Does Your Company Need Family Therapy?

By: Sandra Siemens L.I.S.W.

How Companies Are Like Families

Like a family, a company is a group of people who have an ongoing relationship with one another. Companies have several things in common with families.

1.  Families have distinct ways of communicating and degrees of togetherness. For example:

• Communication may be overt or covert
• Reltionships tend to be enmeshed (too close) or disengaged (uninvovled)
• Boundaries may be described as diffuse (extreme togetherness), rigid (extreme seperateness), or clear (ideal and appropriete)

2.  There are unwritten rules which family members or employees must follow in order to survive and thrive in the system. For example, in an organization, the rules might be:

• Be on time
• Never call the boss by his/her first name, unless given permission
• Ask about company policy before placing personal items on your desk

3.  Unresolved issues from the past have an effect on current functioning and communication patterns.

For example: After an emotional event such as a major strike, employees need time to process their feelings. Family therapy following a disruptive event like this would heal such wounds much more quickly.