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Power, Rationality And Legitimacy In Public Organizations, Ray Gordon, Martin Kornberger, Stewart Clegg
Power, Rationality And Legitimacy In Public Organizations, Ray Gordon, Martin Kornberger, Stewart Clegg
Ray Gordon
In this paper we propose answers to the research question: how does power shape the construction of legitimacy in the context of public organizations? We suggest that while organizational structures of dominancy will be embedded, not all structures of dominancy align with those that are normatively presented as legitimate and authoritative. Such situations make the creation and sustenance of legitimacy problematic for organizational action. This paper advances our understanding of the relation between power, rationality and legitimacy by showing how structures of domination recursively constitute, and are constituted by, legitimacy that may not be authoritative. We show, empirically, how these …
Power And Legitimacy: From Weber To Contemporary Theory, Ray Gordon
Power And Legitimacy: From Weber To Contemporary Theory, Ray Gordon
Ray Gordon
The chapter provides a comparative review of literature pertinent to power and legitimacy in social systems. The review will trace a specific path from the work of Max Weber to contemporary times. A comprehensive assessment of all contributions to the literature is outside the scope of the review. Instead, the focus is restricted to the comparison of three key bodies of literature, namely, mainstream functionalist approaches, critical approaches, and pragmatic approaches. A small sample of contemporary work that specifically centres on power and the construction of legitimacy in organizations will also be reviewed.