To what extent would you argue that Steve Jobs is either a transformational or toxic leader?
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4.PowerandPolitics-Lecture21.pptxUnderstanding Organisations and People
Power and Politics #2 –
organisations: rational or political?
Dr. Selen Kars
Room: 5X219 email: [email protected]
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Recap and Overview
The unitarist view assumes that…
Employees possess goals that conform to and are compatible with those around them.
Employees’ actions are directed towards the achievement of these goals.
The unitarist view were seen to be problematic as it…
Fails to acknowledge power and politics in organisations
Focuses only on managerial prerogative
Pluralist and radical views on power and politics take on a more complex approach…
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An alternative: Pluralism
Organisations are political
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Pluralism
The organisation is a living organism, made up of various sub-systems
Emphasis is placed on the diversity of individual/group interests; the organisation is a loose coalition with a passing interest in the formal goals
An acceptance of competing interests and politics...
“a democratic state composed of sectional groups with divergent interests over which the government tries to maintain some kind of dynamic equilibrium” (Fox, 1966: 134)
“In place of a corporate unity reflected in a single focus of authority and loyalty, we have to accept the existence of rival sources of leadership and attachment. They need to be accepted above all, by whoever is ruling the plural society in question” (Fox, 1966: 89)
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Conflict is inevitable, legitimate and structured into employment relationship (Knights and Willmott, 2017)
Aim for a “negotiated order than creates unity out of diversity” (Morgan, 1986: 185)
For pluralists conflict is manageable and resolvable
Pluralism and decision-making, conflict and resistance
Legitimacy of trade unions as representing employee interests and countervailing power to management (Clegg, 2005)
Employees are given a place and voice in decision-making?
Tends to assume balance of power between parties with different interests (Burrell and Morgan, 1979)
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Pluralism seems to provide a more realistic outlook – acknowledging that power and politics have a place. However…
Assumes that all parties are rational, working with a common interest, and are willing to trust and compromise
Assumes all conflict is manageable and resolvable
Only ‘sanctioned’ forms of resistance and conflict are acceptable
An equal balance of power - a level playing field - rarely exists in organisations
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“I live in a democratic society. Why should I have to obey the orders of my boss eight hours a day? He acts like a bloody dictator, ordering us around and telling us what we should be thinking and doing. What right does he have to act in this way? The company pays our wages, but does this mean it has the right to command all our beliefs and feelings? It certainly has no right to reduce us to robots who must obey every command” (Morgan, 2006: 149)
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A critical perspective: The radical view
Organisations are political
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The radical view
Takes issue with, and serves as a critique of pluralist accounts:
Suggesting that the assumption of organisations as level playing fields is, at best, optimistic.
Identifies organisations as deeply imbedded sites of domination where the less powerful are constantly outflanked by dominant managerial groups who have the power to “define social reality” and conceal conflicts of power (Alvesson, 1987: 8; Fulop and Linstead, 2004; Lukes, 1974)
Power in organisations is viewed as an exercise in maintaining the status quo of managerial control, directing employees to “deliver capital accumulation” (Willmott, 1993: 519) and serving the means of the ‘privileged’ (Fulop and Linstead, 2004; Clegg and Dunkerley,1980: 197-8)
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Power: A radical view
Control and conformity through surveillance – The Panopticon & disciplinary power (Foucault, 1979)
Power is embedded in all social relations – in all that we are and all situations we inhabit.
Normalisation: “the tendency of people to accept as normal the expectations of those who govern them and to comply with them” (Jackson and Carter, 2000: 105)
The result is self-disciplining individuals
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Conflict: A radical view
At first glance, radical accounts share the pluralist idea that conflict is ever-present and inevitable
However, it goes deeper…
A return to Karl Marx:
There is an inherent conflict of interest within society between those with capital (‘bourgeoisie’) and those who sell their labour (‘proletariat’)
Therefore, conflict and politics are a natural response to the capitalist system (Leflaive, 1996)
Organisations are seen as a microcosm of the wider society... Reflecting broader patterns of power imbalances and inequality (Jackson and Carter, 2000)
“The organisation is a battleground where rival forces strive for the achievement of largely incompatible ends” (Morgan, 2006: 202)
However, conflict is often suppressed – overtly (in unitarist accounts) or covertly (in pluralist accounts)
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Decision-making: A radical view
Many techniques and methods of conflict resolution offered by pluralists are considered to be manipulative (empowerment, decision making) to weaken the collective power of labour (Fulop and Linstead, 2009)
This is often achieved through the ‘invisible hand of power’, where managers look to create a culture in which employees are denied any meaningful power, and conflicts of interest are obscured so that resistance is “eliminated, or never created in the first place” (Antonsen, 2007:186)
Lukes (1974) note that management still have overriding power and can control the agenda through ‘non decision-making’- including what items are unacceptable to address.
