“Power has remained one of the least understood and most overused concepts within organisations” (Reed, 1996). It has created some debates considering different perspectives and sources of power. Power can be defined, as the potential ability to influence behaviours, changing the result of events and getting people to do things that they would not do otherwise (J.Pfeffer, 1992). The role of power is characterized by individuals or groups of individuals acquiring power through their position and their control of resources (Clegg et al., 2006). Various types of powers can be identified establishing a basis of power, the stronger this basis, the greater the power and the potential influence (French and Raven, 1959). Power is an essential tool in achieving things and is part of every organisation. This essay will explore who has the power within organisations considering bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic viewpoints, how power is used and how much control does management have. Throughout the essay, I will critically discuss the extent to how are the different perspectives of power realistic in today’s organisations.
Many scholars have been debating on power concerning on who has what power and who has power over whom (Clegg, et al., 2006). Power can be defined in many ways when analysing perspectives such as unitarist, pluralist and radical. A unitarist perspective establishes power as only one source of authority, where employees and managers share the same interests and a common purpose and so exercising a legitimate power - managing for the best interest of the organisation (Fox, 1966). Employees accept to sell their labour power and to take the authority in exchange for wages. Here power remains firmly in the hand of the employ...
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...cts. This leads to expressing a high culture with particular values, shaping their way of seeing society with aims as profits and teaching young people to be consumers. Walt Disney being a multi-billion dollar media corporation have become the primary and educational and culture force by controlling what identity to create and what message to pass. Disney uses various strategies to increase its audience, starting with ‘studying’ children by working with child psychologists and other experts to have a better understanding of children culture. These strategies have been criticized by many and demonstrate the hidden reality of Disney as an economic and political power accused to ‘dismantling the public foundations for a thriving civic culture’ and promoting an ideology towards its interests translated by manipulating and controlling children desires (H.A. Giroux, 2011)
almost every aspect of our lives” (19). However, does Disney stand for pure and innocent
Power is held and exerted or ignored by those with the ability to act upon other people or cause an event. The scientific community held power over hospitals, scientists, and scientific progress because it can deem work valid, scientific, ethical, and otherwise. John Hopkins held power over its patients not only because they were under its care, but also because many could not pay for medical care. Individual doctors at Hopkins held power over their specific patients for the same reasons although they held more extensive powers over the specific patient. Henrietta held power over whether or not she received treatment. Zakariyya held power over the boy he murdered because he h...
The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put aside when it comes to the social media view of how Americans should live.
Power. It is defined as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. Throughout time, certain individuals have acquired power in their society as a way to govern and keep order among their community. Power is not a new concept; it was used in the past by many emperors, kings, and queens, and is still being used by presidents, prime ministers, and dictators. Although, it has been used to further progress societies into what the world is like today, not all power has been used for the best of mankind. But what goes awry to make power turn corrupt? In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it is illustrated how power can turn corrupt, when authoritative figures, who possess power, abuse it for their personal gain, rather than for the common good of the society.
Power has been defined as the psychological relations over another to get them to do what you want them to do. We are exposed to forms of power from the time of birth. Our parents exercise power over us to behave in a way they deem appropriate. In school, teachers use their power to help us learn. When we enter the work world the power of our boss motivates us to perform and desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable.
Power is a central concern amongst many sociologists, with many questions that arise such as; what is power? Who has power? And where is it located? (Stanbridge & Ramos 2010: 2–5). These questions have engaged different sociologists from diverse perspectives and persuasions. Many of the differences of opinion will never be resolved by some unifying theory, as power is an ‘essentially contested concept’ (Lukes 1974, 2005: 137). There is no one-way of understanding power because the meanings of power are diverse and often contentious. This paper will focus on two theorists and their approach to power, politically speaking, from the left of centre, Steven Lukes in comparison to the right of centre, John Locke. The first approach that will be examined
In society, it can be agreed that there are two main types of power, proximal relations of power and distal relations of power. Proximal relations of power deals within the personal relationships in society, whereas distal relations of power are related to society in a more abstract way that affects it as a
When putting the three articles together, you can see exactly how Disney is able to control popular culture and the media. Disney controls the media and uses propaganda in order to influence beliefs that shape society’s culture. Part 2. After going through the first semester of First Year Seminar Deconstructing Disney, my viewpoints on many things have changed and how I watch and perceive films has also changed. However, the way I perceive the film Wall-E has not changed much.
