinchen, Germany: Kosel. MERTENS, W.. &LANG, H. 1. (1991) Die Seele im Unternehmen. Berlin, Germany: Springer.

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MODIANO, P., BARBERA,M., &BOCK.F. (1995) Converting the cultural menagerie: overcoming organizational learnin disabilities. In C. L. Lancaster (Ed.), The learning organization: it work. Cambridge, MA: Arthur D. Little. Pp. 45-53. making it happen, RING,E. (1992) Signale der Gesel/schafr: Psychologtiche Diagnostik in der Umfrogeforschung. Gottingen, Germany: Verlag h r Aqewandte Psychologie. SCHAIPP,CHR,& PLAUM,E. (1995) "Projektive Techniken": Unseriose "Tests" oder wertuolle qualitative VerJahren?Bonn: Deutscher Psychologen Verlag. SPITZNAGEL, A. (1990) Projektive Verfahren. Ln W. Sarges (Ed.), Management-Diagnostik. Gottingen, Germany: Hogrefe. Pp. 406-415. STEIN,M., & HOLLWTZ, J. C. (1992) Psyche at work: workplace applications of Jungian analytical psychofogy. Wilmette, IL:Chiron.

Accepted November 18, 1996.