Action and Case Research in
Management and Organizational
Contexts
Power,stakeholders and AR
About power?




Internal politics – rival departments or managers;
External and internal stakeholders;
Everyone involved in the discourse of the
organisation can affect it in some way;
Other ways…
Faces of Power:
Positive: Socialised need to initiate, influence
and lead, enabling power;
Negative: Unsocialised need to dominate over
submissive others, seek control.
(McClelland, D., 1961, and 1995).
AR would seek to encourage Positive power, through
involvement and empowerment of a range of stakeholders
Management attitudes
• Management may legitimately use Mendelow’s
theories to manage some external stakeholders,
such as Government and Competitors;
• It may be less acceptable when managing
internal stakeholders;
• See following diagrams.
AR would seek to encourage Positive power, through
involvement and empowerment of a range of stakeholders
Power/Interest matrix ( Mendelow,1991)
A management view
Level of interest
Low
Low
Power
High
High
A
Minimal effort
B
Keep informed
C
Keep satisfied
D
Key Players
Power/Dynamism matrix (adapted from Mendelow,1991)
Predictability
High
Low
Low
A
Few problems
B
Unpredictable but
manageable
C
Powerful but
predictable
D
Greatest danger or
opportunities
Power
High




Co-opting people with various skills from
different stakeholder groups;
Presenting a united front;
Learning and using knowledge from the group;
See also Tempered Radicalism (to be discussed
later, Myerson, 2003).
AR would seek to encourage Positive power, through
involvement and empowerment of a range of stakeholders
Sources of power:
•
•
•
•
•
Legitimate
Reward
Coercive
Referent (charismatic)
Expert.
(French & Raven,1959.)
Action science
• Action science can address coercive
power (and even charismatic and expert
power:
• By uncovering “double binds”;
• Undiscussability;
• Winning/losing behaviour.
(French & Raven,1959.)
Types of power:
Associative: deriving from the support of a strong mentor or sponsor, in a
position to supply information and advice and to promote one’s career.
Assigned: the power that comes from making oneself indispensable to
someone senior, by taking on tasks which they dislike and would other
wise have to do.
Political: becoming politically involved in groups, committees, unions
which have access to information and are involved in decision making.
(Garavan, et al.,1993)
Action research can use some of
Garavan’s types of power, especially by
using action learning sets to influence
and exercise power.
•
•
•
•
By mobilisation of the group’s knowledge;
Group action;
Communication;
Questioning.
References
French, J. R. P., Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In Cartwright, D., and Zander,
A., (Eds.), Group dynamics. New York: Harper & Row.
Garavan, G.N., Barnicle, B. and Heraty, N. (1993). The Training and Development Function:
Its Search for Power and Influence in Organizations, Journal of European Industrial Training,
Vol 17, Iss. 7.
McClelland, D.C., (1961). The Achieving Society New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold,
McClelland D.C and Burnham D.H. (1995). 'Power is the Great Motivator', Harvard Business
Review, 73 January-February 126-39.
A. Mendelow, A., (1991). Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Information
Systems, Cambridge, MA.
Meyerson, D., (2003). Tempered Radicals: how everyday leaders inspire change at work.
Harvard Business School Press.