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21006 Managing Power

UTS: Business: Management
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level: Postgraduate

Result Type: Grade and marks

Handbook description

In this subject, students learn first hand from major contributors to current debates in organisation and management theory about the centrality of power and politics to these debates. They become adept at theorising power through mastering the theory of power and its application to organisations, developing an ability to diagnose and analyse power and policies, increasing skills in exercising power effectively, and coming to terms with the inherent dilemmas and choices involved in developing and exercising power.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

  1. understand classic and current models of power used and applied in organisation and management theory
  2. understand the major theories of the overall social science research field of power
  3. understand the types of arguments and evidence used to justify and elaborate different types of theorising, research and writing practices related to power
  4. demonstrate the centrality of the effective management of power and resistance to organisational reality.

Contribution to graduate profile

Power dynamics are fundamental to the effective exercise of leadership and governance in organisations. This subject develops students' ability to create and use sources of power beyond formal authority to formulate strategies and tactics of political and social influence. The subject includes readings, case materials, subject assignments, and a field action project focused on creating sustainable political advantage in organisations – the rules of the game, basic power diagnostics, exploring circuits of power, building legitimacy and rationality.

Teaching and learning strategies

Lectures and group discussions, case analysis, presentations, and workshops.

Content

  • Introduction to power
  • Foundational contributions to the literature on power
  • Basic concepts of power
  • Power and non-decision-making
  • Power and interests
  • Organisational structure and power
  • Power and unobtrusive control in organisations
  • Power and the management of corporate meaning
  • Politics and the constitution of power in organisations
  • Power and the shaping of business-community environments
  • Power and inter-organisational relations
  • Power and the rationalisation of rationality
  • Power, sense making and legitimacy
  • Managing power and resistance in organisations.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Semester Paper (Individual)

Objective(s): 1-4
Weighting: 45%
Task: This will be an extended essay based around any one of the seminar topics that have been covered during the semester. Addresses objectives 1-4.

Assessment item 2: Project Proposal and Project (Group)

Objective(s): 1-4
Weighting: 30%
Task: Students will produce a one-page executive proposal that proposes how they plan to go about their workplace report. The executive proposal is intended to be a bridge between the theory learnt in the class and their application of it. Using the material developed in the first assignment, analyse the dynamics of power in any organisation. The work will be presented as the outcome of research by a team normally comprised of three and will be graded on a team basis. Addresses objectives 1-4.

Assessment item 3: Reflective Practice (Individual)

Objective(s): 1-4
Weighting: 25%
Task: Students who have completed the subject will reflect on what difference the subject has made to the way they will manage. These papers will be prepared and assessed on an individual basis. Addresses objectives 1-4.

Required text(s)

Clegg SR, 1989, Frameworks of Power, London: Sage

Clegg SR (ed), 2002, Central Currents in Organization Studies: Contemporary Trends (Volume Five): Political Relations and Arenas both in and around Organizations, London: Sage

Clegg, SR, Courpasson, D, and Nelson P, 2006, Power and Organization, Sage: London.

Flyvbjerg, B, 1998, Rationality and Power, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Hardy, C (ed), 1995, Power and Politics in Organizations, Aldershot: Dartmouth

Haugaard M, 2002, Power: A Reader, Manchester: University of Manchester Press

Haugaard M, 1997, The Constitution of Power, Manchester: University of Manchester Press

Scott J (ed), 1994, Power: Critical Concepts (Three volumes), London: Routledge