Power, Essence and the

OrganisationDr. Willem Lammers, TSTA

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Programme Organisations Power

Power-over: Survival Power-with: Competence in Cooperation The Power of Creative Intention: Essence

Consequences for Organisations

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Why Organisations?

Personal needs

Organisationalgoals

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Effective Organisations define their primary task design a strategy to fulfil their primary task create a structure to support the strategy build teams to take on subtasks design clear roles for the individuals involved acquire and distribute the resources to work on

the task

This is an ideal

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Power(Max Weber)

“the probability that one actor in a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests“

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Six Bases of Social Power(French & Raven, 1959)

French and Raven identify six bases or sources of social (organizational) power: Reward Power Coercive Power Legitimate Power Referent Power Expert Power Information Power

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French & Raven 2/3 Reward Power

based on the perceived ability to give positive consequences or remove negative ones

Coercive Power the perceived ability to punish those who not

conform with your ideas or demands Legitimate Power

organizational authority, based on the perception that someone has the right to prescribe behaviour due to election or appointment to a position of responsibility

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French & Raven 3/3 Referent Power

through association with others who possess power

Expert Power based on having distinctive knowledge,

expertness, ability or skills Information Power

based on controlling the information needed by others in order to reach an important goal

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Three Types of Power For each type

Purpose of power Understanding of hierarchy The way people work

Power-Over

Biology, Survival

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Power-over People and organisations must be controlled Hierarchy serves

control Persons are central Machiavelli:

The end justifiesthe means

With power comes isolation

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/clsm/images/structure.gif

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Power-over Power-over motivates through fear It sees the world as an object,

made up of many separate, isolated parts without intrinsic life, awareness, or value

Human beings have no inherent worth Value must be earned or granted

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Maslow & Power-over

Ours is a money and power society, and as long as it is, it’s thereby insecure

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1. Survival Mode Processing Information from the senses

triggers fight, flight or freeze behavior in the brain

This reaction goes with intense emotions and bodily symptoms

People go into survival mode if their needs for physical survival

are not met If their needs for stability and

variation are not met If they’re not taken seriously

Once in survival mode, people need rest, safety and support to come out again

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2. Competence Mode Processing

Information is taken to the cortex and frontal brain

The information is placed in space and time

It is provided with a meaning which allows for strategic, long-term reactions

People automatically go into competence mode If their bodily needs are fulfilled If their situation is stable If they feel safe If they experience social

support

1469–1527

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The Law of the Serengeti Desert Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed

Every morning a lion wakes up It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it

will starve to death It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a

gazelle When the sun comes up you'd better be

running...

Power-with

Competence in Cooperation

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Mary Parker Follett

1868–1933

Power grows if people work togetherPower grows if people work together

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Mary Parker Follett Mary Parker Follett worked to relate

individual/social parts to an evolving individual/social whole

She applied her ideas in everyday life, with neighbourhood and vocational activities

She helped individuals, groups, and communities lead themselves through what she called the “community process” of “unifying differences,” or creating an integrated or unifying whole

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Power-with True power means power-with, not power-

over Power is not a zero sum game where one

person can force another to do their will Power is the capability or agency to do

things, something that is shared between people

Power grows if people work together Every individual's ideas contribute to the

creation of a constantly evolving whole

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Power-with In managing power, we must permanently

explore the relationship between power-over and the primary task of the organisation

Learning in organisations is possible only where power-with appears

Power-with emerges when those who are in possession of power-over step back from their structuring roles in the right moment

If they step back, they can create a common orientation towards the goals of the organisation

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Power-with Power-with focuses on the interests of all

parties – their needs, concerns, fears, and hopes

Power-with is found in joining with others, to seek resolution beyond simple hierarchy and legal settlement

We utilise the power found in relationships – and the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts

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Power-with Power-with is directly connected to listening

skills Organisations must learn to shift power

relations from power-over to power-with Power-over doesn’t cease to exist

The management must create and maintain a container that enables the work on the primary task

If the management doesn’t hold on to this role, the containing structure will collapse, and the organisation will lose its given direction

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Quote(Mary Parker Follett)

The manager cannot share his power with division superintendents or foreman or workmen, but he can give them opportunities for developing their power

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Maslow & Power-with

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Why Burnout in Organisations?

(Maslach & Leiter) Mismatches between people

and their jobs: Work overload Lack of control Lack of Reward Lack of Community Lack of Fairness Conflicting Values

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Power-with Characteristics:

Belonging, self-esteem, curiosity, challenge The leader is focused and focusing on the future Employees

think clearly trust each other and the leadership become creative & competent

Hierarchy serves the common goal Win-Win outcome

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Andy Warhol

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The Factory

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The Factory

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The Factory

One can choose to go back toward safety or forward One can choose to go back toward safety or forward to growth.to growth.

Growth must be chosen again and again.Growth must be chosen again and again. Fear must be overcome again and again.Fear must be overcome again and again.

–– Abraham MaslowAbraham Maslow

The Powerof Creative Intention

Essence

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Essence We are more than physical bodies with

systemic intelligence We are Essence, Spirit, manifestations of a

greater Being, a Higher Self Essence is the power to manifest:

The basic energy to initiate and sustain action, translating Intention into Reality

Essence is able to move freely in space and time

All these characteristics are in the nature of Being

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Maslow & Creative Intention

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The Power of Creative Intention The power of creative intention refers to

inner strength associated with courage, conviction, creativity and self-discipline

It has a strong spiritual component

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Starhawk: We can feel that power in acts of

creation and connection, in planting, building, writing, cleaning, healing, soothing, playing, singing, making love. We can feel it in acting together with others to oppose control.

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In Organisations Power-over is necessary to create a

container Power-with brings people together to

work on a common goal They set the stage for the Power of

Creative Intention

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Conditions for Emergence 1/2 The primary task of the organisation

must be clearly formulated at all levels The strategy to work on the task must

be well communicated The organisational structure must

create room for cooperation

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Conditions for Emergence 2/2 Clear contracts are made with respect to the

needs of all parties involved Roles are designed with creative intention in

mind, in accordance with the specific talents and motivations of the people involved

The organisation’s culture is based on mutual respect

Archimedes

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Summary No organisation can work on its primary task without the use of power by its members. If

people work together on a complex task, they have to work in different groups on different hierarchical levels. That means that there are differences in status, resources, expertise, access to information, and that these differences are used to influence others: Power.

Nowadays, many organisations are involved in a struggle for survival, which generates primitive, biological patterns of coping with power in management. Even the language used is characterised by elementary survival concepts: Managers talk about “the business battleground” and “secrets from the war room”, and the “war for talent”. Sun Tzu’s Art of War is applied to Customer Service.

This way of managing power denies our elementary connectedness as human beings. It is based on anxiety, and in turn generates more of it. Anxiety limits creativity, clear thinking, adequate decision making and an orientation towards the future in people. Anxiety also limits joy.

In this lecture, several different models of power in organisations are presented. Starting with the classical model of French & Raven (1959) we will develop a three level model of power in organisations, which allows for the joy of our essential being in working on a task, together with other people, without ignoring everyday reality.

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References French, J.P.R. & Raven, B.H. (1959) . The bases of social power. In D.

Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in social power. (p.150-167). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute of Social Research.

Follett, Mary Parker (1918). The New State: Group Organization And The Solution Of Popular Government. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.

Follett, Mary Parker (1951). Creative Experience. New York: Peter Smith.

Fox, Elliot M. and L. Urwick (1973). Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett, 2nd edition. London: Pittman Publishing.

Korten, David (1995). When Corporations Rule The World. West Hartford (CT): Kumarian Press.