Ruthellen Josselson and Joseph Triest

How People Create One Another: Multiculturalism, Intersubjectivity and Work in Professional Roles
August 18-22

Every work environment and professional relationship is co-created around the frictions of multiple worlds of experience. We all bring our own internal "cultures" into our professional roles and these roles themselves have implicit cultures. These often hidden or unexamined "cultures" have impact on our work with organizations, groups and in clinical work as well.

Organizational consultation and clinical relationships are intersubjectively shaped by the various ethnic, national, gendered and other subcultures (societal and organizational) in which the participants are embedded. The boundaries between Self and Other and the understanding of authority are particularly subject to the creative processes of our own minds as we construct and experience the realities and relationships of professional work. Dynamic systems theory offers perspectives on how professional roles and "institutions in the mind" are influenced by the sociocultural environment of personal origin and the culture of the organization in which work is conducted.

This workshop will offer in both didactic and experiential modes the opportunity to reflect on experiences in professional (organizational development/consultation and clinical/therapeutic) roles. The leaders, a man and a woman, represent two different national cultures and will work from their evolving understanding of the impact of these differences. Participants will explore the ways in which they take up and perceive their work, and their roles (and the dynamic systems which create them) will be the focus of analysis.

Participants will have an opportunity to learn more about their perceptions of their own work environments in order to enlarge their capacity to be effective in their roles. They will also gain a better understanding of the dilemmas of multicultural work settings (and it is our viewpoint that all workplaces are inherently multicultural). We will work toward the possibilities of transformation of work roles in both personal and systemic terms.

Monday
Introduction to dynamic systems view of multiculturalism, intersubjectivity and role. Exploring environmental influences on role.

Tuesday
Formal vs. informal roles. The processes of illusion in roles.

Wednesday
Valence - personal tendencies and subcultural differences that are called upon in role. How people create and are created by themselves and others in their roles.

Thursday
The interconnections among intersubjective spaces, cultural embeddedness and the cultures of work environments.

Friday
Transformation of roles - review and application of the concepts and the experiential work to professional work roles.

Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., is the author of Playing Pygmalion: How People Create One Another and The Space Between Us: Exploring the Dimensions of Human Relationship, as well as other books and professional articles on relationships, identity and groups. A faculty member of the Fielding Graduate University, she has lectured nationally and internationally and conducted demonstrations on group processes in therapy and in organizations.

Joseph Triest, Ph.D., is a Senior Clinical Psychologist, Training Analyst (I.P.A.) and Organizational Consultant in Israel. He is the co-director of the Program of organizational consultation and development at Tel-Aviv University. Dr. Triest is the author of "Will the Real Self Please Stand Up?" and "The Inner Drama of Role-taking."