For Prof. Kim: Organizational Theory

Organisational Theory Organisational Power, Control and Conflict RMIT University 2 Organisational Power, Control and Conflict Objectives:

• Introduce the concepts of power and control. • Discuss how these concepts relate to organisations. • Distinguish between contemporary theoretical approaches to power and control in organisations • Modernist • Critical Theory • Symbolic Interpretivist • Postmodernist Power in Organisations Definitions often focus on the capacity of one actor to influence the behaviour of another actor.

There are many translations of Weber’s 1922 definition:

 ‘The probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance ’ Julien Freund (1969: 221)  ‘A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do ’ (Dahl, 1957) RMIT University 3 Power in Organisational Discourse Power in Organisational Discourse The concept of power is often discussed in the context of leadership and influence.

Giddens (1985): “the capacity to intervene in a given set of events so as in some way to alter them ”. Two types of resources involved:

 Control over material or economic resources  Authoritative resources (legitimate authority, surveillance). RMIT University 4 Are these simplistic assumptions about power and control? Power Social Structures • Social structures possess (or appear to possess) ‘ power ’ and have the capacity to influence the will of individual actors. • the power of ‘ market ’ forces over organisations and individual actors within organisations. RMIT University 5 Symbolic Interpretive Approaches RMIT University 6 Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• The concepts of “power” and “control” are subjective • Derived from social processes (i.e. power, interaction, cooperation, conflict, etc.) from human interaction • Symbolic interpretive approaches do not have well developed theories of power. Analytical Approach:

• Georg Simmel stated that "society” is merely the name for a number of individuals connected by interaction." • Symbolic interpretivists have focused on how roles and norms shape interaction (i.e. the theatrical script). Processes of Social Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated :  Internalisation of norms and values (socialisation)  Practices developed by individuals or groups (of all kinds) that enforce or encourage conformity and deal with behaviours that violates accepted norms  The use of sanctions with regards to rule - breakers and non -conforming acts and the use of rewards for those conforming. RMIT University 7 Remember that Symbolic Interpretivists focus on power as social interpretation and reinterpretation Symbolic Interpretive Approaches Knowledge that is produced or articulated :  Erving Goffman focused on the importance of control during interaction.

– An individual seeks to control the behaviour of others during interaction, in order to attain the information or results they want and in order to control the perception of one's self.  Symbolic interpretivists do not tend to answer larger questions about how power and control is maintained at an organisational level  Symbolic interpretivists do not tend to answer why power and control needs to be maintained or how power and control relates to broader organisational & social relationships RMIT University 8 Modernist Conceptions of Power and Control RMIT University 9 Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• Power is a real, power is an objective concept Analytical Approach:

 Organisational studies can serve as a ‘science’ to help inform organisational authorities on how best to maintain their authority and power within organisations.  Identifying ‘control processes’ and mechanisms of control. Modernist Conceptions of Power and Control RMIT University 10 Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Organisational Focus:  How power gets distributed, legitimised , within organisations  Authority & ways to manage conflict and resistance to authority within organisations , e.g. positional power, reward power Organisational goals:  Improve organisational efficiency and effectiveness.  Authority & the exercising of power is vital to achieving organisational goals. Applying Science to Control Workers: Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Scientific Management Strategies:

• Establish hierarchical authority and technical control through management whom become responsible for the precise scheduling and organising of work activities. • Machine paced labour. Managers control the machines. RMIT University 11 An example of Machine Paced Labour: Drum -Buffer - Rope Applying Science to Control Workers Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Scientific Management Strategies  Time Motion Studies  Increase the division of labour by fragmenting the production process and creating specialised tasks  Efficiencies through task simplification • Goal = remove the control and cost of the skilled trades person. RMIT University 12 You can see, above, that modernists focus on the objective application.

 The effect is deskilling, but this is covered in Critical Theory Modernist Theories of Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Clan Control Theories  Control through influencing group behaviour – Establishing desirable culture within teams/workgroups – Group self -monitoring of organisational values and norms – Communities as practice Market Theories  The market as a mechanism of control – Benchmarking and output controls – International best practice – Ideologically — ’there is no alternative ’ RMIT University 13 Modernist Theories of Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Bureaucratic Theories  Rules, regulations and formalised procedures  Authority, differentiation and departmentalisation  Legitimisation, reward power, transactional leadership Agency theories  Mechanisms to protect an owner ’ s interests from discretionary management decisions: • Rewards • Control of information • Surveillance • Contracts RMIT University 14 Critical Studies of Power and Control Theoretical “Ontological” position:

 Objective, independent reality  Power is a real concept Analytical Approach:

