Transcript Chapter 2
Reframing Organizations, 3rd 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
Distribution of Power: Overbounded and
Underbounded Systems
Power, Conflict and Coalitions (II)
Conflict in Organizations
Moral Mazes: The Politics of Getting Ahead
Assumptions of the Political Frame
Organizations are coalitions
Enduring differences among coalition
members
Allocation of scarce resources
Conflict is central process and power most
important resource
Goals and decisions arise from bargaining,
negotiation and jockeying for position
Organizations as Coalitions
Coalitions rather than pyramids
Organizational goals are multiple and
sometimes conflicting because they reflect
bargaining involving multiple players with
divergent interests
Power and Decision-Making
Gamson: Authorities and partisans
Authorities make binding decisions
Partisans are subject to authorities’ decisions;
they will support or question authority
depending on decisions affect their interests
Sources of Power
Position power
Information and expertise
Control and rewards
Coercive power
Alliances and networks
Framing: control of meaning and symbols
Personal power
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 collapse of old regime)
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
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
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