power,stakeholders and ar action and case research in management and organizational contexts

Power,stakeholders and AR

Action and Case Research in Management and Organizational

Contexts

Internal politics – rival departments or managers;

External and internal stakeholders; Everyone involved in the discourse of the

organisation can affect it in some way; Other ways…

About power?

Positive: Socialised need to initiate, influence and lead, enabling power;

Negative: Unsocialised need to dominate over submissive others, seek control. (McClelland, D., 1961, and 1995).

Faces of Power:

AR would seek to encourage Positive power, through involvement and empowerment of a range of stakeholders

• Management may legitimately use Mendelow’s theories to manage some external stakeholders, such as Government and Competitors;

• It may be less acceptable when managing internal stakeholders;

• See following diagrams.

Management attitudes

AR would seek to encourage Positive power, through involvement and empowerment of a range of stakeholders

Power/Interest matrix ( Mendelow,1991) A management view

D

Key Players

C

Keep satisfied

B

Keep informed

A

Minimal effort

Level of interestLow High

Power

Low

High

Power/Dynamism matrix (adapted from Mendelow,1991)

Power

Low

Predictability

High

D

Greatest danger or opportunities

C

Powerful but predictable

B

Unpredictable but manageable

A

Few problems

High Low

Co-opting people with various skills from different stakeholder groups;

Presenting a united front; Learning and using knowledge from the

group; See also Tempered Radicalism (to be

discussed later, Myerson, 2003).

AR would seek to encourage Positive power, through involvement and empowerment of a range of stakeholders

• Legitimate• Reward• Coercive• Referent (charismatic)• Expert.

Sources of power:

(French & Raven,1959.)

• Action science can address coercive power (and even charismatic and expert power:

• By uncovering “double binds”;• Undiscussability;• Winning/losing behaviour.

Action science

(French & Raven,1959.)

Associative: deriving from the support of a strong mentor or sponsor, in a position to supply information and advice and to promote one’s career.

Assigned: the power that comes from making oneself indispensable to someone senior, by taking on tasks which they dislike and would other wise have to do.

Political: becoming politically involved in groups, committees, unions which have access to information and are involved in decision making.

(Garavan, et al.,1993)

Types of power:

Action research can use some of Garavan’s types of power, especially by using action learning sets to influence and exercise power.

• By mobilisation of the group’s knowledge;• Group action;• Communication;• Questioning.

French, J. R. P., Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In Cartwright, D., and Zander, A., (Eds.), Group dynamics. New York: Harper & Row.Garavan, G.N., Barnicle, B. and Heraty, N. (1993). The Training and Development Function: Its Search for Power and Influence in Organizations, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol 17, Iss. 7. McClelland, D.C., (1961). The Achieving Society New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, McClelland D.C and Burnham D.H. (1995). 'Power is the Great Motivator', Harvard Business Review, 73 January-February 126-39. A. Mendelow, A., (1991). Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Information Systems, Cambridge, MA.Meyerson, D., (2003). Tempered Radicals: how everyday leaders inspire change at work. Harvard Business School Press.

References