1. Reframing Organizations, 4th ed.

2. Power, Conflict, and Coalitions
Chapter 9
Power, Conflict, and Coalitions

3. 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
Conflict in Organizations
Moral Mazes: The Politics of Getting Ahead

4. Assumptions of the Political Frame
Organizations are coalitions
Enduring differences among coalition members
Allocation of scarce resources
Scarce resources and differences make conflict the central dynamic which makes power the most important asset
Goals and decisions arise from bargaining, negotiation and jockeying for position

5. Organizations as Coalitions
Coalitions rather than pyramids
Organizational goals are multiple and sometimes conflicting because they reflect bargaining involving multiple players with divergent interests

6. Power and Decision-Making
Gamson: Authorities and partisans
Authorities make binding decisions
Agents of social control
Seek to maintain authority; their position depends on it
Partisans are subject to authorities’ decisions; they will support or question authority depending on decisions affect their interests
Recipients of control from authorities
Support authority when satisfied, but may challenge when not

7. Sources of Power Position power Control of rewards Coercive power
Information and expertise
Reputation
Personal power
Alliances and networks
Access and control of agenda
Framing: control of meaning and symbols

8. 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 invasion and collapse of old regime)

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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