ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a social-psychological analysis of power and powerlessness. Social influence is a product of shared self-categorizations. The research demonstrating social influence from in-group members is very robust, and more complex analyses clearly show that social influence derives from deeper cognitive processing of information to in-group than out-group communications. The chapter argues that power use and, hence, powerlessness are symptoms of intergroup categorization within an organization, and a sign of the organization's failure to work as a unified collective. The organizational benefits that stem from employee participation are most sustainable when the participation results in real resource power for general employees, leading to admission of mutual dependence, functional interchangeability, and, ultimately, the creation of psychological interchange-ability, shared social identity, and mutual social influence. In most organizations in Western industrialized nations, resource power is largely associated with management, who, by their position within the organization, are seen as the legitimate purveyors of such power.
