1 / 11

Reframing Organizations , 4 th ed.

Reframing Organizations , 4 th ed. Chapter 9. Power, Conflict, and Coalitions. Power, Conflict and Coalitions. Assumptions of the Political Frame Organizations as Coalitions Power and Decision-Making Authorities and Partisans Sources of Power

kendall
Download Presentation

Reframing Organizations , 4 th ed.

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Reframing Organizations, 4th ed.

  2. Chapter 9 Power, Conflict, and Coalitions

  3. Power, Conflict and Coalitions • Assumptions of the Political Frame • Organizations as Coalitions • Power and Decision-Making • Authorities and Partisans • Sources of Power • Distribution of Power: Overbounded and Underbounded Systems • Conflict in Organizations • Moral Mazes: The Politics of Getting Ahead

  4. Assumptions of the Political Frame • Organizations are coalitions • Enduring differences among coalition members • Allocation of scarce resources • Scarce resources and differences make conflict the central dynamic which makes power the most important asset • Goals and decisions arise from bargaining, negotiation and jockeying for position

  5. Organizations as Coalitions • Coalitions rather than pyramids • Organizational goals are multiple and sometimes conflicting because they reflect bargaining involving multiple players with divergent interests

  6. Power and Decision-Making • Gamson: Authorities and partisans • Authorities make binding decisions • Agents of social control • Seek to maintain authority; their position depends on it • Partisans are subject to authorities’ decisions; they will support or question authority depending on decisions affect their interests • Recipients of control from authorities • Support authority when satisfied, but may challenge when not

  7. Sources of Power • Position power • Control of rewards • Coercive power • Information and expertise • Reputation • Personal power • Alliances and networks • Access and control of agenda • Framing: control of meaning and symbols

  8. Distribution of Power: Overbounded and Underbounded Systems • Overbounded: strong, top-down control, conflict is tightly-regulated (e.g., Iraq under Saddam Hussein) • Underbounded: weak authority, chaotic decision-making, open conflict and power struggles (Iraq after invasion and collapse of old regime)

  9. Conflict in Organizations • Conflict is natural and inevitable: organizations can have too much or too little • Political frame focuses on strategy and tactics for dealing with conflict • Forms of organizational conflict • Hierarchical conflict • Horizontal • Cultural

  10. Moral Mazes: The Politics of Getting Ahead • Getting ahead is a political process involving conflict for scarce resources • Assessment of individual performance often depends on subjective judgments • Does advancement depend on doing good work or doing what is politically correct? • Organizations can’t eliminate politics, but they can influence the kind of politics they have

  11. Conclusion • The political frame sees a very different world from the traditional view of organizations • Traditional: organizations are hierarchies, run by legitimate authorities who set goals and manage performance • Political view: organizations are coalitions whose goals are determined by bargaining among multiple contenders • Politics can be nasty and brutish, but constructive politics is possible and necessary for organizations to be effective

More Related