Managing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 3

Managing - Essay Example He perceives power as dispersed as opposed to previous conceptions of power as concentrated and possessed. He also views power as conversational rather than virtuously coercive. The terms ‘power and knowledge’ are applied by Foucault to suggest that power is founded through recognized forms of knowledge, logical understanding and reality. This paper reflects and explains Foucault’s claim by focusing on managerial work and management power/roles. It discusses Foucault’s body of work on power and discipline. It supports Foucault’s approach withreference to published empirical examples. The paper also depicts the application of Foucault’s approach to power and order to management practice. Pfeffer (1993) defines power as the deliberate inducement on the opinions, feelings and conduct of people to achieve a particular objective. In the absence of power, cooperation among people may not be achieved and hence social order cannot be achieved. Power in organizations is manifest in leaders who apply different means of exercising the power vested in them to accomplish their goals. Foucault (1977) asserts that people in positions of power exercise it as opposed to possessing it. In other words, positions of power have been created in organizations as a strategy to develop infrastructure for enhancement of discipline. It therefore does not matter who possesses the power as such a person can be replaced by another and power in the organization will remain. Power forms the political structures of social organizations that operate to initiate the non-egalitarian and disproportionate relations. Organizations are established through human relations, which are characterised by inher ent power (Knights and Willmott, 1989). Power is therefore not restricted to an individual but rather is engaged and implemented through a