According to the "Power and Leadership" essay written by Paula Braynion, "the first thing one encounters when trying to understand power is a difficulty in arriving at a concise definition, as there are many and varied definitions and perspectives seeking to explore and explain the concept." (Braynion, para 1) There are two main kinds of power to look at when figuring out how power and leadership relate. The first kind of power is formal power which is obtain by an individual from having a formal or privileged position in an organization's hierarchy, for example a VP or a CEO would have formal power over his or her employees. The second kind of power is known as informal power or influential power, this power is based on the ability to influence others rather than the ability to control rewards and punishment. Informal power is the result of peers and other employees choosing to follow an
Zipes, along with other scholars such as Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, authors of the book Deconstructing Disney, explore and catalogue the various ways in which Walt Disney-the man-and Disney-the corporation that is his legacy-perpetuate social figurations of race, gender and ethnocentrism through they films they produce. They furthermore critique Disney for reducing fairy tales to over-simplified, over-sanitized and over-sentimentalized banalities designed solely as a profit-generating products. Such analyses prove to be truly important work, as the socio-cultural ideas propagated by Disney, as well as the means by it executed such propagation prove key in unlocking the messages that are sent through seemingly harmless "entertainment". As Zipes keenly point out,
Some theorists believe that ‘power is everywhere: not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere… power is not an institution, nor a structure, nor possession. It is the name we give to a complex strategic situation in a particular society. (Foucault, 1990: 93) This is because power is present in each individual and in every relationship. It is defined as the ability of a group to get another group to take some form of desired action, usually by consensual power and sometimes by force. (Holmes, Hughes &Julian, 2007) There have been a number of differing views on ‘power over’ the many years in which it has been studied. Theorist such as Anthony Gidden in his works on structuration theory attempts to integrate basic structural analyses and agency-centred traditions. According to this, people are free to act, but they must also use and replicate fundamental structures of power by and through their own actions. Power is wielded and maintained by how one ‘makes a difference’ and based on their decisions and actions, if one fails to exercise power, that is to ‘make a difference’ then power is lost. (Giddens: 1984: 14) However, more recent theorists have revisited older conceptions including the power one has over another and within the decision-making processes, and power, as the ability to set specific, wanted agendas. To put it simply, power is the ability to get others to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do. In the political arena, therefore, power is the ability to make or influence decisions that other people are bound by.
Usually, the belief is that the managers, administrators, presidents or even the supervisors, have the greatest source of power, because they are at the top of the ladder in the hierarchy of the organization. The reality is that they need
The concept of industrial relations involves the interaction of employers and employees, for that reason without power and authority will be a lack of direction and control over the system of industrial relations. Authority frequently comes from the duties and responsibilities delegated to a position holder in a bureaucratic structure whilst Power is the possession of authority, control, or influence by which a person influences the actions of others, either by direct authority or by some other, added intangible
Power is defined in the course study notes as the “ability of individuals or groups to get what they want despite the opposition”. Power is derived from a variety of sources including knowledge, experience and environmental uncertainties (Denhardt et al, 2001). It is also important to recognize that power is specific to each situation. Individuals or groups that may be entirely powerful in one situation may find themselves with little or no power in another. The county Registrar of Voters, who is my boss, is a perfect example. In running the local elections office, she can exercise the ultimate power. However, in a situation where she attempted to get the county selected for a desirable, statewide pilot project, she was powerless, completely at the mercy of the Secretary of State. Power is difficult to measure and even to recognize, yet it plays a major role in explaining authority. In organizations, power is most likely exercised in situations where “the stakes are high, resources are limited, and goals and processes are unclear” (Denhardt et al, 2001). The absence of power in organizations forces us to rely on soley hierarchical authority.
Legitimate Power – This is power that comes from holding a position within an organization