Discursive practices and mentalization ability in adults at work

In the last years the strong growth of the narrative and conversational approach (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, Zilber, 1998; Zucchermaglio, 1996; Van Maanen, 1998) implied a growing centrality of the linguistic dimension in organizations, both in terms of research, and in terms of intervention. The aim of this study is to use the linguistic-conversational level to highlight the links between constructs derived from studies on theory of mind and studies on work and organizations. Stimulated by recent attempts to use the life-span approach in the framework of theory of mind studies (Chandler, Lalonde, 1992; Chandler et al. 2003; Kuhn, 2000; Cigoli, Marta, 2001), the aim is to focus on how people maintain and/or modify interpretative representations of their own mental world and that of others in organizations, and how they use them in different stages of the job life cycle and in different organizational contexts. We will explore the relationship individual-work-organization, using the contribution that the distributed theory of mind can provide in organizational processes, using in particular the metaphor of “reflective organization”. Particularly referring to studies on changes that current work instability is producing on the level of personal and professional identity, we will take from the theory of mind as a theoretic and application support to sustain the possibility to develop and favour the sense of continuity perceived by individuals. In the end, we will focus on the area of organizational training, as an organizational process potentially able to support and strengthen the reflective capacities of the persons within organizations which, in a strategic way, take the value of learning creation and of knowledge managing. In particular, the study focuses on how linguistic analysis may represent a training tool for developing mental abilities.