LECTURE 6: Power and conflict
1. POWER
What is power?
The capacity of individuals to:
overcome resistance on the part of others
exert their will
produce results consistent with their own interests and objectives.
Three perspectives:
Power as property of:
the individual: power is something possessed by individuals. It is accumulative, you can
change your status, you can win power, and you can lose it.
the relationship: referred to the 5 bases/types of power developed right away.
social and organizational structures : in organisations, one department can be more
powerful than other, sometimes on a permanent basis and sometimes just for a period
of time. Normally, financial department has the most power within a company.
Power and politics are closely related. Politics is the action form of power.
Types of power:
Relational power is based on these 5 types of power:
Reward power: the ability to exert influence based on the other’s belief that the
influencer has access to valued rewards which will be dispensed in return for
compliance. If you do this for me, I will give you what you want (recognition,
promotion, etc.). Remember reinforcements. Obviously, the offered rewards need to
be important for the individual being rewarded. That is, the reward must be perceived
as valuable.
Legitimate power: the ability to exert influence based on the other’s belief that the
influencer has authority to issue orders which they in turn have an obligation to
accept. You follow your manager’s order as you consider that he has that formal
power on you. The higher the rank of the position, the higher the power.
Coercive power: the ability to exert influence based on the other’s belief that the
influencer can administer unwelcome penalties or sanctions. Individuals follow this
power source because otherwise they feel that they will get into trouble because there
will be a negative punishment.
Referent power: the ability to exert influence based on the other’s belief that the
influencer has desirable abilities and personality traits that can and should be copied.
Being a likeable person, you actually can influence others. People just comply with
people they like. Example of social media influencers: they do not have a formal source
of power; however, their followers are highly influenced by what they say in some
aspects.
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, Expert power: the ability to exert influence based on the other’s belief that the
influencer has superior knowledge relevant to the situation and the task. Being an
expert in some topics, or having special knowledge and skills about something, can
give you power. And the less other people know about a subject/skill, the more
powerful the expert is. Example: if a doctor tells you to take surgery, you take it, but
not if one friend of mine tells me that.
Bio-power:
Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and historian, provides yet another two perspectives on
power.
Foucault (1979) observed that, ‘power is everywhere, not because it embraces everything, but
because it comes from everywhere’. The related concepts of bio-power and disciplinary power
are central to understanding Foucault’s thinking.
Bio-power:
(From the book) Bio-power is another term for power that operates by establishing what is
normal or abnormal, or socially acceptable or deviant, in thought and behaviour. Bio-power is
targeted at society as a whole, and is achieved through a variety of discursive practices: talk,
writing, debate, argument, representation. The media play a major role in sustaining and
altering what we conceive as socially normal. Bio-power exercises its control over us by
‘constituting the normal’ and operates through our individual cognition and understanding. If
you accept without challenge ‘the way things are’, the way a situation is currently represented,
(‘the constitution of the normal’ as Foucault puts it) then bio-power takes on a self-disciplining
role with regard to your thinking and behaving:
‘As you walk onto the street, you realize just how late it is. You can’t believe that you have
been at work for so long. You should be used to this by now. Most days you spend twelve
hours in the office, with only a fading tourist photograph of an Indian village to remind you of
what it was like to be free. There isn’t anyone holding a gun to your head, is there? But long
hours have their drawbacks. Even though you might want a family, you know that is
impossible. Anyway, you have made your decision. You’re out to achieve big things, and this
requires a few small sacrifices.’ (Fleming and Spicer, 2007, p.19).
There is no manager or supervisor telling you what to do. Procedures, instructions and controls
are applied by individuals to themselves in pursuit of goals that they have been persuaded are
their own, but which are set by self-interested elites. Rather than having individuals’ behaviour
regulated through external systems of monitoring and control (supervisors, technology,
appraisals), these controls get inside the ‘hearts and minds’ of organization members, and
work through self-regulation.
(Written by me in class) Power does not come because of the skills, knowledge, rewards or
punishments. It starts with the society itself, and the media plays a major role in sustaining
what we conceive as normal or abnormal. Power is embedded to our culture, society and
minds. Embedded=integrado, incustrado.
Disciplinary power:
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, Disciplinary power targets individuals and groups and works through the construction of social
and organizational routines. Through this lens, Foucault sees power as a set of techniques, the
effects of which are achieved through what he calls disciplinary practices. These practices
include the tools of surveillance and assessment that are used to control and Power in
organizations 767 regiment individuals, rendering them docile and compliant. The tools, or
mechanisms that achieve compliance include (Hiley, 1987, p.351):
• The allocation of physical space in offices or factories, which establishes homogeneity and
uniformity, individual and collective identity, ranks people according to status, and fixes their
position in the network of social relations.
• The standardization of individual behaviour through timetables, regimentation, work
standards and repetitive activities.
• The ‘composition of forces’, where individuals become parts of larger units, such as cross-
functional teams, or production lines.
• The creation of job ladders and career systems which, through their promises of future
promotion and reward, encourage compliance with the organization’s demands.
We do not normally consider office layouts, timetables, career ladders and work assignments
to be manifestations of power. However, these normal features of organizational life help to
shape and discipline our daily activities and interpersonal relationships, controlling us, and
guaranteeing our compliance with social and organizational norms and expectations. It is
precisely because they are ‘micro techniques’, so small, so unobtrusive, and so embedded in
the organization’s structure and processes, that they are hardly noticed. Foucault’s concept of
power is thus different from traditional concepts, as the contrasts in Table 22.2 indicate
(Buchanan and Badham, 2008, p.296).
Para aclarar estos dos conceptos, meto esta tabla de forma extra:
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