The research provides a conceptual/theoretical description of power/authority and its application in organizational environments. Important authors and researchers in this interest area are (1) D. K. Carew, (2) C. Hardy, (3) R. J. House, (4) J. Pfeffer, (5) G. R. Salancki, and (6) D. Tjosvold. Concepts and theories of power/authority and their applications in organizational environment have major impacts on the abilities of managers to direct organizations toward the successful attainment of missions and objectives.
EXPLICATION, AND COUNTERPOINT: POWER/
The explication of the concepts and theories of power/ authority and their application in organizational environments are discussed concurrently with points of view which are contrary to prevailing theory. In this way, relevant points of contention are more easily identifiable for the reader.
Power is a concept with which organizational behaviorists have long been concerned (McDermott, 1985, Pp. 54-55). The use of power within organizations is most often perceived as a practice employed by one individual to overcome the resistance of another, as a means of attaining an organizational goal (Pfeffer, 1981, pp. 67-71). In the context of this perception, power differences are thought to create problems within organizations, because such power differences lead to the development of organizational conflicts (Tjosvold, 1985, pp. 281-293).
Conflicts are typically thought to be essential, as a means of providing a setting where power many be employed (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1986, pp. 218-224). This assumption is, to a degree, paradoxical, in that power differences are also thought to be one cause of organizational conflict. Nevertheless, the typical train of thought is that the use of power is necessary for the attainment of organizational goals, and the presence of some degree of conflict is necessary in order for power to be employed effectively (Hardy, 1985, pp. 384-399)....