Defense Mechanisms

(noun)

Psychological strategies (such as denial, repression, or rationalization) that are brought into play to avoid or adjust to uncomfortable situations.

Related Terms

Examples of Defense Mechanisms in the following topics:

  • Phases of Organizational Change: Lewin

    • It involves getting over the initial defense mechanisms that people exhibit to avoid making a change.

  • Competitive Dynamics

    • This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context in order to identify opportunities and threats.
    • Similarly, defensive strategy can be employed more deftly in order to counter the threat of rival firms exploiting the firm's own weaknesses.

  • Quantitative and Analytical Management Tools

    • This chart of U.S. defense spending from 2000–2011 shows that overall spending increased from $300 billion to $700 billion due to increases in both the Department of Defense (DOD) budget and overseas (war-related) spending.

  • How Attitude Influences Behavior

    • Ego-defensive: People have a tendency to use attitudes to protect their ego, resulting in a common negative attitude.

  • The Inclusive Workplace

    • The primary threats to an inclusive culture are groupthink, discrimination, stereotyping, and defensiveness.

  • CPM and PERT Charts

    • CPM is commonly used for projects in construction, aerospace and defense, software development, research projects, product development, engineering, and plant maintenance.

  • Responding to Uncertainty in Strategic Planning

    • What matters for the purposes of strategic management is having a clear view, based on the best available evidence and on defensible assumptions, of what is possible to accomplish within the constraints of a given set of circumstances.

  • Methods of Excercising Influence

    • Examples of this include ego defensiveness where individual elect beliefs that protect their ego, knowledge functions where individuals ascribe to what aligns with their understanding and level of control, and adjustment functions where individuals are apt to minimize costs and maximize rewards in expressing their beliefs.

  • TQM

    • Some businesses strive to improve on current process because this is a very crucial management mechanism that increases the success of a business organization.

  • Organizational Development

    • Organizational development is a lifelong, built-in mechanism to improve an organization internally.
    • Helpful mechanisms: Do planning, control, budgeting, and other information systems help organization members accomplish their goal?