Organizations as Structures of Domination

Organization Studies · 1996 · Volume 17 · Issue 1

Abstract

This paper deals with concepts of power and domination in organization studies. It suggests that a sociologically informed organization theory must underline domination as the process whereby organizations and their members achieve the status of agents and the ability to act. Domination, then, is not just a negative concept: it is the very condition whereby organizations are reproduced as social systems. The text proposes possible directions to examine the constitution of organizations along such lines.

Keywords

Descriptors: power, domination, hierarchy, reflexivity, surveillance, critical theory

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