Racial Inequality in Organizations: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

Abstract

This paper uses systems psychodynamic concepts to develop theory about the persistence of racial inequality in U.S. organizations and to inform an approach for disrupting it. We treat White men who aspire to emulate hegemonic masculine ideals as the dominant group and Black people as the archetypal subordinate group. In our theory, persistence is rooted in work contexts that conflate merit with idealized images of White masculinity, which provokes unconscious distress in White men who aspire to meet those ideals. To keep this distress at bay, they covertly construct an unconscious, multilevel defense system, comprising projective identification at the individual level bolstered by a social defense at the organization level. This system is selfsealing: It diverts attention away from the real culprit—work contexts that threaten White men’s self-worth—by contriving a substitute problem—a shortage of meritorious Black people; at the same time, the social defense fuels aspects of the work context that give rise to such threats in the first place. The upshot is the persistence of racial inequality. We offer guidance on how to disrupt these dynamics by building mutually-reinforcing holding environments where organization members can engage in intrapsychic and intergroup reparative work. We conclude by offering theoretical contributions to organizational inequality, systems psychodynamics, and masculinity literatures.