Power in and around organizations

Abstract

This chapter discusses power in terms of how it is distributed and used to serve various interests in organizations, such as families, villages, governments, universities, or corporations. These form both competitive and cooperative relationships. It mentions Samuel Bacharach and Edward Lawler, who claimed that survival in an organization is a political act. They also discuss how corporations, universities, and voluntary associations are arenas for daily political action. The chapter also focuses on several phenomena closely related to power, namely politics, domination, conflict, cooperation, and control. The chapter refers to humanists who sought cooperative ways of organizing to avoid Karl Marx's dire predictions about the effects of industrialization on workers and societies. Finally, the chapter looks at modernist studies of organizational politics, conflict, and control, including those that address symbols of power and their symbolic uses.