Organizational Power Research Articles

Various shapes of whiteness: A new look at racism and its institutional operation in Israeli academia

This article explores theoretical concepts that reveal the power structures within Israeli academia. Rather than employing the conventional framework that emphasizes practices of discrimination and underrepresentation to explain the ongoing preference for the dominant Western, white Jewish group and its cultural capital over Jewish and Arab Palestinian minorities, we propose a new theoretical perspective. By integrating whiteness theory, critical race theory, intersectionality and settler colonial paradigms, the article illustrates how this framework can effectively analyse academic epistemology and social dynamics. We then introduce the subsequent articles in this issue as examples of the successful application of these concepts, highlighting how they expose the concealed and sophisticated exercise of organizational power that aligns with the norms of the dominant culture, to the detriment of minority students and faculty.

Alternative organization without vertical hierarchies of spatial scale?

Vertical hierarchies of spatial scale—where society in general, and organizations in particular, are differentiated into levels of spatial size—have often been criticized by those encouraging alternatives to capitalist organizing. These vertical scalings are said to promote authoritarianism, a monolithic capitalist economic system, uneven concentrations of social and organizational power and wealth, and ecologically destructive organizational growth. Consequently, so the argument goes, alternative organizing must scale horizontally whereby smaller organizations autonomously associate together into loose networks or federations. The aim of this contribution is to problematize such critiques of vertical hierarchies of scaling for alternative organization. To do so, I combine Management and Organization Studies (MOS) scholarship on scaling alternative organization with two theorizations of the politics of scale in human geography—namely those derived from Neo-Marxist Political Economy and Actor-Network Theories. My argument is that all those looking to understand and encourage the scaling of alternatives to capitalist organizing should engage with and not simply reject vertical scalar hierarchies.

Using punctuated equilibrium theory to explain changes in policy outputs: The case of the United States Coast Guard

AbstractThis article explores the utility of punctuated equilibrium (PE) theory in explaining revolutionary organizational change in the public sector and its effects on policy implementation, with a focus on the United States Coast Guard. We illustrate our model using data from in‐depth interviews with current and former senior Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel, as well as secondary sources such as historical accounts and budget data. Through content analysis, we argue that PE theory begins with a change in the public sector organization's external environment, which then affects organizational strategy, structure, power distribution, and outputs. Punctuated equilibrium theory proves to be a valuable lens for understanding policy outputs in relation to organizational change.Related ArticlesKwon, Sung‐Wook, and Sylvia Gonzalez‐Gorman. 2019. “Influence of Local Political Institutions on Policy Punctuation in Three Policy Areas.” Politics & Policy 47(2): 300–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12295.Neill, Katharine A., and John C. Morris. 2012. “A Tangled Web of Principals and Agents: Examining the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill through a Principal–Agent Lens.”Politics & Policy 40(4): 629–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00371.x.Peng, Peiwen, and Tangzhe Cao. 2023. “Attention, Institutional Friction, and Punctuated Equilibrium in China's Budget: Changes in Social Security and Employment Expenditure.” Politics & Policy 51(2): 256–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12523.

Attending to Power: Stakeholder Perspectives on Training Physicians to Address Intimate Partner Violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with a wide range of mental and physical health concerns. Research suggests that many physicians lack knowledge and skills to adequately respond to patients experiencing IPV. In order to better integrate physicians' contributions into intersectoral responses to IPV, we asked stakeholders with expertise and experience related to IPV about the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors they wanted them to have. Guided by principles of interpretive description, and using a key informant method, we conducted unstructured interviews with 18 stakeholders in IPV-related frontline, managerial, or policy roles in Ontario, Canada. Data collection and analysis proceeded iteratively through 2022; "thoughtful practitioners" outside the research team were recruited at key junctures to provide feedback on formative findings. Stakeholders suggested that "attending to power" should be a core principle for medical practice related to IPV. Attending to power encompassed understanding interactional, organizational, and structural power dynamics related to IPV and purposefully engaging with power, by taking action to empower people subjected to violence. Specific recommendations for practice concerned four focal contexts: relationships between partners, between patients and providers, between providers, and in social systems and structures. Strengthening physicians' capacity to attend to power dynamics relevant to their IPV practice is an important step in both improving medical care for people experiencing IPV and integrating physician contributions into other services and supports.

