Power Sharing

How Power Structures Work

Power is possession of control, authority, or influence over others; it presupposes culturally organized social relationships that are usually hierarchical. A power structure depends on internal coherence and external recognition. Three factors often define a power structure: its functions, the strength of its internal social control and its capacity to defend its domain, and the norms that determine who belongs and who is excluded.

Power sharing needs a foundation, which is constructed by triangulating the personal, the social, and the subjects of the power structure—which is to say, all the people who participate in the power structure. The parties' different attitudes, knowledge, and experiences must be acknowledged. The rights and duties associated with different positions in the power structure are all potential targets for change. The goal of power sharing is to have all the parties participate in all phases of the process: the initial brainstorming, the planning and decision making, the division of work, and the evaluation of both product and process.

All people in a power structure, although operating [Page 1238]on unequal terms, take part in the process of transforming the power structure or maintaining the status quo. Although both position in the hierarchy and personal capabilities influence a person's degree of authority and strength to preserve or change the domain, power holders control resources and have the right to make and execute decisions, as well as the privilege of delegating and sharing influence.

Interaction between people in different hierarchical positions unfolds in many ways, but certain generalizations are often made: Lower-ranked subjects tend to express indifference or resistance—both bodily and verbally, both individually and collectively. Power holders, for their part, tend to express the opinion—both speaking as individuals and as managers—that their subordinates are not fully responsible, engaged, or concerned about the organization. Power sharing can change those conceptions. Participants in power-sharing arrangements move from corporate behavior to cooperative behavior.

Preliminaries To Power Sharing

Before the process of power sharing begins, the parties must agree on the issues they will address and what the parameters for action will be. In some cases, the urge for democratization may cause problems at this point. Research and scholarship have not addressed this problem very extensively, but it becomes a crucial issue when power sharing becomes the dominant policy in public services: Self-governance in public services can only occur insofar as the services are able to meet the standards expected by governing agencies.

Having agreed on issues and parameters, and having established that decision-making processes will be transparent and open for participation, the parties next must decide upon the different procedures and methods that will be used for dealing with distinct, different interests. People in the lowest-ranking relevant position make the decisions; participants are obliged to suggest workable options, conditions, and goals. Subordinates have the ability both to exercise increasing influence over the reorganization of power and privilege systems and to improve their personal situations, increasing personal satisfaction and improving the social climate.

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