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Resistance: A radical view
Radical accounts do not see employee resistance as irrational, pathological and dysfunctional (Knights and Willmott, 2017)
The organisation is inherently political, yet managers are often reluctant to address of acknowledge this...
Collective resistance as a means of overcoming inequalities?
As long as we are working within a capitalist system, exploitation, asymmetrical power relationships, dehumanisation, oppression, de-politicisation (and resistance to this) will continue to occur...
Different forms of power give way to different forms of resistance
“Where there is power, there is resistance” (Foucault, 1979: 45)
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Perspectives Compared
| Unitarism | Workers Expected to Cooperate with Means and Ends of Firm |
| Pluralism | Negotiation Allowed Over Means but Not Ends of Firm |
| Radical | Workers should Resist and Fight Against Means and Ends of Firm |
Views Conflict as an Inevitable Outcome of the Exploitation Endemic in Capitalist Economies
Workers are Exploited because they Receive Less than the Value they Create – Surplus Value is Extracted for Private Profit
Profit is Disproportionately Divided between Employees, Managers and Owners/ Shareholders
Means = How Work is Organised
Ends = The Creation of Private Profit (owned by shareholders/ owner, not workers)
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The Relational View on Power
How much power does a rook have?
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How much power does a rook have ?
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How much power does a rook have ?
Checkmate
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Power is a relationship
Power is ‘a condition of social relations in the sense we are all capable of exercising power’ (McCabe, 2007: 228)
Power is embedded in all social reationships between free people and thus everyone has power through the relationship may have in built power inequalities.
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As managers and managed, what should we be aware of?
Different forms of power and resistance can be understood as struggles of action, inactivity, interests and identity.
Power is never ubiquitous (all-powerful), resistance is always possible.
A long history of struggle has shaped what forms of power and resistance we find at work today.
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Thinking Points
Are you convinced by the argument that power and politics are an inherent part of everyday life?
Is there, in your opinion, an antagonistic relationship between workers and managers in organisations?
What do you think the future looks like for organisations? Will we continue with unitaristic ways?
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We Recommend…
The power struggle between two women - Wintour and Coddington - spurs the film’s plot
How you can analyse the movie by using unitarist, pluralist and radical perspectives of power?
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We Recommend…
Novel/film about resistance in Nazi Germany
Observe how power is dispersed throughout and embedded in everyday life.
We tend to see the state in Nazi Germany as omipotent. But is it so? How you can describe the power of ordinary people by using concepts from relational view of power and resistance?
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References
Alvesson, M. (1987) ‘Organisations, culture and ideology’. International Studies of Management and Organisation, 17(3): 4-18.
Antonsen, S. (2007) ‘Safety Culture and the issue of Power’, Safety Science, 47 (2): 183-191
Brunsson, N. (2002) ‘Organisational Hypocrisy’. In: Czarniawska, B. and Sevone, G. (Eds) ‘The Northern Lights: Organisation Theory in Scandinavia’. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School.
Burrell, G. and Morgan, G. (1979) ‘Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis’. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
Clegg, S. (2005) ‘Managing and Organisations’. London: Sage.
Clegg, S. and Dunkerley, D. (1980) ‘Organisation, Class and Control’. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Foucault, M. (1979) ‘Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and other writings’. Harlow: Longman
Fox, A. (1966) ‘Industrial Sociology and Industrial Relations: An Assessment of the contribution which industrial sociology can make towards understanding and resolving some of the problems now being considerd by the Royal Commission’. London: HMSO
Fulop, L. and Linstead, S. (2004, 2009) ‘Management and Organisation: A Critical Text’. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
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References
Jackson, N. and Carter, P. (2000) ‘Rethinking Organisational Behaviour. A Poststructuralist Framework’. 2nd ed. London: Prentice Hall.
Knights, D. and Willmott H. (2017) ‘Introducing Organisational Behaviour and Management’ (3rd edition) Cengage Learning
Leflaive, X. (1996) ‘Organisations as Structures of Domination’, Organisation Studies, 17: 23-47
Lukes, S. (1974) ‘Power: A Radical View’. London: Macmillan
Marx, K. ([1867] 2001) ‘Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 1, Book one, the Process of Production of Capital’ London: Electric Book Company.
McCabe, D. (2007). Power at work: How employees reproduce the corporate machine. Routledge.
Morgan, G. (2006) ‘Images of Organisation’. London: Sage.
Willmott, H. (1993) ‘Strength is Ignorance; Slavery is Freedom: Managing Culture in Modern Organisations’ Journal of Management Studies, 30 (4): 515-552
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