The therapeutic corporation

de James Tucker

A small but rapidly increasing number of contemporary organizations have adopted management structures that are less centralized and hierarchical than the traditional bureaucratic model. In a growing corporate trend that is also expanding into many other areas of modern society, these organizations are applying various "therapeutic" strategies of social control. The Therapeutic Corporation takes a close look inside one such organization: an employee-owned manufacturing corporation anonymously called "HelpCo." It addresses the question of how conflicts are handled when bureaucracy is greatly reduced - and its findings will surprise and enlighten many readers. Therapy, a behavior or practice normally thought to be confined to the offices of psychiatrists and the wards of mental hospitals, turns out to be the most common way of handling conflict in the postbureaucratic work environment. Author James Tucker points out how and why the decentralized and communal nature of social relations in many of today's organizations can foster an environment in which a distinctive kind of therapeutic moral order flourishes.