By confronting a taboo within American OB circles, Power in Organizations has

become the standard references for students of power and politics. Pfeffer's systematic
exploration of power succeeds in deftly educating both students and practitioners
about the many dimensions and manifestations of power--from assessing it to
understanding its sources, from showing strategies used to wield it to measuring the
effects of its use. While the value garnered from these insights is certainly large, there
are still flaws in the book that detract from Pfeffer's otherwise cogent presentation.
Fortunately these flaws seem limited to a single chapter. Unfortunately it is the first,
and we believe that this may cause readers to misunderstand and undervalue the
importance of this vintage text.
In the first chapter Pfeffer takes on several tasks. He aims to define power and
politics, to distinquish between power and authority, to position his political model
against other decision-making frameworks, and to explain why power is a neglected
topic in American OB discourse. It quickly becomes apparent that this is more than
anyone could adequately cover in a single chapter. Pfeffer does begin with a thorough
definition of power and politics, and leans heavily on Weber to distinquish authority
as legitimated power. But the solid foundation he starts to build becomes quite cursory
as he suddenly turns to nit-picking his contemporaries' definitions of politics. Rather
than bolstering his own definition, this strategy merely distracts the reader and adds
needless confusion to a strong beginning.
Pfeffer sidetracks the reader again later in the chaper, where he attempts to
differentiate his yet-to-be-defined political theory of organizations from the rational,
the bureaucratic, and the decision process models of organization. He devotes over 10
pages to a painstaking definition of these other models, apparently abandoning the
notion of power completely. After this lengthy diversion Pfeffer's explanation of his
political model in the last five pages seems rushed and disjointed, falling between the
cracks of the other theories instead of standing proudly beside them.
In contrast, the middle of the chapter does stand quite proud. Here Pfeffer delivers a
wake-up call to American OB, leveling the charge that power has been ignored
because raising the question of power raises the questioning of power. Unfortunately
Pfeffer's tone here comes off as slightly paranoid, carping, and rather off-putting to
virgin readers of OB literature. His presentation of this argument is ill-timed. Once
elaborated, Pfeffer's political model of power can ultimately inspire a powerful,
subtle, analytic argument supporting his iconoclastic view; but by the first chapter he
hasn't presented enough of his theory to believably invoke it. It is clear that he feels
the need to justify his "political pursuit", but we think that he should have rested with

his claim that everyone recognizes power structures as ubiquitous and important in
modern organizations, and cast the subversion theory in a more subtle tone in another
place in the book.
In all, Pfeffer's overly ambitious and divergent aims for the first chapter and his
cursory handling of theoretical foundations leaves the reader confused and potentially
unconvinced that a political model of organizations is distinct from more traditional
viewpoints. And if this wasn't discouraging enough, the reader may feel attacked to
boot. But all is not lost. This was only the first chapter; the reader that (we hope)
forges ahead will be rewarded. In later chapters Pfeffer is more graceful and focused
as he explores the richness of the political paradigm. Even if one doesn't eventually
agree with his points about the sociology of conflict and the reasons for ignoring
power, his book ensures that the discussion leaves the realm of polemic and enters that
of sophisticated discourse. And that is both the minimum standard and the highest
achievement we can hope for in a scholarly book.