The purpose of this article is to do a critical postmodern reading of the century-and-a-half empowerment-disempowerment debate. The authors review parallels between turn-of-the-century positions of both the 19th and 20th centuries. Contemporary work on empowerment and disempowerment shows a conspicuous absence of discussion of power. The authors seek to fill this gap by drawing on the work of Mary Parker Follett and Stewart Clegg. Follett’s theory of co-power offers a key to overcoming the empowerment-disempowerment dualism that characterizes the current debates. In addition, Clegg’s circuits-of-power theory opens up the everyday machinery of power and empowerment for inspection. Follett’s understanding of managerial power, combined with Clegg’s deeper sociological understanding of systematic disempowerment and domination, yields an integrative perspective that incorporates both empowering and disempowering faces of power. This co-power perspective has important implications for organizational development and change.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albrecht, T. L.
(1988). Communication and personal control in empowering organizations. In J. A. Anderson (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 11, pp. 380-390). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
Alvesson, M.
, & Deetz, S. (1996). Critical theory and postmodernism approaches to organizational studies. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 191-217). London: Sage.
3.
Alvesson, M.
, & Willmott, H. (1996). Making sense of management: A critical introduction. London: Sage.
4.
Bailey, R. (1995). How to empower people at work: A guide to becoming a green-fingered manager. Available: http://www.mb2000.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_10_HUMAN_RESOURCES_10.html
5.
Barker, J. R.
(1993). Tightening the iron cage: concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 408-437.
6.
Best, S.
, & Kellner, D. (1997). The postmodern turn. New York: Guilford.
7.
Block, P.
(1987). The empowered manager: Positive political skills at work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
8.
Boje, D. M.
& Dennehy, R. F. (1993). Managing in the postmodern world: America’s revolution against exploitation. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
9.
Boje, D. M.
, Fitzgibbons, D. E., & Steingard, D. S. (1996). Storytelling at Administrative Science Quarterly: Warding off the postmodern barbarians. In D. M. Boje, R. P. Gephart, Jr., & T. J. Thatchenkery (Eds.), Postmodern management and organization theory (pp. 60-94). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
10.
Boje, D. M.
, Gephart, R. P., Jr., & Thatchenkery, T. J. (1996). Postmodern management and organization theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
Borman, E. G.
(1988). Symbolic convergence theory: A communication formulations based on hommo narrens. Journal of Communication, 35, 128-139.
12.
Brandeis, L. D.
(1934). The curse of bigness: Miscellaneous papers. New York: Viking.
13.
Braverman, H.
(1974). Labor and monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century. New York: Monthly Review Press.
14.
Calas, M.
, & Smircich, L. (1996). Not ahead of her time: Reflections on Mary Parker Follett as a prophet of management. Organization, 3(1), 147-152.
15.
Clegg, S. R.
(1989). Frameworks of power. London: Sage.
16.
Clegg, S. R.
(1990). Modern organizations: Organization studies in the postmodern world. London: Sage.
17.
Clegg, S. R.
, & Hardy, C. (1996). Conclusion: Representations. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 676-708). London: Sage.
18.
Cole, G. D. H.
(1919a, July). National guilds movement in Great Britain. Monthly Labor Review, 9, 24-32.
19.
Cole, G. D. H.
(1919b, July 26). Reviving the guild idea. Living Age, 302, 214-217.
20.
Collins, D.
(1998). Towards a more challenging “vision” of empowerment. Business Research Yearbook, 5, 694-698.
21.
Conger, J. A.
, & Kanungo, R. N. (1988). The empowerment process: Integrating theory and process. Academy of Management Review, 5, 501-508.
22.
Croly, H.
(1914). Progressive democracy. New York: Macmillan.
23.
Crozier, M.
(1964). The bureaucratic phenomenon. London: Tavistock.
24.
Daft, R. L.
(1995). Organiztion theory and design (5th ed.). Minneapolis, MN: West Publishing.
25.
Dallmayr, F. R.
(1993). G. W. F. Hegel: Modernity and politics. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
26.
Debord, G. (1967). La société du spectacle. Paris: Editions Buchet-Chastel. Full text available: http://www.nothingness.org/SI/debord/index.html
27.
Derber, M.
(1970). The American idea of industrial democracy, 1865-1965. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
28.
de Schweinitz, D.
(1949). Labor and management in a common enterprise. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
29.
Dewey, J.
(1973/1981). The philosophy of John Dewey (Vols. 1-2, Ed. J. J. McDermott). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
30.
Elden, M.
, & Levin, M. (1991). Co-generative learning: Bringing participation into action research. In W. F. Whyte (Ed.), Participative action research (pp. 51-84). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
31.
Emery, M.
(1993). Participative design for participative democracy. Canberra: Australian National University.
32.
Emery, F.
, & Emery, M. (1993). Participative design: Work and community life. In M. Emery (Ed.), Participative design for participative democracy (pp. 100-122). Canberra: Center for Continuing Education, Australian National University.
33.
Fleming, P. C.
(1991, December). Empowerment strengthens the rock. Management Review, pp. 34-37.
34.
Follett, M. P.
(1898). The speaker of the House of Representatives. New York: Longmans, Green.
35.
