Organizational Theory

Introduction

An organization, by its most basic definition, is an assembly of people working together to achieve common objectives through a division of labor. An organization provides a means of using individual strengths within a group to achieve more than can be accomplished by the aggregate efforts of group members working individually.

Power, Control, and Resistance

Hatch and Cunliffe (2006, p. 254) defined power as ‘A has power over B to the extent

that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do.’ Organization power can be categorised into four types: reward power, coercive power, expert power, charismatic power. Reward power is given by higher level of management to control over organizational rewards such as promotion and salary increment; coercive power is the power of the managers to punish the workers by suspension or demotion; expert power comes from manager’s knowledge and experience; charismatic power derives from the authority of the manager because of his position in the organization (Shetty, 1978).

Resistance occurs when people are resent or are not satisfied with the power hold by the authority which affect their interests (Munduate and Guerra 2008). Hence, they will oppose and resist power, which resulted in conflicts. Organization conflict also occurs due to the different characteristics of humans. Conflict is inevitable because the goals and objectives of organizational owners and the interests of workers are different (Jaffee, 2007). Organization conflict can also occur because of differentiated and specialized divison of labour which affect organization unity (Jaffee, 2007). This is where control comes in to manage conflict. Control is to exercise authority or dominating influence over others and control helps to ensure that organizational objectives are met and activities are perform effectively and efficiently (Green and Welsh, 1988).

Critical Perspective of Organization

Critical theory view power in...