Faces of Power in Organizations: Foundations, Applications, and Extension

Questions of power are core to organizations, organizing, and the conduct of the organized. Organizational research, however, often avoids addressing questions of power in the direct, explicit, straightforward fashion that their theoretical importance would warrant. Mainstream management and organization studies, including work and organizational psychology and organizational behavior, typically limit themselves to basic and narrow conceptualizations of episodic interpersonal power. Building on broader theorizing in political and social science, an integrative literature review has introduced the ‘four faces of power’ to organizational research a decade ago. Albeit frequently referred to, applications of this model seem rare. However, a systematic assessment of the literature is lacking. Against this backdrop, objectives of this contributions are three-fold: First, an overview of foundational theories and taxonomies for the study of power in organizations is provided. Secondly, a semi-systematic review of the uptake of the ‘four faces of power’ taxonomy in the organizational literature is presented. After seven identified applications are summarized, the current state of knowledge and further research needs are discussed. Finally, an extended version of ‘six faces of power’ is suggested. Envisioned is a perspective that puts power into the foreground of organizational research.

Police sergeants and disaster management during Australia’s Black Summer bushfire crisis

ABSTRACT The police sergeant, or equivalent supervisor, is the glue that binds police units together, assigns workloads, and distributes organisational power from ‘above’ to ensure that those in the field play fairly and by the rules. Yet very little empirical research has been undertaken to examine the work of sergeants or consider how these roles impact the ability of police and their partners to manage critical incidents, including complex disasters. Drawing on a case study of disaster policing during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, this paper examines how police sergeants with two distinct emergency management roles leveraged their authority, relationships, and knowledge to support the effective management of this incident. Using composite accounts, it illustrates how both sergeants drew upon and adapted traditional understandings of their role to negotiate the perceived deficiencies of command-and-control and networked features of complex disaster management systems. The case studies illustrate how the officers’ positionalities (organisationally, geographically, and systemically) enhanced their sensemaking abilities during the crisis, and they utilised their recognised authority, relationships, and soft skills to inform, nudge, and influence a wide range of stakeholders. The paper reveals that police sergeants may be uniquely positioned to assist with the coordination of increasingly complex disaster management assemblages at a time when the neoliberal state’s ability to even ‘steer’ these effectively is increasingly called into question.

The intersection of systems thinking and structural empowerment in the work of public health dietitians.

Public health dietitians navigate complex professional landscapes amid dwindling resources, organisational disruptions and limited advancement opportunities. Cultivating systems thinking and structural empowerment competencies may enable this workforce to address multifaceted public health challenges more effectively. This study explored the extent to which public health dietitians apply systems thinking and perceive access to structural empowerment and the relationship between these constructs. A quantitative online survey incorporating the systems thinking scale (STS) and conditions for work effectiveness questionnaire-II (CWEQ-II) was conducted among US public health dietitians who worked in governmental public health. Data were collected from September 2022 to October 2022. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted. Among 216 respondents, 98% demonstrated moderate-to-high systems thinking competency (mean STS score = 60.3 ± 8.74, range 28-78). Over 88% reported moderate-to-high perceived structural empowerment (mean CWEQ-II score = 18.3 ± 0.96, range 8-29). Higher systems thinking scores were associated with greater decision-making authority (p = 0.01) but not budget oversight. Higher structural empowerment scores correlated with increased job responsibilities and decision-making authority (p < 0.001). A significant positive correlation existed between systems thinking and structural empowerment (r = 0.24, p < 0.001). Public health dietitians exhibited substantial systems thinking capabilities and perceived access to organisational power structures. This study offers baseline understanding of systems thinking and structural empowerment among public health dietitians. The positive interplay between these constructs underscores their potential to drive systems-level change and influence population health outcomes. Integrating systems thinking and structural empowerment into dietetic education and professional development may enhance the workforce's preparedness for navigating complexities.

The impact of customer incivility on employee negative emotions: an organizational culture perspective

Purpose The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of customer incivility on employees' negative emotions (i.e. anger, fear and sadness) considering the moderating role of organizational power distance. Design/methodology/approach A survey sample comprising 312 service employees was collected from 51 Taiwanese and Vietnamese companies spanning different industries. Given the multilevel characteristics of the data structure, hierarchical linear modeling was used to rigorously test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results indicate a significant contribution of customer incivility to employees' negative emotions. Notably, this impact is more pronounced among employees in organizations characterized by low power distance compared to those in organizations with high power distance. Originality/value This research significantly advances our understanding of the emotional repercussions of customer incivility on employees by integrating cognitive–motivational–relational theory and organizational culture perspectives. The findings not only provide valuable theoretical insights but also offer practical implications for effectively managing employee well-being in culturally diverse contexts. The study recognizes certain limitations and puts forth suggestions for future research directions.

