Philip
>Mine was a very quick summary of an article that itself seeks to summarise
>300 years of writing on power going back to Machiavelli and Hobbes - to the
>Medieval Guilds actually. My purpose being to jog list members to remember
>that it is not productive to hold a conversation on the merits of heirachy
>without some thought to the nature of power in organisations.
I agree with your view that there is a need to address issues of power in
the context of this thread. It amuses me that there is so much discussion
these days about knowledge management but none, whatsoever, about power
management. Do you find that there a reluctance to discuss power?
>Of course I agree that one should make this distinction, but surely the
>fall of communism has not helped strengthen the credence given to Marxist
>analysis. Hardy and Clegg's point is that the unitary nature of Marixist
>analysis - ie control of the means of production by those with capital- is
>its weakness.
>In the same way, if capitalism fell over tomorrow, many Western management
>writers would have a dog of a time getting their next book published!
I agree with your comment about the unitary nature of Marxist analysis but
the same comment can be made about most forms of analysis. Do you know of
any pluraist approaches?
As a point of interest, Jurgen Habermas has taken Marx's work forward, and
I do not believe that the fall of communism has devalued Habermas's work.
This continuity with the past, is why I would have liked to have seen an
analysis of power based upon Burrell & Morgan's framework. I like to
understand the origins and assumptions underlying theories. As I see
things, a difference between Habermas and Foucault lies in the emphasis
give to the community / individual dimension. It is back to the trinity
of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity". (There are three because we can
only think in 2 dimensions.)
Roy Benford
Fulmer, UK
--"Roy Benford" <roy@benford.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>