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
How is power obtained in organisations?

Who has power? How is influence achieved?

What alternative theories and perspectives are there?

What is power? Several dimensions and bases

POWER

What of resistance? Another form of power?

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How Does Power Work in Organisations?

Organisations are hierarchical

Power as the ability to control social interaction

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What is Power?
Normative (most rational way of organising power) Realpolitik (how does power actually operate)
OB blind towards power

Two broad traditions

An individual capacity?

Power as the prerogative of wise or wealthy men?

Property of the person or collective?

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(Source: Thompson and McHugh 2009:256)

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)

Economic

Coercive

Ideological
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The Four Faces of Power

Coercion

Manipulation

Domination

Subjectification
(Fleming and Spicer 2007)

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First Face of Power: Coercion

Taken from Lukes (1986)
Direct coercion
getting another person to do something that might not have been done.

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The First Face of Power and Control

Rational bureaucratic control (Weber) Process standardisation

Functional specialisation Hierarchical coordination

Taylors 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 Domination

Taken from Lukes (1986)

Over the preferences and opinions of participants Power that shapes our preferences, attitudes and political outlook

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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 Subjectification

Taken 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
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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 - Voice

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

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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.

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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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