Strategic Dominance and Its Role in Reducing Consumer Arrogance (An Analytical Study of the Opinions of a Sample of Workers in Electronic Product Sales Centers in Najaf Governorate)

The current study explores the relationship between two main variables: strategic dominance in its dimensions (strategic rules, organizational power, strategic maneuvering, strategic sovereignty) and consumer arrogance in its dimensions (image-based consumption, consumer bragging, incentive-based purchases, consumer sense of superiority), through a survey of the opinions of a sample of workers in electronic product sales centers in Najaf Governorate. The researcher used the homogeneous intentional sample method. To achieve this goal, the questionnaire was used as a main tool to collect the required data. The questionnaire was distributed to (180) workers from the community under study. After reviewing it, the number of questionnaires valid for statistical analysis reached (172) questionnaires, out of the number of retrieved questionnaires, which amounted to (176) questionnaires. It was statistically analyzed using the programs (SPSS.28) and (AMOS.V.26), and the results showed the presence of a significant effect and correlation between strategic dominance in reducing consumer arrogance. The results reached by the current study are an attempt to reduce or bridge the knowledge gap between the study variables of strategic dominance and consumer arrogance. The study recommends that the administrations of electronic product sales centers in Najaf under study should adopt the components of strategic dominance and the new ideas it includes in the research and development department and encourage them, and enable workers to provide new ideas and involve them in the decision-making process, which contributes to reducing consumer arrogance. It also calls on researchers to conduct more future studies and research within the scope of the current study variables in the Iraqi organizational environment or environments in other countries.

Social Network and Organizational Power Distance: A Mixed Method Research on Academic Staff

In the study, which was carried out to compare the perception of organizational power distance of the academic staff working at the university with the social networks they established with their colleagues at the university, the quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis processes were carried out simultaneously using the Convergent Parallel Design, one of the mixed methods research designs, and the results of the data analysis were integrated. This research compares the organizational power distance perceptions of the faculty members working at A University, a public university in Turkey, with the social networks they have established with their colleagues at the university. In the quantitative dimension of the research carried out with the mixed method, the research population consists of 1848 academic staff working at A University, one of the public universities in Turkey, in the 2020-2021 academic year. The research sample consists of 319 academic staff. 385 academic staff from 30 academic units, 14 faculties, and 16 colleges/vocational schools, were included in the research. In the qualitative dimension of the research, 27 of 34 academic staff working in the C Department of the B Faculty of the A University were included in the study group. Convergent Parallel Design was used in the research; within this context, the quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis processes were carried out simultaneously and the data analysis results were integrated. The quantitative data were analyzed with the SPSS 21 program, the participants' views on organizational power distance were analyzed with the MAXQDA 2022 program, and social network analysis data were analyzed with the UCINET 6.0 program. According to the research findings' conclusion, the academic staff's general social network tendencies in the quantitative dimension were high, and the participants had the highest perception of "liking to connect." It was determined that the academic staff's general organizational power distance perceptions were at a moderate level, and the participants had the highest perception of "acquiescence of power." Another conclusion was that the social network tendencies of academic staff did not differ according to the academic title variable. However, the organizational power distance differed significantly in favor of research assistants. It was revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the general social network tendencies of the academic staff and their perception of organizational power distance. In the qualitative dimension of the study, it was observed that the participants expressed their opinions on organizational power distance mostly in terms of accepting power and least in terms of consenting to power. Social network analysis revealed that the professional network had a denser structure than the friendship network, but the friendship network had more structured and stronger ties. In social networks, professors and research assistants were found to be at the center of the network. The study observed that the results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis confirmed each other at many points. This study is expected to contribute to the literature, policymakers in higher education management, university senior management, academics, and researchers.

Facilitators and barriers of midwife-led model of care at public health institutions of dire Dawa city, Eastern Ethiopia, 2022: a qualitative study

