THE RATIONALITY OF DISTINCTIONS AND THE EMERGENCE OF POWER - A CRITICAL SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE OF POWER IN ORGANIZATIONS

Power in organizations is usually regarded as a phenomenon generated b y their structural features, or by existing social relationships. By s haring the ideas of Habermas and Foucault, critical systems thinking e ndeavours to offer an understanding of power based on its dialectical nature. Power is thus conceived as a coercive yet positive force, able to trigger resistance and emancipation. This paper proposes that crit ical systems thinking ought to link power with action in an analytical framework based on a systems perspective of organizations. By adoptin g a second-order cybernetics perspective of organizations, the paper d eals with power as a phenomenon which emerges in the operational and o bservational distinctions during interactions mediated by language. A generic linguistic force, namely a command, concealed in any speech ac t, is considered responsible for the detachment (distinction) of a par t from the whole, and thus, alternatively, from its reduction to the r ole of subject or object. According to this view, more attention shoul d be paid to the fears felt by human beings when confronting their sub jectivity, than to the fears felt in response to the repression of the ir subjectivity, as established theories of power suggest.