Why I care about power in organizations
September 21, 2008
Knowledge of the power network is a resource that, when controlled, gives power. Revealing that knowledge to everyone keeps people from monopolizing it at the expense of all.
Why I care about power in organizations
What I’m looking to do with my research is develop software that can help to reveal knowledge about who holds various kinds of power in an organization, over whom they exert that power, and in what way. I want to share that knowledge equally with everyone in the organization so that both the organization and the individuals in it can see clearly the nature of the landscape they act in. I do this with the hope that such knowledge will empower the individuals and the organization both to first become more savvy about how power affects them in accomplishing their goals, second to help them avoid being exploited, and third to allow them to adjust the balances of power in order to better support both organizational and individual goals.
As I’ve said before, an organization is a network of power relationships. By power relationship, I mean one in which one actor has something that another desires, while also having the freedom to deal with the other in a way that the other may not have intended or even wanted. Power both enables people to achieve their goals (if they are allied with the holder that power, or possess it themselves) and prevents them from achieving them (if they are not allied with the holder of power). The goals, strategies and projects in an organization are accomplished through careful consideration, navigation and adjustment of this network.
Knowing the power network helps people choose effective strategies in the cooperative and competitive games they play in the course of their work, such as knowledge acquisition and sharing and project management. Generally, such knowledge is key in accomplishing both the individual actor’s and the organizations goals. But for the most part, for most people, this is hidden information, unknown and difficult to uncover; they typically know only some of the bit of it around them, the bits directly in contact with them. And they have to work to uncover those bits. And this is where I start having problems. There are two parts to this: that such knowledge is diffcult to acquire, but also that people may not want it to be known, especially the parts that concern them. Knowledge too, is a resource the control of which gives power. Simply knowing the power network gives people advantage over others.
In such an environment, people can keep hidden agendas, whether they are hidden on purpose or not. All organizations larger than a few people have the possibility, inevitibility, even, of intrigues. People may not tell you the real reason they ask something of you, or tell you what they really expect to get out of an arrangement or agreement. They may withhold information about their capabilities or the extent of them, or deny that they know someone you need to contact, when in fact they do know. Some of this hiding may be unintentional — people forget to mention it — but some is definitely intentional. This discriminates sharply against those who have no power, because they are forever in the dark, and are at the butt end of events more. People who are disadvantaged in this way include new members, and socially isolated or clumsy members.