 Questioning, reflection and analysis  Unmasking the ‘roots’ of domination • Analysis of capitalist class relations (i.e. owner and labourer) • Language of social divisions, power, inequality and conflict within organisations • Uncovering exploitation and alienation of the proletariat (workers) by the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) RMIT University 15 Critical Theory Knowledge that is produced or articulated :  Articulates features of Work in Capitalist Societies  Social unrest gave rise to a more ‘critical’ approach to understanding organisational life  Labour -Power is a Commodity  The existence of a labour -market  Unequal Power in the workplace and decision -making  Employers/Managers maintain:

– Legitimate Power – Coercive Power – Reward Power – Expert Power  Sexual Division of Labour RMIT University 16 Critical Studies of Power and Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • All goods, regardless of price, receive their value from the labour -time expended upon them. • Under capitalism workers are paid not for how much they produce but how many hours they have worked. ‘What the worker sells, and what the capitalist buys, is not an agreed amount of labour, but the power to labour of an agreed amount of time’ • The products produced by the workers are the property of the owners. • In the course of the working day, workers produce more than is actually paid to them in wages. The profit is what is not paid to workers, but kept by owners RMIT University 17 Critical Studies of Power and Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • Capital accumulation and the circulation of commodities M¹ — C — M² – M= Money – C = Commodity • Greater the exploitation of labour — greater the profit. Achieved through:

– Extension of the working day (same wages) – Technological development (produce more in the same amount of time for the same wages) – Reduction of wages • Interests of classes contradictory — source of class conflict.

RMIT University 18 Workers as Active Agents Within these Organisational Relationships Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Explains workers’ resistance to unequal power in the workplace: Individual action: • Verbal complaints • Go -slows • ‘Cheating’ • Absenteeism • Looking for other work • Sabotage • Theft Collective Action: • Strikes • Go -slows • ‘Sick -out’ • The formation of trade unions RMIT University 19 Critical Studies of Power and Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Power and Ideology  Why do workers consent to their own marginalisation and exploitation within organisations?

– The dominant ideology (ideas of a society) preserve and legitimise unjust and undemocratic relations within organisations. – Ideology ‘ naturalises ’ unequal and exploitative arrangements – People consent and conform to their own domination. – ‘ False consciousness ’ RMIT University 20 Postmodern Conceptions of Power & Control RMIT University 21 Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• Rejects the existence of an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it. Reality is an ‘illusion’ created through language and discourse . Analytical Approach:

• Organisations are ‘imagined’ entities whereby power and social arrangements are reinforced through language. • The role of organisational studies is to understand ‘how individuals in particular social [organisational] settings and contexts are affected by power relations in terms of their self -identities, attitudes and their (psychological) predispositions’ (Layder, 1994:101).

Postmodernists challenge “simplistic” assumptions For example:

Modernist methods of control = organisational effectiveness? Postmodern Conceptions of Power & Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • Power is a contested and shifting network that shapes all social and political relations that cannot be reduced to any single dimension and for which ‘we’ cannot escape. ‘Deconstructing ’Modernist Methods of Control • Surveillance and Self -surveillance – Organisations rely upon surveillance mechanisms to control organisational members: – Video surveillance – Monitoring of e -mail and computer use – The ‘time -clock ’ – Compulsory diaries – Performance management RMIT University 22 Postmodern Conceptions of Power Knowledge that is produced or articulated : According to Foucault:

• It is a social phenomenon that shapes our sense of who we are and how we relate to others in an organisation or society. • It cannot be reduced to one -dimension (class, patriarchy, collective empowerment, etc.) • It is multidimensional and dispersed throughout social, political and the organisational world. • Power is ‘the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organisation’ Foucault (1978), cited in Oswell (2006) RMIT University 23 Postmodern Conceptions of Power & Control According to Foucault:

• All social, political and organisational relations are power relations. • Power relations do not operate according to a coherent logic or contested system. • Power is indeterminate and “has the character of a network; it threads and extends everywhere” (Sarup 1998). • Where there is power there is resistance. • Resistance cannot lead to emancipation because all social relations are relations of power — thus ‘we’ cannot resist domination. RMIT University 24 Postmodern Conceptions of Power & Control Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • Organisational members become disciplined through self - surveillance (the anticipation and fear of ‘inspection ’). • Leads to self -disempowerment. “can lead to unintended consequences and repressive practices that dehumanise and mechanise the self ” (Hatch and Cunliffe , 2006: 288). RMIT University 25 RMIT University 26 Modernist Symbolic Interpretivist Critical Theorist Post -modernist Simplistic concepts of power, conflict and control?

Do organisations find such articulations of power and control confronting? Power & Control References Dahl, R. A. (1957). The concept of power. Behavioral science, 2(3), 201 - 215.

Freund, J. (1969). TheSociology of Max Weber.

Giddens, A. (1985). The nation -state and violence (Vol. 2). Univ of California Press.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life.

Hamilton, P. (Ed.). (1991). Max Weber, Critical Assessments 2 (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.

Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2012). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press. RMIT University 27