Incest 0000i-xiv FM 1 - William L. White

Sexual Closure 125
Again we see the consequence of an organization having no effective
restraining agent to prevent the incestuous relationship.
Key Board Member–Client Relationship. The sexual relationship in our
next example grew out of the chance meeting of a counseling agency
board member and a client at the agency. Knowledge of the relationship
among the staff produced feelings of anger and lowered morale, as it
seemed the mission of the agency had been tainted. As the counselor
who was seeing the client began pointing out the destructiveness of the
relationship to the client, word began to filter down to the agency staff
that the board member involved was suggesting that a staff cut might be
necessary due to recent financial setbacks, and that he felt the counselor
treating the client he was seeing was the one who should be cut. When
the counselor’s supervisor became aware of the complexities, she directed
the counselor to transfer the case to another agency, and she took
the information to the director and recommended that the board member
be confronted. The confrontation did not occur, and the supervisor
chose to leave the organization shortly after the episode.
Staff morale suffered severely because of the ethical issues they felt
were violated, the organization’s failure to confront openly what had
happened, and the loss of a very competent supervisor.
Analysis. The relationship occurred in an organizational family that
had been closed socially for roughly a year and a half and was already
seeing the development of sexual relationships among some members
and extended family members (board members, spouses). Although
many staff members were morally outraged at the behavior of the board
member and the administrator’s failure to confront the issue, none saw
that the board member’s behavior was merely an extension of a process
nearly all of the staff members had participated in for some time.
The treatment of the counselor by the board member is reminiscent
of Weinberg’s observation that sons who challenge the sexual supremacy
of their fathers (in incestuous families) are treated harshly and
may be extruded. Staff members who confront the incestuous behavior
of administrative or supervisory staff members in closed organizational
families are often treated similarly.
High Priest–Client Relationship. Many of the people interviewed as part
of the research for this book remarked that the severest organizational