Follett, M. P.
(1918). The new state. New York: Longmans, Green.
36.
Follett, M. P.
(1924). Creative experience. New York: Longmans, Green.
37.
Follett, M. P.
(1941). Dynamic administration: The collected papers of Mary Parker Follett (H. C. Metcalf & L. Urwick, Eds.). New York: Harper.
38.
Foucault, M.
(1977). Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison [Discipline and punish]. Paris: Gallimard.
39.
Foucault, M.
(1988). Technologies of the self. In L. Martin, H. Gutman, & P. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies of the self (pp. 16-49). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
40.
Fox, E. M.
(1968). Mary Parker Follett: The enduring contribution. Public Administration Review, 28(6), 520-529.
41.
Gold, C.
(1986). Labor-management committees: Confrontation, cooptation, or cooperation?New York: ILR Press, New York State School of Industrial and labor Relations, Cornell University.
42.
Gompers, S.
(1920). Labor and the employer. New York: E. P. Dutton.
43.
Hardy, C.
, & Leiba-O’Sullivan, S. (1980). The power behind empowerment: Implications for research and practice. Human Relations, 51(4), 451-483.
44.
Hassard, J.
(1996). Images of time in work and organization. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 581-598). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
45.
Hatch, M. J.
(1997). Organization theory: A postmodern perspective. London: Oxford University Press.
46.
Hegel, G. W. F.
(1975). Philosophy of right (T. M. Knox, Trans). Oxford, UK: Claredon.
47.
Hirschhorn, L.
(1997). Reworking authority: Leading and following in the postmodern organization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
48.
Jacques, R.
(1996). Manufacturing the employee: Management knowledge from the 9th to 21st centuries. London: Sage.
49.
Kasmir, S.
(1996). The myth of Mondragon: Cooperatives, politics, and working-class life in a Basque town. New York: State University of New York Press.
50.
Korten, D. C.
(1995). When corporations rule the world. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
51.
Lasswell, H.
(1930). Psychopathology and politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
52.
Lawrence, D.
(1988). The third way: The promise of industrial democracy. London: Routledge.
53.
Lippmann, W.
(1925). The phantom public. New York: Macmillan.
54.
Manz, C. C.
, & Sims, H. P., Jr. (1993). Business without bosses: How self-managing teams are building high-performing companies. New York: John Wiley.
55.
Miller, E. J.
(1922). Workmen’s representation in industrial government. University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, 10(3/4), 1-182.
56.
Mills, A. J.
, & Simmons, T. (1995). Reading organization theory: A critical approach. Toronto, Canada: Garamond.
57.
O’Connor, E. S.
(1998, August). Political work: Ordway Tead’s concept of industrial democracy. Paper presented at the Academy of Management meeting, San Diego, CA.
58.
O’Connor, E. S.
(1999). The politics of management thought: A case study of Harvard Business School and the human relations school. Academy of Management Review, 24(1), 117-131.
59.
O’Connor, E. S.
(in press-a). Integrating Follett: History, philosophy, and management. Journal of Management History.
60.
O’Connor, E. S.
(in press-b). Participation versus rehabilitation: Early 20th-century debates on the moral purpose of the firm. In Proceedings of the 1999 Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Management.
61.
Pacanowsky, M. E.
(1988). Communication in the empowering organization. In J. A. Anderson (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 11, pp. 356-379). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
62.
Parker, M.
(1993). Industrial relations myth and shop floor reality: the “team” concept in the auto industry. In N. Lichtenstein & J. H. Howell (Eds.), Industrial democracy in America (pp. 204-212). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
63.
Parker, M.
, & Slaughter, J. (1988). Managing by stress: The dark side of the team concept. ILR Report, 26(1), 19-23.
64.
Patton, P.
(1998). Foucault’s subject of power. In J. Moss (Ed.), The later Foucault (pp. 64-77). London: Sage.
65.
Plumb, G. E.
, & Roylance, W. G. (1923). Industrial democracy: A plan for its achievement. New York: B. W. Huebsch.
66.
Putnam, L.
, Phillips, N., & Chapman, P. (1996). Metaphors of communication and organization. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 375-408). London: Sage.
67.
Rosenau, P.
(1992). Post-modernism and the social sciences: Insights, inroads, and intrusions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
68.
Spreitzer, G.
(1995). An empirical examination of a comprehensive model of psychological empowerment in the workplace. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 601-629.
69.
Spreitzer, G.
(1996). Social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 483-504.
70.
Strauss, G.
, & Rosenstein, E. (1971). Workers participation: A critical view. Industrial Relations, 9, 197-214.
71.
Tarbell, I. M.
(1916). New ideals in business: An account of their practice and their effects upon men and profits. New York: D. Appleton.
72.
Tead, O.1938. The case for democracy and its meaning for modern life. New York: Association Press.
73.
Tead, O.1939. New adventures in democracy: Practical applications of the democratic idea. New York: Whittlesey House.
74.
Tead, O.
, & Metcalf, H. (1933). Personnel administration: Its principles and practices. New York: McGraw-Hill.
75.
Vogt, J. F.
, & Murrell, K. L. (1990). Empowerment in organizations: How to spark exceptional performance. San Diego, CA: University Associates.
