Frameworks of Power

Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Sydney in the School of Project Management and the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership and an Emeritus Professor of the University of Technology Sydney.

• Frameworks Of Power RevisitedPower: Traditional Roots, Modern ProblemsPolitical Community, Methodological Procedures And The Agency ModelThe Power Of IntentionLukes’ Dimensions And EpistemologyGiddens’ Critique Of Parsons And The Duality Of StructurePost-structuralism, Sovereign Power And Disciplinary PowerCircuits Of Power: A Framework For AnalysisConstituting Circuits Of Power In ModernityA History Of The Present

This dialogue engages in some reflection on the role of power in management and organization studies, prompted by the publication of the second edition of Frameworks of Power, by Stewart R. Clegg (2023). The dialogue includes contributions by Chris Carter, Richard Badham and Andrea Whittle and some thoughts in response by Stewart Clegg. The dialogue begins with an overview by Chris Carter, and then the further contributions both denounce the ‘forgetting of power’ in current views of organizational phenomena—such as leadership, team behaviour and resilience—in which differences in interests and in freedom of choice seem to be missing in action. Andrea Whittle first introduces the relationship between power and leadership, as a neglected topic, followed by Richard Badham, recalling lessons from the past that should not be forgotten. Reflecting on the dialogue, Stewart Clegg responds by relating power’s salient dimensions and types to the model of circuits of power and calls for a resuscitation of some classically European management and organization theory ways of thinking about power and democracy