Organizational Power,

Control and Conflict

Chapter 8

Mary Jo Hatch with Ann L. Cunliffe

Perspectives on Power, Politics, & Control

- Objectivist
- Structural
determinants
- Challenge
ideology
- Objectivist - Emancipation
- Structural - Linguistic
determinants construction
- Manage to - Embedded in
ensure goal social relationships
achievement
- Reflexive scrutiny
 Modern, Critical & Postmodern
Table 8.1.
Conceptions of Power, Control & Conflict
Modern Critical Postmodern
Locus of authority, knowledge, & social, economic & political social relationships;
power resolution of critical problems structures & ideologies discursive & non-discursive
practices
Basis of the right to control challenges owner/shareholder disciplinary power embedded
power production and know-how right to profit; favors in taken for granted discursive
democracy of stakeholder and non-discursive practices
interests
View of rational/political systems systems of exploitation, products & producers of
organizations domination, & resistance; disciplinary power
systematically distorted
communication
Goal to improve organizational to emancipate dominated to interrogate self-disciplinary
efficiency and effectiveness groups; create more behaviors & marginalization
democratic organizations
Implications monitoring employee Hegemony; systematically disciplinary technologies; self-
for control performance; market, distorted communication surveillance
bureaucracy, or clan control processes; false consciousness
View of counterproductive; an inevitable consequence of emerges within power
conflict managed to maximize capitalism and its inequalities. relations; groups contest the
corporate performance Resistance & radical change framing of realities and
subjectivities
A Modernist Definition of Power

A has power over B to the extent that

he can get B to do something that B
would not otherwise do. (Dahl)
Modernist Conceptions of Power

Strategic
Power & Politics Contingencies

Resource
Sources of Power
Dependency
Sources of Power
 The Political Frame

takes a pluralistic approach because decisions are

negotiated between subgroups & factions.

1. What sources of power do various organizational members

hold?
2. Under what conditions is power exercised?
3. How is power legitimized?
 Table 8.2 Developing & Using Power

Develop power by: Use power to:

Creating dependencies Control information flow

Coping with uncertainty Control agendas

Developing personal Control decision making

networks criteria

Developing and augmenting Build coalitions

expertise
Bring in outside experts
Strategic Contingencies Theory

Power is related to the ability of a person or

department to solve critical problems, provide
something the organization needs, and/or
deal with uncertainty.
The Politics of Resource Dependence

Critical
Environmental problems/issues
(product development, Person/department
uncertainty new technology, quality,
able to deal with
(economic, technological, employment law)
legal) the problems.

Gains more
Gains power &
power and
resources by helping
resources.
Legitimizes power the organization adapt
& shapes to environmental
organizational demands.
activities.
The Politics of Resource Dependence

Critical
Environmental problems/issues
(product development,
uncertainty new technology, quality, Person/department
(economic, technological, employment law) able to deal with
legal) the problems.

Symbols of power
Gains more
power and Gains power &
resources. resources by helping
Legitimizes power the organization adapt
& shapes to environmental
organizational demands.
activities.
 Forms of Control

OUTPUT BEHAVIORAL

Piece rate systems Performance standards

Quality / waste standards Performance evaluations
Quantity produced Performance management
 Table 8.3 Three Theories of Control
Cybernetic Model Agency Theory Market, Bureaucracy &
Clan Control

Purpose of Manage differences Ensure managers act in the Achieve cooperation

Control between desired/actual, best interest of owners. among individuals.
individual and
organizational
performance.

Types of Output Output Output

Control Behavioral Behavioral Behavioral
Symbolic

Control 1. Set Goals 1. Establish contract Market - price & profit

Processes 2. Set work targets 2. Obtain information Bureaucracy - rule
3. Monitor performance 3. Reward agents compliance
4. Correct deviations Clan - socialize org.
members
 Cybernetic Control
The Cybernetic Model - make adjustments to
ensure goals are achieved

Target Monitor Assess

or standard performance deviations

GOALS EVALUATION

Attention Intention Work

to tasks to work activity
 Agency Theory

Controlling the behaviour of agents (managers) to

ensure the interests of principals (owners) are
protected, by:

Contracts
Observation
Information systems
Performance evaluation & rewards
Socialization to common goals
 Market Control

Price competition
Profits centers
Output controls
Bureaucratic Control

Hierarchy
Supervision
Rules & procedures
 Clan Control

Socialization
Norms & values
Culture
Figure 8.1
MODERNIST Environment
VIEW OF
CONTROL Resource allocations Performance data
PROCESSES
Strategy

Resource allocations Performance data

Organizational
Goals
Resource allocations Performance data

Unit Unit Unit

Goals Goals Goals
Resource allocations Performance data

Group or Measures Rewards

Individual
Group or Group or Goals
Individual Individual Outcomes
Goals Goals
Etc. Etc.
Attention Intention Action

Inputs Transformation Processes Outputs

Critical Studies of Power and Control

Seek to understand how:

power and ideology are entwined

social, economic and political structures determine

power

dominated groups consent to their own exploitation

organizations can become more humanistic and

democratic
Critical Studies of Power and Control

Labor Process Theory

Critique of Ideology

Workplace
Communicative Democracy
Rationality
 The Critique of Ideology

One groups ideology (e.g. owners or managers)

dominates others.

