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 interest LowHigh 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 HighLow

 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 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