Organisations Management L9 Power & Politics (ESSCA) PDF

Power and Politics ORGANISATIONS MANAGEMENT COURSE Dr Thierry VIALE course coordinator for the English track [email protected] Outline Learning objectives Introduction to organisational politics and power Sources of power Politics: polit...

Power and Politics ORGANISATIONS MANAGEMENT COURSE Dr Thierry VIALE course coordinator for the English track [email protected] Outline Learning objectives Introduction to organisational politics and power Sources of power Politics: political arenas and resistance Domination and social structure Soft domination Total institutions Experiments with authority 2 Learning objectives After completing this topic you will be able to: introduce the topic of organisation politics and understand how power, legitimacy and uncertainty have been seen as related address why organisations have politics and recognise its normalcy in organisational life explore the organisation of surveillance and resistance critically consider the practice and ethics of empowerment 3 Introduction Organisational politics is everywhere Refers to the network of social relations between people in and around organisations – whether willingly or not, in practices of power Power is the result of a position in a network of relations Power is structural and positional Authority is more related to persona and charisma Authority is a way to incarnate power Legitimacy is all about perception, belief and recognition 4 Sources of power Max Weber is recognized as the ‘founding voice’ on power in organization studies (Economy and Society, 1922 published afther his death in 1920) He distinguished between key terms such as authority, which requires the consent of those being managed, and domination, which characterises situations where the legitimacy of authority is not granted to superordinates by those subject to existing power relations Max Weber defines three types of authority: 1. Charismatic authority 2. Traditional authority 3. Rational and Legal authority (modern law and state, bureaucracy) Pied de page 5 1. Charismatic Authority: “un certain je ne sais quoi” “Quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities” (Weber, 1922)  2. Traditional authority Family tradition (authority of a master over his household) Rules of inheritance Power build on belief, immemorial tradition and on feeling of filial piety for the person of the master No administrative staff, no machinery to enforce power  3. Rational-legal authority: modern states (since the industrial revolution) Modern bureaucratic officials, political leaders and future executives represent this type of authority: personally free serve a higher authority appointed on technical qualifications impartial execution of assigned tasks work is a full-time occupation rewarded by a salary prospects of career advancement Power from legitimacy Legitimacy or the subtlety of acceptable power Something close to volontary servitude (see La Boetie, 1576), power recognised and accepted by dominated people, as such the dominated makes powerful the dominant Legitimacy attaches to something, whether a particular action or social structure, when there is a widespread belief that it is just and valid Organisational legitimacy is the generalised perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within a social system 9 Modern theories of power Crozier and Friedberg (1977), l’Acteur et le Système Main ideas, actors are rational guided by individual interests Mastering and sustaining uncertainty in the workplace is a critical resource of power In organisational context, power is daily played out in struggles over the rules of an uncertain/informal game not reflected in the official organigram The more unpredictable you are (zone of uncertainty you hold) the more power you hold For instance, knowledge is a contested resource: remember why Taylor (1911) wanted to make sure that engineers and executives are not dispossessed from workers’ experience 10 Organisations as political arenas Organisations are political arenas populated with conflicts and tensions Resistance to change consists of those organisational activities and attitudes that aim to thwart, undermine, and impede change initiatives Dialectics of power and resistance are a problematic topic in market economy (Fleming and Spicer, 2007), power must not be mentioned (or mezza voce), critical approach are not legitimate or disqualified (poor image of unions, individualisation) Power, tensions, conflict… are they a myth? Think of the spin-doctors, consultants, coaches… Why so much attention to fixing the economy? 11 Organisations as political arenas Politics arise from various factors (Pettigrew, 2002, 1977) see below 1. Management of meaning and organizational symbolism (myths, beliefs, language and legend – the stuff of organizational culture) Actors in political relations seek to legitimate the ideas, values and demands that they espouse, while simultaneously denying alternative interpretations 2. Structural divisions in the organisation between different component elements and identities, and the different values, affective, cognitive and discursive styles associated with these i.e. the creative vs. the accountant in creative industries 12 Organisations as political arenas 3. Complexity and degree of uncertainty attached to a central dilemma Being able to control uncertainty that is hardly of much significance will not deliver power 4. Salience of issues. If the issue isn’t one that concerns the top management team, it is probably a poor basis for a power claim 5. External pressure coming from stakeholders, government, other organisations in the environment If important people externally are pushing an issue, those within who can resolve it will become more empowered 13 Dominancy as a reflection of social structure Organisations are not neutral spaces, pre-existing structures of dominancy in the sociale world (Bourdieu, 1991) tend to be replicated in organisations Organisations incorporate « structures of dominancy » (Weber, 1922) Old countries like France or UK are characterised by strong and heavy social structure where social mobility is hard to achieve Less than 12% of working class students in HE, less than 5% in Business schools (Observartoire des inégalités, 2021) Vast majority of economic élites graduated from Great Schools/Grandes Ecoles Pied de page 14 Modern domination: Soft domination Soft domination is based on the appearance of equality in the organisation among peers The reality of a pervasive system of controls, chief among which are instrumentally legitimate techniques used by the entire management community (Barker, 2002; Sewell, 2002) Electronic surveillance Empowerment (be yourself!) Concertive/mutual control Emancipation Soften domination makes resistance less legitimate 15 Modern domination: Soft domination Governmentality (Foucault, 1977; Rose, 1999) or the softening of domination Governance + mentality = governmentality (Foucault, 1977), represents a shift from coercive governance to self-governance (Marks, 2000) Governmentality is often referred to as self-policing or self-surveillance (Sewell, 1998) active consent and a subjugation of subjects rather than oppression or external control subjectification where the governed become subjects of the exercise of covert power (Fleming and Spicer, 2014). Personal ambitions of the governed become enmeshed with those of organisations  resistance not longer results in 16 Digital surveillance/domination Remember Bentham’s panopticon (1785)  centralised surveillance (see lecture lecture 3) 21st century and electronic surveillance making people transparent to others Rise of digital panopticon  electronic eyes scrutinising each of us (Google analytics, social media…) Demise of privacy, every individual is the member of a total institutions Total institution (Goffman, 1961): Google Analytics dashboard Each member’s daily life is carried out in the immediate presence of others The members are very visible The members tend to be strictly regimented and often wear institutional clothing Life in a total institution is governed by strict, formal, rational planning of time 17 Experiments with authority/power Banality of Evil (Arendt, 1963): were nazi criminals unbelievable monsters or ordinary people? Hannah Arendt 1906-1975 How about you? Could you do unimaginable things to others? The Milgram experiment (1963) Stanley Milgram 1933-1984 18 When it’s time to say no nO NO! Milgram experiment (1963) Experimenter (E) orders teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what T believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is an actor T believes that for each wrong answer, L receives an electric shock L Before experiment, scientists thought that 1-3% of T would continue to shock. They thought that you had to be pathological or psychopathic to carry on However, 65% never stopped giving shocks. They were ordinary people Replication in Poland in 2017. 90% of participants did not stop How to break obedience? Referring to personal values and ethics + courage