Call for papers – Management Revue: The International Review of Management Studies (www.management-revue.org)
Deadline for submissions: 26 September 2008
Special Issue
Power in Organizations – Power of Organizations
Guest Editors:
Axel Haunschild (University of Trier), Germany
Werner Nienhüser (University of Duisburg-Essen), Germany
Richard Weiskopf (Innsbruck University), Austria
Evidence, Concepts and New Perspectives
Whereas talking about power might still be a taboo within organizations, concepts of power have been used widely in organization and management studies over the past decades. Approaches in organization studies that explicitly refer to power as a relevant concept of analysis comprise, for example, contingency theory, resource-dependence theory, strategic analysis and micropolitics, new institutionalism, labour process theory, post-structuralist critical management theories, post-colonialism, gender studies, organizational discourse, and corporate governance studies.
However, the use of power as a theoretical construct or conceptual tool varies significantly regarding the level of analysis, the re-search aims (descriptive, explanatory, critical or normative) as well as the implicit or explicit social theoretical assumptions (on actors, societal structures and the relationships between them).
Analyses comparing and discussing these assumptions and the usefulness of theories and concepts of power can be found in the social theory literature but are rather rare in the context of organization studies. The special issue seeks to fill this gap by particularly inviting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary papers from a wide range of social science disciplines that either critically reflect upon theories of power in organization studies or that apply and critically evaluate selected concepts or theories of power to problems of organizing and organizations.
Possible research questions and topics for submissions are:
* Exploring the roots of power concepts in social theories and discussing (or challenging) their relevance for organization studies.
* Changing relations of power between employers and employees as a consequence of more market-based and/or flexible work arrangements and forms of organizing.
* Co-determination and power – co-determination between counter-vailing power and powerless co-management.
* Discipline and control in post-fordist and post-bureaucratic organizations.
* How organizing and creative forms of organizing (social relations, work-relations) imply or create power.
* Strategies, relations of power (power structures) and structures of dominance within organizations. Specific areas of investigation could, for example, be MNCs, network organizations etc.
* Language and power, for instance, the role of managerial language in organizational restructuring, in leadership etc.
* Organizational diversity from a power perspective (for example evidence for and sources of inequality, power sources of organizational sub-groups; organizing as creating a ‘multitude’).
* How organizations influence societies and their members, for example by regulating, branding, shaping work identities and consumer behaviours, and by providing life, work and career opportunities.
* Power struggles between for-profit organizations, NGOs and/or social movements.
* How societal power structures shape power relationships within organizations, for example, the influence of globalization processes on the relative power of trade unions, employers and employees.
This list is not exhaustive.
Deadline: We are looking forward to receiving your contribution! The deadline for submissions is 26 September 2008. Please send your paper via email to all three editors. Guidelines for submissions can be found on the journal’s webpage (http://www.management-revue.org/authors_guidelines.php).
All contributions will be subject to a double-blind review procedure.
For further details please contact:
Axel Haunschild: haunschild@uni-trier.de
University of Trier, Fachbereich IV – APO, D-54286 Trier, Germany
Werner Nienhüser: werner.nienhueser@uni-due.de
University of Duisburg-Essen, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften – Personalwirtschaft, Universitätsstr. 12, D-45141 Essen, Germany
Richard Weiskopf: richard.weiskopf@uibk.ac.at
Innsbruck University, Institute for Organisation and Learning (IOL), Universitätsstr. 15, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
