From Altruism to Action: Primary Task and the Not-for-Profit Organization

This paper examines the concept of primary task,as it has been used in action research and consultancyat The Tavistock Institute and elsewhere. It applies theconcept to the not-for-profit organization and argues that primary task should not bethought of opportunistically; it relates to themission of the organization. The threesector model of public, private and voluntaryorganizations is linked to basic assumptions, as described by Bion andapplied to societal institutions. The voluntary sectoris considered to have a valency for basic assumptionpairing organizational behavior. A case study of a voluntary organization demonstrates the waydifferent stakeholders claim psychological ownership ofthe enterprise. The paper concludes that the concept ofprimary task remains important, offering a stable reference point for working with organizations,where the boundary between sectors is increasinglyproblematic, threatening to overwhelm their originalpurpose.