Table Of ContentOLYMPUS INC.
OLYMPUS INC.
‘Just occasionally, a book stuns you with its freshness and wisdom. Olympus Inc. is the best
thing on corporate culture I*ve read. Go get it.’
Guy Claxton - University of Bristol
Author of The Wayward Mind
‘Excellent. .. scholarly ... well-researched ... They analyze organizations as self-organizing,
living systems filled with deep archetypal patterns . . . Their creative approach provides
richness and color to our insights about complexities of organizational culture.’
Richard N. Knowles
Author of The Leadership Dance: Pathways to
Extraordinary Organizational Effectiveness
\ . . an impressive case for redefining the role of executives, consultants and change agents
in organizational transformation. This book goes from ‘soup to nuts’ in its deep exploration
of culture and Greco-Roman mythology, to real hands-on assessment tools and facilitation
strategies. A wonderful and valued addition to the practitioner’s tool bag.’
Steve Zuieback - International Management Consultant
President of Synectics: Creative Management Strategies
‘This book is a treat for cognitive-oriented readers. The bibliography serves as a compendium
in the field. I personally await a whole book on just the material in the Appendix.’
Michael Grinder - International Management Consultant
Author of Patterns of Permission: The Science of Group Dynamics
\ . . extraordinary; as remarkable for its wisdom and practicality as for the depth and
breadth of its scholarship . . . Neville and Dalmau throw light into the dark places of
organizations - revealing why things are the way they are . .. Invaluable, ‘divinely inspired’
guidance for those seriously interested in the dynamics of organizations life and change.’
Peter Waterhouse
Managing Director, Workplace Learning Initiatives
‘Bernie Neville and Tim Dalmau are the right people to introduce you to archetypes.
In addition they have the experience to explain the application of the archetypes for
organizational diagnosis and intervention. As a bonus you also learn about their DNAI,
the Dalmau-Neville Archetypology Indicator, and how it might be used.’
Bob Dick - Southern Cross University
Author of Jung for Sceptics
Also by Bernie Neville
Educating Psyche - Flat Chat Press (2005)
Qualitative Research In Adult Education - CREW (1994)
Qualitative Research Practice In Adult Education - David Lovell Publishing (1996)
New Learning Technologies: A Challenge For Teachers - Graduate School of
Education, Melbourne (1999)
Towards Re-Enchantment: Education, Imagination and the Search for Meaning -
Post Pressed Publishers (2005)
As Others See Us: The Values Debate in Australia - Australian Scholarly
Publishing (2008)
Also by Tim Dalmau
From The Profane To The Sacred: Small Groups As Vehicles For Cultural Change -
Interchange Publications (1990)
Managing Transitions: A Key To Creating Effective Learning Environments -
Interchange Publications (1990)
To Tame A Unicom .. .: Recipes for Cultural Intervention - Abridged Version
Revised - Interchange Publications (1989)
Values In Action: Applying the Ideas of Argyris and Schon - Second Edition -
Interchange Publications (1999)
OLYMPUS INC.
Intervening for Cultural Change
in Organizations
Bernie Neville Tim Dalmau
First published as e-book - Contemporary Arts Media 2004
Published by Flat Chat Press 2008
This edition published in 2010 by Kamac Books Ltd.
Published 2018 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Bemie Neville 2008
Copyright © Tim Dalmau 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Libraiy
ISBN: 9781855758049 (pbk)
Abo u t t h e Aut h o r s
Ber nie N evil l e
Bernie Neville is Associate Professor of Education at La Trobe University. He has taught,
researched, written and consulted widely on educational practice, communication and
organizational change for over 30 years. Neville’s Educating Psyche, a companion
volume to Olympus Inc., has received extensive praise from educators and critics.
T im D a l ma u
Tim Dalmau is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost management consultants* He
has consulted for private and public institutions all over the world for more than 25
years. He is the author or co-author of an extensive range of publications on action
research, management and organizational change.
PREFACE
PREFACE
In July 1991, we found ourselves in Copenhagen presenting papers at the annual
meeting of the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism. Our papers
both dealt with organizational culture and how cultural change can be initiated.
We were both interested in exploring the nature of what we were calling ‘the
postmodern organization’ and we had both brought a Jungian orientation to
our work. When we looked closely at the market-driven, opportunistic, ethically
bereft, image-obsessed, structurally slippery corporations and bureaucracies that
had flourished in the eighties, we imagined we saw an ancient, deeply embedded
pattern - Jungians would call it archetypal - in which the classical Greeks would
recognized the god Hermes at work.
Talk about Hermes-inflated organizations led to talk about Zeus organizations,
Eros organizations, and the like - all of which were familiar to us. Further late-
night, wine-enhanced conversation led to the light-hearted experiment of designing
a diagnostic instrument, called - with appropriate hubris - the Dalmau-Neville
Archetypology Indicator, to provide consultants with a tool for distinguishing
one god-inflated culture from another.
As you can see, the DNAI began its life as a joke. However, it seems significant that
it has had a life. It has been used as a consulting tool and as a research instrument
by ourselves and others for more than a decade. It has been subjected to statistical
analysis and made the basis of strategic interventions. Ongoing experience and
feedback (statistical as well as professional) have led to various modifications and
its eventual electronic incarnation as an appendix to this book.
The book itself can be read as background information for consultants, change
agents, students, or the simply curious who want to use the DNAI. Or it can
stand as one of the very few serious attempts to bring depth psychology to the
discussion of organizational change. One of us (Tim) is a management consultant
who likes to write a bit. The other (Bernie) is an academic who does a bit of
consulting when his teaching and research allow him time for it.
The thinking in Olympus Inc. has been shaped through innumerable conversations
with friends and colleagues; the text itself has been shaped through the editing
skills of Helen Neville. We are deeply grateful to all who have contributed.
Bernie Neville
Tim Dalmau
ix
