Organizational Trauma: A Phenomenological Study of Psychological Organizational Trauma and Its Effect on Employees and Organization

Larissa Winter
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Larissa Winter: Galagan Advisory, Austria

Management, 2019, vol. 14, issue 2, 117-136

Abstract: Traumatology as scientific discipline has its roots in the early twentieth century. The rise of Psychoanalysis and the atrocities of two world wars, which victimized millions of soldiers and civilians worldwide, represent the foundation of Traumatology. Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were observed and studied systematically ever since. After introductory differentiations regarding the terminology of PTSD and resilience, this paper offers insight into organizational trauma. Both, the organizational context of trauma and the processes of transmitting traumata within organizations are described and analysed. This paper refers to a single case study, carried out in Austria during 2017/2018, investigating a collapsing mid-sized international bank and the traumatic impacts across its organizational structures. Narrative methods were used according to the study’s research design, in order to explore how the traumatized employees ‘storied’ their experiences. Narrative thematic segments reveal how persons endure, cope with and eventually get over severe long-term traumatic experiences.

Keywords: organizational trauma; posttraumatic stress disorder; resilience; coping strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.26493/1854-4231.14.117-136

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