The sociological roots of organizational discourse

1. Language games and power Wittgenstein’s analysis of language games in his scattered texts, notably the Philo- sophical investigations (1972[1953]), was thin. Central and key concepts for thinking about language were introduced, including the notions of ‘form of life’ and ‘language game’, but were analytically underdeveloped. That this should be the case was hardly surprising

Discourse analysis comes to organization studies

1. Situating discourse analysis Discourse analysis was prefigured to a great extent by the concerns of ethno- methodology (see especially Zimmerman 1971) but these were barely institutional- ized within the canon of organization theory. One significant British author did some early work using a discursive approach (for instance, Silverman 1974, which provides a good

Discursive Theories of Organizational Power

Despite a growing body of literature, organizational discourse remains, at best, a nascent field in organization studies. While there has been much work done, there is still little agreement on the theoretical and methodological foundations of the field. At the same time, it is an area that has great potential for exploring power in

Organizational form and power: the political performance of organizations

1. Situating bureaucracy Weber (1947) made the case for rational-legal bureaucracy as a bulwark against the blandishments of patrimonial power and privilege. The argument is familiar. Classical liberal bureaucracy, conceived on a rational-legal basis, stood for an ethos of service to the public, through conformance to certain means, rather than the arbitrary treatment of

Organizational form and power: Political performance

The schema in Figure 11.1 summarizes the idea of political performance. As we proposed previously, the political performance of organizations lies primarily in the patterns of authority encompassed in the political relationship of subordina- tion and in the political relationship between rival leaders. To be brief, political performance is produced by the interactions between

Organizational form and power: Organizations as regimes

In the political realm of organizations, the social fabric of power structures is the pillar for the perpetuation of patterns of domination. Through the notion of political Power and Organizational Forms                                                                                     331 performance, the contemporary action of power holders is describable as a permanent striving for new forms of legitimacy and new forms of

From consensus to contestation: the nature and culture of power

In a sense, the project of Western political and organizational theorists of power since the 1940s has been to conceptualize the constitution of forms of power which are compatible with values that are as close as possible to democratic kinds of values. It is, perhaps, for this reason that the work on total institutions

Contemporary politics: polyarchy

There are specific contemporary conditions that might account for the current dynamics of political change in organizations leading to the social fabric of a polyarchic model of power. First, there is the knowledge-intensive economy, which has been extensively documented and investigated (Adler 2001; Blackler 1995; Alvesson 1995), and which we examined in Chapter 3,

Elite production: the meaning of pluralism and elitism

1. Situating elites In his 1976 landmark The comparative study of political elites, Putnam writes wit- tily: ‘Insofar as political decisions matter, political decision makers do, too.’ He reminds us that behind the diverse façades of governance systems, which might appear to be quite transparent and accountable, ‘power was always confined to a ruling few’.

Dynamics of elite production

1. Historical snapshot There are undoubtedly common features in Western societies concerning elite recruitment and grooming. In traditional European societies, the fundamental ingredient of elite production was heredity. The accumulation of both upper-class origins and wealth mainly brought by land in agrarian societies was the rule. The existence of alternative channels of recruitment derived

The resilience of elite production patterns

In their study of the connective topography of the director and corporate board networks connecting the largest US corporations through interlocks, Davis et al. (2003: 307) raise the issue of the changes of the global network structure as a response to the political, economic and social transformations of the past 20 years. They found

The transformation of elite paths and profiles

For decades scholars have posed questions concerning the attributes of individuals who make space for themselves at the top of elite circles. Recently, Cappelli and Hamori (2004; 2005) generated interesting results about the changes affecting the routes to senior executive positions in US business organizations between 1980 and 2001.4 They collected information about demographical

Corporate elite dynamics and the concept of power

1. Mechanisms of elite formation Scholars grappling with the conceptual dynamics of the notion of power need to investigate the contemporary dynamics of elite production and its relationship with the meaning of elitism and pluralism in organizations (and more broadly in Western societies, with all their institutional specificities). Given that holders of key positions

The Futures of Power: Models of analysis

Bauman (in Bauman and Tester 2001: 40) suggests that neither experience nor knowledge of it comes divided into tightly sealed compartments. Although he was not writing about organization and management theory, we think his remarks, which seem to echo those of Alfred North Whitehead (1925) on the ‘fallacy of mis- placed concreteness’, are applicable

The Futures of Power: The end of history

Some readers may recall, or have read about, those heady days when history allegedly ended, as the Berlin Wall collapsed.1 When the wall came down it seemed to many observers as if, with the end of communism – at least in Europe – the only threat to existing democratic political power was vanquished. Liberal,

The Futures of Power- Shrinking space: eclipsing time

1. Extending business globally What made contemporary globalization possible, in part, was the virtual capillar- ies of instantaneous communication and trade embedded in the Internet. By the 1990s much of the focus of organization theories had shifted to the emancipatory possibilities of new virtual technologies potentially rendering hierarchy and bureaucracy redundant (see Clarke and

The Futures of Power After 9/11

1. From a risk society to a state of insecurity For a while, until at least the attack of February 26, 1993 on the World Trade Center, it might have seemed as if the old matters of identity were hardly of any concern. After the second more successful attack of 9/11 few could think

Elites in a shrinking space and an expanding state of insecurity

Who then, are the elites? They are those who are generated by dominant rela- tions as the authorities governing various circuits of power. They control the nodal points through which legitimacy flows. Some node occupants are born; others are made; and some succeed on merit. Origins are of diminishing importance in a society of

Frameworks with which to think about the futures of power

The importance of the macro-political developments and their likely effect on the futures of power in organizations is that the futures of power will be largely depen- dent on the magnitude of the changes that are affecting and will affect the orga- nizational world over the next few decades. In this book we have