BackgroundThe midwife-led model of care is woman-centered and based on the premise that pregnancy and childbirth are normal life events, and the midwife plays a fundamental role in coordinating care for women and linking with other health care professionals as required. Worldwide, this model of care has made a great contribution to the reduction of maternal and child mortality. For example, the global under-5 mortality rate fell from 42 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015 to 39 in 2018. The neonatal mortality rate fell from 31 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 18 deaths per 1,000 in 2018. Even if this model of care has a pivotal role in the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality, in recent years it has faced many challenges.ObjectiveTo explore facilitators and barriers to a midwife-led model of care at a public health institution in Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia, in 2021.Methodology: A qualitative approach was conducted at Dire Dawa public health institution from March 1–April 30, 2022. Data was collected using a semi-structured, in-depth interview tool guide, focused group discussions, and key informant interviews. A convenience sampling method was implemented to select study participants, and the data were analyzed thematically using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti7. The thematic analysis with an inductive approach goes through six steps: familiarization, coding, generating themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and writing up.ResultTwo major themes were driven from facilitators of the midwife-led model of care (professional pride and good team spirit), and seven major themes were driven from barriers to the midwife-led model of care (lack of professional development, shortage of resources, unfair risk or hazard payment, limited organizational power of midwives, feeling of demoralization absence of recognition from superiors, lack of work-related security).ConclusionThe midwifery-led model of care is facing considerable challenges, both pertaining to the management of the healthcare service locally and nationally. A multidisciplinary and collaborative effort is needed to solve those challenges.

Institutional structure and governance capability in universities: an empirical study from the perspectives of time, space, and quantity dimensions

Institutions are pivotal in university governance, symbolizing stable organizational power reflective of governance capacity. The strategic organization of a university’s internal structures aims to align with its developmental goals. The effectiveness of these arrangements is evaluated by their congruence with the university’s characteristics and norms, aiming to enhance governance for growth and sustainability. Thus, the primary aim of this study is to determine whether this layout can strengthen the university’s governance ability, enhancing its prospects for survival and development. This study introduces a novel theoretical framework across the dimensions of time, space, and quantity, utilizing governance elements to assess the impact of institutional layouts on governance capabilities. Data were gathered through a self-developed survey questionnaire, with a total of 742 valid responses collected, and by employing a high-dimensional fixed-effects model, we found that the three-dimensional institutional layouts significantly impact governance capabilities, with effects varying by the institution’s affiliation. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis shows that university governance capabilities are also manifested through different configurations of governance elements under institutional layout, and are influenced by the responsiveness, collaboration, and expansion of the entire institutional system. Moreover, our analysis indicates a threshold effect in the tenure of institutional members, where both excessive and insufficient enthusiasm impact governance capabilities differently. This suggests the importance of a strategic institutional layout that aligns with the governance elements’ dynamics of timeliness, flexibility, distribution, and scarcity across time, space, and quantity. Achieving an optimal arrangement enhances the university’s governance efficiency significantly. In light of these findings, policy implications were proposed.

Why do virtuous individuals accept and promote unethical institutions?

This article defines ethical blindness when considering why otherwise virtuous individuals accept unethical institutional practices. It occurs when individuals possessing organisational power over others promote their self-interests to inhibit or deny promoting the common good. Systems science provides a solution for ethical blindness. It explains why living things possess distributed decision-making to maintain a self-governing existence. Checks and balances are introduced to avoid dysfunctional "group think" or intellectual colonisation. Several Australian case studies are presented. A solution that also improves the wellbeing of all citizens by reducing inequality creates a compelling incentive for politicians to act.

Enhancing Adaptability: Exploring Structural Empowerment and Systems Thinking Among State Governmental Public Health Nutritionists.

This study explored how structural empowerment and systems thinking enabled public health nutritionists to adapt to complex environments. Interviews with 14 dietitian-prepared nutritionists from state governmental public health agencies elucidated 3 key themes: leveraging relationships was essential to exercising structural empowerment and systems thinking; accessing resources and support were priorities in supporting public health nutrition initiatives; and addressing gaps in formal training, specific to systems thinking, enabled adaptability to work in public health settings. The findings highlight the need for broader examinations into strengthening access to organizational power structures; integrating systems thinking into public health operations; and sustaining professional development for the public health workforce, especially with limited resources. Enhancing access to organizational power structures and applying systems thinking can empower the public health workforce to better adapt to challenges by building relationships, accessing resources and support, and making informed decisions that positively impact population health.

Exploring the Dynamics Between Power and Trust in Organizations

Exploring the Dynamics Between Power and Trust in Organizations

How to Make the Low-Powered Incentives Mode of the Public Sector Play a High-Powered Incentive Effect- Evidence from China's Government Performance Management Reform

Most challenging is motivating bureaucrats who perform duties during their jobs. Public organizations gain more from low-powered incentives than private sector incentives because of multitasking and lack of rivalry. Political and financial incentives dominate public sector motives, much below private sector incentives. Thus, scholars have concentrated on low-powered incentives to boost public sector incentives. This paper examines performance evaluation scheme-optimized incentive system design and operation. The case study of West Lake District, Hangzhou City, China, shows structure, process, and leadership-based organisational motivation development in performance management reform. The findings suggest that scientifically sound reward schemes necessitate effective interaction between many subjects under the current incentive structure. Transformational leadership defines incentive targets and requires high-quality incentive plans to turn reward plans into organisational incentive power. Performance review employing “classified assessment and classified incentive” can boost incentive power. How subordinate government civil servants view the performance evaluation scheme's fairness will affect their "performance recognition". and organisational incentive. This study improves China's performance-based incentive power system and low-powered incentives. The study indicated that fairness perception strengthens organisational incentives and transformative leadership. The study's district focus may restrict its value. Confirming the findings and studying transformative leadership in other public sectors requires research.

