Personnel power operates through subtle anticipatory sanctions rather than overt dismissal

Evidence

The sanction of organizational power, dismissal, occurs very seldom; it is clearly shown to be a negative avoidance alternative for both sides. It always has an official character. Sanctioning through personnel power occurs more frequently according to the mobility in the system but in a less obvious form. In it circumstantial considerations are mixed with positive and negative sanctions. It may consist simply in preferring other applicants for the job and may only appear as a negative sanction to those who are rejected. It is based more on anticipation and the attribution of intentions. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 793

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does Stevens’s career inaccuracy — never being ‘passed over’ because there’s no competition — remove the personnel-power lever from Darlington, leaving only the honor-based one? Worth chasing in The Remains of the Day.
• XREF: connects to: Accountability is responsive behavior, not merely answering to superiors