Psychological Applications in Management: The Hero's Journey

by Tomi Lennart Wahlstrom

Overview

oday's business environment requires more effective leadership than ever. In the constantly changing business environment, the leader has the central responsibility of keeping people motivated and productive. Many companies have been downsizing and laying off employees, and leaving behind employees with a wounded morale. To lift this morale, the leader needs to possess characteristics and qualities that cannot be learned from courses taken in business schools alone. These characteristics and qualities can only be learned from life itself in an individual journey of individuation. The leader needs to undergo an initiation process from immature psychology to mature psychology. Traditionally, this process is what makes "men out of boys" and "women out of girls." In analytical psychology this journey is called the hero's journey, which is based on the hero myth and includes several different initiations and growing steps.

This study investigates the different initiations included in the hero's journey and the importance of learning how, from them, to be a responsible, effective, charismatic, and powerful leader. The study also illustrates the archetypes, a term developed by Dr. Carl Jung (1959) to describe the original patterns that guide our behavior, involved in the hero's journey and what is required to get through the journey.

Heroism is not discussed here in the overall sense in which the public defines heroism. As such, this study does not investigate what motivates people to risk and/or sacrifice their lives by attempting to save people from crashed airplanes. Although this aspect of sacrifice is always present in heroism, this aspect is just one of the many aspects of heroism. Neither a heroic act of saving lives nor being celebrated on the covers of a national newspaper is required to be recognized as a hero. Individuals are all heroes in their own way. Some individuals manifest their heroism in very silent ways (introversion), while other individuals seem always to be in the public eye (extroversion). The essence of heroism always involves taking a journey into the unknown and bringing some sort of knowledge out of the unknown that benefits either society or an organization. The hero brings new prosperity to the organizational wasteland.

Heroism in mass media and movie entertainment is very different from heroism in the psychological sense and in the mythological sense, although there are some similar elements. The basic elements of the hero, the villain and the fair maiden, are always present in popular movies, but the steps of the hero's journey are often not involved, which leaves nothing more than a meaningless plot good only for entertainment purposes. These types of movies can steal an individual's sense of understanding of both the myth and the purpose of the hero's journey.

This study is neither discussing the heroes of our popular culture, nor is this a study of Hollywood's creations or of celebrated athletes, or even of famed political and war heroes. The focus within this study is a hero's journey in the career of a leader, and how the journey can bring the light (individuation) into the darkness of the organizational wasteland.

The legacy of Roberto Goizueta, who died in October 1997, during the writing of this dissertation, is also acknowledged. While his death in itself does not change the conclusions of this dissertation, his contribution to the Coca-Cola Company's success in traveling the hero's journey has been enormous. It remains to be seen what the future brings to this great company after losing such a charismatic and heroic leader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781581120486
Publisher:	Dissertation.Com
Publication date:	04/19/1999
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.56(d)

Table of Contents

	Abstract	iv
	Acknowledgments	vii
	Illustrations	xiii
	Tables	xiv
Chapter I.	Introduction	1
	Statement of the Problem	8
	Overview of the Study	10
	Purpose of the Study	13
	Significance of the Study	16
	Research Questions	17
	Definition of Terms	18
	Assumptions of the Study	23
	Limitations of the Study	24
Chapter II.	Search of the Literature	27
	The Original Works on Heroism	27
	Works on the Biological Basis of Archetypes	36
	Works on the Psychological State of Modern Man	39
	Related Management Literature	39
	Works Related to Psychological Types	43
	Works on the Archetypes of the Hero Myth (Post Jungian Literature)	44
	The Three Stages and Three Levels of the Hero's Journey	47
	Pearson's 12 Heroic Archetypes	49
	The Ego Stage and the Preparation Level Archetypes	50
	The Soul Stage and the Journey Level Archetypes	52
	The Self Stage and the Return Level Archetypes	54
	Summary of Pearson's Work on Archetypes	56
	The Classic Hero Myth of Parzival	57
	Works Extending Analytical Psychology into the World of Work	61
	Works on The Coca-Cola Company	62
	Beyond the Hero's Journey	68
	Summary	70
Chapter III.	Method	72
	Introduction	72
	Jungian Analytical Method	74
	The Psychological Type Theory	75
	The Techniques of Amplification and Association	76
	Jungian Case Study Method	79
	HMI and MBTI Testing	85
	The Leader and Clinician Field Experiment Design	89
	The Coca-Cola Company Case Study Design	94
Chapter IV.	Analysis	102
	Analysis of the Literature	102
	Analysis of the 12 Heroic Archetypes in the World of Work	107
	The Preparation	108
	The Journey	118
	The Return	127
	Summary of the 12 Heroic Archetypes in the World of Work	138
	Introduction to the HMI and the MBTI Analysis	141
	Analysis of the HMI Results of Leaders and Clinicians	143
	Analysis of the Archetypal Manifestations of Leaders and Clinicians	150
	Analysis of the MBTI Results of Leaders and Clinicians	159
	Summary	160
Chapter V.	Case Study Investigation and Validation	167
	The Coca-Cola Company Case Study	167
	History of The Coca-Cola Company	169
	Introduction to The Coca-Cola Company's Heroic Journey (HMI Analysis)	171
	The Candler Era: Preparation - Ego	172
	The Woodruff Era: Journey - Soul	177
	The Goizueta Era: Return - Self	181
	The Coca-Cola Company Today	183
	Summary of The Coca-Cola Company's Heroic Journey (HMI Analysis)	186
	The Character of The Coca-Cola Company (OCI Analysis)	189
	Summary of The Coca-Cola Company (OCI Analysis)	191
	Summary of the Coca-Cola Company HMI and OCI Analysis	192
Chapter VI.	Conclusions and Possible Applications of Findings	193
	Appendix
	Appendix A	204
	Appendix B	211
	Appendix C	215
	Appendix D	218
	Works Cited	225