1. Reframing Organizations, 3rd ed.

2. Organizations as Political Arenas and Political Agents
Chapter 11
Organizations as Political Arenas and Political Agents

3. Organizations as Political Arenas and Political Agents
Ross Johnson, Barbarians at the Gate
Organizations as arenas
Organizations as political agents

4. Organizations as Arenas
Arenas help to determine:
Rules of the game
Players
Stakes
Bottom-up political action
Labor unions and civil rights movements
Political barriers to control from the top
U.S. Department of Education scenario: initiatives often lost to political opposition despite new resources and top-down support

5. Organizations as Political Agents
Organizations exist in ecosystems.
Organizations depend on the environment for resources, support.
Organizations need the skills of a politician: develop agenda, map environment, manage relationships with allies and competitors, negotiate.
Ecosystem
“Organizational field” in which competitors and allies co-evolve

6. Pfeffer and Salancik, The External Control of Organizations
Organizations are controlled more than they control their external environment.
Organizations are “other-directed.”
They struggle for autonomy and discretion in the face of constraints and external control.
They confront conflicting demands from multiple constituents.
Their understanding of the environment is often distorted and imperfect.
Dilemma: alliances are essential for gaining influence but reduce autonomy by increasing dependency and obligations.

7. Ecosystems Business ecosystems Public policy ecosystems
Apple  IBM  “Wintel”
General Motors and General Electric
Public policy ecosystems
Federal Aviation Administration
Schools
Business-government ecosystems
Pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and government
FedEx lobbying clout

8. Ecosystems II Society as ecosystem Business, public, and government
What is and should be the power relationship between organizations and society?
Are organizations “instruments of market tyranny,” or are they largely shaped by social and economic forces?
Jihad vs. McWorld

9. Conclusion
Organizations are both arenas for internal politics and political agents with their own agendas, resources, and strategies.
Arenas house contests and shape the ongoing interplay of interests and agendas.
Agents exist, compete, and co-evolve in larger ecosystems (“organizational fields”).