Editorial: Power in Organizations – Power of Organizations

Abstract

Power is widely recognized as one of the central concepts – if not the central concept (Clegg/Haugaard 2009) – of social analysis in general and organizational analysis in particular. It has a long history and has been widely used over centuries in various contexts. However, the use of power as a theoretical construct or conceptual tool var- ies significantly regarding the level of analysis, the research aims (descriptive, explana- tory, critical or normative) as well as the implicit or explicit social theoretical assump- tions (on actors, societal structures and the relationships between them). Analyses comparing and discussing these assumptions and the usefulness of power theories and concepts can be found in the social theory literature but are also of continuing interest in organization studies. This special issue seeks to contribute to this ongoing debate by bringing together contributions from a wide range of perspectives, theories and meth- odological approaches that either apply empirically and critically evaluate selected con- cepts or theories of power to problems of organizing and organizations or critically re- flect upon theories of power in organization studies.