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Power Strategy for Middle Managers

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Oxford University Centre of the Study of Values in Education

Volume X: The Fate of Empires: Education in a Consilient World

Reprint: Chapter 6

POWER STRATEGIES FOR MIDDLE MANAGERS

David P. Boyd

Northeastern University

&

Timm L. Kainen

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Copyright 2005: Global Scholarly Publications. All rights reserved.

POWER STRATEGIES FOR MIDDLE MANAGERS

David P. Boyd & Timm L. Kainen

Introduction

Power is a difficult concept for many individuals in western democratic societies and free market economies. Its undertone of privilege and inequality can run counter to the core value of equal opportunity that defines those societies. Yet successful management of the social and economic order, as well as of the organizations within it, requires the use of power. Electoral processes bestow political power while educational and social processes develop access to corporate power. Though not without their failures, these processes confer a measure of political stability and economic equilibrium. However, in a globally diverse economy where organizations become more numerous, entrepreneurial and horizontal, the training time and developmental possibilities for middle managers prove less predictable. As markets and technologies churn ever faster, they often create conditions that thrust mid-level technical experts and project heads into positions where they must manage. Suddenly these denizens must wield power without the authority of office. This paper models some ways for these newly minted power brokers to avoid failure and achieve success.

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