Heroes, villains and naked nations: micro-solidarity and grounded nationalism in times of crisis

Figuratively speaking, the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–22) stripped nations naked, exposing the bare structure of how nationalism, as the driving force behind the nation-states, operates on the ground. Based on a survey conducted in April 2021 in five countries (Sweden, Serbia, Germany, Ireland and England), we thematically analyze two open-ended questions on who should be remembered as the heroes and villains of the pandemic, demonstrating that people’s perception of COVID-19 is shaped and reimagined through the category of their own nation-state. Two main arguments are put forward: (1) the vast majority of answers show that heroes and villains are found in small group encounters; (2) yet in-group micro-solidarity is referential to the existing organizational and ideological power of the nation-state. We utilize the notion of “naked nations” to show that, in times of crisis, people’s selfhood is profoundly grounded in micro-solidarity encounters that are tightly linked to nation-states.

The Effects of Organizational Culture and Transformational Leadership on Worker Performance at the Lebak Regency Ministry of Religious Affairs Office with Job Satisfaction as an Intervening Variable

This study uses job satisfaction as an intervening variable to examine how corporate culture and “transformational” leadership affect employee performance. The Civil Servant of the Lebak Regency’s Ministry of Religious Affairs is the subject of this study. The survey was completed by 105 people in total. A sample of 140 government officials working at the Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Lebak Regency and KUA of Lebak Regency was selected using the Slovin formula. Purposive sampling is the method of sampling that is employed. The partial least squares method, or SmartPLS, was used to analyze the data using path analysis. The study’s findings demonstrate that employment satisfaction has a positive and significant relationship with transformational leadership, organizational power has a positive and significant relationship with job satisfaction, and employee performance has a positive and significant relationship with organizational culture. In the meantime, organizational culture through work happiness has a favorable and significant impact on employee performance, as does transformational leadership through job satisfaction. Additionally, job happiness and corporate culture through transformational leadership have a stronger impact on worker performance than employee performance is directly impacted by company culture and transformational leadership without having to. Meanwhile, transformational leadership has a favorable and significant effect on employee performance through work satisfaction, and organizational culture has a positive and significant effect on employee performance through job satisfaction. Furthermore, the influence of transformational leadership and organizational culture on employee performance through job satisfaction is greater than the influence of transformational leadership and organizational culture directly on employee performance without going through the variable of job satisfaction.

The Algorithmic Philosophy — A Synthetic and Social Philosophy

This paper as the introduction part of the forthcoming namesake book introduces how the Algorithmic Thinking Theory, a theory of human minds, can be used to solve many philosophical puzzles and therefore form a “grand synthesis” or unification of existing various philosophies. Innate discrete thinking tools process information or data from the external world serially, selectively, repetitively, roundaboutly, and economically, leading to consequences such as “mental distortion”, knowledge solidification, and combinatorial explosion, thereby forming a dynamic, pluralistic, embracive, and expansive knowledge system where “Being” and “opinions”, ontology and epistemology, rationality and irrationality, and so on are all synthesized. Thoughtful entities exist, move, change, combine, interact, and multiply to make social phenomena as the “independent third party” between human and the world, which implies both the differences and compatibility between natural and social sciences. Democracy, freedom, market, institutions, and organizational power are explained logically consistently like never before. All major philosophical branches, schools, and scholars are included in this concise panorama that stems just from this formula: thinking = computation = (Instruction + information) × speed × time. This highly original approach was inspired by computer science and customized just for the making of principles of humanities and social sciences.

Kekuasaan dan Konflik Dalam Organisasi

This research aims to understand the dynamics of power and conflict in organizations through a qualitative study. Data was collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis at a manufacturing company in Indonesia. The research results show that power in organizations is complex and multidimensional, with various sources and forms. Conflict arises as a consequence of struggles over resources, differences in interests, and disagreements about norms and values. This research contributes to the understanding of how power and conflict are interrelated in organizations. These findings also provide implications for management practice, highlighting the importance of effective leadership, open communication, and fair conflict resolution mechanisms.