Organizations are not merely the extended arm of a power-holder

Evidence

The power-code established across society as a whole, in a variety of ways, points to this possibility of making new power combinations possible, and of restraining them, by means of organization. Centralizing the distribution of power bases and engaging power as a catalyst in the formation of organization brings this possibility into play. At the same time it would be unrealistic to view organizational systems merely as an instrumental apparatus, as the lengthened arm of the power-holder. This is again only a replication of the symbolic self-presentation of the power-code, not an empirically satisfactory power theory. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 783

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Challenges the instrumental view of organizations that Giddens-style ‘faceless commitments’ might imply; Luhmann insists organizational power is autonomous from any single power-holder.

Related

• Organizations form as catalysts where specialized power media crystallize (similarity 0.84)
• Power can be increased only when its own overthrow is institutionalized (similarity 0.81)
• Hierarchy, history, and semi-contractual arrangements substitute for measuring power (similarity 0.80)
• Even the most powerful now are objects without autonomy (similarity 0.80)
• Organizations shift the risk of trust from the individual to the system (similarity 0.80)
• An organization’s identity lies in the non-contingent relation between contingent members and rules. (similarity 0.79)
• Power chains generate counter-flowing informal power concentrated just below the top (similarity 0.79)
• Organizations can differentiate power bases but not power’s subject matter, blocking negotiated balance. (similarity 0.79)
• Even power requires a universalistic code to function in complex societies (similarity 0.79)
• Increasing decision interdependence reveals intrinsic limits on organizational power (similarity 0.79)
• Organized power reduces information costs by resting on pre-established generalized submission. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• In organizations power generates its own countervailing power. #complicates (0.60) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 797
• Power rests on arrangements over what is possible #expands (0.55) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 791