Power, Control and Resistance

Developed by Dr. Ruth Barton

Aims of the lecture

Questions of Power and Control

How power works; four faces of power; control

Resistance

Types of resistance

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Questions of Power

POWERWhat is power?

Several dimensions and bases

Who has power?

How is influence achieved?

How is power obtained

in organisations? What

alternative theories and perspectives

are there?

What of resistance?

Another form of power?

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How Does Power Work in Organisations?

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Organisations are

hierarchical

Power as the

ability to control

social interaction

What is Power?

OB blind towards power

An individual capacity?

Property of the person or

collective?

Power as the prerogative of

wise or wealthy men?

Two broad

traditions

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Normative (most rational way of organising power) Realpolitik (how does power actually operate)

Control

•Organisational control consists of a complex and dynamic configuration of mechanisms and practices through which the regulation and monitoring of work performance is contested by groups or ‘corporate agents’ embedded in institutionalised power relations (Reed, 2011)

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Marxism – Power of Property and Capital

• Power an attribute of owning private property

• Workers alienated and separated from the products of their labour and humanity

• Focus on emancipation from power

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Power in Mainstream Theory

Bases of power► Reward► Coercive► Referent► Legitimate► Expert

(French & Raven 1959)

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Trend spotting as Power

information power in the advertising industry

Control over information flow legitimate power

More power to those who can help firms cope with uncertainty in contemporary business

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Power : Mainstream Theory(Runciman 1999)

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Economic

Ideological

Coercive

The Four ‘Faces’ of Power

► Coercion

► Manipulation

► Domination

► Subjectification (Fleming and Spicer 2007)

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First Face of Power: CoercionTaken from Lukes (1986)

Coercion one

individual gettin

g

another to fo

llow

his/her ord

ers

Direct coerciongetting another person to do something that might

not have been done.

The First Face of Power and Control

• Rational bureaucratic control (Weber)–Process standardisation–Functional specialisation–Hierarchical coordination

• Taylor’s scientific and Fordist mass production regimes–Highly personalised and relatively confrontational forms of supervision

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The First Face of Power and Control

• Control in the modern workplace–Remote–Depersonalised–Well integrated–Unobtrusive

• Type of surveillance–Email scanning–Data entry–Phone calls–Video surveillance–Location monitoring

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Second Face of Power – Manipulation Taken from Lukes (1986)

►Of agendas: ‘behind the scenes’ politicking

►Exclusion from decision making authority

►Power as manipulation: There is no direct exercise of power but an implicit shaping of issues considered important or irrelevant.

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The Second Face of Power and Control

There are three processes of control

• Anticipation of results

• Mobilisation of bias

• Rule and norm making

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Third Face of Power – DominationTaken from Lukes (1986)

►Over the preferences and opinions of participants

►Power that shapes our preferences, attitudes and political outlook

The Third Face of Power and Control

►Used in the design and implementation of paradigmatic frameworks►Forms of life e.g. profit►Ideology►Technical rationality

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The Third Face of Power and Control

• Space as a frontier of control–Buildings as structures of non- verbal communication

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Fourth Face of Power – SubjectificationTaken from Foucault (1977)

►Process of subjectification -people are moulded with certain understandings of themselves and the world around them

►The organisation moulds people into a certain type

►Use knowledge to produce compliance

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The Fourth Face of Power and Control

• Power and control operate through knowledge–Professionalism–Human Resource Management and performance appraisal

–Internalisation of surveillance

–Corporate culture

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“A wide range of behaviour – from failure to work very hard or conscientiously, to not working at all, deliberate output restriction, practical joking, pilferage and sabotage.”

(Ackroyd and Thompson, 1999 cited in Fleming and Spicer, 2007)

“Resistance constitutes a form of power exercised by subordinates in the workplace.”

(Collinson, 1994 cited in Fleming and Spicer, 2007)

Resistance

Faces of Resistance - Refusal

►Resistance is refusal to do what the person in the position of power tells him / her to do

► Aim is to block the effects of power by undermining the domination rather than changing it

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Faces of Resistance - VoiceResistance is to gain access to power in order to express voice►Internal: interest groups, trade unions►External: social movements►Sabotage

Faces of Resistance - Escape

►Escape is to mentally disengage from the world of work

► Tools are ►Cynicism►Scepticism ►Dis-identification

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Fourth Face of Resistance - Creation

• Involves using domination to create something that was not intended by those in authority

•May make use of parody e.g. Union newsletter, spoof advertisments

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Conclusion

• Power is a product of human collective endeavour and we should only expect power and politics to spring forth from our organisational endeavours (Arendt, 1958, 1970).

• But what comes first – power or resistance?

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References• Baldry, C (1999) ‘Space – The Final Frontier’, Sociology, 33(3): 535-553.

• Clegg, S (2009) “Managing Power in Organizations: The Hidden History of Its Constitution’, in Clegg, S and Haugaard, M (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Power, London: SAGE.

• Clegg, S, Courpasson, D and Phillips, N (2007) Power and Organisations, London: SAGE.

• Edwards, P and Wajcman, J (2005) The Politics of Working Life, OUP: Oxford.

• Fleming, P and Spicer, A (2007) Contesting the Corporation: Struggle, Power and Resistance in Organisations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Fournier, V (1999) “The appeal to ‘professionalism’ as a disciplinary mechanism’, The Sociological Review, 47(2): 280-307.

• Hancock, P and Spicer, A (2011) ‘Academic Architecture and the Constitution of the New Model Worker’, Culture and Organization, 17(2): 91-105.

References

• Reed, M (2011) ‘Control in Contemporary Work Organizations’, in Blyton, P, Heery, E and Turnbull, P (eds) Reassessing the Employment Relationship, Houndmills: Palgrave.

• Sturdy, A, Fleming, P and Delbridge, P (2010) ‘Normative Control and Beyond in Contemporary Capitalism’, in Thompson, P and Smith, C (eds) Working Life: Renewing Labour Process Analysis, Houndmills: Palgrave

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