ABSTRACT
The issue of the relationship between the larger social context and communicative
practices in organizations has become a central concern among scholars in a
number of disciplines. The debate focuses on how aspects of context regulate the
communicative activities of individuals in organizations and how these individual
activities in turn influence organizational context. In this chapter, I contribute to
this debate with an approach to understanding power inspired by the work of
Harold Garfinkel (1967a) and his followers in the field of ethnomethodology.
I suggest that power be regarded as a practical achievement, produced by par-
ticipants in the course of social interaction in which some versions or accounts
of “reality” come to dominate others. I believe that such an understanding of
power can lead to a deeper understanding of the relationship between social
context and individuals’ communication activities and offer insights into the
regulation of communicative practice in organizations.