Workers exist in a state of false consciousness by

adopting a managerial ideology and participating in
their own exploitation.

Hegemony occurs when dominated groups give their

spontaneous consent to the dominant groups
directions and actions. These forms of domination
are often taken for granted.
 Three Faces of Power (Lukes)

1. Decision making - groups participate fully in

decision making.

2. Non-decision making - preventing other

groups from
participating.

3. Radical - the desires & actions of

particular groups
are shaped by social
mechanisms & processes
that actually work
against the interests of
those groups.
 Labour Process Theory

Owners increase control by deskilling

labour through the fragmentation and
routinization of work.
 Communicative Rationality

Instrumental Rationality Systematically Distorted

Communication

Achieving goals by the Privileging one meaning/

most efficient, rational ideology over others.
means.

Resolved through communicative rationality - reaching

agreement through open discussion and consensus.
 Workplace Democracy

Organizations have colonized society.

Corporate power is inherently non-democratic yet
regarded as normal.

Stakeholder engagement Worker cooperatives and

in decision making. labour-managed firms.
Gender and Organizing (Critical & Postmodern
Approaches)

Organizations and organizational practices

are dominated by men.

Gender differences are produced and

maintained in taken-for-granted ways.

Organizations & organizing are gender-

biased.
 Dual Labor Market Theory

The primary sector of the labor market

commands good pay, career opportunities,
and is dominated by white males.
The secondary sector has poorer wages and
conditions.

Women (and ethnic minorities) need

some unique distinction?
Gendered Organizations & Power

Organizational structures, ideologies,

and practices are often
male-gendered and therefore carry
implications for power:

hierarchy, impersonality, rationality,public/private

life, symbols, work, careers,
knowledge, language
Gender is constitutive of organizing; it is an
omnipresent, defining feature of collective human
activity, regardless of whether such activity appears to
be about gender. Second, the gendering of
organization involves a struggle over meaning,
identity, and difference; this ongoing discursive
struggle occurs amid, and acts upon, gendered
institutional structures. Third, such struggle
(re)produces social realities that privilege certain
interests. (Ashcraft & Mumby, 2004: vi)
Postmodern Conceptions of Power

Power and control are embedded

in all social relationships and
organizational practices, and are
constructed and reproduced in
everyday interactions.
 Disciplinary Power (Foucault)

resides in an organizations routine practices

and regarded as a normal part of everyday
life.

shifts across people and time and is

asymmetrical because one group/person is
advantaged over another.

is constructed in discursive and non-

discursive practices.
 Disciplinary Power

1. is both positive and negative

2. creates economies of power (e.g. autonomous work

groups)

3. is linked to disciplinary technologies that

control performance, bodies, and identities.
Self-Surveillance
Individuals conform to rules
and behave in the desired
way in anticipation of being
monitored.

The gaze of inspection,

techniques of categorizing,
normalizing, and controlling
people (e.g., training,
performance management
systems).

Interiorization, anticipation and

self monitoring.
 Conflict (Katz & Kahn)

A particular kind of interaction marked by

efforts at hindering, compelling, or
injuring and by resistance or retaliation
against those efforts.
Figure 8.2
 Table 8.4 Ways to Reduce Conflict

Recommended Action Implicit Strategy

Physical separation Avoidance

Increase resources Avoidance
Repress emotions & opinions Avoidance
Create superordinate goals Collaboration
Emphasize similarities Smoothing
Negotiate Compromise
Appeal to higher authority Hierarchical referral
Rotate jobs Structural change
Physical proximity Confrontation
 Table 8.5 Ways to Stimulate Conflict
Acknowledge repressed conflict
Role model functional conflict through open disagreement &
collaborative responses
Alter established communication channels
Hold back information
Overcommunicate
Deliver deliberately ambiguous messages
Differentiate activities or outcomes among subordinates
Challenge the existing power structure
 Possible Sources of
Figure 8.3
Interdepartmental Conflict
Context Local Conditions Observable Indices

Environment Group characteristics Open hostility

Strategy Goal incompatibility Distrust/disrespect
Technology Task interdependence Information distortion
Social structure Rewards & performance we-they rhetoric
Culture criteria Lack of cooperation
Physical structure Common resources Avoid interaction
Status incongruity
Jurisdictional ambiguity
Communication obstacles
Individual differences
Environment & Organization as Contexts

Changing environmental conditions

Technology
Strategy

Culture Technology
Interunit conflict

Physical Social
structure structure