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This paper considers the Market Basket upheaval of 2013–2014 from the perspective of patriarchy, breach, workplace dignity, and social drama. It draws on Lingo and Elmes original data and analytic approach to their study of food workers in a family-owned, New England, supermarket chain who, after an unexpected change to the board, rose up to restore their patriarch and paternalistic institutional practices. It reimagines the Market Basket case through the lens of Victor Turner's social drama with a focus on key phases of the upheaval which included breach, crisis, redress, and reintegration. The paper considers the power of paternalism to unify and activate loyal, working class followers who benefit greatly from paternalistic practices and feel threatened by their removal. It also considers the risks of paternalism particularly under conditions where a charismatic patriarch has less benign intentions and workers follow with unquestioned loyalty.

This article explores the shadow dynamics of experiential learning using a psychodynamic perspective. It reviews the concept of shadow at the individual, group, and intergroup levels and draws on a short case from the author's experiences to consider how shadow dynamics may arise quickly and unexpectedly to take over the experiential learning classroom. It considers what the author learned about the shadow from the experience and how he conducts the experiential learning activity differently now to facilitate greater self-understanding and deeper learning.

This article discusses the paradox of charismatic pedagogy, its potential advantages (student motivation and satisfaction) and disadvantages (student dependency, conformity, and complacency) in the OB classroom. Using contextual and dramaturgical perspectives, it looks at and tries to explain the emergence of repressive charismatic expertise and offers suggestions for moving in the paradox that arises. Suggestions for movement include a teacher self-assessment process, new methods and activities in the classroom (demystifying experiential exercises, journal writing, and inviting feedback) and a group mirroring exercise.

This paper examines several aspects of management communication skills training. It discusses communication "skills" and their hidden potential as methods that sustain and mystify bureaucratic control. It also examines the social drama of communication skills training. Based on participant observation of a 4-day communication skills training seminar, the paper identifies and discusses six categories which, we argue, are designed to convert participants into practitioners and believers of the skills: creating an aura of status and wealth, creating an aura of credibility, minimizing risk, creating a "flow," trainer/participant testimonials, and closing-down-the-day rituals. The paper also looks at two groups of "nonbelievers" who resisted the training content or process. Last, the paper looks at why the workshop ultimately failed, discusses the covert aspects of management training, and speculates on management communication training that "demystifies."

Using a psychodynamic perspective, this article explores the tendency of members of small grolups to regress to a seeming state of group mindlessness whereby critical thinking is sluggish and individual differences of all kinds are suppressed. Sources of mindlessness in small groups are examined in terms of their underlying dynamics and their function in containing anxiety for the group. Also discussed is the emergence of the dissenter role within a small group as a container for both negative and positive differences. Propositions regarding functions and types of dissenter roles and ways of enhancing group mindfulness are delineated.

While various theories have been proposed to explain how technology leads to organizational change, in general they have focused either on the technology and ignored the influence of human agency, or on social interaction and ignored the technology. In this paper, we propose a new theory of technology-mediated organizational change that bridges these two extremes. Using grounded theory methodology, we conducted a three-year study of an enterprise system implementation. From the data collected, we identified embeddedness as central to the process of change. When embedded in technology, organizational elements such as routines and roles acquire a material aspect, in addition to the ostensive and performative aspects identified by Feldman and Pentland (2003). Our new theory employs the lens of critical realism because in our view, common constructivist perspectives such as structuration theory or actor network theory have limited our understanding of technology as a mediator of organizational change. Using a critical realist perspective, our theory explains the process of change as a three-stage cycle in which the ostensive, performative, and material aspects of organizational elements interact differently in each stage.