I know you are, but what am I... Mr. Chairman?

BusinessWeek

That these highly rational, utterly left-brained executives are delving into their pasts illustrates a new strain of organizational therapy coursing through the inner sanctums of corporate power. The basic concept: that people tend to recreate their family dynamics at the office. The idea is being fanned by organizational experts, who say that corporate strivers can at times behave a bit like thumb-suckers in knee pants, yearning for pats on the back from boss "daddies and mommies" and wishing those scene-stealing co-worker "siblings" would, well, die. Boardroom arguments can parallel spats at the family dinner table. Office politics can take on the dimensions of Icarus blowing off his Dad -- or Hamlet offing Uncle Claudius....

For Bert Whitehead, CEO of Cambridge Connection, a financial-planning company in Franklin Village, Mich., the epiphany came when, after announcing he would be away on a business trip, he noticed a stealthy rejoicing rippling through his offices. Today, he knows why. "Nobody was ever quite good enough," says Whitehead, who refers to himself as a moody stress-generator. "I had a mother I could never get approval from, and I had unknowingly really adopted that into my management style."

HERO, SCAPEGOAT, MARTYR. This may seem like so much EST-era drivel, but by performing psychological X-rays on clients' pasts, coaches have helped executives at companies as diverse as the Los Angeles Times, State Farm Insurance, and American Express (AXP ) understand their own and others' dysfunctional behavior. They learn how to recognize the shadowy emotional subtext that drives many encounters, deconstructing how they may be subconsciously sabotaging themselves, shying from authority figures, or engaging in hypercritical judgments of subordinates. Or why they may unwittingly play the role of the hero, scapegoat, or martyr. "I'm not suggesting that our employees are our kids," says Kenneth Sole, a consulting social psychologist who has worked with Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL ) and the U.N. "But the psychology is parallel."

Indeed, brain research over the past decade has shown that during stress -- when people's need to feel included, competent, and liked is thwarted -- their minds are hardwired to default to defensive family scripts. "We project onto others the conflicts we experienced growing up," says Robert Pasick, president of LeadersConnect in Ann Arbor, Mich. He teaches a course at the University of Michigan Business School on how family dynamics affect teams.

Such corporate headshrinking is gaining more ground in part because of how much interdependence companies face on the global stage. In the manual economy, work was a regimented, militaristic affair in which it was easier to subsume personality differences. Today, success hinges on teams performing as seamlessly as the flawless machinery in a showcase Six Sigma plant.

Six Sigma? SiX SIGMA? Where's my bat?!